Meal prep involves a lot of planning. It’s the time you spend to create meals and snacks in advance, and studies are showing that it is well worth it! As you may expect, the main payoff of meal prep is convenience. It frees up time for the future you. But a new study identifies several desirable health benefits that occur within weeks of dedicated meal planning.
When we are feeling more hungry and impulsive, we tend to eat more food when given the opportunity. Over time, impulsivity can make us more prone to obesity and even predicts our body fat percentage.
In addition to eating more overall, we make different food selections when hungry. Hunger causes us to select foods that are more indulgent than usual. It causes us to lose interest in high fiber options, such as whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit. Instead, the hungry brain is driven to find ultra-processed food because it provides a fast source of calories.
Just how much more we eat when hungry depends on what food is available around us. When we have access to ultra-processed foods, clinical studies show that we overeat by about 500 calories extra per day! In real-life settings, hunger combines with a lack of planning to lead to more take-out and delivery orders. These meals feature more sugar, salt and calories than when we eat home-cooked meals. As a result, waiting for hunger to plan meals and snacks can make it more difficult to manage body weight.
Why should you pre-plan for mealtimes? Consider the results of a recent study. Once a week, study participants prepared home-cooked items to make their weeks a little easier. At each of the six sessions, individuals chose a main meal to prepare and then separated it into many portions for convenience. They also chopped and sorted foods for snacks. Their goal each week was to create 10 individual meals and 5 snacks, and the study lasted six weeks in total.
One of the benefits realized was a brighter outlook about meal preparation. The researchers found a significant improvement in cooking attitudes, suggesting that we can have more optimism and enjoyment when we meal prep regularly.
Study participants showed a significant gain in their confidence that they could make delicious, healthy snacks and meals.
The percentage of meals away from home before the study was 52%, but after the 6 weeks, the participants were eating 86% of meals at home. This is likely to explain why body composition changed among participants on average.
The study did not recruit individuals who were seeking weight loss, yet the average individual lost four pounds during the 6 week experiment. This means that each meal preparation session resulted in a loss of about two-thirds of a pound. And the results are even better because when the researchers assessed body fat, they found that participants retained their muscle and lost primarily fat!
What’s more, they continued to lose weight after short study ended; in the three months after the study ended, participants lost an average of 7.5 pounds by continuing their once-a-week meal preparation habits.
If you were waiting for a sign to start meal prepping, this is it. Even though it was a short-term study, hopefully you can see the impressive benefits are well worth the effort. Once a week may be sustainable because the participants continued to make healthy choices part of their life after the study ended.
Treo provides many healthy eating resources to help meal prep become part of your routine. We want to make healthier eating feel more attainable, and clearly meal prep sessions are very effective for that goal. Remember, change is possible! To learn more about how Treo can help you and your team, contact us at info@treowellness.com.
As Treo’s Global Wellness Researcher, Karlie uses recent research findings to support healthier daily habits. Karlie earned her doctorate in Neuroscience and Behavior and bachelors in Health and Exercise Science.
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