Meal Prep Defined

Preparing meals in advance, commonly known as meal prep, is a strategy utilized by athletes and bodybuilders to maintain a healthy diet. While some enthusiasts plan out every meal for the following seven days, it’s not necessary to go to that extent to achieve results.

Simply preparing your main meals in advance for the next day can greatly aid in sticking to your diet. Additionally, planning meals for a few days in advance strikes a balance between efficiency and flexibility.

Does meal prep help you gain muscle?

It is crucial to recognize that meal preparation alone does not automatically result in more muscle. To gain lean mass, you need to consume more calories than you burn while also following a resistance training program.

However, achieving this calorie surplus can be difficult, particularly when you’re physically active. In this regard, meal prep serves as a helpful technique to ensure that you consume enough calories to gain weight and muscle.

Reasons to Meal Prep for Muscle Gain

One of the primary advantages of meal prepping is its convenience. It saves you from having to cook every meal from scratch. You can simply grab a pre-cooked meal from the fridge and heat it in the microwave.

Furthermore, meal prep allows you to plan your calorie and macro intake in advance, freeing you from the stress of daily calorie and macro tracking. This meal structure also supports healthy eating habits and promotes adherence to your diet plan.

Ultimately, consuming the right amount of nutritious food is crucial in achieving your desired physique.

Benefits of Meal Prep for Muscle Gain

1. Drastically reduce time spent cooking
2. Makes it easier to eat more calories
3. Ensure you hit your macros each day
4. Reduce the need to count or track foods daily
5. Have nutritious meals you can take to work
6. Promote diet adherence and healthy eating habits

Meal Prep for Muscle Gain FAQ

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of meal prep for muscle gain, let me answer the most common questions related to this topic.

What is the cheapest way to gain muscle?

If you’re looking to gain weight inexpensively, relying on fast food every day might seem like a quick solution. However, this approach can lead to harmful weight gain and worsening health.

A healthier, affordable way to gain muscle is through meal prepping. Contrary to popular belief, eating healthy does not have to be expensive.

Meal prepping allows you to buy ingredients in bulk, including budget-friendly yet nutritious options like rice, potatoes, and lean ground meat, which can help stretch your budget further.

How to Meal Prep for Muscle Gain

Preparing meals to build muscle is a straightforward process that requires some planning and basic calculations. But it doesn’t have to be complex!

To demonstrate how easy it can be, I’ve simplified weight gain meal prep into seven basic steps.

7 Steps of Muscle Gain Meal Prep

1. Estimating calories
2. Calculating macros
3. Planning schedule
4. Getting groceries
5. Cooking food
6. Dividing into meals
7. Eating to grow!

Step 1: Estimating Your Calorie Needs

To estimate the number of calories you need to consume to gain weight, it is important to consider three factors.

Firstly, determine your base metabolic rate (BMR) or the number of calories you burn at rest. Secondly, consider the calories you burn during daily activities. Lastly, factor in the calories you burn through exercise.

The sum of these is known as your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). To gain muscle at the fastest rate, you need to consume 15-25% more calories than you burn.

Many wearable fitness devices such as the Apple Watch, Oura Ring, and Polar heart rate monitor can help track your activity and estimate your daily energy expenditure.

Step 2: Calculating Your Macros

After determining your calorie target, you can calculate your macros as a percentage of calories.

For those who are active, consuming approximately 50% of calories from carbs is recommended. A protein intake of 30% of your calories is ideal to effectively gain muscle, leaving 20% for fat consumption.

Weight Gain Macro Ratio: 50% Carbs, 30% Protein, 20% Fat

Let’s say you burn 2,500 calories daily and want to gain weight with a 20% calorie surplus. To achieve this, you’ll need to consume 3,000 calories daily.

For 50% carbohydrates, that’s 1,500 calories or 375 grams of carbs (since 1 gram equals 4 calories). For 30% protein, that’s 900 calories or 225 grams of protein (also 4 calories per gram).

Lastly, 20% fat equals 600 calories or 67 grams of fat (since there are 9 calories per gram of fat). Remember, these numbers may vary based on your body size, activity level, and fitness goals.

Try My Free Macro Calculator to Find Your Weight Gain Macros

Step 3: Planning Your Meal Prep Schedule

For this crucial step, you should plan the types of healthy meals you want to consume. This will assist you in creating a grocery list for the next phase.

To begin, determine how many meals you’ll consume each day to meet your macros. While this may vary based on your preferences, it’s typically best to aim for 6-8 daily meals when bulking up.

Additionally, try to distribute your protein intake evenly across your meals, with 25-50 grams per meal. Also, include more carbs in the meals surrounding your workout, but avoid exceeding 100 grams in any single meal.

I recommend jotting down a daily schedule that includes macros and calorie counts for each meal. This meal plan will make it simple to determine which foods to include in each meal and how much you’ll require.

Step 4: Getting Groceries

Now it’s time to take action and head to the grocery store to gather the necessary ingredients for your weight gain meal prep.

Select a variety of protein sources, such as chicken breast, eggs, yogurt, or lean ground beef. Adding starchy carbs like rice, oats, or potatoes is also recommended. Don’t forget to include healthy fats in the form of cooking oil.

To ensure you don’t miss anything, it’s advisable to make a list. It’s always better to purchase a little more than you need, so you don’t run out of food. Any extra meat can be frozen or carbs saved for the following week.

Click here for a healthy grocery list you can pull up on your phone.

Step 5: Cooking Food

The next step in meal prep is cooking, which can take up to an hour or two depending on your schedule.

Don’t stress yourself out by trying to make complicated master chef meals. Instead, keep it simple by focusing on a few ingredients with easy preparation.

To ensure accuracy, measure the quantity of each food using a food scale, measuring cups, or the suggested amounts on the packaging. For instance, dry rice is usually measured in cups while meats are generally weighed in ounces before cooking.

Step 6: Dividing Up Your Meals

After finishing the cooking process, divide the meals into individual portions. There are two common ways to do this: by weighing each ingredient or using pre-cooked measurements.

For example, if you cooked 24 ounces of meat, you can divide it into four 6 oz portions by visually estimating equal quantities into your meal prep containers. Similarly, you can portion out the carbs and veggies to create balanced meals with protein, starchy carbs, fibrous carbs, and fat.

Finally, store your prepped meals in the refrigerator to maintain their freshness for the upcoming days.

Step 7: Eating to Grow

It’s time to enjoy the benefits of meal planning and preparation. Retrieve your meals from the refrigerator and warm them up as necessary throughout the day.

However, it’s essential to remember that meal prepping alone won’t guarantee achieving your fitness objectives. It’s crucial to adhere to your meal plan to meet your daily calorie and macro requirements.

This entails obtaining sufficient calories from the right macros and consuming meals every few hours throughout the day.

Muscle Gain Meal Prep Tips

Preparing meals for muscle gain is a relatively simple process, but various minor details could cause confusion. Therefore, here are some additional tips to help with your meal prep.

How to Hit Your Macros

Planning meals that align with your macros can be the most challenging aspect of weight gain meal prep. Not only must you meet your daily goals, but each meal must also be optimized.

I suggest utilizing a free calorie-counting app, such as MyFitnessPal, to stay on top of your macros. In just a few minutes per day, you can input your foods and confirm that your meals align with your targets.

Once you establish a routine, you may not need to track your meals continuously. However, I still prefer to do so to remain accountable and ensure steady progress.