Most people think of meal prepping during bulking season, but it's actually very important to do during shredding season as well. When you take the time to meal prep for yourself you will stay ahead of the game and ensure that you don’t fall off the wagon so to speak with your cutting diet.
The times when I end up “cheating” on my shredding diet are almost always the times when I don’t meal prep and have delicious and healthy food prepared in advance.
Besides keeping you on track during your fat loss regimen, meal prepping will save you a lot of time.
Who doesn’t want to save time and SHRED easier? Let’s dive into the complete guide to meal prepping for fat loss!
To make this easy to figure out I’m going to share with you my shredding diet meal prep, and then separate this into breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks so you can see how everything will flow together to make your life easier!
Meal Prepping for Fat loss (How to cook Everything you need in about 1 Hour)
The most important part of meal prepping is to figure out how to make it really efficient. I have figured out a system so you can do a TON of cooking and finish your entire meal prep for shredding season in about 1 hour.
Here is a list of things you will need in your kitchen to make this go as efficient as possible.
Meal Prepping essentials:
-Oven
-Microwave
-Frying Pan
-Rice Cooker
That’s it! Now that we have got that covered let’s break down some of the foods you will need.
As you probably know, the 2 most important things to have cooked in advance while meal prepping for fat loss is lean protein, veggies, and healthy fats.
The good news is that healthy fats are extremely easy to fit into your meal prep and most don’t require cooking.
Let’s break down how we cook the lean protein and veggies for up to 5 days in advance, as well as everything else we will need for our meal prep!
Step 1 – Preheat your over to about 425 degrees in preparation for Baking some lean protein.
Step 2 – Throw some Cooking spray, olive oil, or coconut oil on a frying pan and prepare to cook some shredding season essentials on the frying pan while the oven is baking MORE lean protein.
Step 3 – Prepare 3-5 lbs. of LEAN protein such as grilled chicken, fish, turkey, or even lean grass fed meats for the oven.
This means add a little bit of oil so it doesn’t stick, and add your favorite seasoning or marinade!
Some of the leanest choices that I always go back to during any fat loss meal prep are boneless skinless chicken tenderloins and wild caught cod. Both of these lean protein choices are very cheap, and when you season them they are delicious.
Baking 2-3 lbs. of chicken tenderloins with your favorite seasoning this will take about 35 minutes. Making your chicken taste good is the hardest part, having the right seasoning that doesn't add many calories to your diet is what you need. Read on as I have something that will take care of this just for you…
Once the chicken is done baking in the oven take it out and set it out and prepare to put into meal prep containers.
Next in line for the oven is the fish or whatever other protein you plan on baking. I recommend cod, salmon, or your favorite wild-caught fish as its extremely quick and convenient to cook in the oven. Cooking a few lbs. of cod or salmon in the oven only takes about 15-20 minutes.
As you can see, in just about 1 hour we can easily cook about 5 lbs. of chicken and fish in the oven – perfect for our shredding meal prep!
Step 4 – While the protein is cooking in the oven, we can obviously utilize the frying pan to our advantage as well.
The easiest thing you can do is cook MORE fish or really lean ground turkey on the frying pan.
One of my favorite shredding season recipes is to make 99% fat-free ground turkey and crack 2-3 eggs in it to add moisture and flavor, and then top with some veggies, seasoning, and favorite sauce.
Cooking 2 lbs. of turkey with a few eggs on the frying pan gives you another 200 grams of protein and will only take you 20 minutes.
Between the oven and frying pan running at all times you can easily cook an entire weeks’ worth of protein in 60 minutes – making your life so much easier throughout the week.
Step 5 – Since veggies are an important part of staying full and extremely healthy during your meal prep, you will cook up 8-10 servings of your favorite veggies simultaneously on the frying pan or microwave.
I like buying microwavable broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus for a really quick and convenient option, but another thing you can do is buy fresh veggies and pan fry them in some healthy olive or coconut oil and top with garlic, black pepper, and your favorite seasoning.
I usually do a combination of both and cook up a ton of veggies in a very short period of time!
Step 6 – Now that we have covered how to cook the protein and veggies let’s dive into the carbohydrates and healthy fats! You have a few options with your healthy carbs. My favorite carbs during shredding season are brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes, and fruit.
I will typically cut up some pineapple, watermelon, and fresh melon to keep on hand in meal prep containers.
While the oven and frying pan is cooking up the protein I will fire up the rice cooker and make some brown rice.
I don’t recommend completely eliminating carbohydrates on any shredding diet, so will enjoy some healthy carbs during breakfast, pre workout, and post workout.
Another option for carbs is you can bake some sweet potatoes or Yams along with your protein. The sweet potatoes take a long time to bake, but you can get them done in the oven in about 45 minutes if they are in the oven with your protein!
Step 7 – Prep The Healthy Fats
Healthy fats make for the perfect snacking options on the fat loss diet as they help to keep insulin levels really low which is ideal for shredding.
Some of my favorite healthy fats are avocado, almonds, peanut butter, almond butter, olive oil, coconut oil, and as a by-product from eating salmon and whole eggs.
A delicious and convenient snack that I always meal prep is peanut butter or almond butter on celery and carrots. This makes for a great mid-day snack as it will curb your hunger and eliminate cravings.
Step 8 – Separate the meals into meal prep containers and figure out your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks!
For breakfast, since I already have the lean protein cooked I will sometimes make a few omelettes in advance and meal prep them in containers. Just be aware that they don’t last for more than 2-3 days in the fridge if you cook them up in advance.
My breakfast carbs are usually rice, sweet potatoes, or oats. Since quick oats only take 3 minutes to cook in the microwave there is no need to meal prep them in advance.
Lunch is already good to go, and will separate my chicken, turkey or fish into meal prep containers with rice, sweet potatoes and/or sliced avocado on top with a big heaping side of veggies!
This will account for 2-3 meals each day during shredding season as the combination of lean protein, healthy fats, and veggies is the perfect storm for losing fat very quickly.
For dinner, I will cut back the carbs and usually pair a delicious piece of salmon, cod, or seasoned chicken with lots of veggies.
Snacking throughout the day will consist of more lean protein, peanut butter on carrots and celery, handfuls of nuts, and protein shakes and healthy protein bars (which of course don’t require meal prepping). As you can see – doing an entire week’s worth of meal prepping for fat loss only takes about 1 hour – and will prime you to stay on track during your diet.
I hope this prepares you for an awesome cutting diet. This is everything you need to know to stay on track on your fat loss regimen!
I know most of you struggle to make your food taste good. This is the number #1 question I get related to food prep.
Don't worry I have you covered, In a few weeks time, I will be releasing my delicious range of spices called Spice Your Life. There will be 3 amazing flavors that will bring BORING FOOD TO LIFE!
I'm only releasing a small quantity so if you want to get yours before they run out CLICK HERE and leave your details and I will be in touch as soon as they are ready.
Happy shredding and food prepping!
Ryan