The perfect meal prep foods for weight loss revealed

February 6, 2017

Meal prepping is the craze for preparing healthy weekday meals in advance
About 4.5 million photos are tagged under the hastag #mealprep on Instagram
New graphic shows you how to fill your lunchbox if you want to lose weight
All you need is three ingredients: a lean protein, a starch and a vegetable

Imogen Blake For Mailonline

Published:
05:56 EST, 6 February 2017

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Updated:
05:59 EST, 6 February 2017

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Meal prepping is the ever so slightly smug Instagram craze for preparing all your weekday meals in advance.

It’s an efficient way for health and fitness fanatics to make sure they still eat the right foods when pressed for time.

But if you’re looking to join the masses of people who meal prep every week as they try to achieve their weight loss goals, then you need to know the best foods to fill your plastic containers with.

Meal prepping is the Instagram craze for preparing healthy meals in advance. But it doesn’t need to be complicated, as this new graphic proves (right). It shows you exactly what foods you should be filling your lunchbox with

A new graphic helpfully illustrates exactly how you should pack up your lunchboxes if you are trying to stay trim or lose weight.

Meals prepped in advance don’t need to be complicated – and MealPrepOnFleek.com says they just need to contain a minimum of three ingredients.

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The blog advises you to fill lunchboxes with three essential food groups: lean protein, vegetable, and starch, as well as a healthy fat.

Meal prep bloggers suggest planning out your meals two to three days before you want to start preparing your food so you can go out and buy just the ingredients you need, rather than be tempted by impulse buys.

THE BEST INGREDIENTS TO FILL YOUR MEAL PREP BOXES WITH

Protein:

Chicken breast

Chicken thighs

Turkey breast

Salmon

Cod

Haddock

Shrimp

Tilapia

Tuna

Steak

Lean ground beef

Pork

Sausages

Bacon

Eggs

Greek yoghurt

Cheese

Protein powder

Black beans

Lentils

Garbanzo beans

Tofu

Tempeh

Edamame

Vegetable:

Spinach

Green beans

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Asparagus

Kale

Carrots

Snow peas

Squash (butternut, acorn, spaghetti squash, kabocha)

Jicama

Mushrooms

Salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, peppers, onions, etc)

Starch:

Quinoa

Rice (brown, white, jasmine, black, wild grain)

Potatoes (sweet, Japanese, red bliss)

Whole grain pasta

Rolled Oats

Oatbran

Whole grain cereal

Whole grain bread

Healthy fat:

Coconut oil

Avocado oil

Olive oil

Flax oil

As for the ingredients, the MealPrepOnFleek bloggers suggest a large range of lean proteins, vegetables and starches that you can fill your lunchboxes with.

All the ingredients can be mixed and matched. MealPrepOnFleek suggests a combination of salmon, quinoa, and spinach, or chicken, kale and rice.

Then all that’s left to do is cook your food and fill your boxes, which can be done on a Sunday or Monday – the most popular days for meal prepping.

Meal prepping is a craze that has swept Instagram, with more than 4.5 million photos of perfectly prepped food tagged under the hashtag: #mealprep

Meal prep bloggers advise healthy eaters to fill their plastic containers with three main food groups: a lean protein, a starch and a vegetable

Instagram users who meal prep regularly take meals of their identical weekday lunches and dinners, filled with healthy proteins and vegetables

The meal prep craze does require a lot of planning as well as the need to set aside a good chunk of time on a Sunday or Monday night but could be worth it if you’re trying to lose weight

Meal prepping is a good way to stick to your healthy eating goals, say bloggers

Just be careful with certain proteins such as fish, which only keep for a maximum of two days once cooked.

But you shouldn’t be stuck for inspiration, as Instagram is full of mouthwatering images of prepped food under the #mealprep and #mealprepdaily hashtags.

In fact, there are more than 4.5 million photos tagged using the #mealprep hashtag.

The only downside to the meal prep craze is that it does require a lot of planning – not to mention a lot of plastic containers to keep your food in.

But meal preppers swear by the craze, and it could be a good way to stick to your healthy eating ambitions – and lose weight.