Meal Prep Plan for Muscle Gain

Meal prep, what is it, and why should you care?

Meal prep or fail. You’ve heard it before, the fitness personalities’ magic bullet to health and aesthetics. When picturing ‘meal prep planning’ it usually brings about images of bland chicken breasts, beans, and sweet potato accompanied by a lean, bodybuilding physique. We’ve seen it, we’ve tried it. It sucks.

At The Clean 5, we are in full agreeance of the important role that meal preparation and planning has on continued, long term results. No question. The issue we have is the way that meal prep is portrayed in the media and by online personalities. The ‘rules’ that people have placed on their prep is limiting its effectiveness. Our platform is all about explaining the benefits and convenience of a properly planned meal prep and removing the perception that ‘healthy’ is bland and boring.

In this article, we are going to explain why meal prep is not only effective, it is extremely convenient. We follow up by looking at the differences between beginners and more experienced trainers, meal prepping for fat loss or muscle gain, and the best ways to ensure that you stay on track.

How meal prep planning can change your life

1. Planning ensures accuracy
2. You will save time
3. You can strategically move towards a goal
4. You will save money
5. Healthy habits will be created for life
6. You will begin to understand nutrition

If you’re currently struggling to maintain a ‘healthy diet’, trust us you’re not alone

We’ve all been there, in a place where we aren’t satisfied with the way we look, how we feel or the goals we’ve achieved. We get bombarded with Men’s Health & ripped actors or Instagram models nearly daily. You compare yourself to these bodybuilders, but when your own habits slip, you feel useless and unmotivated. When you go out with friends, you’re worried about the calories you’re taking in, and how this will just further set you back from achieving an unrealistic goal. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be this way. Meal prep is a very effective tool we can use to create better long term habits (and still have a social life).

Setting yourself up for long-term success

There’s nothing worse than setting a health and fitness goal, then falling flat halfway through. This often happens because you’re so damn exhausted from a brutal, over-the-top workout regime, and hard dieting. You’ll slowly snap back to the way you were without even realising. The good news is, there is a better way. Meal prep is a very real tool we can use to create and sustain long-term body composition goals. It provides you with the ability to create tasty, filling meals that are full of nutrition and can effectively help you control what you’re eating.

Whether you are wanting a meal plan to gain muscle, shed fat, or to simply maintain good health, meal prep is an important tool that can help you stick to a diet consistently.

Preparing your meals: Meal prep is one of the best ways to take control of your diet, and grasp success.

Prepare to succeed

Successful meal prep requires you to source or create recipes that satisfy your nutritional needs, taste good and to ensure that you have a meal schedule that suits your life.

There’s no point creating meals that aren’t going to work for you long term. Some things to consider when designing your meals and layout include:

Storage?

At The Clean 5, we always recommend having no more than 2 meals in the fridge. This ensures that the majority of your meals can remain frozen fresh and you avoid wasting food when life throws a curveball. It also means that preparing lunch and dinner is as simple as reheating a meal, saving you valuable time every day.

Do you have access to a microwave at work?

This is important, especially for tradesman and those who are always on the move. Having access to a microwave drastically opens up your meal prep options.

Can you eat the same meals repeatedly?

Some people are happy to eat the same meal for lunch and dinner all week. But for those that like variety, we suggest that you cook multiple meals at a time (2-4) so that you can pick and choose from the freezer.

Do you need to fit in snacks?

Snacks are fine! If you prepare for them. Our recipes can often time produce up to 10 meals per batch. This can come in handy if you like to spread your meals out throughout the day. It also means that if you are a snacker, you can sacrifice calories at your main meals to use on snacks.

When will you cook?

Designate a time throughout the week to prepare your food. Remember, it only has to be 1-2 hours and your whole week is set up for success. If you compare it with the time spent sourcing out and making food at every meal, you will realise how time efficient meal preparation really is.

In the end, it is all about consistency. If you can create a meal plan that is sustainable and also provides the right amount of calories, you are setting yourself up for prolonged success. There are so many people out there that want to tell you that they have found the magic formula. Unfortunately, what fits someone else, probably won’t fit you. If you really want to improve, find out what works for you and do it for a long time!

In our app we have an entire RECIPE DATABASE filled with ideal meal prep recipes.

Calculate your calorie needs

Select your recipes

Plan your entire diet

Now for what you’ve been waiting to hear.

Your food is actually allowed to taste good. Yes, you are allowed to use marinades and sauces. Yes, you are allowed to use herbs and spices. And no, a little bit of sodium or sugar in the flavouring is not going to kill you. This is how we are able to turn slightly boring core ingredients into tasty, enjoyable meals. The benefits of consuming a diet that is 95% whole foods far outweighs any negatives that may be associated with small sugar or sodium intakes. The ability to add a garlic sauce to your chicken breast and vegetables is going to keep you on track long term. That’s what this is really about, long term consistency. Your meal plan is only going to be effective if you are able to stick to it!

Shepherd’s Pie: An example of a meal that can help you shed fat and build muscle.

Beginners vs Experienced

Beginners, I have good news for you. Early gains are the best kind of gains! You have the rare capability to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time. Don’t take this for granted as this definitely isn’t the case long term. Your focus should be placed firmly on getting enough high-quality food into your diet to allow your body to recover and grow.

Focus solely on creating new dietary habits. Changing your daily meal plan is by no means an easy task, but it is vitally important to your long term success. The best way to engrain new habits is to start small and build slowly. Rather than jumping into a full-on 7-day a week, no sugar or fat diet plan, start by just meal prepping high protein, high fibre lunches for Monday to Friday. Once you feel like that has become routine, start prepping your dinner. Diving into the deep end usually doesn’t work for reasons including a drastic change in calorie intake, cravings, and body clock adjustments.

Experienced lifters

For more experienced lifters and those who have already experienced meal prepping, you need to get your planning right. Very few of you will be able to ride the beginner’s wave of concurrent fat loss and muscle gain. That does not mean you must starve, or drastically over-eat to get results. It means you need to have patience and a greater awareness of how your body is responding to your dietary and exercise habits. Being in a slight calorie surplus or deficit can be enough to create the energy changes required to drop or gain weight. Your best option is to find a calorie intake that maintains your current weight and then slightly adjusting it either way to suit your goal.

Regardless of experience, slow and steady always wins the race. Large changes in energy intake (either up or down), can throw the body out of whack. Your body will deal with small changes extremely well, whereas starving and over-consumption can produce large stress responses and/or rapid fat gain. Don’t take shortcuts!

Meal Planning for Fat loss vs Muscle gain

At some stage, experienced lifters must choose whether to lose fat, gain muscle or to maintain their current conditioning. Regardless of the choice, one thing is for certain, protein intake must remain high. High protein intake (2-2.5g/kg of lean body mass) optimises muscle gain during a calorie surplus and prevents significant muscle loss during a calorie deficit. Our recommendation is that you never reduce your protein intake during periods of intentional weight loss to avoid losing hard-earned muscle throughout the process. On the other hand, producing a caloric surplus through increased protein intake won’t necessarily make you superman, but it will certainly aid your muscle gaining ambitions.

No matter who you are, one thing that will always stand in the way of fat loss is hunger. Through sight, smell, taste, food volume, energy density, and absorption rates our body has a complex way of stimulating hunger. Learning how to manage our senses is the key to producing long term dietary adaption. Food volume and absorption rates are two areas that are often missed when designing a meal plan. Feeling fuller for longer is a very easy way to minimise unnecessary hunger cravings. Increasing food volume, without increasing energy intake is easily done by including vegetables and avoiding highly processed foods.

Vegetables carry very little calories, take up room in your stomach and slow our digestion rate. They are the perfect option for increasing food volume. Processed foods, however, have very high energy densities. They usually carry very little water, protein or fibre and have very fast digestion rates. Limiting the inclusion of processed food is a great way to reduce the amount of energy your body takes in.

How does meal prep actually help us lose fat & build muscle?

Meal prep ensures that you have control over your energy intake and your macronutrient intake. The way you manipulate these variables is how we create change to our body. If you want to put on size, you can up your calorie and protein intake. If you wish to lose fat you can reduce your calories whilst maintaining a high level of protein intake. Meal prep is simply a way to plan HOW you will fit those nutritional numbers into your day.

As a bonus, you will save money.

Instead of buying pre-made meals or buying lunch at work every day, meal prep can help you spend far less money. Our recipes show you how to take simple, affordable ingredients and create tasty, nutrient packed meals.

It’s a huge myth that eating healthy, whole foods is expensive. It’s also a myth that healthy has to be tasteless. Our Clean 5 recipes cater directly to this, we provide weekly recipes for meals that taste great, keep money in your pocket, and most of all, help you lose fat & build muscle. Read more here.

Simple meal prep recipe examples.

So let’s actually take a look at some meal prep ideas for weight loss and muscle gain!

High protein pork meal prep recipe

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High protein chicken meal prep recipe

Now obviously, there are thousands of recipes out there. Whether you’re looking for bulking recipes, shredding recipes or anything else, you will run into thousands of diets that claim to ‘hack’ your body into losing weight and gaining muscle.

The hard facts are something the fitness industry doesn’t really want you to hear. No, fat burners and other ridiculous supplements, are not going to be effective. No there isn’t really a ‘secret’ to shredding, or bulking, or cutting or whatever you want to call it.

The fundamentals have been the same for years, and will continue to be the same for many more to come! We’ve created our entire program to make this process easier for you. By providing an entire meal prep recipe database, then allowing you to tailor their portion sizes to your calorie goal with our app, you’ll soon learn that this process isn’t that hard!

Should I focus on a good quality meal plan for muscle gain rather purchasing expensive supplements?

At The Clean 5, we despise a greedy fitness industry harvesting money from individuals that lack the ‘know how’ to actually change their diet for the better. A sustainable change to your diet consisting of high quality food is what makes all of the difference. BS supplements such as ‘fat burners’ and ‘test boosters’ are money-making marketing schemes designed to offer you a short-cut that doesn’t exist. Having a real meal plan will provide you with 95% of the nourishment your body requires to reach it’s potential.

If you can take two things away from this article, let them be this;

1. Meal prep is a way to simplify nutrition
2. Shortcuts don’t exist in the fitness world

If you’re interested accessing our meal prep recipes head here.

We offer our plans through our app, for $5 per week. We also include a ‘meal planner’ system and calorie calculator, so you can plan your week and access our recipes.

If finding meal prep ideas for muscle gain or fat loss is a regular issue for you, then checking out our app could be the right move for you. We provide you with the recipes you need to help you meet your caloric requirements of your goal.

Why doesn’t everyone meal prep?

Most people associate meal prepping with bodybuilding or someone who is obsessed with health and fitness. They see it as a tool used by those who are trying to be perfect. Most people don’t understand that meal prepping is simply a way to ensure that you can control the majority of your intake in an incredibly convenient manner. If done right, meal prep should be tasty, simple, and make it easier to achieve your goals. Meal prep isn’t just for insta-famous fitness professionals, it is for everyone that wants to simplify their nutrition.

What’s holding you back?

For a lot of people, it is not knowing how to cook! Luckily, all of our meal prep recipes are incredibly simple. Some can even be made in 4 steps. Don’t let experience get in the way, learning to cook is an important step to taking control of your nutrition.

Meal planning does not mean starving yourself.

What if we told you, that you could actually be MORE satisfied & full, whilst eating fewer calories? It’s true, whole-foods offer you the ability to consume more food, without taking in a heap of energy (due to their lower energy density). Alternatively, if you are looking to bulk up and struggle to get enough energy, there are ways that we can manipulate your meals to help you get more in.

Understanding and manipulating energy density is the best way to control weight change. It is very rare that people over-eat from a VOLUME standpoint. Most people will eat the same amount of food (in grams) regardless of the meal put in front of them. Therefore it is usually the energy density of the meal that becomes the issue. Highly processed, energy dense food (think fast food, chips, sweets etc) have a lot of calories per 100g. Whole-foods, such as potatoes, vegetables and lean meats have much lower energy per 100g. Not only that, but they usually have slower digestion rates that keep you feeling satisfied for longer.