Before we get to the cutting meal plan, let us talk about why we create a meal plan in the first place. If you’re not sure what cutting is, check out my article what is cutting? Read these 9 tips to help you lose that body fat.
Many people fill with dread at the thought of dedicating a couple of hours of their life every week to putting together a meal plan.
However, creating one is something that can pay off in dividends. Not just in terms of fitness, but also your wallet. So, why create a meal plan?
It is Healthier
Most people start tinkering with the idea of making a meal plan for health reasons. There is no denying it is going to be incredibly beneficial here.
One issue many people face, particularly when they are trying to lose weight, is going for something quick and easy. We have all been there. You get home after a long, hard day at work and don’t have a clue what you want to cook.
This means you are either going to be picking up the phone to grab a takeaway or hobbling off to the nearest store to pick up something that looks ‘easy’. Neither is a good idea.
If you plan your meals in advance, there will be no last-minute surprises. You know what you are eating and (hopefully) it would have been prepared in advance too.
Remember, when you go easy with your food, it tends not to be healthy.
Get The Right Nutrients
This ties into the healthier aspect somewhat, but since it is an important reason to why create a meal plan, it should get a whole section to itself.
When most people cook a meal, they tend not to think about whether they are getting the right nutrients, i.e. the right amount of protein throughout the day, whether they are getting enough vegetables—that sort of thing.
When your meals are planned in advance, you will have a bit more control over your nutritional intake.
There is a high chance that if you have never done meal planning before, you will be surprised at how many nutrients you are not getting enough of.
Saves Money
If you are meal planning, you could save money. Think about it. You could plan meals that use roughly the same ingredients (or even plan to use your leftovers), and then you can go pick up the ingredients in bulk.
Meal planning also means that you are unlikely to have some of the ‘useless’ ingredients kicking around.
There is no doubt that many of us have purchased a spice or two that we have used once and thrown in the cupboard, or bought a ton of vegetables only to have to throw some of them away.
Plan your meals to ensure you use nearly everything you buy.
Saves Time
Yes. It is going to save time too.
Knowing what you want to buy each week also means that you are going to find it far, far easier to avoid those sales at the supermarket.
Just make a beeline for what you need for your meal plan and nothing else in the store matters. In fact, the time saved probably makes up for the time you are losing making the meal plan in the first place.
These are not the only reasons as to why to create a meal plan. You may have reasons of your own.
However, hopefully, they are a fairly good indicator as to why it is worth spending a couple of hours each week putting something together.
Could you really turn your nose up at not only getting healthier but also saving a bit of cash?
Cutting Meal Plan
Here’s an example of my cutting meal plan. Please feel free to use this meal plan as an example for creating your own if this plan fits your requirements, please go ahead and use it.
For calculating my daily calories, I used the Calorie Calculator tool. This gave me a total of 2090 calories per day.
Next up I needed to work out my Protein, Carbs, and Fat.
I opted to split my calories up in the following way
Protein 45% of my daily calories = 940 Calories
Carbs 33 % of my daily calories = 700 Calories
Fat 22 %of my daily calories = 450 Calories
Conclusion
I hope you found this helpful and now have a better understanding of what a meal plan is. There was a study published back in 2017, showing the benefits of meal planning.
It showed an improvement in a variety of food, diet quality, and controlled body weight. For more information about meal planning, I’ve written an article 10 awesome meal planning ideas for ideal weight loss.
