Healthy Meal Prep: Time-saving plans to prep and portion your weekly meals

Warning! The recipes are delicious! How can they not be? They are high fat! Will this book help you lose weight? Maybe. It depends on what your caloric needs and macro nutrients needs are. Did Healthy Meal Prep help me lose weight? No. I was keen to experiment with this book. I made only these recipes set out in the week long menu design for 3 solid months. I gained a lot of weight very fast! Why? First, each weeks menus total between 2,000-2,200 calories. I now know, through experience, that I personally only need 1,200 calories to maintain my weight for my activity level. I am sedentary all day but I lift weights 3-4 times a week for 30 minuets. I am a female 5’3”and 120 pounds. Second the HIGH FAT totals, packed on the pounds! By meticulous tracking my food on my fitness pal, and through trial and error On different diets, I now know, that I drop body fat only when I eat below 35 grams total fat for the day. If I go over 40 grams of fat I will gain a pound a week. I tried the keto diet for 6 months and I only lost 5 pounds. This books is NOT a keto diet. Keto is super low carb and sky high fat. Healthy Meal Prep does have moderately carbs but super high fat. The key to shedding fat, is you need to know how many calories you need for your activity level. This book may work well for a more active woman or a much taller woman or a man. Especially if they need a 2,000 calorie, very high fat, moderate carbohydrates diet. For example, in this book, chapter, Healthy Game Day weeks menu has 2,185 calories, 119g fat, 142g carbohydrates, 34 g fiber and a whopping 127g Fat. Chapter, Cozy Comfort food week menu, has 2,144 calories, 150g protein, 146g carbohydrates, 31g fiber, and 107g fat. Second, if your trying to loose body fat, you have to track your macros and you have to know how many calories YOU need for your body in order to drop body fat and keep your muscle. This cookbook is Higher FAT and moderate carbohydrates. I am 5’3”, 120 pound female, and I lift heavy four times a week. I used this book for three months to test the recipes out and they are delicious! Except for the peanut butter overnight oats. But, I will give this to my brother-in-law, who needs 2,000 calories and more fat. Unfortunately for me, the fat I eat over 35g per day, is the fat I wear! I have been lifting weights for 3 years. So I finally have my live lean macros dialed in. This book was a useful lesson in how to gain weight fast!

I love the idea of meal prep, but as I'm OCD in the kitchen it can get overwhelming! The plans are easy to follow and I loved the pictures. The meal plan included with each week was helpful as well. But, even though each individual recipe had the calorie count, it would have been nice to have the days total calorie count included in the day.We tried the plant-based plates weeks and the meatless meals. I too needed to cut the fat. But, I'm happy to say that I didn't feel the taste, texture, or quality of the meals I prepared was negatively affected in any way by this.We are a split household (I'm vegetarian, my husband is flexitarian) So, we tried an experiment with the Viva Variety week. I replaced the Chicken in the Camember Chicken with Tofu, and used home made vegan "meatballs" in place of the turkey meatballs for me and prepared my husband's as written. We were both happy with the results.I did lose a couple of pounds to boot!It took me a week or so to "find my groove" so the prep went smooth. But, now it's easier and smoother.I'm going to buy more copies for friends and family.

I have cooked my way through three weeks of the book so far, so my review is based on those and I will update as I progress.PROS:-Step by Step Guide on how to prepare several meals at the same time-Grocery lists-The meals are very filling-It is easy to substitute ground turkey or chicken for the recipes that call for ground beef-The shrimp with cauliflower rice and the overnight oats have been highlights, as well as the buffalo chicken-Convenient: I do not have to come home every night and make dinner or wonder what I am going to have for lunch at work-Saves money-Takes about three hours to prepare all of the meals as directed for the weekCONS-The portions are really large and loaded with calories (one dish has a whopping 680 calories per serving)-The meals are basic and are not meant to be culinary masterpieces. I have no problem serving these meals to my husband and I during the week, but I would not make any of them for guests.-The plant-based week meal plan was a total fail. I have no problem with vegetarian eating, in fact, I enjoy it. So I was disappointed at the lack of flavor in the dishes. The curry was good, but that is only because I used chicken instead of tofu. The meal with the roasted tofu was awful and I ended up throwing most of them away because the combination of broccoli, hummus, black beans and more garbanzo beans made me gag every time I opened one of the containers to eat (and in general, the whole week's meals made my husband and I extremely flatulent, which is no fun). It is clear the authors are not well-versed in flavoring and pairing plant-based meals.Overall, if you are looking for filling, time-saving, thrifty and convenient meals, then this books seems to be pretty good so far.

What to eat/make for lunch has always been a dilemma for me. There was a recipe in the January issue of Women’s Running Magazine from this book. I tried it (Pesto Salmon) & immediately fell in love. I read the article & found their YouTube channel. After making a few more meals via YouTube, I gathered some change & decided to buy the book (I’m a library book kind of girl so it’s hard for me to justify spending money on a book) & I’m so glad I did. The recipes are healthy, really easy to make, & taste good. I bought some glass meal containers & take about an hour on Sundays to make a week’s worth of lunch. You can also freeze the meals. I don’t like to cook, I’m a full time teacher, training for a half marathon, have two kids & a husband whose schedule is completely opposite from mine so this book has saved my mealtime life. My whole family likes the meals. I was looking for something like this and I’m so glad I found it.