Meal plans! Love them or hate them, they are synonymous with diets and healthy eating.
But why?And what are the benefits of meal planning? This article examines the science behind meal planning!
What is a meal plan?
A meal plan is a structured list of meals used to plan out your daily meals over a period of time, usually in week intervals, and usually covering all meal types for the day.
They usually look a bit like this:
But why are they associated with diets and healthy eating?
It's linked to sustainable weight loss
There are many studies that have proven that meal planning is associated with a healthier diet and sustained weight loss (like this one). In this study, it was shown that those people that planned meals had lower odds of being overweight or obese, with higher food variety and adherence to dietary guidelines.
Another study (citation) also showed meal planning was one of the most statistically significant techniques that led to successful long term weight loss maintenance, see chart below.
Effectiveness of weight loss strategies
Strategies above the red line were deemed to be statistically significant (p <=0.05): these included self monitoring weight, food intake, calories, choosing better foods, and planning meals!
So studies like these (and there are loads more), prove that meal planning is a very important, if not essential, strategy in sustained weight loss, leading to a longer life.
But meal planning has many more benefits.
You save money
This study found that people that planned meals were not only healthier, but also saved money. This specific report compares food prepared at home compared to food bought from restaurants, but this report shows that planning meals in advance also makes you spend less when you do grocery shopping because you waste less food. The average family of four wastes $1,500 each year on food that ends up uneaten.
Reduce food waste
One third of all food that we buy goes uneaten. accounting for 14% of all municipal food waste, and almost of all it going to landfill. This contributes at least 36 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, up to 8% of all human caused greenhouse gases.
Planning your meals in advance is a proven way to prevent this food waste, and done correctly this can get you to a point of wasting practically no food!
Improves your mental health
This study found that spending time planning and preparing meals at home result in better mental health and reduced stress.
Why doesn't everyone plan meals?
It's hard. To make meal plans work, they need to be personalised. And for it to work well they have to:
fit your nutritional goals
meals that fit your taste preferences
are simple enough for you to make
fit in with your lifestyle
using ingredients that you can buy at the grocery store
fit your budget
works for your family
This is major challenge if it is done manually, and is the reason most people find meal planning hard and time consuming (including health professionals).
In our next blog, we'll explain why it's hard and how technology can help!
Stay tuned!
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