Meal Prep Strategies for Weight Gain That Work

Planning and preparation — or prep — is important for any goal, including gaining weight.

Gaining weight requires that you eat many calories, but you also want to make sure those calories come from primarily healthy foods.

Meal planning and prep make it easier to get those healthy calories while also freeing up both time and energy.

This article explains everything you need to know about meal prep for weight gain and provides some strategies to get you started.

meal prep strategies for weight gain

Meal planning and prep for weight gain 101

Meal planning and prep are two separate but connected actions.

Meal planning involves planning out your meals and snacks — usually for the full week.

It’s your meal and snack blueprint — it outlines everything from what you’re going to have for lunch on Tuesday to what you’re going to have for a snack on Friday.

In this way, meal planning removes much of the stress and anxiety of what you’re going to have for the next meal and snack to ensure you’re on track for your calorie and weight gain goals.

Meal variety is good but if you can keep one or two meals and snacks the same each day, it makes meal planning and prep much easier.

You can also make meal planning and prep easier by making a double portion of one meal and having the leftovers the following day.

Once you plan a week’s worth of meals and snacks, it’s time to determine the ingredients and amounts of them to make those meals and snacks so you can create a grocery list.

It works well to organize your grocery list by food category — proteins, grains and starches, fruits, vegetables, and fats — and for everything else, an “other” category.

Once you have your list created and your groceries bought, it’s time to prep what you can for the week.

Batch cook meats, poultry, grains like rice, and vegetables, and leave out what you need for the next three days, and freeze the rest — just don’t forget to transfer them to the refrigerator with enough time to thaw by the time you need them later in the week.

Tupperware and other food storage containers are your friends.

You can also prep or portion out other foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other foods that you might have as snacks.

It works well for most to dedicate one day like Sunday to meal planning and prep but you can also prep throughout the week as well.

Summary

Meal planning involves planning your meals and snacks for the meals, while meal prepping involves preparing what you can to make your week easier. Both are crucial to meet your weight gain goals.

Sample 7-day meal prep for weight gain outline

Here is a step-by-step sample 7-day meal prep guide:

1. Look ahead

It’s Sunday.

Looking ahead, you know that Tuesday will be your longest day away from home. You’ll be able to have breakfast at home but need to pack the rest of your meals and snacks.

The rest of the week is uneventful, but you’ll be out for dinner with friends on Friday night.

2. Plan your meals

With being away from home on Tuesday, you’ll want to make sure you plan your meals and snacks accordingly and consider whether you’ll have access to a microwave or fridge.

You know that Friday night is covered, but you research the menu ahead of time so you can plan out your other meals based on what you might plan to order to keep your calories in line.

Planning your meals and snacks for the other days should be fairly straightforward, especially since you plan to keep your breakfast and one snack the same each day to keep it simple.

Here are the meals and snacks you decided on for your week:

Monday

  • Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs and oatmeal topped with berries
  • Snack: Greek yogurt and a handful of mixed nuts
  • Lunch: baked chicken, quinoa, and roasted brussels sprouts
  • Snack: high-calorie protein shake and a banana
  • Dinner: beef tacos loaded with rice and veggies

Tuesday

  • Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs and oatmeal topped with berries
  • Snack: Greek yogurt and a handful of mixed nuts
  • Lunch: two cold meat sandwiches and sugar snap peas
  • Snack: high-calorie meal replacement and an orange
  • Dinner: salmon patties, white rice, and asparagus spears

Wednesday

  • Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs and oatmeal topped with berries
  • Snack: Greek yogurt and a handful of mixed nuts
  • Lunch: roasted chickpea salad and white rice
  • Snack: peanut butter and apple slices
  • Dinner: chicken broccoli alfredo

Thursday

  • Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs and oatmeal topped with berries
  • Snack: Greek yogurt and a handful of mixed nuts
  • Lunch: leftover chicken broccoli alfredo
  • Snack: high-calorie protein bar and grapes
  • Dinner: homemade burrito bowl

Friday

  • Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs and oatmeal topped with berries
  • Snack: Greek yogurt and a handful of mixed nuts
  • Lunch: leftover burrito bowl
  • Snack: full-fat cottage cheese toast topped with tomato slices
  • Dinner: Dining out

Saturday

  • Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs and oatmeal topped with berries
  • Snack: Greek yogurt and a handful of mixed nuts
  • Lunch: pork roast sandwich, smashed potatoes, and apple-carrot slaw
  • Snack: peanut butter and banana wrap
  • Dinner: baked salmon with baked potato and sauteed green beans

Sunday

  • Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs and oatmeal topped with berries
  • Snack: Greek yogurt and a handful of mixed nuts
  • Lunch: weight gain shake
  • Snack: avocado toast
  • Dinner: grilled hamburger with sweet potato fries and coleslaw

Here are some high-calorie meals and high-calorie snacks for additional weight gain meal prep ideas.

3. Create your grocery list and shop

After you plan your meals and snacks, you can work backward to determine the ingredients and the amounts you need for the week.

For breakfast, if you plan to have one cup of oatmeal, you will need at least seven cups to get through the week.

The containers of quick or old-fashioned oats provide around 30 one-half servings so one container should last you two weeks (15 cup servings).

Depending on where you shop, you can research food products to see the pack sizes and the number of servings they offer to make your trip more efficient.

You can also decrease the time you spend in the store by organizing your list by food group.

The store or generic brand is almost always more costly than the name brand, so you can save by opting for the former.

You can also save money by sticking primarily with ingredients that you need to prepare and cook versus ready-to-eat foods like precooked chicken and sliced fruit.

Buying in bulk is also a good way to save money for some items but a smaller pack size for other items might be cheaper so always compare.

4. Prep what you can

After you return with your groceries, it’s time to get to work.

Cook what you can in advance such as the proteins, veggies, and grains, and freeze what you won’t need until later in the week.

Organize them into microwave-safe glass containers.

You can save meals and snacks that don’t require much prep work right before it’s time to eat them, depending on what your schedule for the day looks like.

Summary

Use this sample 7-day meal prep for weight gain scenario to plan your week.

How many calories do you need to gain weight?

You must eat in a calorie surplus to gain weight, meaning you must eat more calories than you need to maintain your body weight.

The number of calories you need to maintain your body weight is known as your maintenance calories.

Age, gender, activity level, and body composition, among other factors, influence the number of calories you need to maintain your weight.

You can use an online calculator to estimate your maintenance calories.

Alternatively, you can multiply your body weight in pounds by 14 if you’re a female, or 17 if you’re a male.

These numbers assume light activity so you may need more or fewer calories.

Once you estimate your maintenance calories, add 200–500 to find the number of calories you need to gain weight.

For example, if you estimated your maintenance calories to be 2,000, you should consume 2,200 to 2,500 daily.

A 200–500 calorie surplus should allow a healthy weight gain rate of 0.25%–0.5% of your body weight per week, or 0.4–0.8 pounds (0.2-0.4 kg) per week for a 150-pound person.

If you have a fast metabolism or want to gain weight quickly, aim closer to a 500-calorie daily surplus.

The number of calories you need to maintain your weight will increase as you gain weight, so you should recalculate your maintenance calories and set your new calorie goal for weight gain every month until you reach your goal.

If you find that you’re not gaining weight too fast or not fast enough, adjust your calories accordingly.

Calculating the number of calories you need to gain weight and tracking your calories isn’t necessary to gain weight — it’s also time-consuming — but it helps provide structure and direction, which can be very helpful in the beginning.

Summary

To gain weight at a healthy rate, consume 200–500 calories above your maintenance calories. Aim for the higher end if you have a high metabolism or want to gain weight faster.

Macronutrient ratio for weight gain

Macronutrients are the nutrients that your body uses in large amounts.

They include fats, carbohydrates, and protein.

Vitamins and minerals are micronutrients, which your body requires in smaller amounts.

The calories you consume are comprised of different macronutrient ratios.

Carbs and proteins provide four calories per gram while fats provide nine.

A more advanced method of calorie counting is to have specific macronutrient targets.

For example, if your daily calorie goal is 2,500, you might try to ensure that 30% of those calories come from protein, 50% from carbs, and the remaining 20% from fat.

Like tracking your calories for weight gain, going a step further to track your macronutrients isn’t necessary.

However, if your goal is to build muscle or reduce muscle loss, and you are interested in tracking your macros, aim to consume 20–45 grams of protein per meal, with older adults aiming for the higher end of this range (1).

Then, you can fill in the remainder of your calories with carbs and fats.

It doesn’t make much difference whether the remainder comes come from carbs or fats, but it’s easier for many people to reach a calorie surplus with a higher concentration of fats since they supply more than double the calories as carbs.

In either case, protein helps support muscle growth, but resistance training or weight training is what drives it.

Therefore, if you can, aim to lift weights at least 2–3 times per week, hitting every major muscle group, including your legs, core, chest, back, shoulders, and arms.

Progressively increase the weight or number of repetitions and sets you do for continued gains.

Summary

Like calories, you don’t need to track your macronutrients. However, if you want to, aim to consume 20–40 grams of protein per meal and then fill in the rest of your calories with carbs and fats.

The bottom line

Meal prep and planning can help you achieve your weight gain goals much easier.

Start by looking ahead in your week to identify days on which your meals or snacks might look different. From there, you can plan your meals and snacks, and determine the ingredients you need for the week.

Prep what you can like meats, vegetables, and grains to give yourself time back during the week.

Consume 200–500 calories more than you need daily to gain weight at a healthy rate.

You don’t need to track your calories or macronutrients, but it can be helpful in the beginning.

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