Meal prep has become a cornerstone of modern wellness culture, touted as the ultimate hack for eating healthy, saving time, and staying on track with fitness goals. Instagram feeds are flooded with perfectly portioned Tupperware containers, and influencers swear by their Sunday-afternoon cooking marathons. But let’s be real: meal prep might just be overhyped, and for many people, it’s more of a hassle than a help. Here’s why meal prep might be bullshit.
1. It’s Time-Consuming (Despite Claims to the Contrary)
One of the biggest selling points of meal prep is that it saves time during the week. But let’s break that down. Spending three hours on a Sunday chopping, cooking, and packing meals doesn’t exactly feel like a time-saver. For people with busy schedules, weekends are precious downtime, and dedicating half a day to cooking can feel like a chore. Plus, if you’re not a fan of cooking, meal prep can turn into a dreaded weekly obligation rather than a helpful tool.
2. The Food Often Tastes Like Sad Leftovers
Let’s face it: reheated meals rarely taste as good as fresh ones. By Thursday, that chicken and broccoli you lovingly prepared on Sunday might resemble a sad, soggy mess. Eating the same meal multiple days in a row can also get monotonous, leading to burnout and cravings for something different. For many, the lack of variety and freshness makes meal prep feel more like a punishment than a convenience.
3. It Doesn’t Account for Life’s Curveballs
Life is unpredictable. You might prep a week’s worth of meals only to have a last-minute dinner invitation, a work event, or simply a change in appetite. Suddenly, all that effort feels wasted. Meal prep assumes a level of rigidity that doesn’t align with how most people actually live. Flexibility is key to maintaining a healthy relationship with food, and meal prep can sometimes feel like the opposite of flexible.
4. It Can Be Expensive
Contrary to popular belief, meal prep isn’t always cost-effective. Buying ingredients in bulk, investing in quality containers, and stocking up on spices and condiments can add up quickly. If you’re prepping elaborate meals with specialty ingredients, the costs can easily surpass what you’d spend on takeout or ready-made meals. For those on a tight budget, meal prep might not be the financial win it’s made out to be.
5. It’s Not a One-Size-Fits-All Solution
Meal prep is often marketed as a universal solution for eating better, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Some people thrive on structure, while others find it stifling. If you’re someone who enjoys spontaneity in your meals or prefers cooking fresh food daily, meal prep might feel unnecessarily restrictive. Additionally, for those with dietary restrictions or picky eaters in the household, meal prep can become more complicated than it’s worth.
6. It Can Fuel an Unhealthy Obsession with Control
For some, meal prep can become less about convenience and more about control. The rigid structure of pre-planned meals can contribute to an unhealthy relationship with food, especially for those prone to obsessive behaviors or disordered eating. The pressure to stick to a pre-determined meal plan can create unnecessary stress and guilt if life gets in the way.
The Bottom Line
Meal prep isn’t inherently bad, but it’s not the miracle solution it’s often made out to be. For some, it’s a helpful tool; for others, it’s a time-sucking, joy-draining chore. The key is to find what works for you—whether that’s prepping a few staples, relying on ready-made options, or cooking fresh meals daily. Don’t let the meal prep hype make you feel like you’re doing something wrong if it doesn’t fit your lifestyle. After all, food should be enjoyable, not a source of stress.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
