Meal Planning - yay or nay?

I always buy similar things with a few variations. I prelog my day to stay within allotted calories but I'm good at making similar macro'd substitutions if I need or want to.

Yes. I'm rarely home most days (straight from work to gym or run then to dancing). I prepare food in bulk.

For instance:

Breakfast: Weigh and layer granola†, greek yogurt, jam into a bunck of smaller plastic containers.
(†simple Granola= turn oven to 300-something; put a bit of honey, oil, vanilla, salt in a bowl (not a lot); stir/whip; pour in a bunch of oats; mix/churn with your hands; dump onto cookie sheet; bake ~15-25-ish minutes.)

Lunch/Dinner: weigh out portions of a vegetable side(s)‡, a meat item‡, possibly a starch item to pad out calories into an entree-sized container. Or a batch of rice and beans with vegetables.
‡ easy vegetable side - dump some frozen vegetables onto cookie sheet/pan, drizzle with some oil, sprinkle on some minced garlic (available in bottles) and/or chopped onion and some parmesan cheese (available ready to use in plastic shaker bottles).
‡ easy meat item - Carve a ready-made rotisserie chicken (a lot of supermarkets have these super cheap).- will yield 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, 2-3 breast 'cutlets' with skin, another 2 'cutlets' with a sliver of skin (top each of these with a wing in the container to keep it from drying out when re-heating), along with a mound of chicken pieces pulled off the bone in various spots (will go well in soup or rice and beans).

Dinner/Lunch: Soup (and bread/crackers). Make a large batch of soup. In crockpot, throw in some dried beans and a bunch of water..let cook 1 day/night; next session- add a bunch of vegetables (chopped root vegetables, frozen veggies, canned veggies - pretty much whatever) and optionally some meat (chopped ham or sausage, bits of chicken, etc). (weigh everything). Weigh batch when done. Store in fridge and weigh out whenever you eat it or pre-portion into containers. optionally, add some more meat if low on protein for the day. (My freezer door currently contains large baggies with bits of rotisserie chicken, diced chorizo, diced ham).

I usually start with my pantry and supermarket sales circular. The better you plan the cheaper healthy eating is. During the week I plan on dinners that reheat well so I can have them as lunch the next day. I don't cook too far ahead but I like to wash and chop as much as I can on Sunday to make the week go smoother.

I find it easier if all of my lunches are packed in the fridge come Monday morning. It prevents me from going out or grabbing something that doesn't fit my goals.

I typically make a large batch of chicken/ground turkey and veggies and portion them out for my lunches. Dinners are always planned Monday on my lunch break, and then I shop after work and get exactly what I need. I've also saved money doing it that way.

I do my meal planning right before going grocery shopping. I start with dinner for the week. I go through my refrigerator/cabinets/freezer first to see what easy meals pop out at me. For instance if I have pasta and spaghetti sauce so all I need is some meat or veggies to go in it, then hey lookie here, one night will be spaghetti!!! If there's 2 lbs of chicken breast hanging out in the freezer, maybe BBQ chicken one night. I track mine on a chalkboard that is on the kitchen wall, but you can track it any way you like. So, once the easy meals are chalked in, then I start thinking about what is left in terms of days and items. I usually have at least one dinner each of vegetarian, beef, pork, chicken, eggs and then mix in some soup or salad or pasta days. So, depending on what is already on the board and what is left, I'll think about things to add in. I make the grocery list as I go along - as a general rule I try to buy exactly what I need for the week unless I have extra grocery money and find an awesome sale, then I will stock up on staple items. Once dinner is done then I start thinking about lunches...are there big dinner items that will likely be leftover, like a roast or big pot of soup? If not there's always salad or sandwiches, and those items can be added to the grocery list. Breakfast is coffee, so that's an easy one. I usually only spend about 15 min. planning it all out, but it may take longer in the beginning. And if I have something that is just sitting in the cabinet (like that giant bag of plain oatmeal) then I'll start looking for recipes and planning how to use that up before it sits around any longer (like stovetop chocolate oatmeal cookies).

I meal prep for lunches as I generally eat the same thing for breakfast. If you buy for the month, then you have a lot of options of things to prepare. If you google "meal prep month" there are several sights that come up, some have better recipes than other (for losing weight) but it will help you get an idea of the process at least.

For me, I prep for a week (or more, depends on how much protein I have). I cook a pan (or two) of chicken thighs, cook a bunch of vegetables (I dislike cooking vegetables, no idea why - I buy the plain steamfresh bags) and then bust out the scale and the Rubbermaid containers and go to town portioning everything out. The first few days go in the fridge, the rest in the freezer. I use a sauce or somesuch on the protein (every now and again I switch to hamburger), and lots of spices on the vegetables to keep it from being bland and boring and to mix things up.

For more than one of you, or depending on your tastes, you may want to mix it up and create several dishes to mix and match and depend on how you decide to prep (one person containers, big pan o' something to share, etc).

Edit: Meal prep has helped me with losing weight because I just have to grab something from the freezer, throw some bbq sauce on the chicken and I'm good to go. If I don't take lunch my takeout choices are limited and high calorie (Jack in the Box, Arby's, etc - and I will get the fries, ugh).

I plan the menu and then load the recipes into MFP using the search by URL feature so that the day of I am ready to go. I usually make up some steel cut oats, smoothie bags, overnight oats, fruit bowls, veggie bags and have everything properly weighed, measured, and marked for easy logging.

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I guess I am going to get yelled at about this but I don't really pre plan stuff. I have no patience or desire to make stuff and write out plans.
I have no problems finding stuff to eat without making a federal case out of the process. Granted, my wife just eats tiny little meals and has no planned schedule ( she's a post bariatric patient and eats when and what she wants) so I have no one cooking for me or relying on me preparing for them. Rather than stressing out and making an issue of meal preparation, I have a list of items I really like and look forward to eating.
Items like chicken are the only things I will cut up and cook in advance. I'll do a few pieces and use them in salads or in a stir fry.
I will regularly do pasta, pita pizza, broccoli, salads, burgers ( no buns), stir fry, steak-um sandwich, etc. all easy items that do the trick.
Breakfast does not need to be a ordeal with a sink load of dishes either...a bowl of cereal is ok too, read the box usually a brown 3/4 a cup with milk is in the 200 cal range. I have no issue with Raisin Bran, Rice Krispies or other reasonable cereals.
Since I do the shopping, I know what I want and what we're low on.

I also enjoy ( and here comes the venom) frozen dinners. C'mon, for 350 calories I can have chicken parm with a side of pasta and veggies.
OK so maybe it's not home made but Stouffers stuff is pretty decent food. I can have a big hunk of Lasgna for 300 calories, add a side salad and some broccoli and I got a huge meal for under 500. There are tons of great frozen meals so don't discount those options and there all reasonably
priced, taste good, huge variety and virtually no clean up.

So just because your going to log foods and follow a new program there is no iron clad reason that you HAVE to preplan every meal.

Yes it works. I started out to save money on eating out, but it certainly works for dieting.

Start out small because it can be overwhelming and you can end up with a lot of waste.

Pick out 2-3 recipes/meals for the week. Write your shopping list from those recipes. As you get the hang of it you can do more.

I've learned a lot over the years. Generally, I cook about 6 meals/recipes a week. I leave one day for leftovers. We pretty much eat the same for breakfast and lunches so those items go on the shopping list every week.

I shop sales and coupons, so I plan my meals around what I've stocked in the freezer/pantry. I keep a running inventory list on my computer of what's in my freezers and pantry so nothing ends up being a mystery or expired.

When money was tight I learned to stretch leftovers into new meals. So roast a chicken Monday, chicken enchiladas on Tuesday, chicken noodle soup on Wednesday.

There are so many tips for meal planning. I think the best ones are found on budget/money saving websites.

I tried meal planning, and it just doesn't work for my family. I'll be halfway done cooking whatever dinner that I have planned for the night, and then the rest of the family will decide that they don't want it and eat cereal instead. It's easier for me to just ask them what they want once they get home and try to prepare something with whatever ingredients that I have on hand.

Yes! It works. It's all about putting the right amount of food together.