Do you find weightloss easier with food prepping?

I loooove meal prepping. I tend to prep my 4 work nights (I work 10 hr graveyards), then freestyle my 3 day weekend.
This week I’m doing pineapple and light mozzarella for my breakfasts, and fried chicken, seared asparagus and spinach/cheese ravioli with tomato basil sauce for dinner. It puts me at just under 1,300 calories. Dinner this week is a TON of food. Breakfast is less volume but super filling.
Normally I work sweets/snacks/etc into my main calories but I didn’t feel like it this week. If I REALLY crave something this week I can just eat it out of my exorcise calories.

But I probably won’t because I have a big night on Friday, I won’t be tracking and I want my workout calories as a really big buffer.

I've never felt the need to do any meal prepping, but I also typically haven't run into the issues that you've laid out with regards to not using half of what I've bought at the grocery store and struggling to get a meal together. What I do do, however, is have a plan for what meals I'm making during the week and make a grocery list for that.

I also have staples on hand. Different types of rice (basmati, calrose, and sticky), different types of flour (AP, whole wheat, and sometimes cake), beans (canned and dried), various canned tomato products, curry pastes, onions and garlic, pasta, various broths (I'll also make chicken stock), lots of spices, different sugars, baking powder, baking soda, etc.

Given that I cook for one person and have no problem eating leftovers, making two main meals a week is pretty standard for me. This week it's roasted chicken marinated in a garlic pepper paste and channa masala. I also have some canned tuna that needs to be used so I'll make a niçoise salad as well. That meant my grocery list was: 1 chicken, basmati rice (I was getting low), butter lettuce (that is horribly out of season), broccoli, and frozen paratha. I could have made the paratha myself but I'm curious about the ones that are currently at Trader Joe's. My breakfast on weekdays is typically a bagel. My breakfast, or brunch, today will likely be crepes.

My main issue is making sure that I bring my lunch as opposed to going to a salad bar or a food cart. That's more about money than it is about weight loss.

Like most others are saying...not so much prepping, but planning, absolutely.

In my house we plan out a list of x number of lunches & dinners for the week and then buy only what we need to make those. We have very little food in the house by the end of the week (except staple stuff like rice, beans, flour, etc). We have almost zero food waste which helps with one goal, but it also helps to keep on track with healthy lower calorie meals.

For breakfasts we eat the same 3-4 over & over and just replenish the supply for those.

I think it's important to include stuff you will actually be excited about eating, even if that means incorporating a few less-than-ideal items that aren't the healthiest choices, or totally new & "exotic" meals. If I just prepped a bunch of veggies and chicken for the whole week (for example), I would find myself dying to go grab something more "interesting" from a restaurant by Day 2 or 3. I won't do that to myself! I know that sort of prep works for some, but not for me.

Yes. I find it very helpful. My calorie goal is not very large so if I don’t make a real effort to plan my meals, I don’t eat well (meaning imnnor getting the proper nutrition) and I’m pretty hungry. It takes some effort to come up with meals that check all the boxes (I find them filling, they give me adequate nutrition, they fit my calorie goal and they taste good).

I need to plan but also follow through with the meal prep because if the things that check all the boxes aren’t ready to eat (or ready to put together in just a few minutes), then I’m going to wing it and it’s not going to go well.

I don’t think of prep as makinf containers is broccoli rice and chicken though. I prep all my foods and depending on what it is (or my plan for the week), I’ll either portion it out at the start or have it all in a container and I’ll weigh out whatever portion I’m going to eat based on the calories I have for the day. If I make a curry or gumbo or something, I might pre portion it, or I might leave it all in one and weigh out whatever I’m going to eat. But having the food ready to eat is really an important piece for me.

I have a list of staples-things that I eat all the time that are always part of my meals and those items are on my grocery list permanently. I have a whole stockpile of recipes that I want to try (or make again) and I generally match those up to what’s on sale at the grocery store to decide what I’m going to eat this week.

I prep ingredients, not whole meals. Once a week I cook a bunch of roasted chicken thighs, a pork loin, usually some roasted root vegetables and grains - stuff that takes longer than 30 minutes to cook. Then I can quickly assemble it into different meals. I also make my breakfast (steel cut oats with milk, apples, and cinnamon) four days at a time using an instant pot.

Whether or not you prep, it's essential to make good choices as easy as bad ones. That can mean buying pre-cut veggies, getting take-out from a restaurant that has healthy food, having berries and Greek yogurt in the house instead of high fat ice cream, or any of a variety of different tactics.

As far as wasting food, two things helped me get organized. I use a meal planning app called Paprika, which allows you to input recipes, put them on a calendar, and makes up a grocery list. And I bought a whiteboard for my fridge to remind myself to use certain foods which like to hide in the back or bottom of the fridge. It takes some discipline to say, "I feel like fried chicken but I really need to use all that squash before it gets moldy," but you need to do it, or you wind up with a fat belly and a thin wallet!

I don’t always prep but I do meal plan. So I know exactly what I’m going to buy and eat for each day. I’m a stay at home mum so I’m lucky enough to just have to do this a day or so out and not for a whole week. I find if I don’t pre plan my eating day then I’m likely to snack and pick at food and over eat. My plan takes out all the thinking about what to eat and helps in cooking for the family too!
I also like to make big meals that can do a couple of dinners or dinner and lunches. That takes out a lot of cooking time from my day too.

Yes very much so! When I'm at work I'm always on go go go whether it's at my desk getting work done for a meeting or quickly running to a meeting, and yes literally running lol, so I can eat the same thing, honestly its about energy rather than having food out of enjoyment, which I do love on my time off, when I'm at work. I save my creativity for dinner time and weekends. I always have eggs and chicken with veggies during the week for my breakfast and dinner. My coworkers say I'm a creature of habit. But if I didn't do that I'd wind up buying those nasty burgers in the vending machine that cost way too much and not as filling or appropriate for my diet.

I love food prepping. 1) it saves money because when I go to the grocery store you only buy what I need. 2) when I am tired and tempted it's easy to reach into the freezer and my dinner is a zap away. 3) it save money because I'm not buying my lunch. 4) my lunches are always better than everyone and they are jealous. 5) I put my favorite tv show on my computer in the kitchen and prepping seems to fly by 6) I cook once every 2 weeks. 7) way less cleaning of dishes. 8) I don't waste food. 9) I'm learning food portions. 10) I'm losing weight! 11) I'm on day 70 and still on plan and it's easy.

100% yes for me personally. I have a crazy work schedule so I'll prep all my "work food" for the week on one day off. I know exactly what is in each in terms of macros etc. Then when I'm getting ready for work each day I'll just grab however many meals I need and put them in my little cooler that rides in the passenger seat of my work vehicle.

I do a lot of meal planning and always prelog which has been a help. I don't meal prep as such but I normally cook at least 2 meals worth when making dinner so I am not cooking every night and plan those cook free nights around busy days.

Meal planning Defintely helped here. I pick everything up on Sunday and prep for the week. I have 2 kids on top of that. So life is busy. And planning meals around what’s happening makes it easier not to fall into the takeaway crap.

We do do takeaway because it’s enjoyable from time to time, but I don’t want to rely on it when I’m tired. We have to have really fried up the timing to get home in time for dinner to have unplanned takeaway

It has definitely helped me. I started out like you, buying and wasting a lot of food to make sure I had variety and choice at any given moment. This gave way into not full meal prepping but more ingredient prepping, and I would jot down the general idea for 3 meals for 3 days ahead at a time. More recently this has become full on meal prep and I am loving it. I'm not at the store every five minutes, and compress all that time wondering and cooking into about 90 minutes every 4 days or so. I am also wasting practically no food at all. I super recommend working towards it, for all these practical advantages but also because taking that food choice paralysis out of the equation when hungry is also very helpful for adherence.

I cant meal prep. It makes the whole process so much harder. I found premade things that I like and fit in my diet so that things are easier, not harder. I also like to eat something I'm craving for dinner... if I meal prep than I never get what I'm craving, and than I cheat and binge.

I don't necessarily meal prep. However, I have the same dinner & breakfast almost every day and my lunches are usually some type of meat with a side of steamed veggies or salad. It makes it easier not to default to a quick meal at a fast food place if I have the "bones" of my meals available so to speak. Even my snacks are usually the same types of items (piece of fruit and salty snack like rice cakes, pretzels, baked chips). So far so good and I still get enough variation through out the week.