Susie's GLP-1 Meal Prep Guide: 5 Days, 4 Hours, Zero Stress

By Nutritionist Susie · 2025-02-15

How to meal prep when your appetite is unpredictable. A nutritionist's small-batch system that stops you binning food, locks in your protein, and works around the days you can barely eat.

Susie again. Today I want to talk about the single biggest practical struggle my GLP-1 clients have: meal prep.

The problem isn't that you don't know what to eat. It's that you cooked a beautiful chicken curry on Sunday for the week and by Wednesday you've eaten one portion, the rest is staring at you from the fridge, and the thought of eating it is making you feel slightly ill.

Sound familiar? Let's fix it.

Why traditional meal prep fails on GLP-1s

Classic meal prep assumes you'll happily eat the same thing five days in a row. On a GLP-1, two things sabotage that:

1. Food fatigue hits hard. Your appetite is small, so the few foods you do fancy have to be exciting. Day-three reheated rice and chicken is rarely exciting. 2. Your appetite changes daily. Monday you can eat a normal meal. Tuesday two bites. Wednesday a smoothie and that's it. Cooking five identical portions guarantees waste.

The fix is component prep, not meal prep.

The component prep system

Instead of cooking five finished meals, you cook 5 base components that you can mix and match into a different meal every day. Total prep time: about 4 hours on a Sunday, including cleaning up.

Component 1: A big batch of cooked protein (the anchor) Pick one and make a lot of it: - Roast a tray of chicken thighs (about 1 kg) seasoned with olive oil, lemon, salt and herbs - Or hard-boil 12 eggs - Or bake a large salmon fillet - Or make a big batch of seasoned tofu cubes

Component 2: A second protein for variety Smaller batch, different texture: - A tub of Greek yogurt portioned into 4 jars with seeds and berries - A pot of cottage cheese - A bowl of edamame - Or a tin of good tuna kept aside

Component 3: One cooked grain or starch About 3 cups cooked, stored in the fridge: - Quinoa, brown rice, farro, lentils or roasted sweet potato cubes

Component 4: Two roasted vegetables On one big tray, roast at the same time: - Tray 1: broccoli + peppers + courgette - Tray 2: sweet potato + red onion + carrot

Component 5: A flavour bomb This is the bit most people skip and it's the most important. Make **one** punchy sauce that makes everything taste different: - Tahini-lemon-garlic dressing - Pesto - Greek yogurt + harissa + lemon - Chimichurri - Soy + ginger + honey + sesame

Total fridge cost: 5 containers + a jar.

How those 5 components become a week of meals

Now your week looks like this:

- Big appetite day: chicken + sweet potato + roast veg + tahini sauce. A real plate. - Medium appetite day: chicken on top of yogurt with herbs and a bit of grain. Half the volume, all the protein. - Small appetite day: Greek yogurt + berries + seeds + a drizzle of nut butter. Done. - No appetite day: smoothie with protein powder, a handful of frozen berries and a spoon of yogurt. Sip slowly over an hour. - Eat-on-the-go day: edamame + hard-boiled egg + a small grain salad in a tub.

Same prep. Five different meals. None of it goes in the bin.

Susie's freezer rules

Anything you haven't eaten by day 3 goes in the freezer in single portions. Especially:

- Cooked chicken (shreds beautifully into soups later) - Roasted veg (perfect base for a quick frittata) - Grain (makes a fast fried-rice base)

This single rule has saved my clients hundreds of pounds in wasted food. Always be freezing.

The four kitchen gadgets I tell every GLP-1 client to buy

You don't need a fancy kitchen. You need:

1. A small set of glass containers with tight lids — visual portions, not scary big tupperware 2. A handheld stick blender — the difference between a smoothie happening and not 3. Reusable silicone freezer bags — for those single-portion freezer rescues 4. A digital food scale — just for the first month, to learn what 30 g of protein looks like

Total spend under £50 and your prep life is sorted.

The mindset shift

Here's the bit I want you to take away: you are not failing meal prep when you don't eat what you cooked. Your appetite is now genuinely unpredictable, and any system that assumes otherwise is going to make you feel bad.

Component prep is forgiving. It bends to your appetite instead of fighting it. It gets your protein in, keeps food joyful, and stops the guilt of throwing away another untouched lunchbox.

Try it for two weeks. I promise it'll change how you feel about food on these meds. — Susie