Meal Prep Statistics: Cooking & Adherence Outcomes

Adults in households that cook dinner 6-7 times a week eat about 137 kcal (573 kJ) less a day than those cooking 0-1 times a week

US NHANES 2007-2010 data on 9,569 adults (9,054 vs 9,627 kJ a day). Cross-sectional, so it shows an association, not that cooking causes the difference.

Frequent home cooks also eat less sugar (119 vs 135 g a day) and less fat (81 vs 86 g a day)

Same NHANES comparison of 6-7 against 0-1 home-cooked dinners a week.

Only 8% of US adults live in households where dinner is cooked 0-1 times a week

NHANES 2007-2010. Those adults averaged 9,627 kJ, 86 g of fat and 135 g of sugar a day.

Eating home-cooked meals more than five times a week, against fewer than three, goes with a 28% lower likelihood of an overweight BMI and 24% lower likelihood of excess body fat

11,396 UK adults aged 29-64 (Fenland study). Cross-sectional; associations with HbA1c, cholesterol and blood pressure were not significant after adjustment.

Frequent home-cooked eaters eat 62 g more fruit and 98 g more vegetables a day

More than five against fewer than three home-cooked main meals a week, with higher DASH and Mediterranean diet scores and plasma vitamin C.

57% of adults plan their meals at least occasionally

40,554 French adults in the NutriNet-Sante study; planning meant deciding ahead what to eat over the next few days.

Meal planners have lower odds of obesity: 21% lower in women (OR 0.79) and 19% lower in men (OR 0.81)

Planners also had higher diet-quality scores and more food variety. In women planning was also linked to lower odds of overweight (OR 0.92). No causality can be inferred.

Serving 50% larger portions of every food raised daily energy intake by 423 kcal, and the increase held for 11 days

23 adults with all food provided; the cumulative excess was 4,636 kcal. Participants did not compensate by eating less later.

Larger portions increased intake at every meal and for every food category except fruit (as a snack) and vegetables

The effect did not depend on whether participants were normal weight or overweight.

Cutting exposure to larger portions, packages and tableware across the whole diet could reduce daily energy intake by 144-228 kcal (8.5-13.5%)

Estimate for UK children and adults from a Cochrane meta-analysis of 58 studies (6,603 participants).

Larger portion, package or tableware sizes increase how much food adults eat (SMD 0.46) and, less, how much children eat (SMD 0.21)

Moderate-quality evidence from 72 studies, mostly in the US; a small-to-moderate effect overall (SMD 0.38).

Across 22 studies, self-monitoring of diet, exercise or weight was consistently associated with weight loss, but the evidence was rated weak

Systematic review of studies from 1993 to 2009; 15 looked at dietary self-monitoring, most of them with paper diaries.

Adults who called themselves diet-resistant underreported their food intake by 47% and overreported their physical activity by 51%

Measured against energy expenditure in 10 obese adults reporting fewer than 1,200 kcal a day; their metabolism was within 5% of predicted.

Drinking 500 ml of water before each meal on a calorie-restricted diet led to about 2 kg more weight loss over 12 weeks, a 44% greater decline

48 adults aged 55-75 with a BMI of 25-40.

A high-protein afternoon snack (26 g protein) delayed the next eating occasion and cut appetite more than a high-fat snack, without changing total daily energy intake

31 adolescents in a randomized crossover trial; the protein snack also raised daily protein intake.