Is Eating the Same Meals Every Day Good for Fat Loss?

Nikkiey: When I started meal prepping and I started consistently just eating the same things every day, I was not only feeling so much better because I was giving my body exactly what it needed, I didn't have to worry about thinking, what am I going to make for breakfast? What am I going to make for lunch? What am I going to eat for dinner? Remove this decision fatigue of a daily food decision. You stop asking, what do I feel like eating? And you start saying, this is what I eat. That subtle shift literally changes everything.

What's going on, everyone? Hey, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show. Or if this is one of your first episodes, welcome to the show with your host, Nikkiey Stott. On these episodes, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident.

Today is episode number 340, and we're going to be talking about something that is so simple and so obvious. It's so basic, but it's eating the same things more often. Before you even check out or go on to the next podcast you want to listen to, I know that sounds basic, and it may sound too boring, and it may sound too obvious, but please stay with me. Because I know that sounds like something that you maybe already do or already know. But literally, my friends, basic is how you get results.

I think that the fitness industry is so good at overcomplicating the path that you need to be on to get results. The fitness industry is really good at the next new trend, people hopping on these next new trends, and then those trends require you to be overcomplicated or over-optimized. You have to be creative in the way that you go about your nutrition, your training. In order for you to get the results that you want, it's so basic.

And I can say that, because the women who I've seen who have won the long-term game, the ones who have just been getting their steps in, meal prepping, strength training consistently, following their nutrition, focusing on nutrition 80%, 90% of the time, getting good sleep, checking in on their hormones, those women didn't chase trends or chase complicated meal plans or have to be overly creative with the way that they were working out, or X, Y, and Z. They're the women who just repeat the fundamentals, the basics.

So today, I want to break down why eating the same thing reduces big daily decision fatigue, and how and why it increases consistency. I also want to talk about boredom. There are a lot of women I've talked to in the WarriorBabe space who are like, well, I just hate eating the same thing every day. Boredom isn't the real issue, so I want to talk about that. I also know there are a lot of women who are like, well, how do I eat the same thing but also provide for my family and cook for my family? So I'm going to talk about how to do that with your family. And then overall, how this can reduce overwhelm and how this one shift can change the entire trajectory of your journey.

Okay, so think of this like a systems episode, right? You have systems that need to be in place in order to get the results that you want to get, and the systems are what create those results. So that's what we're going to talk about today.

Before we dive in, let's first talk about something most women don't realize is sabotaging them on a daily basis, and that is how decision fatigue is quietly running your life every single day. Every day you are making hundreds, if not thousands, of these small micro-decisions, every minute of your day. What to wear, what to respond to, what do the kids need? What errands do you need to run? What are you cooking for dinner? What do you need to prioritize? Who needs your energy? What do you need to get done for work? You are thinking about a thousand different things on a daily basis. And by the time food comes into the picture, your brain is already depleted, or it doesn't look at food as a priority.

And when your brain is depleted, it does not choose being in alignment with your goals. It chooses whatever is comfortable, whatever is easy. It chooses familiarity. It chooses whatever feels good in the moment. And that's not because you're not 100% committed to your goals or you lack discipline. It's just the way your brain is wired when it's tired.

When you remove this daily food decision that everybody has, like, what am I going to have for breakfast? Oh my gosh, I need to eat, I'm hungry. What are we going to have for lunch? What are we going to have for dinner? Where do you want to go get dinner? When you remove this daily food decision, you remove a massive cognitive load.

This is something that changed the game for me early on. When I started meal prepping and I started consistently eating the same things every day, I was not only feeling so much better because I was giving my body exactly what it needed, but I didn't have to worry about thinking, what am I going to make for breakfast? What am I going to make for lunch? What am I going to eat for dinner today? I'm getting done with a 12-hour shift, what am I going to grab for food on the way home? Which, again, is just ease, comfort, and familiarity.

This was a long time ago, and I've told you guys this. But when I was done working a 12-hour shift, seven to seven in the emergency room, do you know what fast food chain was right down the street from the emergency department at the hospital? McDonald's. Do you know how many times I stopped there after a long shift like that, because it was easy? It was comfortable. McDonald's food is very comfortable, and it was familiar. It just felt good in the moment because I was starving, and it was the quickest way to get food.

I know a lot of you have been in that same boat, right? You're at work and your coworkers are like, where do you want to go get food? Or you're done with a long shift and you don't want to worry about food because your husband's cooking dinner for the kids, so you just grab something easy and familiar on the way home.

When you remove this decision fatigue of a daily food decision, you stop asking, what do I feel like eating? And you start saying, this is what I eat. That subtle shift literally changes everything, because food stops being this daily negotiation, and negotiation is so exhausting. It just becomes, okay, I have my meals prepped for the day, or I have them logged inside of MyFitnessPal. When I open up the app in the morning, I know these are my meals I need to pack for the day. Or you do it the night before. That hack right there is one of the biggest drivers of success that I see for women who get where they want to be with their results, because they either prep or plan their meals in advance, and then they just pack their meals for the day as they go. They don't have to make this type of decision on a daily basis.

And I mean, I ask it every day, and I'm going to get to that in a little bit. Because somewhere along the way, women were taught that variety equals health. And while variety has value nutritionally, too much variety destroys people's consistency. If every meal is different, if every macro target is different, if every grocery list is different, dude, your system never stabilizes. This system will never be stabilized for you. And fat loss, becoming more toned, building more muscle, changing your body composition, all of those things thrive on consistency.

So the women who get those types of results are not reinventing their lunch or their breakfast or their dinner every single week. They have two to three go-to breakfasts. You guys know that I've eaten the same breakfast for the last two and a half years. I'll probably alternate whatever carb source I'm eating, but I guarantee I'm having eggs and egg whites as my protein. And then I'll have toast with avocado, or oatmeal, or a bagel with cream cheese.

And these women who get those types of results, who have this stabilized, the results that you want but you don't want to eat the same meals all the time, they also have two to three go-to lunches, and then they have a small dinner rotation as well.

This is what I say for women who are just starting out, to make it silly, stupid, simple for you when you are getting nutrition down pat: do not change it up all the time and put in all this variety and all these recipes and X, Y, and Z. It's going to make it too complicated for you out of the gate. And that's why you're not going to be able to stick to it in week three, week four, and week five. Because you're being informed now that you need to eat more of the right types of foods, and that requires you to eat more protein, carbs, and fats. So you're making more meals, but you get fatigued because you're trying to keep all this variety in it. Variety. I can say that word. You're trying to make something different all the time.

So what I say for women is, for the first two to three weeks, eat the same breakfast, and then have a lunch and a dinner that you can interchange. So for the first week, you're having the same lunches. The next week, maybe change up the lunch, or just interchange what you have for dinner and make that the lunch, and then introduce a new dinner. And then repeat.

And it's not that these women who are doing this, or even me, lack the ability to be creative or have different options. It's because they understand, and I understood this early on, that repetition is what builds rhythm, rhythm builds consistency, and consistency builds results. This is how you lock in consistency. It's a simple strategy, but it's not a compromise. I don't want you to look at it as a compromise.

Because if you want to get to that result of fat loss or building muscle or changing your body composition, being more fit, athletic, more toned, losing the body fat, losing the weight, however the narrative is playing in your mind in terms of the goal you want to get to, it requires consistency. Consistency with your training, but more importantly, consistency with your nutrition. So you can't be trying to reinvent the wheel every single week. Keep it silly, stupid, simple.

All right. Hey, while you're listening, if you're getting value from this episode, take a moment to tap that review button or share this podcast with a friend. It's a small gesture that goes a long way in helping more women find their way to feeling stronger and more confident in their skin. I appreciate you so much for taking the time to support this show.

I just want to address this head on: I'm going to get bored. Okay, look, I hear you. I understand you. I get it. But boredom is not a biological emergency. You don't need entertainment from your oatmeal. You don't need excitement from your lunch. You need nourishment and alignment.

And the deeper truth is most women aren't actually bored. You're overstimulated on a daily basis. You're used to constant things. You're used to constant flavor switching. You're used to constant food entertainment. So when food becomes simple and predictable, it feels boring. But hear me loud and clear: predictable is actually so powerful. Predictable means your macros are easier to hit. Your calories are more consistent. Your digestion is stabilized. Your hunger patterns regulate.

And if you need more options or more variety, add it in in small ways. Keep the base consistent: your protein, your carb, your fats, your vegetables. And then change seasonings, or change sauces, or add in different vegetables here and there. Or change up the way you're cooking the chicken. Do it in the air fryer rather than baking it. Or, like I said earlier, change up the lunches after two weeks and change up the dinners after three weeks.

And this is probably a very type-A mentality, this system I'm talking about, because you're going to need to think about this stuff. You're going to need to plan ahead. You may need to write this down on a calendar. And that takes a very check-the-box type of mentality. But I will tell you this: if you want the results that you're seeking and want to get after, this is the type of mentality that needs to be put into place. This is the type of mentality that needs to be okay with, okay, I'm going to switch up some things this week. And it also needs to be okay with, I'm not bored. It's just a new normal that I need to get used to right now. So that's the first thing I want to squash in terms of boredom.

The second thing I've heard before is, okay, but I can't eat the same thing because I have a husband and I have kids. So I want to shift this. You don't need separate meals. You just need more modular meals. What I mean is, build dinners around a base. You have a protein, you have a carb, and you have a vegetable. Then just adjust the portions or add in things.

For example, you make grilled chicken, potatoes, and broccoli. Your kids might want butter and cheese and sauces. So you just need to adjust the portion size. You need to adjust the sauce choice. You need to adjust the macro alignment. You can make the same exact dinner for the entire family, and then when you're about to eat it, you just portion it differently for you. It doesn't need to be that complicated. Or for taco night, the family has tacos with shells and cheese and sour cream. Maybe you do a taco bowl with measured rice, protein, and toppings. It's not about, oh, I need to make different dinners for my family. No, it's about structure.

And two, think about it like this: your family is going to benefit from that structure as well. Sometimes you have to put the mask on yourself first before you help others. If you are showing up for yourself in terms of bettering your nutrition, and you're focusing on making dinners built on a base of a protein, a carb, and a vegetable, with fats coming from your sauces or whatever else, butters and oils, then you're helping yourself, and in turn you're serving your family.

Having this routine is going to reduce the stress for everyone. If on Sunday you can just think about what lunches and dinners you're making this week and write it down, you're planning ahead. That's going to set you up to succeed. Fail to plan, plan to fail. I said it backwards the first time.

Let me just touch on overwhelm. Overwhelm is an area where I feel like women implement this and then they just get overwhelmed, and that's the reason they quit. They don't quit because they have a lack of knowledge, or because they're hungry. Those things could be a reason why they quit, but the majority of it is overwhelm. When you don't know what to eat, every meal feels like a puzzle. And when you're constantly thinking about it, you burn out. And that burnout leads to, okay, well, I'm just going to start over on Monday.

But when your meals are predictable, your grocery shopping becomes automatic, meal prep becomes faster, tracking becomes easier, and you stop thinking about food 24/7.

And going back to the boredom, or the blandness that sometimes this food can bring to the table, let me shout out another narrative as well: maybe that's good overall for your health. Because a lot of the recipes out there have a lot of oils or seed oils, or are too heavy in carbs and too heavy in fats, and they need more protein. This type of structure, again, will benefit you and your family to be eating better. So people will say they're bored. It's just a behavior that needs to change, and a new normal that needs to become normal.

And going back to freeing up mental space, these things just become more predictable for you. That mental space that opens up, that's where consistency lives. Because simplicity creates calm. Calm creates adherence to the plan. And adherence is then going to create results. Adherence is consistency. Consistency is going to give you the results. If you can repeat this pattern over and over and over again, it's inevitably going to get you to where you want to be.

And I've seen this in 20,000 women. I've seen this firsthand myself. This is one of the early things that I latched onto at the beginning of my journey, because it was easy for me to lock in a consistency of meals.

Also, unlocking more mental space lets you think about other priorities more intently and gives them more space in your mind, like projects that need to get done at work or what the kids need after school. You're more intent and focused on those types of things rather than thinking about what you're going to eat for dinner, and then spending 30 minutes looking for recipes and then spending an hour cooking it. It just creates this adherence to the results you want. And in turn, like I've been saying, it's going to help everybody else around you.

Okay, so here's a way to look at it a little more practically, and how I want you to implement this without overthinking it. Pick two breakfasts, pick two lunches, pick three to four dinners, pick one to two snack options, and rotate them. Track them. Get good at them. Then once consistency is locked in, you can expand on that. But you can't change things up until you've locked in consistency. Don't try to build creativity before you build stability. Stability first, and then you can add in variety second.

And this is so much bigger than food as well. This is about the person you are becoming. I say this in so many episodes: women who win long term don't wake up asking, what do I feel like eating today? They wake up asking, what is aligned with my goals? This is what I'm going to eat today. Or broadly speaking, what do I feel like doing today? No, they wake up asking, what aligns with my goals today, and how am I going to make it happen?

And think about it like this, too: the woman you're becoming, the woman who already has the results that you want, a year or two years from now. Think about her in that end state and work backwards. What you're doing now is going to have to change in one way or another, because if it doesn't, you're just going to continue where you are right now, getting the same results. So if you are somebody who says, I'm bored, or I can't do this because I have a family, those excuses or justifications are going to keep you stuck where you are right now. Opening up a different narrative that is supportive and aligns with your goals is how you're going to work backwards from where that woman is in two years and start being in alignment with the goal. Okay? I'm just letting that sink in for a second.

And this identity shift, thinking from that perspective, removes drama. It removes excuses. It removes justification. Because at this point, your food becomes your fuel, and it becomes a part of the routine and process. And when you switch these narratives and think about it from the perspective of aligning with your goals, that's how you're going to build confidence and build forward momentum to where you want to be.

Overall, with this episode: if you feel inconsistent, if you feel overwhelmed, if you feel like you're constantly restarting every single Monday, simplify things. Eat the same things more often. Just give it a try, please. If you're doing everything and trying everything and you're still not where you want to be, something in the nutrition category is probably off. So give this a whirl and see where it lands you in three weeks. Eat the same things more often.

Again, it doesn't need to be overcomplicated. It's not some trend. It sounds so boring. It sounds so basic. Because it works. Basic wins. And the ones who master the basics are the ones who transform. That could be you, if you just lock in this type of consistency. All right?

And if you don't know where to start, and you don't know what to eat, and you feel like every meal is a puzzle, check out The Macro Method. In one of the sections of the program, which is only $27, it shows you how to implement exactly what I'm talking about. How to put it into action. How to track inside of MyFitnessPal. What foods to eat. When to eat. Meal plans. X, Y, and Z. So go put it into action, guys, and I'll see you in the next episode. Peace out.

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