Healthy choice meals..

yoashisme

Hey everyone! I am big on time saving and wanted to know are healthy choice meals really that good for you? I was thinking of eating 3 or 4 a day while adding some fresh fruits and vegs in. Would that be healthy to eat that much frozen/steam meals?

diannethegeek

The two biggest problems with the Healthy Choice style frozen meals are sodium and lack of fillingness. Both of those are highly variable based on the person, how they feel, their schedule, their goals, etc. If you don't have a health reason to watch your sodium, then they're fine as long as you like them and they make you feel good eating them.

Personally, I find that they don't fill me up very well. Again, your mileage will vary so do what works for you.

glassyo

Coming from someone who used to live off Subway soup and sandwiches for lunch and a frozen meal for dinner, 3 or 4 a day sounds excessive even to me!

But they're awesome for portion control and there's a good variety of food. Plus they're usually always on sale/have a coupon.

Also, what dianne said.

abatonfan

I admit to being the queen of laziness, and frozen dinners are my best friend. The only bad thing is that their portions are a bit on the small size, and eating 3-4 a day for months will get boring. In the time that it takes me to throw on a Healthy Choice, I could already be halfway done with cooking a piece of meat in a skillet (with frozen veggies in the microwave).

In terms of calories, the average steamer is about 250 calories. Eating 4 a day would be about 1000 calories, which means that you would need to eat at least 200 calories in fruits/vegetables a day in order to meet the 1200 minimum (or 450 calories if you only ate three steamers). I noticed that the steamers aren't super high in fat, which might make it harder for you to feel full on them (if you later determine that you feel the fullest when fats are incorporated into your diet).

Kalikel

They aren't any healthier than the regular frozen dinners and aren't much lower in calories, so if you're going to eat them, you may as well eat the regular Stouffer's ones.

No, they're not really healthy. But they taste good (if you're still accustomed to tons of salt), are easy to make (you just heat them up!), easy to log and help you out with portion control.

It's probably not a bad way to begin, but you might want to think about making things yourself and freezing them...down the road, anyway. You'll be eating healthier and will get to eat more if you do it yourself. But if you're starting out, the Stouffer's and similar things may help.

Good luck!

NewMeSM75

I found that banquet meals are close to the same calories and have more taste. One thing you may want to think of is making your own. Buy some plastic containers. Cook up some whole wheat pasta, add an organic marinara and cheese. There's the baked ziti type version. Roast boneless skinless chicken in oven with broccoli and add brown rice. You can always change the chicken up by adding bbq sauce, etc. Look up meal prepping. If you have a day during the week, it's worth a try. Less and expensive and you get more food. They even make brown rice in microwave bowl that you can divide up. Another is mac n cheese. Cook pasta, add in skim milk and 2% cheese. The possibilities are endless.

But I find nothing wrong with eating them if they are filling and you like them. Everyone is different. Good luck!

ManiacalLaugh

I eat Healthy Choices/Lean Cuisines every day for lunch. Today, I had a baked chicken HC. The taste wasn't bad, but just for note - I am still satisfactorily full four hours later. On the other hand, I had a Honey Balsamic HC steamer the other day. I actually preferred that one for taste, but I ended up hungry fairly quickly afterward, even for a small 40 calorie difference.

I think HC/LC staying power is dependent on the type of meal and the person eating them. However, I'd definitely bulk up with those fruits and veggies, and maybe something with some fat in it for satiety (full-fat cheese, for instance), as HC and LC's are typically pretty low in fat. This will fill up your calorie deficit to a safe level and will help keep the meals from wearing off too quickly.

extra_medium

"Healthy" is a subjective term.. they are perfectly fine if you like the taste and they make you feel full. My problem with them is that when I used to eat them I'd want 2 or 3.

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TeaBea

I use frozen meals once in awhile. They are not terrible. However, I don't recommend eating them for every meal. Being able to maintain the weight you lose will require some kind of permanent changes.

If you are strapped for time, look into batch cooking. You can make your own freezer meals ahead of time.

ManiacalLaugh

Caitwn wrote: »

The sodium in those things is killer.

I've heard lots of people say that, but I have yet to come across a meal that is "killer." A little high? Sure, but not that bad. Looking back on a few days, my HC/LC meals average 450-600 mgs of salt. Multiplied by four meals (what the OP is planning on eating), and yeah, that's a little over the daily recommended allowance of 2,300 mgs, but not by a ton.

For context, the "simply grilled chicken sandwich" I'm enjoying at Red Robin tonight has over 1,000 mgs. Two full-fat slices of cheese gets me 350 mgs. The chicken I heat up when I'm in a rush has about 400 mg for 4 oz.

Comparatively, they're really not that bad.**

**Granted, I've not reviewed the salt content of every HC/LC available, so there might be some salt-bombs out there I'm not aware of.

glassyo

With regards to the sodium in a frozen meal, if the amount seems big, I kind of reconcile that with the amount of potassium to make me feel better.

seska422

TeaBea wrote: »

I use frozen meals once in awhile. They are not terrible. However, I don't recommend eating them for every meal. Being able to maintain the weight you lose will require some kind of permanent changes.

If you are strapped for time, look into batch cooking. You can make your own freezer meals ahead of time.

I have no problem seeing myself buying and eating frozen dinners (supplemented with frozen veggies) forever. The store's just right down the road. That's a much more sustainable permanent change for me than trying to cook.

I have a frozen breakfast sandwich every morning and at least one frozen dinner every day. I also have salads and cooked things occasionally but most of my calories come from packaged foods.

We each need to find what works for ourselves. Different strokes for different folks.

jgnatca

Here's a lady who lives on a luxury cruise liner.

Yup, you could live on frozen dinners indefinitely. I'd make my own breakfast in the morning, prepared cereals if you are really short of time. Snacks might be cheese sticks, individual yogurts, pre-cut vegetables, fruits or dried fruits of any kind. Bread and wraps are really efficient too. As are the canned chilies and stews. There are the snackables, and tuna salad snack kits that I have used for lunch.

macgurlnet

I did do lean cuisines and similar things for lunch for a long time. Right now, I'm mainly eating sandwiches for lunch and I do batch cooking on weekends so I have my own frozen meals that I can use for dinners. Since it's cooling off, I may try to cook a bit more so I can have something warm for lunch, too

Depending on how much weekend time you have, batch cooking might be something to try. If you have a slow cooker, you can do a lot of recipes with it & they're mostly hands-off, which is nice.

The main downfall for me with the lean cuisines was cost - unless they were on sale for $2/container. Then they were about the same as making my own food.

~Lyssa

vczK2t

I am not a frozen meal fan, mostly because of the tiny portions and high sodium. I would suggest you make bulk meals on the weekend and freeze portions. Using a slow cooker is a FANTASTIC way to make these meals and not much mess. as well as saving $$$ and HIGH SODIUM.

bubble_wrap0428

What bothers me about them is their paragraph long ingredient list. I feel they are okay 2 or 3 times a week, no way 2 to 3 times a day!!! Just check out the list of ingredients next time, that was enough to scare me away from them. Plus the sodium levels are very high.

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