Is there any easy preparation or no preparation meals for weight loss?
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KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »Liftng4Lis wrote: »To lose weight, one needs to be in a deficit. You can eat what you only do, only less. BUT....
, If you take a bit of time on the weekend, you can grill or bake chicken breast for the week and I cook rice in bulk, for the same. Veggies I like to cut up fresh, or grab the bags already done for you.
I don't belive in starvation. I eat a lot of food mostly home made by myself but I also workout a lot. The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
What does what she said have to do with starvation?0 -
What, exactly, is wrong with chemical preservatives/flavor? What makes them bad? They aren't poisonous or toxic or anything like that. Preservatives have revolutionized food storage. Flavors make foods more interesting.azulvioleta6 wrote: »
There's nothing wrong with processing. Processed foods are fast, convenient, and easy to obtain. Some are more nutritionally rounded than others but that's true of any food.KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
If the OP is trying to avoid fast food by having fast, easy choices at home, frozen dinners and other processed foods are a workable options.
Riiiight...except for all of unnecessary chemical preservatives/flavor enhancers and the bucketloads of salt. Many commercial frozen meals have a full day's worth of salt in one serving.
There are lots of easy meals that require minimal prep. Cottage cheese + fruit; yogurt smoothie; green salad + meat, turkey burger + yam/sweet potato, veggie sandwich on whole-grain bread, etc.
You can also make your own soups and freeze them ahead of time for easy, healthy, re-heatable meals.
Buying pre-prepped/chopped veggies at the grocery store might be useful too.
Many prepared foods don't have a full day's worth of salt. I actually eat much less salt in a day now than I did before I started eating more frozen dinners because MFP lets me see how much sodium I'm consuming and I can track it more easily.
Frozen dinners come pre-portioned. That's a huge benefit for easy calorie counting.
Frozen dinners have a time benefit. I decide I'm hungry and I'm eating 6 minutes later. Since there's no long lead-in time, I can eat when I'm actually hungry rather than trying to decide if I'm going to be hungry at some future point or snacking while I cook because I'm hungry right now.
If you want to avoid preservatives, artificial flavors, whatever, that's great. Whatever works for you. However, that eating method doesn't work for everyone. If I had to eat like that, I wouldn't be able to stick to calorie counting because that's so far away from my normal eating method.
People need to find what works for themselves long-term. I only make changes that I can see myself doing on a continuing basis, even after I've lost my weight and am maintaining.0 -
azulvioleta6 wrote: »
There's nothing wrong with processing. Processed foods are fast, convenient, and easy to obtain. Some are more nutritionally rounded than others but that's true of any food.KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
If the OP is trying to avoid fast food by having fast, easy choices at home, frozen dinners and other processed foods are a workable options.
Riiiight...except for all of unnecessary chemical preservatives/flavor enhancers and the bucketloads of salt. Many commercial frozen meals have a full day's worth of salt in one serving.
There are lots of easy meals that require minimal prep. Cottage cheese + fruit; yogurt smoothie; green salad + meat, turkey burger + yam/sweet potato, veggie sandwich on whole-grain bread, etc.
You can also make your own soups and freeze them ahead of time for easy, healthy, re-heatable meals.
Buying pre-prepped/chopped veggies at the grocery store might be useful too.
It's fine if frozen dinners don't work for you, but there is nothing wrong with them. By the way, it would be a rare frozen meal that would have the recommended 2300 grams of sodium.
Of couse any of us can cook the meals you say and freeze them, but the OP does not cook.0 -
KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »Liftng4Lis wrote: »To lose weight, one needs to be in a deficit. You can eat what you only do, only less. BUT.... , If you take a bit of time on the weekend, you can grill or bake chicken breast for the week and I cook rice in bulk, for the same. Veggies I like to cut up fresh, or grab the bags already done for you.
I don't belive in starvation. I eat a lot of food mostly home made by myself but I also workout a lot. The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
Since when is eating at a deficit "starvation"? Or did you mean you don't believe in starvation any more than say, the tooth fairy? Cause I assure you it exists, and has nothing at all to do with a safe and healthy caloric deficit maintained to achieve desired weight loss...0 -
Get over it and start liking it. Or success is not in your future. I don't like to go to work everyday but, I do.0
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I bake chicken breast with salt and pepper in a sheet of tin foil..20 minutes at 400 degree..pretty damn easy
Most of the rest of my staple food is then microwaved or from a jar/bottle0 -
You might also consider checking out the Paleo groups. I won't get into whether that entire diet is for you, but no one knows how to do little to no food prep like a Paleo-eater.0
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What is stopping someone from doing this successfully? The store isn't going anywhere. It's a reliable way of losing weight and maintaining that loss. Cooking is not required.queenliz99 wrote: »
Many people regain weight because they go back to the way they used to eat after they lose weight. If you lose weight by doing things basically the same way you've always done them, it's easier to keep that up forever. It's big changes that have trouble sticking.0 -
azulvioleta6 wrote: »
There's nothing wrong with processing. Processed foods are fast, convenient, and easy to obtain. Some are more nutritionally rounded than others but that's true of any food.KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
If the OP is trying to avoid fast food by having fast, easy choices at home, frozen dinners and other processed foods are a workable options.
Riiiight...except for all of unnecessary chemical preservatives/flavor enhancers and the bucketloads of salt. Many commercial frozen meals have a full day's worth of salt in one serving.
There are lots of easy meals that require minimal prep. Cottage cheese + fruit; yogurt smoothie; green salad + meat, turkey burger + yam/sweet potato, veggie sandwich on whole-grain bread, etc.
You can also make your own soups and freeze them ahead of time for easy, healthy, re-heatable meals.
Buying pre-prepped/chopped veggies at the grocery store might be useful too.
It's fine if frozen dinners don't work for you, but there is nothing wrong with them. By the way, it would be a rare frozen meal that would have the recommended 2300 grams of sodium.
Of couse any of us can cook the meals you say and freeze them, but the OP does not cook.
What, exactly, is wrong with chemical preservatives/flavor? What makes them bad? They aren't poisonous or toxic or anything like that. Preservatives have revolutionized food storage. Flavors make foods more interesting.azulvioleta6 wrote: »
There's nothing wrong with processing. Processed foods are fast, convenient, and easy to obtain. Some are more nutritionally rounded than others but that's true of any food.KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
If the OP is trying to avoid fast food by having fast, easy choices at home, frozen dinners and other processed foods are a workable options.
Riiiight...except for all of unnecessary chemical preservatives/flavor enhancers and the bucketloads of salt. Many commercial frozen meals have a full day's worth of salt in one serving.
There are lots of easy meals that require minimal prep. Cottage cheese + fruit; yogurt smoothie; green salad + meat, turkey burger + yam/sweet potato, veggie sandwich on whole-grain bread, etc.
You can also make your own soups and freeze them ahead of time for easy, healthy, re-heatable meals.
Buying pre-prepped/chopped veggies at the grocery store might be useful too.
Many prepared foods don't have a full day's worth of salt. I actually eat much less salt in a day now than I did before I started eating more frozen dinners because MFP lets me see how much sodium I'm consuming and I can track it more easily.
Frozen dinners come pre-portioned. That's a huge benefit for easy calorie counting.
Frozen dinners have a time benefit. I decide I'm hungry and I'm eating 6 minutes later. Since there's no long lead-in time, I can eat when I'm actually hungry rather than trying to decide if I'm going to be hungry at some future point or snacking while I cook because I'm hungry right now.
If you want to avoid preservatives, artificial flavors, whatever, that's great. Whatever works for you. However, that eating method doesn't work for everyone. If I had to eat like that, I wouldn't be able to stick to calorie counting because that's so far away from my normal eating method.
People need to find what works for themselves long-term. I only make changes that I can see myself doing on a continuing basis, even after I've lost my weight and am maintaining.
So you are going to eat frozen meals for the rest of your life?
If you think that the flavors in frozen meals are interesting, you are missing out on an awful lot.
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KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »Liftng4Lis wrote: »To lose weight, one needs to be in a deficit. You can eat what you only do, only less. BUT.... , If you take a bit of time on the weekend, you can grill or bake chicken breast for the week and I cook rice in bulk, for the same. Veggies I like to cut up fresh, or grab the bags already done for you.
I don't belive in starvation. I eat a lot of food mostly home made by myself but I also workout a lot. The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
What exactly, in my statement, said anything about starvation?0 -
What am I missing? I eat baked chicken and broccoli occasionally but they aren't the end-all, be-all. Exotic fruits and veggies? I'm not adventurous when it comes to flavors or textures.azulvioleta6 wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »
There's nothing wrong with processing. Processed foods are fast, convenient, and easy to obtain. Some are more nutritionally rounded than others but that's true of any food.KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
If the OP is trying to avoid fast food by having fast, easy choices at home, frozen dinners and other processed foods are a workable options.
Riiiight...except for all of unnecessary chemical preservatives/flavor enhancers and the bucketloads of salt. Many commercial frozen meals have a full day's worth of salt in one serving.
There are lots of easy meals that require minimal prep. Cottage cheese + fruit; yogurt smoothie; green salad + meat, turkey burger + yam/sweet potato, veggie sandwich on whole-grain bread, etc.
You can also make your own soups and freeze them ahead of time for easy, healthy, re-heatable meals.
Buying pre-prepped/chopped veggies at the grocery store might be useful too.
It's fine if frozen dinners don't work for you, but there is nothing wrong with them. By the way, it would be a rare frozen meal that would have the recommended 2300 grams of sodium.
Of couse any of us can cook the meals you say and freeze them, but the OP does not cook.
So you are going to eat frozen meals for the rest of your life?
What, exactly, is wrong with chemical preservatives/flavor? What makes them bad? They aren't poisonous or toxic or anything like that. Preservatives have revolutionized food storage. Flavors make foods more interesting.azulvioleta6 wrote: »
There's nothing wrong with processing. Processed foods are fast, convenient, and easy to obtain. Some are more nutritionally rounded than others but that's true of any food.KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
If the OP is trying to avoid fast food by having fast, easy choices at home, frozen dinners and other processed foods are a workable options.
Riiiight...except for all of unnecessary chemical preservatives/flavor enhancers and the bucketloads of salt. Many commercial frozen meals have a full day's worth of salt in one serving.
There are lots of easy meals that require minimal prep. Cottage cheese + fruit; yogurt smoothie; green salad + meat, turkey burger + yam/sweet potato, veggie sandwich on whole-grain bread, etc.
You can also make your own soups and freeze them ahead of time for easy, healthy, re-heatable meals.
Buying pre-prepped/chopped veggies at the grocery store might be useful too.
Many prepared foods don't have a full day's worth of salt. I actually eat much less salt in a day now than I did before I started eating more frozen dinners because MFP lets me see how much sodium I'm consuming and I can track it more easily.
Frozen dinners come pre-portioned. That's a huge benefit for easy calorie counting.
Frozen dinners have a time benefit. I decide I'm hungry and I'm eating 6 minutes later. Since there's no long lead-in time, I can eat when I'm actually hungry rather than trying to decide if I'm going to be hungry at some future point or snacking while I cook because I'm hungry right now.
If you want to avoid preservatives, artificial flavors, whatever, that's great. Whatever works for you. However, that eating method doesn't work for everyone. If I had to eat like that, I wouldn't be able to stick to calorie counting because that's so far away from my normal eating method.
People need to find what works for themselves long-term. I only make changes that I can see myself doing on a continuing basis, even after I've lost my weight and am maintaining.
If you think that the flavors in frozen meals are interesting, you are missing out on an awful lot.
Yes, I can easily see myself sticking to mostly frozen meals. I eat other things as well but mostly those. I'm eating a much wider variety of foods (by eating the frozen foods) than I did when I was gaining weight. Fast foods (at least the kinds that I was eating) have much less variation and much more sodium than many frozen meals have.
Different people like different things. What works for you may or may not work for other people. What works for other people may not work for you.0 -
azulvioleta6 wrote: »
There's nothing wrong with processing. Processed foods are fast, convenient, and easy to obtain. Some are more nutritionally rounded than others but that's true of any food.KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
If the OP is trying to avoid fast food by having fast, easy choices at home, frozen dinners and other processed foods are a workable options.
Riiiight...except for all of unnecessary chemical preservatives/flavor enhancers and the bucketloads of salt. Many commercial frozen meals have a full day's worth of salt in one serving.
There are lots of easy meals that require minimal prep. Cottage cheese + fruit; yogurt smoothie; green salad + meat, turkey burger + yam/sweet potato, veggie sandwich on whole-grain bread, etc.
You can also make your own soups and freeze them ahead of time for easy, healthy, re-heatable meals.
Buying pre-prepped/chopped veggies at the grocery store might be useful too.
It's fine if frozen dinners don't work for you, but there is nothing wrong with them. By the way, it would be a rare frozen meal that would have the recommended 2300 grams of sodium.
Of couse any of us can cook the meals you say and freeze them, but the OP does not cook.
The USDA recommends that most adults consume less than 1500 mg/day.
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"The USDA recommends that healthy adults limit their sodium intake to less than 2,400 milligrams of sodium per day. High-risk individuals, such as African Americans, those with high blood pressure, existing heart disease, diabetes or kidney disease or those over the age of 51 should limit their sodium intake even further to 1,500 milligrams per day."
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/usda-guidelines-sodium-intake-7839.html
Erm... it says 1500 for high risk individuals, and older people, but OP hasn't stated he's either of those things0 -
Don't get me wrong though, I'm all for avoiding pre-packaged stuff.0
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I mean, if you never want to cook, super. Don't. But there's a bajillion foods that can be grabbed real quick from a grocery store and eaten raw/without any prep aside from opening a bag.
ETA:Obviously I'm referring to things like sandwich bread, the entire produce section, and like, plain granola and yogurt, not a bag of goldfish or cookies or something.0 -
Well I like to eat the steamable veggies my favorite so many choices , lean meats- esp. tuna packs or lean chicken or fish etc. Like yogurts, cottage cheese with fruits or even a smoothie. There is not much prep work in tossing almond milk, frozen fruit, little sweetner and protein powder if desired and hitting the switch on the blended.0
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You can also carry no prep foods with you if you are going to be out and about, like an apple.
You may boil a half dozen eggs at the beginning of the week.0 -
I assume you're willing to spend a little time preparing food since you said "if it takes too much time". Rotisserie chickens would be good. Steam bags of veggies or bags of salad. Rice or pasta is quick and easy as a side. Stores sell premade meat/veggie kebobs you would just have to bake or broil. Eggs/tuna are simple. Turkey/pork tenderloins just have to be thrown in the oven, and microwave a yourself a potato. There are tons of things you can do that are no fuss.0
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azulvioleta6 wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »
There's nothing wrong with processing. Processed foods are fast, convenient, and easy to obtain. Some are more nutritionally rounded than others but that's true of any food.KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
If the OP is trying to avoid fast food by having fast, easy choices at home, frozen dinners and other processed foods are a workable options.
Riiiight...except for all of unnecessary chemical preservatives/flavor enhancers and the bucketloads of salt. Many commercial frozen meals have a full day's worth of salt in one serving.
There are lots of easy meals that require minimal prep. Cottage cheese + fruit; yogurt smoothie; green salad + meat, turkey burger + yam/sweet potato, veggie sandwich on whole-grain bread, etc.
You can also make your own soups and freeze them ahead of time for easy, healthy, re-heatable meals.
Buying pre-prepped/chopped veggies at the grocery store might be useful too.
It's fine if frozen dinners don't work for you, but there is nothing wrong with them. By the way, it would be a rare frozen meal that would have the recommended 2300 grams of sodium.
Of couse any of us can cook the meals you say and freeze them, but the OP does not cook.
What, exactly, is wrong with chemical preservatives/flavor? What makes them bad? They aren't poisonous or toxic or anything like that. Preservatives have revolutionized food storage. Flavors make foods more interesting.azulvioleta6 wrote: »
There's nothing wrong with processing. Processed foods are fast, convenient, and easy to obtain. Some are more nutritionally rounded than others but that's true of any food.KaterinaDokuzova94 wrote: »The important thing is that food should be less processed and more natural and your meals be more simple.
If the OP is trying to avoid fast food by having fast, easy choices at home, frozen dinners and other processed foods are a workable options.
Riiiight...except for all of unnecessary chemical preservatives/flavor enhancers and the bucketloads of salt. Many commercial frozen meals have a full day's worth of salt in one serving.
There are lots of easy meals that require minimal prep. Cottage cheese + fruit; yogurt smoothie; green salad + meat, turkey burger + yam/sweet potato, veggie sandwich on whole-grain bread, etc.
You can also make your own soups and freeze them ahead of time for easy, healthy, re-heatable meals.
Buying pre-prepped/chopped veggies at the grocery store might be useful too.
Many prepared foods don't have a full day's worth of salt. I actually eat much less salt in a day now than I did before I started eating more frozen dinners because MFP lets me see how much sodium I'm consuming and I can track it more easily.
Frozen dinners come pre-portioned. That's a huge benefit for easy calorie counting.
Frozen dinners have a time benefit. I decide I'm hungry and I'm eating 6 minutes later. Since there's no long lead-in time, I can eat when I'm actually hungry rather than trying to decide if I'm going to be hungry at some future point or snacking while I cook because I'm hungry right now.
If you want to avoid preservatives, artificial flavors, whatever, that's great. Whatever works for you. However, that eating method doesn't work for everyone. If I had to eat like that, I wouldn't be able to stick to calorie counting because that's so far away from my normal eating method.
People need to find what works for themselves long-term. I only make changes that I can see myself doing on a continuing basis, even after I've lost my weight and am maintaining.
So you are going to eat frozen meals for the rest of your life?
If you think that the flavors in frozen meals are interesting, you are missing out on an awful lot.
First of all, I don't eat frozen meals, and nowhere in my posting do I say that I eat them. I cook all my meals from scratch (I even make my own bread and my own peanut butter
).
Second of all, I never said that the flavors in frozen meals are interesting. I don't like frozen meals, but that's just me.
Thirdly, I know lots of people who have a TV dinner or frozen meal as their main meal, and some of those people are elderly and can't cook, or don't want to cook, and they do just fine.
Finally, I was addressing the fact that your wording indicates that preservatives in frozen meals are somehow bad, which is untrue. They're neither good nor bad, they're just....preservatives. You also state that frozen meals have almost an entire serving of salt in one meal which, with probably a few exceptions, is also not true.
However, as I said in my initial response to you, it's fine if you don't like frozen meals, but there is nothing wrong with them.
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