Lean Cuisines

RunnerLisa1

I eat them for lunch about 3 times per week. I love them & I think they are great, I get whichever one's are on sale at my grocery store! I like to put them on top of a bed of lettuce or baby spinach & add some hot sauce or sometimes extra veggies, this helps me feel like I'm eating more & definitely fills me up!

MIM49

I use Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, Smart Ones as a basis. For most of the dinners I add 4-6 oz cooked chicken or turkey breast. I add extra veggies to the salads and extra chicken. If you find you are consistently using Lean Cuisines be sure to sign up for their Delicious Rewards program. I've gotten some nice free items.

LoosingMyLast15

Any advise or success stories by eating prepared meals? I know they're high in sodium, but I drink PLENTY of water and unsweet tea (black and green) all day long. I usually eat only one for lunch each day. Is this okay? I'm starting out, and they're very easy to put in the microwave and eat. I have very little time during the week to cook (I work 2 jobs and go to school). So this is very simple process..

I usually stay in about 1650 calories a day. (5'10, 255lbs, 28 years old, no health issues).

nothing wrong with eating them as long as you add some fresh ingredients too like a nice salad or additional veggies. i would not eat them all the time though but that's just me. eating them doesn't really teach you anything other than toss in microwave and eat. you learn nothing about portion sizes which is extremely important. make sure you watch the sodium and also the portion size like those spring rolls - the package contains 2 servings.

TeaBea

I eat them sometimes. Eventually learn to wean yourself off of them. Great in a pinch.

Yes, often times my own cooking is better......but I don't always have time. AND some recipes I just don't have a good substitute.....LC Chicken Alfredo (add broccoli) .......yum!

Adding a serving of veggies helps to keep me full longer. Many frozen meals are lacking in the veggie department.

Docpremie

Most of the "diet" meals don't have enough calories & are really short on protein. I'm a 50-something, 5-8 female who weighs 156 pounds & take in >1850 calories/day. I also shoot for a minimum of 120-140 grams of protein/day. That's pretty hard to achieve with a small diet meal containing 150-250 cal/meal & only 14 grams of protein. If I eat a pre-made meal, which I do when I'm on-call at the hospital, I usually stick to something like Stouffer's Baked Chicken & add in an extra 2-4 oz of chicken breast, plus a side salad. (FYI, my Kroger now has rotisserie chicken breast pulled from the bone & package in 1/2 pound deli container--very easy to add to a meal!!!) That puts me at 400-450 cal/meal & 40+ grams of protein. Another option is something like a Home Run Inn individual thin crust cheese pizza--the calorie counts are low, and you can add turkey sausage, mushrooms, veggies & some extra mozzarella cheese. Also, do yourself a favorite & add some Italian Seasoning & Roasted Garlic spices on top the frozen pizza, before adding meat, veggie & cheese. By the time you're done, the pizza is really very good & filling. Again, that will give me around 400 calories & 35+ grams of protein. Too many people get stuck on the "diet" meals & then complain they're too full to eat all their calories, plus they never hit a reasonable protein goal!

Oh, another good one is Smart Ones Chicken Fettuccine, but again, add in an extra 2-4 oz of chicken breast & pair with a side salad or veggie.

GoMizzou99

Chicken Fajita Spring Rolls are delicious

TR0berts

I see a lot of supporters on here but I have to say get away from this habit while you can. Prepared meals, especially frozen dinners are terrible for you, the nutritional value leaves a lot to be desired! I wouldn't make this a habit, maybe when you are super busy you could grab one, but I wouldn't eat it every day. Eating these meals isn't going to teach you anything about healthy choices, you have no idea what's in them! You need to make sandwiches, soup, salads for lunch and learn about the nutritional value in your foods and what to eat. Pay attention to those other trackers in your diary as well as the calories!

:huh:

The nutritional values, on many of these prepared dinners, are just fine. And if you can figure out how to fit them into your overall diet, there's no issue.

As far as having no idea what's in them, you do realize the ingredients are listed on the package, right?

One can make all the soups and sandwiches and whatever (s)he wants. But if you don't properly measure the ingredients, you'll actually have less information about the nutritional makeup of your soup/sandwich/whatever than you will by reading the package.

twixlepennie

I ate these all the time while losing weight and I had no issues with them. Now I'm in maintenance and haven't had one in months. Unlike the other poster, I haven't regained any of the weight back. One of the great mysteries of the universe. Or something

jennk5309

I eat lean cuisines once a day for lunch at work. I don't think it's that big of a deal, especially if your blood pressure is okay. If you're really worried about the sodium content, maybe just watch it with the rest of your meals and keep the total under 2000 mg. I think they've actually lowered the sodium content in Lean Cuisines in recent years anyway due to consumer concern.

lynda167

When trying to lose weight for my wedding, I ate a lot of these frozen low calorie meals. I found for dinner I needed to add frozen veggies, I'd lift the plastic and fill the rest of the space up with peas or green beans before I put it in the microwave. Then I'd force myself to eat the meals with chopsticks because it slowed me down. That way when I finished the meal I felt satisfied. I thihnk the meals are good for a jump start or for weeks when you are really busy. When you are first getting in to a diet/workout routine, the workouts may seem to take up all of your time, so the prepared meals are a good help.

TeaBea

Nothing wrong with frozen meals, but I wouldn't recommend lean cuisines for one reason: BLEH.

I'd go for Amy's, stouffer's, or any other frozen meal. ( I avoid healthy choice; it's pretty bad.) The calories are really no different with regular, non-diet meals. For instance, I think the lean cuisine lasagna is around 320 calories and the stouffer's is 350. Plus I always supplement frozen meals with extra veggies.

If you happen to actually like lean cuisines though, go for it. :P

You have to be careful with Stouffer's red box meals........... the calories can be VERY different.

A "serving" of Lean Cuisine Mac & Cheese is fairly comparable a "serving" of Stouffer's Mac & Cheese HOWEVER ......the Stouffer's (red box) contains 2 servings......granted the red box is 1 or 2 oz bigger......but half makes it a much smaller portion than the Lean Cuisine.

Lean Cusine is also part of the Stouffer's brand.

jonnythan

I see a lot of supporters on here but I have to say get away from this habit while you can. Prepared meals, especially frozen dinners are terrible for you, the nutritional value leaves a lot to be desired! I wouldn't make this a habit, maybe when you are super busy you could grab one, but I wouldn't eat it every day. Eating these meals isn't going to teach you anything about healthy choices, you have no idea what's in them! You need to make sandwiches, soup, salads for lunch and learn about the nutritional value in your foods and what to eat. Pay attention to those other trackers in your diary as well as the calories!

You don't have to cook a lot to make this happen by any means. You could do sandwiches, heck I'd even suggest canned soup over frozen meals (if you get the right brand), and salads are SUPER easy and quick to throw together. You could chop all your veggies on the weekend and put them into individual containers for the week. bam, done, and healthful AND nutritious.

The most important part of weight loss is making lifestyle changes that will become your routine and learning about your body and nutrition. If you aren't learning or adopting healthy habits you won't succeed long term.

What on earth.

kgeyser

There's nothing wrong with eating pre-portioned meals like LC, it's certainly not going to kill you. The one thing I dislike about them is that you get used to seeing everything in this neat little package, and it doesn't help you in recognizing portion sizes when you are faced with non-portioned food. I've found making my own food and weighing it to be much more helpful in my decision making and calorie estimation when dealing with restaurant food or food at parties.

Docpremie

You have to be careful with Stouffer's red box meals........... the calories can be VERY different.

A "serving" of Lean Cuisine Mac & Cheese is fairly comparable a "serving" of Stouffer's Mac & Cheese HOWEVER ......the Stouffer's (red box) contains 2 servings......granted the red box is 1 or 2 oz bigger......but half makes it a much smaller portion than the Lean Cuisine.

Lean Cusine is also part of the Stouffer's brand.

That's why you have to be really carefully which Stouffer's meals you chose. I agree with the other poster that most of the Lean Cuisine meals are terrible! Smart Ones are only marginally better. I guess it doesn't help that I'm a gourmet cook, who grew up with a mother who was a fabulous cook. I never could stand most frozen meals. That said, a few of them aren't bad like I mentioned above: Stouffer's Baked Chicken, Stouffer's Meat Lasagna, Smart Ones Chicken Fettuccine. Stick to the ones with more lean eats (chicken & turkey mainly) and add additional lean meats, veggies & a low fat cheese, like mozzarella to increase the protein levels. I'd never meet my goal, if I only ate a frozen meals with 12-14 grams of protein!

MrsLannister

Is there a Trader Joe's near you? They have frozen meals that don't have all the artificial junk in them.

ItsCasey

One time I lost 80 lbs by eating a Lean Cuisine for dinner every night for 4 months. I gained it all back when I stopped eating Lean Cuisines. Just sayin'.

Well, I lost a few pounds myself eating Lean Cuisines every night (sometimes twice a day) for about a year. I didn't gain any of it back. I guess one of us did it wrong.

ETA, for the OP: The main reasons I stopped eating them were because I got tired of eating the same things over and over, and there were so few calories in them, relative to what I needed, that I had to make other things to go with them, anyway. And I got a lot more interested in cooking, so I make everything myself now. But for people who are just starting out, don't know how to cook, or for some other reason need the convenience of frozen meals, they're fine. Some brands are probably better than others, in terms of quality, but seriously, they're fine.

lwright311

Because of your post I read one of the boxes of my lean cuisines (Santa Fe Beans and Rice. It actually reads like a recipe. The only odd ingredients is potassium cloride which is a natural preservative. As far as soup is concerned it is much less convenient and depending of what kind may contain lots of sodium. Any processed meat like sandwich meat is terrible for you because they contain nitrate.
As for the original post, I eat Lean Cuisines and usually an apple or some baby carrots or cucumber salad for lunch about once a week. It is always good to add a fresh fruit or vegetable with them because they do lack in that department.

cwolfman13

Any advise or success stories by eating prepared meals? I know they're high in sodium, but I drink PLENTY of water and unsweet tea (black and green) all day long. I usually eat only one for lunch each day. Is this okay? I'm starting out, and they're very easy to put in the microwave and eat. I have very little time during the week to cook (I work 2 jobs and go to school). So this is very simple process..

I usually stay in about 1650 calories a day. (5'10, 255lbs, 28 years old, no health issues).

You'll be fine...my only beef with stuff like this is the sodium and also the fact that you don't get a whole lot of bang for your caloric buck...but they are convenient and I've had more than my fair share of stuff like this when I need convenience. I would also add that it is a good idea to learn to eat "real" food during this process though. I've been maintaining now for 7 months or so without logging and I credit the fact that I really payed attention to what servings of various foods looked like on my plate. If I had largely been eating pre-made meals, I likely would be struggling right now...but I do understand the need for convenience.

The only thing required to lose weight is a calorie deficit.

Francl27

The problem IMO isn't the meals. It's that you're not learning proper nutrition by eating them so much. But as long as you keep logging your meals even if you stop eating them, you should be fine.

That being said, for your age, weight and height, you can probably eat way more than that and still lose weight. I started at 1700 and I'm a 5'5" 35yo female (and weighed 213 lbs when I started).

ckspores1018

I don't think there is anything wrong with frozen meals.

With that said, I do think it is important for people needing to or in the process of losing weight to learn how to prepare their own meals. It teaches you something about portion and calorie control. You don't learn anything with frozen meals so it is easy to return to old habits as soon as you stop eating them.