Pre Packaged Meals
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For me it's just nowhere enough food for the calories. I don't know what they put in there, but really I could make myself much more food for 300 calories.0
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I think they are loaded with sodium. They are a quick meal but I don't think they are as good for us as a home cooked meal.
I encourage you to cook as many meals as you can. You can build your own recipes--you just put in the amount and calorie count, serving size, and go from there. You do it once and then you just use your recipe. I've done a few of those.
Measure and weigh your portions if you are cooking only for you and you will be fine. When I cook for Don and I, I measure out my portion only and he gets to eat what he wants.
Edited to add: for lunch I make a salad with lettuce, tomato, chicken, olives, and almonds. I rarely eat lunch out, and I used to take the Healthy Choice meals but they were not satisfying and had too much salt.0 -
When I was on 1200 I was way too scared to make home cooked meals, even with a food scale. I was worried I would over estimate as that's more common than I realised.
So most meals were ding cuisine for me! It was a vile month. lol
Then I learned to let go, started using the food scale and deliberately leaving over a few calories a day just in case.
I lost weight on them but hear they are often high in sodium so I very rarely have them thesedays.0 -
Love/Hate relationship from my side.
Here are what I find to be pros/cons -
Pros:
- Low calorie
- Quick
- Tasty
- Helps us to get to goals very fast
- Available in most shops
- Lots of different meals
- Add perspective - Their sizes are small and show you what small meals should be like
- Easy to find on the MFP database
Cons:
- Can get expensive if bought daily - though still much cheaper than a meal out
- Lots of sodium - really bad for weight loss and a whole ton of other stuff like blood pressure
- Lots of preservatives - I've never really bought the whole preservatives are bad for you argument, but hey, nothing beats fresh ingredients
- Small?! Sometimes they just don't fill me up (especially for the main meal), often I find myself trying to add carbs next to them to make the difference, this is dangerous and defeats the purpose
- Can get redundant - this is bad for losing weight, you need options so you won't lose motivation and home cooking fixes this
So in essence I just echo what the others said. Have some around for the off days when you cant be bothered to cook or do anything else.
Also, some places, like M&S here in the UK, have a great selection of fresh(er) low cal/low fat meals. They are MUCH better that the frozen ones.0 -
It's not true that they're all full of preservatives. Actually from what I've seen here, most don't have any.0
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For me it's just nowhere enough food for the calories. I don't know what they put in there, but really I could make myself much more food for 300 calories.
This is me. I have had them but I never feel satisfied. I am always hungry almost instantly again. Maybe they don't have enough protein for me or something but if you find that they are keeping you full then I don't see an issue with having them occasionally. Normally my lunches are just leftovers from the night before. Normally when I cook I try to make extra portions so that I always have 'something' to eat in the freezer.0 -
When I don't make myself a regular lunch I go to lean cuisines, I LOVE their paninis. I'm lazy in the kitchen, especially if my hubby is gone, so when I don't feel like cooking I'll grab one. I always have them in the house, especially the paninis and pizza. I make sure they aren't too horrible on sodium, and account for it as well as I drink ridiculous amounts of water during the day.0
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Buy a kitchen scale if you don't have one and enter your ingredients in MFP, see if the thing fits your macros then start cooking. I see no reason why you'd eat more when you cook your own food than with the frozen stuff. These are expensive and full of sodium/preservatives.
Expensive?
You can get some for less than $20 -
Expensive?
You can get some for less than $2
True! But if you want one thats a little nicer they can be up to £4. ( $6.50 ) I found myself buying my boyfriend nice dinners and adding my own £3-£4 meal on daily. That hurt the bank I must say.0 -
I have them once in while for lunch when I'm in a pinch. I try to stick to the lower fat, lower salt variety.0
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I find that most of the vegetarian options aren't very high in protein -- at least, not equatable to what I could make for myself with the same number of calories (or at the same price). So, I tend to avoid them most of the time as they don't contribute to my goals.
That being said, if I'm in a particular hurry -- or just plain feel like it -- I'll buy one. I just have to make up the protein elsewhere in my day.0 -
I eat Smart Ones. They are the best on sodium and very low calories. I find that they have more flavor and choices than the rest.
I've found the opposite, LC has more flavour and has more protein which is key in keeping you full. If LC is higher in sodium, it would be the lack of meat in SO. LC are 250-310 in cals – just as low if not lower than SO. SO do appear to have more veggies visually but that's also b/c of all the protein they are missing they need to fill in the space with something. Since they always go on sale for the same price (LC actually goes on sale even more often) LC is my #1 choice for a fun lunch - neither are very filling for dinner on their own.
LC gives you FREE GIFT CARDS* so for all of these reasons, LC is personally my #1 choice.
*You get gift cards/prizes of your choice as you obtain points. You get 250 pts for every regular LC pin # you add to their website which means after 30 meals I can get $10 Walmart gift card (my #1 choice). Of course this means you have spent $60 on 30 meals but getting 16% back an already cheap meal ($2 per meal is the same as 1 chicken breast on sale or 1/3rd the cost of Subway or other healthy fast food options) is great!0 -
Expensive?
You can get some for less than $2
True! But if you want one thats a little nicer they can be up to £4. ( $6.50 ) I found myself buying my boyfriend nice dinners and adding my own £3-£4 meal on daily. That hurt the bank I must say.
The regular meals are $2 in Canada (on sale) the steamer ones are $4 regular price. Just an FYI for those comparing.0 -
Honestly, I never eat them. I have tried them but they were just repulsive to me. One of my coworkers makes them for lunch and they really stink up the office. Ugh. I couldn't make them at home anyway, I don't own a microwave.0
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I always have 4-6 in the freezer (or more) - I never pay more than $3.50 for the expensive "gormet" ones. They are lifesavers on a hectic night. It's trial and error to find the good ones.
In my opinion the best taste and quality wise are the Healthy Steamers, Lean Cuisine Steamers and Weight Watchers Smart Ones. I alwys stay away from any ravioli or pasta suffed with cheese ones....blah0 -
I get one every now and then (aldi do some great steam meals) for days when I don't have anything in or for convenience but I wouldn't eat them too often. I prefer freshly cooked meals now.0
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