The lazy dieter

I wanted to throw this out there... It may be a bit like chum in the water for some, but maybe food for thought to others.

I love to cook. It's fun. I haven't earned any Michelin stars yet, but I like the the food I cook. I can, and often do, cook food healthier and fresher than any processed meal or fast food.

HOWEVER, when I want to be lazy and drop weight, I switch to almost 100% processed food.

Why?

Because I can buy a load of Lean Cuisine frozen dinners (or some equivalent example of the same idea) and a bunch of flavored bottled water and keep track of all the nutrition and calorie information with a quick swipe of the barcode on the outside of the box with my smartphone.

No guesswork. No weighing. No measuring. No calculations. No muss. No fuss.

Does anybody else switch to processed food from healthy, fresh homecooked meals in order to loose weight or am I even weirder than I thought? Any thoughts on this tactic?
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Replies

  • whateverfloats
    whateverfloats Posts: 22
    edited October 2014
    That sounds like a bad plan. Packaged food has a lot of sodium and preservative crap. I mean, maybe a lean cuisine for dinner is okay as long as breakfast and lunch are more wholesome. That shouldn't be hard, eh?
  • Cassie_DE
    Cassie_DE Posts: 58 Member
    It's easier, but the pre-measured calories may not be worth the reduced nutritional value for you; you're not just shedding body weight, you're (hopefully!) building a healthier body for yourself, one that's likely got a lower body fat percentage but doesn't cost you muscle along the way.
  • ponycyndi
    ponycyndi Posts: 858 Member
    I do get lazy too, but usually that means I'm eating the same thing over and over, which makes for easier logging.
  • bleep
    bleep Posts: 68 Member
    It's definitely much easier to just scan that barcode.
  • hhmb8k
    hhmb8k Posts: 49
    That sounds like a bad plan. Packaged food has a lot of sodium and preservative crap. I mean, maybe a lean cuisine for dinner is okay as long as breakfast and lunch are more wholesome. That shouldn't be hard, eh?

    It does sound like a bad plan, doesn't it? I actually agree with you there.

    But, in practice, it seems to work better than it sounds. All the fat, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, carbs, protein, etc are tallied up much much more accurately by scanning a barcode than guessing how much olive oil was absorbed and how much was left behind in the pan, for example.

    I use the myfitnesspal app on my smartphone to monitor my current intake and daily limits.
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    edited October 2014
    hhmb8k wrote: »
    I wanted to throw this out there... It may be a bit like chum in the water for some, but maybe food for thought to others.

    I love to cook. It's fun. I haven't earned any Michelin stars yet, but I like the the food I cook. I can, and often do, cook food healthier and fresher than any processed meal or fast food.

    HOWEVER, when I want to be lazy and drop weight, I switch to almost 100% processed food.

    Why?

    Because I can buy a load of Lean Cuisine frozen dinners (or some equivalent example of the same idea) and a bunch of flavored bottled water and keep track of all the nutrition and calorie information with a quick swipe of the barcode on the outside of the box with my smartphone.

    No guesswork. No weighing. No measuring. No calculations. No muss. No fuss.

    Does anybody else switch to processed food from healthy, fresh homecooked meals in order to loose weight or am I even weirder than I thought? Any thoughts on this tactic?

    Being lazy and building a goal physique don't really go hand in hand. It's like wanting to get rich without working for it.

    Contents of the packaging isn't necessarily accurate btw. More often than not, there is actually more food than what is labeled, so that can set you up for some false expectations.

    In any event, you'd still lose weight if you were in a caloric deficit. You might be lacking in micronutrients, fiber, and some other areas though. You'll probably end up spending a lot more money than cooking your own food as well.

    Why not create a sustainable habit so you won't have to continuously cycle through losing weight over and over?
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
    This is why I batch cook and freeze single portions of several different main dishes. Then I can go through spells of being lazy and still be eating good food made with real food ingredients.
  • hhmb8k wrote: »
    I wanted to throw this out there... It may be a bit like chum in the water for some, but maybe food for thought to others.

    I love to cook. It's fun. I haven't earned any Michelin stars yet, but I like the the food I cook. I can, and often do, cook food healthier and fresher than any processed meal or fast food.

    HOWEVER, when I want to be lazy and drop weight, I switch to almost 100% processed food.

    Why?

    Because I can buy a load of Lean Cuisine frozen dinners (or some equivalent example of the same idea) and a bunch of flavored bottled water and keep track of all the nutrition and calorie information with a quick swipe of the barcode on the outside of the box with my smartphone.

    No guesswork. No weighing. No measuring. No calculations. No muss. No fuss.

    Does anybody else switch to processed food from healthy, fresh homecooked meals in order to loose weight or am I even weirder than I thought? Any thoughts on this tactic?

    Being lazy and building a goal physique don't really go hand in hand. It's like wanting to get rich without working for it.

    Contents of the packaging isn't necessarily accurate btw. More often than not, there is actually more food than that is labeled, so that can set you up for some false expectations.

    In any event, you'd still lose weight if you were in a caloric deficit. You might be lacking in micronutrients, fiber, and some other areas though. You'll probably end up spending a lot more money than cooking your own food as well.

    Why not create a sustainable habit so you won't have to continuously cycle through losing weight over and over?

    ^ ^ ^ My thoughts exactly.

  • hhmb8k
    hhmb8k Posts: 49

    Being lazy and building a goal physique don't really go hand in hand.


    It's like wanting to get rich without working for it.


    No doubt there is some wisdom in that sentiment. The only thing that nags me about how it isn't the right thing to do, is that it works so well.

    Uhm, sort of like when you look into how the richest people in the country made their money... worked hard for it or inherited it? LOL

    Anyway, I get your point and I don't disagree with the sentiment.
  • hhmb8k
    hhmb8k Posts: 49
    This is why I batch cook and freeze single portions of several different main dishes. Then I can go through spells of being lazy and still be eating good food made with real food ingredients.

    This is something closer to what I think I'm fishing for--tips and tricks to make it easier for me to eat the stuff that I cook (that I actually prefer over processed food anyway) but still keep track of the calories and nutrition.

    Do you guess at the calories and portion sizes and other nutritional information or use a website or an app or is it just experience with what you're doing that let's you keep track of your intake?

    I get overwhelmed by trying to keep track of the ingredients that I'm adding when I cook since I don't measure anything. Do you tally things up individually as you add them (e.g. dash of salt, tablespoon of olive oil, pinch of sugar, chunk of butter, etc) or just use a generic example by Googling the nutritional components of a home cooked roasted chicken with steamed veggies on the internet and hope they cooked it the same way you did?

  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,953 Member
    edited October 2014
    I can see where you're coming from. Personally, I use my love for cooking to get creative, make yummy meals, put them in the recipe builder and portion them out and freeze them for good, homecooked meals I can easily track.

    But on days where I don't bring my lunch, I will pass up a more interesting sounding and arguably less processed bought lunch for something with the nutritional info on the menu. Takes the stress out.

    As for tracking home cooking, I have an electronic scale and put a bowl on it and just measure as I go. Make a little note, then put it into the recipe builder afterwards.
  • nehushtan
    nehushtan Posts: 566 Member
    I lost about 90 lbs eating mostly processed food. I don't track my sodium but I drink about a gallon of water a day & my bloodwork shows low sodium levels.

    The word "lazy" is pejorative. I'd rather say that I helped myself be successful by "keeping it simple". When you are making a major life change that is supposed to last a decade or more, it certainly helps to pare it down to a minimal set of things to do and keep track of. It's like the old doctor's advice to a smoker/drinker -- don't try to quit both at once.

    I feel bad for people who start off by putting a lot of constraints on their program. Some say from now on I'm going to "eat clean", others say they will eat only locally grown, others "low carb", "low sodium", etc. Not to say that any of these are "wrong"... but what a lot of extra work!

    It was hard enough, for me, to keep track of calories alone. I had to learn to buy lean meats and light condiments, read labels, figure portion sizes, add more veggies, re-prioritize fitness over flavor, fight mindless and midnight grazing, fit in exercise, and on and on.

    It was definitely not easy and so I won't call myself lazy for finding convenient ways -- food in bags and cans and boxes -- to make it work.
  • I had a friend 15 years ago who lost 50 pounds only eating Healthy Choice. She was a salesperson who drove 12 hours a day. She would take intermittent breaks and do 10 minute walks all day long.

    I am not advocating processed foods at all, but I do believe in "to each their own", sometimes convenience foods make sense. I personally don't eat them but I can understand why some people based on their lifestyle are drawn to them. Bringing a food scale and measuring cups everywhere you go doesn't work for me and for most people. Most of my meals during the week are consumed outside the home.

    To the poster of this thread, if you can also include fresh organic fruit and salads (veggies) with these meals, a green fresh salad, it would help.

    I wish you all the best.
  • hhmb8k
    hhmb8k Posts: 49

    To the poster of this thread, if you can also include fresh organic fruit and salads (veggies) with these meals, a green fresh salad, it would help.

    I wish you all the best.

    Thanks.

    ...and you're absolutely correct. If I did only eat a Healthy Choice frozen meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner it would only average out to about 900 cal a day. So, plenty of room to add some fruits and veggies. But then you re-open that can of worms about how you track your intake for the stuff that doesn't have a barcode slapped on it.

    I am starting to get the sneaking suspicion that all those guys and gals that only eat fresh, non-processed home cooked food, really don't bother with keeping track of calories or nutritional content at all (or at best they are completely guessing most of the time).

    I kinda get the sense that they are really just ballparking it. Like guessing that their caloric intake for the day was roughly somewhere between 1,500 and 1,800 calories (uhm, give or take about 1,000 calories in error one way or the other).

    I can't prove that is the case, just a sneaking suspicion. :smiley:
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,953 Member
    hhmb8k wrote: »

    To the poster of this thread, if you can also include fresh organic fruit and salads (veggies) with these meals, a green fresh salad, it would help.

    I wish you all the best.

    Thanks.

    ...and you're absolutely correct. If I did only eat a Healthy Choice frozen meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner it would only average out to about 900 cal a day. So, plenty of room to add some fruits and veggies. But then you re-open that can of worms about how you track your intake for the stuff that doesn't have a barcode slapped on it.

    I am starting to get the sneaking suspicion that all those guys and gals that only eat fresh, non-processed home cooked food, really don't bother with keeping track of calories or nutritional content at all (or at best they are completely guessing most of the time).

    I kinda get the sense that they are really just ballparking it. Like guessing that their caloric intake for the day was roughly somewhere between 1,500 and 1,800 calories (uhm, give or take about 1,000 calories in error one way or the other).

    I can't prove that is the case, just a sneaking suspicion. :smiley:

    Nope. When I make something, every ingredient is weighed and tracked, and then the portions are measured before I eat them. It just takes *drumroll*... not being lazy.

    Using a food scale along with USDA or equivalent confirmed nutritional info (the same your frozen food companies use to put the labels on their food), it's just as accurate as a packet. They don't have scientists testing every product, they just weigh up the ingredients and do the maths, just like us home cookers. There's no magic in nutritional labels on processed food.

  • hhmb8k
    hhmb8k Posts: 49

    Nope. When I make something, every ingredient is weighed and tracked, and then the portions are measured before I eat them. It just takes *drumroll*... not being lazy.

    Using a food scale along with USDA or equivalent confirmed nutritional info (the same your frozen food companies use to put the labels on their food), it's just as accurate as a packet. They don't have scientists testing every product, they just weigh up the ingredients and do the maths, just like us home cookers. There's no magic in nutritional labels on processed food.

    I believe you...



    in theory.


    In practice, I think we cook very differently. Either that or I stand by what I said about the wildly inaccurate guesstimates most people use.

    Do you ever add a dash of salt to the pot (and never forget to add that to the tally of total sodium)? What about when you season your food before you cook it by sprinkling salt and pepper over the meat and 40-50% of the seasoning never sticks to the food at all?

    Example: A pinch of salt is roughly 360 mg of sodium according to Google.

    That is about 3 times MORE than the total sodium in my entire healthy choice meal I had for dinner. Miss one pinch of salt and you are now wildly inaccurate in your nutritional calculations.

    Example: A tablespoon of generic Olive Oil has 120 calories and roughly 22% of your daily fat according to Google.

    If you use "several" tablespoons of Olive Oil to coat the bottom of your pan to sear a chicken breast, do you include the total amount of Olive oil used, even if most of it stays behind in the pan and not on the chicken breast? Or do you have NASA grade scales accurate to a millionth of an ounce and weigh the pan before cooking and after cooking making adjustments for temperature and pressure changes in the room to calculate how much oil (or butter or margarine or whatever) is left behind and then deduct that from the amount put into the pan to determine the amount on the food...


    OK, OK, I'm being silly. :blush:

    It's getting late and I don't want to get too serious.

    But the way I like to cook, I use seasoning and condiments, etc. All silliness aside, I don't think I can cook that way and have an accurate measurement of sodium content (for example) let alone total calories. So, healthy cooking means cooking without salt and olive oil or using condiments, right? Is everything cooked Sou Vide in a warm water bath without seasonings so you can use the USDA values provided online for a generic chicken breast?

    Please prove me wrong and dispel my fears or teach me a better way to do it. Actually that is what this is all about. I'm not trying to argue or throw around wild accusations of sloppy dietary miscalculations to sully your culinary reputation. I'm just really trying to figure out a better way to do it than the way I'm doing it now. Tips and advice are not only welcome, that's what I'm asking for. :wink:
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,953 Member
    See, you're never going to be spot on. But neither is the food that comes in the packets with the labels. The regulations governing nutritional labels allow for the amounts to be averaged across vast amounts of product produced, and rounded up or down reasonably significantly depending on where you are.

    Not to mention there there is no system in place for random "spot checks" of food productions to ensure their nutritional labels are correct. The labelling practices are almost entierly self-governed and it's only with great difficulty that a consumer would ever be able to tell (or even begin to suspect) that the labels are incorrect.

    Sure, there's room for error in home cooking. But with the equivalent room for error in processed foods (not to mention the inherant unreliability of the measurement of calories in any given food as a whole), I really don't feel any more confident with trusting a label on a food than I do adding it all up for myself at home.
  • kkay3182
    kkay3182 Posts: 90 Member
    I love to cook, and yes I am a lazy dieter but pre packaged foods is not an option for me, gets expensive when you are feeding two people, So my lazt alternative is to stock up on pre-cut chicken breast at samsclub and eat it with salad beans and rice or potato 4-5 times a week. I also realize that the less excited my taste buds get the easier it tis for me to stick to a healthier calorie appropriate meal. When I am alternating/rotating meats and sides etc I tend to over eat :neutral_face: Maybe I am just greedy.
  • squeepig
    squeepig Posts: 89 Member
    hhmb8k wrote: »
    Does anybody else switch to processed food from healthy, fresh homecooked meals in order to loose weight or am I even weirder than I thought? Any thoughts on this tactic?

    Yep!!! On those days when my husband won't be home until late at night, I go right for the Lean Cuisine potstickers! :) No mess, no fuss, no weighing, just pop it in the microwave and grab hold of the remote control for the first time in weeks, haha.
  • Whatever fits. We often hear if it fits your calories/macros banded about this website. But I also strongly believe in whatever fits your life. Sure we're all here to make better choices and to improve our lifestyle but for me, when I'm cooking from scratch daily and I'm exhausted from work, I make bad choices (i.e. I can't be arsed to cook shall we have a take away). When I'm eating prepackaged 'pop-in-the-oven' food then I'm less likely to have a take away. Lesser of two evils. I have successfully lost 33.5lbs in 185 days by eating more prepackaged foods, because it fits my lifestyle. Yes it's expensive (but then so is 2-3 takeaways a week). Yes I may not be getting all the nutrients my body needs, but it is better than the alternative (all those takeaways). Do what works for you. Do what you can find manageable for the rest of your life.

    It can be compared to the exercise we do. I personally hate running, I find it tedious. Now if that was the only exercise available I'd do it for a couple of weeks, give up, and return to a very sedentary lifestyle. But because I have access to a pool I'm swimming or doing aquacise 5 days a week. It works for me. May not work for everyone else, but I don't care about them/you. I'm doing this for me. Like I said - whatever fits.