Cooking Light Diet

shara99
shara99 Posts: 34
in Food and Nutrition
Hey, has anyone tried the Cooking Light Diet, and if so, what was your experience? Is it worth the money?

Replies

  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,074 Member
    Do you have to pay them?
  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
    I don't do anything with the word diet in it.

    I eat at a reasonable deficit and exercise, the old fashion way.

    I lost 121 pounds doing this and have been maintaining for several months now. ;)
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    For $3.75 per week you get a food plan with recipes. It will help give you structure and some meal planning ideas.
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,074 Member
    ^ Well, if that's the case, I would recommend persuing the forums here. The recipe forum has a ton of ideas for free, as well as several other recipe blogs out there.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,956 Member
    I find with a bit of research you can do that yourself, for free, with recipes which suit your individual tastes.

    I often find that set food plans end up containing things I don't like, or too much variety. I mean, variety is good, but I don't need a different breakfast every day of the week, and neither does my grocery budget!

  • allie0630
    allie0630 Posts: 139 Member
    shara99 wrote: »
    Hey, has anyone tried the Cooking Light Diet, and if so, what was your experience? Is it worth the money?

    I thought about it but I just get on their website and look for recipes. I also have one of their cookbooks.
  • chrism575
    chrism575 Posts: 19 Member
    I just watch the serving size of what I want to eat as well as the content. Using the app and searching the net for meals that suit me seems to be working for me. One of my problems is the sodium content in the foods we can buy, way to much in our foods.
  • MakePeasNotWar
    MakePeasNotWar Posts: 1,329 Member
    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    I find with a bit of research you can do that yourself, for free, with recipes which suit your individual tastes.

    I often find that set food plans end up containing things I don't like, or too much variety. I mean, variety is good, but I don't need a different breakfast every day of the week, and neither does my grocery budget!

    I totally agree. I look at food plans and there are hundreds of ingredients in one week's worth of menus, each meal has to be prepared separately (no leftovers), and most of the time only a fraction of it is appealing. I like the idea of structure, but in practice I find food plans kind of useless.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
    just use MFP, its free….
  • emby
    emby Posts: 4 Member
    I just started it. I decided what the heck, try it for a month.

    So far, I really like it. You can set how many calories you want in a day, and exclude certain proteins (like shellfish). They give you 3 meals plus snacks for each day, and it gives you several options for each meal, each day. So you aren't stuck if you don't like one.

    I'm a foodie kind of person and I love to cook. But I get bored easily with leftovers. And I just wanted someone else to do the planning for me. Life gets busy sometimes, you know? It's making me be more mindful of what I'm eating. And so far, the rest of my family is loving it.

    I'd be the first person to say yes, you can do the research and make your own meal plan. I've been firmly anti-food plan in the past. But at this moment in time, it felt good to let someone else do the planning, and all I have to do is buy the groceries and cook.
  • suztzuanos
    suztzuanos Posts: 2 Member
    I'm enjoying it so far. I started with CookSmarts - another meal planning service. It's so nice not to have to make a decision on what to eat for dinner. I'm a mom with a full-time job outside the home and my husband travels for work often, so I'm on my own. Making a decision about "what's for dinner" or sitting down and doing research on making a meal plan, is just not feasible for me. So often, we eat out, which leads to more calories and fat. CookSmarts was good, but I wanted a more comprehensive meal planning service. So far, Cooking Light is nice. I don't like that it doesn't take steps to mitigate food waste. You may have to buy a whole package of graham crackers for one day's snack. Or you cook a meal with 4 servings to eat once. That seems silly. But I can work with it by selecting "leftovers" for most of the days.
  • imnicoles
    imnicoles Posts: 1 Member
    So far so good! With promo code LETSDOTHIS it's only $25 for the first 3 months. I figured that if nothing else it will make it a little easier to get started with my healthier eating plan. I'm a bit of foodie and I love the variety it provides....Although I do eat leftovers for a couple days to save $$ on the food budget.
  • space_case
    space_case Posts: 89 Member
    I just last night bought 2 Cooking Light recipe books at Barnes and Noble. It was like $16 and there are something like 1100 recipes between them. I would't pay them a weekly fee though.
  • PiSquared
    PiSquared Posts: 148 Member
    I have a subscription to Cooking Light magazine. I mainly Cook from their recipes. They're quite good. I don't feel the need to pay for their meal plan, though.
  • misskittygirl
    misskittygirl Posts: 6 Member
    I started the Cooking Light Diet on 3/7 and I'm down about 6# and my husband is down 13#. We are LOVING it and for me it's really easy. I only make the dinners and make 4 servings for the 2 of us...hubby takes the left overs for lunch. I have always been a Cooking Light fan and that's my go to for recipes so it fits my lifestyle to a T. I'd never suggest it to anyone that doesn't like to cook. As for all the ingredients, yes you have to have a well stocked pantry, but I am finding that I buy the same items each week and they just get made up differently! The Facebook page for the CLD is a great inspiration as well...many folks there have lost a lot of weight on the diet. I think the other thing I really like about it is, it helps to establish a good healthy habit! When its all said and done, you will refer back to the recipes you made that were DELICIOUS and those will become your usual fare. That's my 2cents! :smiley:
  • Krby13
    Krby13 Posts: 63 Member
    I haven't tried the diet but I will say that, for me personally, I feel like their recipes are too complicated with long lists of ingredients and have way too many steps.
  • rayvona
    rayvona Posts: 1 Member
    I love this diet. I don't have to spend my free time planning meals. Yes, I could take my cooking light books and magazines and plan my meals, but that is personal time I could be exercising.
  • melaniedscott
    melaniedscott Posts: 1,304 Member
    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    I find with a bit of research you can do that yourself, for free, with recipes which suit your individual tastes.

    I often find that set food plans end up containing things I don't like, or too much variety. I mean, variety is good, but I don't need a different breakfast every day of the week, and neither does my grocery budget!

    This. And I love cooking light. I just don't love pork and shellfish, which, inevitably comprise 1/3 of the meals. Another 1/3 contain food mt hubs won't eat (eggplant, okra, cooked peppers, zucchini/yellow squash, winter squash, etc)...so it doesn't work for me. But then that's true for every pre-generated meal plan I've ever seen. Why do all pre-gen breakfast menus have to include pig unless you specify vegetarian?!? Of course, then they hit the fake meat factory. Argh!

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