Packaged or home meals?

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Replies

  • Feistychick68
    Feistychick68 Posts: 301 Member
    Ty I know wat you mean. Sometimes I worry about having to be so exact I will give up caz Ik I'm not going to measure and weigh my whole life.... I'm just not that type of person to do that. For now I'm going to do my best to be as accurate as I can and maybe weigh wat I can for as long as I can until maybe I can guesstimate without the scale. I agree I have to find a way to make this work for me for the long haul. Being too anal is frustrating to me and not a long term thing I will maintain.
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
    I mainly make my own food, but when I've been at work all day, then had to collect all 3 kids from different places, then get home to do dinner, I don't have time to cook, so then it's easier to put something in the microwave. My children are 5, 3 and 11 months so I need to get them bathed and put them to bed not long after dinner. My husband does shift work, so one week in two I'm on my own all evening. Luckily I only work 3 days a week, so it's only 3 days a fortnight I have to rely on ready meals.
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,059 Member
    areallycoolstory wrote: »
    I know many folks think a scale is a must, but I haven't joined that group yet. However, I totally agree with the points about eating home cooked meals whenever possible. It is cheaper, more delicious, and certainly more satisfying. I have thought a lot about the pros and cons of weighing, and have decided that so long as I am losing weight at a rate I am comfortable with, I will continue to guestimate. So far so good:-) The primary reason for resisting the use of a scale is that I want this lifestyle change to be sustainable this time around, and I know I will not want to continue weighing my food once I have met my goal weight. I don't want to take a food scale into a restaurant. I am not taking it with me on vacation. However, I still work to stay under my calorie goal when on vacation and dining out. I think I guestimate intelligently. I googled methods for how to do so as I pondered my choice at the start of this journey. I use sizes a lot. For example, a 5oz potato(average portion) is roughly the size of a computer mouse. I think everything except CICO (calories in/calories out) can be individualized. After an abundance of advice you get on these boards, figure out what works for you. Be honest with yourself about whether or not it is working. And then go for it:-) Best of luck!


    I don't bring mine to a restaurant; that's just wacky! Lol.
    I do find it helpful because I was seriously overestimating and underestimating certain foods. I was eating far less chicken and beef than I thought was 4oz (yay!), and not eyeballing things like hummus and peanut butter correctly (boo!). It's become very helpful for me, especially since I'm nearing my goal. Food scales aren't for everyone, but it's been very beneficial for me to stay on track, and help me hit my maintenance calories correctly once I'm there.

    Definitely agree with this above poster; it's not for everyone, but it can be helpful if you think you need it and want to know exactly what's going into your body.
  • lynndot1
    lynndot1 Posts: 114 Member
    edited April 2015
    I bulk cook Sundays. Make all of our lunches for the week in one go, and just make the recipe in MFP so all I have to do is add it during the week. I do a couple dinners too for when I work late so boyfriend doesn't feel the need to get fast food instead of waiting for me to come home ;)

    I try and do new recipes now and then but at this point I've got enough in rotation to do repeats and once it's in MFP I don't have to worry about it. Just make 10 servings, portion it out, and go! I keep Mon+Tues lunches in the fridge, the rest go in the freezer and come down when it's time to thaw/eat.

    Some lunches I've done:

    Paella
    Jambalaya
    Stews/soups
    Big roasts in the crockpot
    Chicken (breasts or thighed) seasoned and baked + roasted vegetables as a side
    Burritos
    "One pot" pasta dishes (pasta, veggies, cheese/cream)
    Stuffed shells

    Basically any recipe I can make a LOT of. It helps that we don't mind eating the same lunch Mon-Fri. You could also do 2 smaller recipes if you guys want variety. The possibilities are endless!

    But once you get the hang of that, you basically have "prepackaged meals" on hand all the time. Burritos especially can be microwaved straight from the freezer, anything else you just thaw out and reheat.

    I'm not rabid about exact serving sizes for my recipes. I simply tell MFP it makes, for example, 10 servings, and then I have an army of plastic Tupperware that I divide up into 10 roughly equal portions. Is it exact? Probably not as weighing it all. But it's close enough, and I'm too lazy to do that much dividing up by weight, hah.

    I also tend to over-eat nuts and trail mix. It's too addicting. So I WILL weigh out 10-15 servings of mixed nuts and put them into individual baggies. Then I just grab a baggie when I want a snack rather than the entire container. Saves me from destroying my calories on almonds haha.
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    Yep Lynndot1 I do the baggie thing too. If I buy a bag of something, I portion it out into snack bags, then put all back in the bag. If its a nut based snack I just re-use the baggies. I also do the fat-free whipping cream inside fat-free graham crackers and freeze them. A great sweet snack but without much calories. The whipping cream freezes into creamy ice-cream texture. :-)
  • HumboldtFred
    HumboldtFred Posts: 159 Member
    I keep lean pockets and lean cuisines in my freezer and in the freezer at work. I work 13-16 hour shifts much of which is often in a vehicle or a place away from any food resource other than fast food. If I can nuke up some pre-portioned food and get by with a 400 cal lunch where the option was a slice of pizza for 900 calories, I win. Also, with trigger foods I am better off with the pre-portioned amount. If I get the little dishes of ice cream, it makes me stop to think about it before I bust out another cup as opposed to just taking another scoop.
  • musicandarts
    musicandarts Posts: 187 Member
    I make my own food. Not a lot of cooking as I rely on salads and fruits quite a bit. I don't trust the nutrient labels on packaged foods.
  • Fizbi
    Fizbi Posts: 58 Member
    I don't worry about being exact. I eat from grocery stores grabbing a bright red dell pepper for a snack. I also like to pack them small cans of peas or other veggies and eat them straight from the can. Calories are all on the side.

    For dinner, I take the time to plan and compute them Calories because over time, they do count.

    Ask yourself...do you want to be successful? Has any other system worked?
    Counting Calories works for me. I'm sticking with it. I just don't sweat a little error now and then. My exercise makes up for it.
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    Fizbi wrote: »
    I don't worry about being exact. I eat from grocery stores grabbing a bright red dell pepper for a snack. I also like to pack them small cans of peas or other veggies and eat them straight from the can. Calories are all on the side.

    For dinner, I take the time to plan and compute them Calories because over time, they do count.

    Ask yourself...do you want to be successful? Has any other system worked?
    Counting Calories works for me. I'm sticking with it. I just don't sweat a little error now and then. My exercise makes up for it.

    counting keeps me truthful, and being accountable to what I am doing with each meal.
  • olivia_june
    olivia_june Posts: 111 Member
    I hate trying to guesstimate calories per serving when I make a big pot of soup or whatever, so I just look it up in the database and go with the highest calorie suggestion. I treat my calories like a rough estimate and I don't eat back my exercise calories, though.

    I like to keep a couple of prepackaged meals in the freezer just in case I'm lazy or overly hungry and don't have patience for cooking. But I also keep servings of homemade soup in there too (because sometimes it's 6:30 and I'm like, wth am I eating for supper?), or whatever else I happened to make a huge portion of. I have a deep freeze and then the regular freezer, and I have a lot of stuff on hand, like chopped up onions and mushrooms, etc. My son has strict dietary requirements so all of his stuff has to be prepped beforehand and frozen as well, so I'm used to it by now, haha.

    I buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store (cooked is somehow less expensive than raw) every week, I usually have 100g of that and whatever raw veggies I have on hand, with ranch, for lunch... easy and fast (I save the carcass and bones for stock and then use the stock for soup). Breakfast is hard boiled eggs (boiled ahead of time and hanging out in the fridge) and a banana with PB. I have an hour between when I wake up in the morning and when I have to take my son to school, and then I go to the gym after I drop him off. He takes a year to eat (he has severe special needs and needs someone to feed him directly) so my breakfast has to be fast and able to fuel me for my workout.

    For snacks I eat almonds, bananas, grapes, pickled asparagus/pickles, cheese, protein bars, etc....basically a lot of grab and go stuff. I don't really have the time to stand around making overly complicated meals except for at supper, and the complex ones can only really be done on the weekends. *shrug*

    I'm a year into doing this seriously and I've lost almost 50lbs. Works for me!
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    olivia_june wrote: »
    I hate trying to guesstimate calories per serving when I make a big pot of soup or whatever, so I just look it up in the database and go with the highest calorie suggestion. I treat my calories like a rough estimate and I don't eat back my exercise calories, though.

    I like to keep a couple of prepackaged meals in the freezer just in case I'm lazy or overly hungry and don't have patience for cooking. But I also keep servings of homemade soup in there too (because sometimes it's 6:30 and I'm like, wth am I eating for supper?), or whatever else I happened to make a huge portion of. I have a deep freeze and then the regular freezer, and I have a lot of stuff on hand, like chopped up onions and mushrooms, etc. My son has strict dietary requirements so all of his stuff has to be prepped beforehand and frozen as well, so I'm used to it by now, haha.

    I buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store (cooked is somehow less expensive than raw) every week, I usually have 100g of that and whatever raw veggies I have on hand, with ranch, for lunch... easy and fast (I save the carcass and bones for stock and then use the stock for soup). Breakfast is hard boiled eggs (boiled ahead of time and hanging out in the fridge) and a banana with PB. I have an hour between when I wake up in the morning and when I have to take my son to school, and then I go to the gym after I drop him off. He takes a year to eat (he has severe special needs and needs someone to feed him directly) so my breakfast has to be fast and able to fuel me for my workout.

    For snacks I eat almonds, bananas, grapes, pickled asparagus/pickles, cheese, protein bars, etc....basically a lot of grab and go stuff. I don't really have the time to stand around making overly complicated meals except for at supper, and the complex ones can only really be done on the weekends. *shrug*

    I'm a year into doing this seriously and I've lost almost 50lbs. Works for me!

    If you're making your own soup, you can enter all your ingredients into the recipe builder and determine how much you're eating. Database entries are going to be wildly inaccurate to choose from as you won't know the types/amounts of ingredients used.
  • CockneyLady2014
    CockneyLady2014 Posts: 199 Member
    I batch make soup and freeze it. I calculate the whole and then work out how much is in each portion.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    I make everything from scratch at home. Costs less, better nutrition, more veggies, etc.
  • broekendy
    broekendy Posts: 11 Member
    Home meals are best. Pre-packaged means tons of salt usually. It bites the big one...I am personally sick of cooking meals most days...after 30 years of it...gets tiresome.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    I enjoy cooking and hate eating tasteless, small amounts of low calorie packaged foods which is what I think Weightwatchers ready meals are

    if I do buy ready meals I tend to go for things like Innocent Thai Curry / Noodle pots and eat them over a huge green salad or I might have the Taste meals from M&S. If you look outside the low calorie ready meals a surprising number of ready meals / sandwiches are actually acceptable calorie amounts (for me for a meal that's under 500 calories)

    Generally I cook a couple of big pot foods at the weekend and then have those for lunch / easy supper during the week - so it just needs heating up but tastes great and is decent sized / nutritional portions
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    Sometimes I do buy the Lean Cusine, but only the ones with less than 500 mg of sodium. I then pile my plate up with fresh baby spinach, a sprinkle of water and spices. Then I zap it for 40 seconds (I know microwave is bad but I like the spinach wilted but not slimy)...then I put my meal over it. I always try to "make a bed" of veggies for all my meals. It just feels nice to mix my proteins up with either spinach, or zucchini, or cabbage.
  • mrsdcsmithiv
    mrsdcsmithiv Posts: 16 Member
    I'm not a good cook. I pack healthy choice meals for lunch. Sometimes my husband will grill a bunch of fish and chicken and we will put it in baggies and eat on that a few days.
  • ginny92802
    ginny92802 Posts: 66 Member
    missiontofitness wrote: »
    Feistychick68 wrote: »
    Ty all btw for your input. I totally agree making ur own food is the healthiest choice. My issue with it is Ik if I'm making let's say spaghetti. I have to figure out how much each individual thing is for my portion. So I will basically have to divide and measure how much meat, spices etc in my particular serving is. I am clearly more lazy and find measuring and calculating each freaking thing a pain in the *kitten*. Would be so nice to say on I had half a cup of noodles and so much sauce so that equals this. I know I'm gonna get frustrated taking out my portion and calculating it ingredient by ingredient. Packaged food seems way easier but is not something I can stick with life long. Props to ppl who have the patience to measure each freaking thing. This is and will be my stumbling block to overcome.... I just am not patient to do it! Ugg


    Easier way: weigh all the ingredients, cook it. Weigh the final product in grams. Set the servings to the weight of the final product in grams. All you need to do is weigh what you want to eat, and input the weight of your serving.

    Example: My recipe weighs 500 grams. I will put that there are 500 servings in the recipe builder. I put 100 grams on my plate, so I will put in that I ate 100 servings.

    2000x easier.

    OMG I can't believe I never thought of this, but it's going to make my life so much easier! Thanks!
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    @mrsdcsmithiv cooking is really easy. It's just a matter of being patient with all the flavors mixing and things not getting overcooked. I had some whole wheat spaghetti left over from a dinner meal. So I drizzled in some olive oil in a pan, put some all-spice, some course pepper, and a tsp of ketchup, then added some diced tomatoes. I added a few pieces of bacon bits (the kind you put in salads) and waited for them to get soft etc. Then I added some fresh baby spinach leaves ripping them with my fingers. I poured in maybe 1/8 cup of broth, (I used chicken broth in a carton). When the spinach looked wilted I tossed in the portion of spaghetti noodles and put a lid on it. On low heat for most of the makings. Let every flavor mix with others. Then I sprinkled just a bit of parmesan cheese on the top.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    I use packages to make home cooked meals, which makes it easier to calculate certain things. Example: king ranch casserole. It takes 1 can rotel, 1 can chicken, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, x # tortillas, and let's say 1 cup shredded cheese. All of these things have barcodes or can be found easily in the recipe builder. You can then either weigh the final product and then base servings on weight, or (what I do) is say that its 4 servings, cut it into 4ths, take one, give hubby one, and save the other two for tomorrow.
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