Question about your leftovers

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grace173
grace173 Posts: 180 Member
edited August 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

I was just wondering how you feel about leftovers and overall nutrition from them. Let me explain. Say you make a big pot of vegetarian chili or something like that. You have it for dinner that day but you have enough left in the pot to have it for dinner for the next 3 days. My question is do you freeze it or do you have it for days until it is gone.

The saying goes variety is the spice of life and I had a recent discussion with a friend who said that I should not have the same nutrition for days and that I should change my nutrition daily.

I was just wondering what you all do/think?

Thank you.
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Replies

  • CasperNaegle
    CasperNaegle Posts: 936 Member
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    We save stuff all the time.. In fact we brown up our turkey and lean beef, grill things in large quantities to eat throughout the week.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    If it's something like chili, you could eat that for 3 dinners straight and not worry. Chili has a variety of things already in it. Beans, veggies... depending on what you make it with.

    PERSONALLY, for me, leftovers get frozen in individual containers as work lunches.
  • DemoraFairy
    DemoraFairy Posts: 1,806 Member
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    I would personally just eat it each following day. I eat the same breakfast and lunch each day (each weekday at least, anyway) and have a small number of dinners that I eat.

    I would say I never bother to freeze leftovers, but that's because I never have leftovers haha.
  • ExRelaySprinter
    ExRelaySprinter Posts: 874 Member
    edited August 2015
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    I would freeze it and have it again a few days later.
    Changing your Meals daily isn't necessary at all!
    It is good to have a variety of things to eat, but that's not always possible for some people.
  • KateTii
    KateTii Posts: 886 Member
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    I feel that if you are happy to eat the same thing four days in a row, go ahead. If you want to freeze it and eat it over a month, go ahead.

    The only reason eating the exact same things (breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacks) day in day out would be bad is if it caused a lack of a certain nutrient/s. But having veggie chilli for dinner three nights in a row isn't going to hurt. You're bound to have a different breakfast/lunch/snack each day - so if the chilli is missing something your body needs, you're probably going to get it from some other food.

    Your body doesn't know where the nutrients have come from, just it knows it needs them and that yep they are there/not there. It's not going to go "ugh chilli again?? Nope, can't do it, i'd rather get scurvy/starve/be nutritionally depleted"
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited August 2015
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    I don't think it matters. I usually don't bother freezing and just have it until it's gone (since I use it for lunches it generally doesn't take long).

    My thought is that variety is good, but that over human history it certainly would have been common to eat the same basic things a lot -- whatever was locally available and in season, a large animal that was killed, that kind of thing. We shouldn't overthink it -- humans are really quite resilient.

    If you'd get bored repeating it so soon, however, that might be a consideration. I don't really, since I get enough variety otherwise and will vary sides and so on.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,658 Member
    edited August 2015
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    Should not have the same nutrition for days and should change your nutrition daily, why, exactly?

    Eat it for days or freeze it, whichever you like.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,910 Member
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    I only freeze stuff that I can't finish in 6 days. I'm currently working on a giant batch of Cuban Rice & Beans, nom nom nom.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    Whatever. I like eating the same things every day. I'm no cook.
  • grace173
    grace173 Posts: 180 Member
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    Thanks guys. I don't think my friend was saying this because of it making me deficient I think they thought that it would affect my weight loss. From what I have heard from people in the past is if you do the same exercise over and over it is not as good a workout as if you change up your workouts. I have heard it is the same for nutrition and weight loss.
  • ki4eld
    ki4eld Posts: 1,215 Member
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    I prefer to vary flavors daily, so when I cook, I cook 20+ servings and freeze everything after one meal. Hubby could eat kielbasa and sauerkraut 5-7 days a week and be happy. It's a personal preference. As long as the nutrition is there every day, eat what you want.
  • SaffronSunrise
    SaffronSunrise Posts: 182 Member
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    I'm meal prep on Sundays so I have the same lunch every day all week. If you don't like eating the same thing every day, just freeze it that way you always have something when you don't feel like cooking.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,658 Member
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    grace173 wrote: »
    Thanks guys. I don't think my friend was saying this because of it making me deficient I think they thought that it would affect my weight loss. From what I have heard from people in the past is if you do the same exercise over and over it is not as good a workout as if you change up your workouts. I have heard it is the same for nutrition and weight loss.
    No to both, in that context.

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    It doesn't matter if you eat the "same nutrition" every day or not. My goal is X grams of protein, Y grams of fat. Not X grams of protein from chicken and Y grams of fat from butter. To me, protein is protein and fat is fat.

    As for what we do with leftovers, if it's just enough for one or two servings, we put them in single serving containers and one of us ("us" being my husband and me) takes them for lunch. If it's more than that, we usually freeze it and use it for supper at a later date. Neither of us like to have the same thing for supper two days in a row but we don't mind having something for supper and then lunch.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    grace173 wrote: »
    Thanks guys. I don't think my friend was saying this because of it making me deficient I think they thought that it would affect my weight loss. From what I have heard from people in the past is if you do the same exercise over and over it is not as good a workout as if you change up your workouts. I have heard it is the same for nutrition and weight loss.
    No to both, in that context.

    +1

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    I avoid huge batches because I like variety, and I don't have that much room in the freezer, and even with a husband and 2 kids I'm the one always ending up having to eat it (husband conveniently 'forgets' and buys himself lunch). But I eat it for 5 days, then it ends in the trash if there's some left (because by then it's usually not too good anyway).

    Right now I have some grilled chicken, potatoes, and carrots, and I suspect I'll be eating a lot of those in the next few days.

    I do tend to agree though that eating the same thing over and over doesn't exactly give you the best nutrition (obviously it depends on the dish), mostly though after a while I just don't find it as satisfying and I'm more likely to go off plan.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    grace173 wrote: »
    Thanks guys. I don't think my friend was saying this because of it making me deficient I think they thought that it would affect my weight loss. From what I have heard from people in the past is if you do the same exercise over and over it is not as good a workout as if you change up your workouts. I have heard it is the same for nutrition and weight loss.

    This sounds like a myth. Your body needs macro- and micronutrients. Provided you are getting these, there is no reason to switch up your foods just to be switching them.

    We have lots of members here (including myself) who will either meal prep batches of the same food for multiple days or eat leftovers and have success.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    WBB55 wrote: »
    If it's something like chili, you could eat that for 3 dinners straight and not worry. Chili has a variety of things already in it. Beans, veggies... depending on what you make it with.

    This ^^ Plus, you are probably not eating it for every meal for the next several days so there can be variety at other meals. I'm tired of canning salsa and tomatoes so we are making a large batch of chili tonight. Some will get frozen, the rest will be eaten over the next several days. I mix up the recipes though. Tonight we will have it with cornbread, tomorrow it may be in nachos or over rice or pasta. I may pour it over some beet greens and scallions for a lunch salad. Chili is so versatile.
  • GillianLF
    GillianLF Posts: 410 Member
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    I get bored with the same foods all the time so I freeze it. Or with something like chilli I'd have it stuffed in peppers, with a baked sweet potato, with brown rice, with salad so I mix it up.
    But I hate wasting food so always consume the leftovers!
  • Owlfan88
    Owlfan88 Posts: 187 Member
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    I tend to eat the leftovers not the next night but two nights later, just so it's not a total repeat. For years when our kids were small, DH and I would cook on Sat and Sun and then alternate those leftovers the rest of the week, with one day out or something really quick. If I can, I still cook for an intentional extra meal.

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