Diet products... Worth it?

I dont know what you mean by "diet food", but I like Lean Cuisine. I eat "real food" too, but I like the idea of a quick meal for work or when I dont feel like cooking. They have some as low as 220 cals. Eat it with a salad, it gets the job done. Are there Lean Cuisine that taste like crap? Absolutely. I dont eat those. I eat foods that taste good. I also like variety. Hard to make one serving of chicken marsala at 200 cals. Would require time, ingredients and more scale using that I want. Let Lean Cuisine do the work for the random times I want chicken marsala.

I also think it depends on how many cals you have. I have 1320. You really have to scale back. I eat 100 calorie bread. I eat "light" cheese, dressing, etc. Or I could eat 140 calorie bread or have a lettuce wrap. Eat your cals however you want and however works for you. Its a journey. One day I may find the sodium in lean cuisine disturbing. Today? Not my focus.

I'll be honest, some items are just not worth the calories for the "REAL deal". For example, i prefer fat free yogurt. I prefer diet coke or coke zero. I like the low-calorie sandwich thins or bagel thins. I prefer plenty of low-calorie items vs. the real deal items.

But some others are NOT worth it in my opinion. For example, cheese i must have the full calorie, full fat kind. If im eating straight peanut butter on something it better be the full fat kind (whereas i prefer the pb2 powdered peanut butter in shakes because it gives the same flavor and it isn't worth it to use 200 cals for peanut butter in a shake to me).


In my opinion, why not try them out and see what you prefer? As you continue on your journey it should be able for you to determine where you like to splurge and where it's just not worth it.

I drink diet soda and have low fat yoghurts, mainly because I prefer the taste to the full sugar/fat version, but things like cheese I'll normally go for full fat. I also like light salad dressings and lite crisps, I just try and see if I like something.

bobshouse wrote: »

I used to live on weight watchers products until I realized how many chemicals they contained. I now eat clean food. It means having less but it tastes so much better.

Preferring the taste of other foods is a great reason to avoid Weight Watchers products. But all foods have chemicals.

In the US, skim=0%, 1.5% would be low fat.

Personally, I tend to buy 1%-2% cottage cheese, since I don't think it tastes less good, and I like Fage 0% greek yogurt a lot, so I use those. I don't think of them as diet products -- I grew up on low fat and skim dairy, so it tastes good to me. I'd rather save my dairy fat calories for good cheeses and ice cream! (I will occasionally get some farm-sourced whole milk, but don't usually drink milk.)

As for the concern about things being added, the only difference between skim and low fat vs. regular milk or yogurt or cottage cheese is that they remove the fat. Nothing is added. (Obviously ingredients are added to flavored yogurt, but that's so whether it's reduced fat or not.)

Kittyy1994 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies everyone. The diet products I was referring to were things like skim milk and non fat yoghurt etc.

I use those because I get more protein for the calories, although full fat yogurt is great too (but often more expensive or it doesn't come in flavors that I like). Cheese I only get full fat unless it's shredded mozzarella, but I used to buy 2% cheddar to use in recipes.

edack72 wrote: »

Beware of diet food they are often loaded with sugar and chemicals I will now opt for the real thing or do the Light version I realized this when my boyfriend pointed out the ingredients in the Trop 50 orange juice and I notice that with fat free milk my acne flairs up which I have seen other people complain about too . Its tricky you think that you are doing something good buying that stuff but who knows what its doing to your body there is a whole thing out there about diet soda making people fat crazy I just try to choose fresh and lean read my labels

Trop 50 has less sugar than traditional orange juice. What chemicals in it are concerning to you?

What do you mean by diet soda making people "fat crazy"?

Kittyy1994 wrote: »

hi
I was just wondering is it worth eating diet products for less calories? Or is it better to just eat the normal products, I have heard some diet products have hidden nasties!?

To me it isn't worth it for most diet versions of products. They don't make me happy to eat. I don't think they are poison just not what I want to spend my money and calories on.
I'd rather eat naturally low calorie foods or smaller portions of the non-diet version of products.