Nutrisystem vs Lean Cuisine?

versusveritas wrote: »

Lean Cuisines are making my life so easy. The macros are pretty good on some of them (find ones with 19+ grams of protein and they won't leave you hungry) and this week they were $1.29 each if you bought 6 or more so I stocked up. I hate cooking and I do not want to be talked at about how easy it is to "meal prep." NutriSystem is just a money pit scam.

I'm 3 years into maintenance and I still eat an occasional Lean Cuisine, I really enjoy the taste of some of them

I like to have Lean Cuisine on hand so that when I'm running late I don't just grab anything. They are inexpensive and convenient. Home cooked food is better but these are good in a crunch.

I have a Lean Cuisine for lunch almost every day M-F at the office. The calories are easy and I have a handful that I actually really enjoy. Some also have good amounts of protein. I don't watch sodium, but some people do so if you do, make sure to check the sodium content. I also agree with someone above - you can often get them on sale. I stock up when Publix has them 5 for $10. Assuming you'd eat them for 2 meals a day every day, if you got them on sale you could get your entire week for about $30. My understanding is the Nutrisystem is closer to like $10/day (don't quote me on that though).

I'd rather have Lean Cuisine and have the flexibility of eating my own homemade meals for other meals. It also doesn't hinder my learning how to do my own portion control because my other meals are still made by me where I have to weigh my food and calculate the calories.

KateTii wrote: »

I liked the Lean Cuisine style frozen meals from the supermarket but here in Australia they were just way, way too expensive (for me anyway) at $5-12 each. They are fantastic for calorie counting, easy for lunchtimes and are generally pretty balanced macro-wise.

Whaaaaaat??? Dang I thought 2.30 was too much! I only buy them when on sale for $2 or less but I do enjoy them. I couldn't and wouldn't eat them every single day as a means to lose weight. What I enjoy is the portion of a food I'm really craving at a calorie count that fits my day.

Last night we had planned to have roasted potatoes but I was craving macaroni and cheese. I'm supposed to be working on cutting dairy for my digestion but I have a few LCs left and decided to have what I really wanted. It was great, and potentially a few less calories since my husband was making the potatoes and Lord knows he doesn't measure the oil.

i remember buying the nutrisystem and as soon as it arrived, i tried the mushroom risotto. I have never gagged so much in my life. it honestly not only looked like vomit, it tasted like it. returned that garbage as fast as i received it. YUCK!

on the other hand, some of lean cuisine's meals are so so so good...esp the french bread pizza. <3333

I stopped buying Lean Cuisine because the portions are so small, felt like I was getting ripped off. There are 2 or 3 of Marie Callender frozen dinners I do buy occasionally, ones that aren't too terribly unhealthy. Calories are usually 400-500.

85Cardinals wrote: »

I stopped buying Lean Cuisine because the portions are so small, felt like I was getting ripped off. There are 2 or 3 of Marie Callender frozen dinners I do buy occasionally, ones that aren't too terribly unhealthy. Calories are usually 400-500.

It really depends upon which ones you get.

As stated above, you might want to add a veggie or two. Depending upon how hungry I am, I either have just a Lean Cuisine or a Lean Cuisine plus a microwave steam-in-bag veggie.

Frozen dinners in general (not just Lean Cuisine brand) can be quite helpful for convenient and flexible portion control. Nutrition and calories can be all over the map but today's nutrition labels allow us to be more mindful about the ones we choose.

Michaelxo444 wrote: »

Didn't they have a recall for finding glass in the food

Nestle USA did do a voluntary recall of certain DiGiorno, Stouffer's, and Lean Cuisine products due to the potential presence of glass in the food (which they thought was in the spinach used in the meals). Five different Lean Cuisine meals were impacted.

That said, if you avoid foods that have been involved in recalls, you will end up cutting a lot of stuff from your diet.

Try and see what works for you. I started with Nutrisystem and still use it for the most part. It worked for me because I was obviously clueless about how much to eat. I helped teach me discipline. As I do not plan to eat Nutrisytem the rest of my life, I am learning how to eat on my own and get the results I want. If you can afford it, I say give it a try.

they work... i lost 120lbs a few years ago using exclusively LC... id have a lean pocket or LC for lunch, and a LC with a steamer bag of veggies for dinner. much cheaper than Nutrisystem

I lost 20 fast pounds on nutri system then gained 30 right back

@geministyle67 I like Santee Fe Rice and beans, French bread pizza, vegetable lasagna and black bean burgers.

Lisa2117 wrote: »

I know how to cook but it's harder to count the calories so I was looking for a way to have be exact calories and try that for a while and see if it helps me more with losing weight. Plus I like that they have low calories so if I have one for lunch and I make a bigger dinner the calories even out.

I think its all about preparation
I buy beef, lamb, salmon, skinless chicken thighs and cod
(Sometimes breaded)
i then weigh out 1 kg of which ever meat I'm cooking and once its grilled (I use spray oil) I divide into 5 and freeze. usually eat it with 100 grams of potatoes, sweet potatoes or yam .and 100 grams of broccoli or mixed veg and a little butter (I have tried weighting out yam and freezing till I want to cook but haven't tried sweet potatoes yet.)... I just make sure I don't over cook it first time round and when I want to eat it I defrost it for about 4 minutes and then put it back under grill for a few minutes
sometime I use it for a stir-fry using the same recipe every single time and pack each serving individually in a freezer bag .. i just make sure i weight the each ingrideint before and once its done cooking i weight the whole dish and weight it into 5 portions and freeze. you can never get the same amount of meat in the same bag but at the end of the day it all levels out .. usually goes with rice or pasta

i even cook 3 servings worth of rice or pasta, ,making sure i weight before cooking .. once its cooked i weigh again and i know each time i want to eat a portion of rice i just weight out what i want

i have done 3 weeks worth of cooking in a week end once and since i have saved all the recipes i know exactly what calories I'm eating when i pull a bag out of the freezer only thing i don't cooking bulk is beef because it doesn't taste the same when you defrost it