No-preparation diet

Have you ever used a crockpot? You can throw chicken or other meat in there with one of those slow cooker liners so no clean up. Lots of recipes online for simple crockpot meals.

My grocery store has cooked meats (chicken breast, shrimp, etc.) in the deli area, along with cooked veggies, grains, even salads. It would be more expensive than cooking it yourself, but it is definitely a no prep diet.

Have you ever tried roasting meat or veggies. It is so simple with almost no clean up if you put foil on the sheet pan. A spray of oil, salt and pepper (plus any other seasonings you want) and just roast until it's cooked. Clean up is throwing away the foil and washing cutting board and knife.

Also 1000 a day is way too low even for a woman. I think 1500 is the lowest healthy calories for a man.

Canned tuna or salmon, endamame, over night oatmeal, rotisserie chicken, baked potato with cheese or beans, burrito or veggie/sandwich meat wraps, and some precut fruit and veggies from the grocery store.

Change your goals to lose one pound a week. You will be more successful losing at a reasonable weight than if you put a December deadline on reaching goal weight.

I have tried the prepackaged food diet. Lean Cusine/Weight Watchers etc. I personally found that they didnt keep me as full as a home prepared meal for the same calories. I have to get back into it but I purchased takeaway containers and would cook big batches of meals (It took more than 10 mins but wasnt very frequent). Then every day I just needed to grab a frozen meal and reheat. Unfortunately we've had freezer issues at home so this has gone a bit to the wayside after I lost a heap of food. But before that I had a huge selection of meals.

Frozen fish fillets was another staple of mine, salmon fillets with roast veggies. I would use 2 small trays/plates in the oven. One for the fish and one for the veggies. They took about the same amount of time to cook so it was put in oven go do what ever and dinner was ready.

A great breakfast was tomatoes and zucchini in a small bowl crack an egg over it (cheese optional extra). You probably could microwave it but I used to chuck it in the oven while I showered/dressed. You can cut the night before or cut a couple days worth at a time. Snuck in an extra serve of veggies and replaced carbs which worked well for me.

That being said there are a few things pre-packaged that I buy for snacks. small bags of popcorn, cheese & biscuits.

I eat the vast majority of my fruits/veggies raw. The only prep work necessary is washing and cutting, which you are well able to do. Other than that, cooking meat is extremely simple. Throw it on the grill or in a baking dish with salt/pepper, apply heat, presto.

Food preparation doesn't have to be complex.

Elliot315 wrote: »

Hello all,

First, my stats. I'm a 22 YO male, 5'5, 175. I walk about twenty minutes per day. I've always been a bit chunky, but have yo-yo-ed from 160 - 185 over the past few years, but even at my thinnest, I could still stand to loose. Ideally, I would like to get to 140 or so by this December. I used a calculator that suggested I eat between 1000-1500 calories per day to loose.

Being a 22 year old, I'm not really interested in cooking. Instead, I like to eat things out of the package, fridge, microwave, etc. If it takes more than 10 minutes to prepare or clean, I probably won't incorporate it into my diet. When I eat healthily, my staples are tuna, eggs, cheese, berries, nuts, and occasionally tofu. I would really like a consistent, convenient, tolerable diet that doesn't require much preparation nor frequent shopping, but that will lead to weight loss. Preferably, I would eat the same things everyday. Any suggestions?

Your age has nothing to do with your interest level in cooking. I learned to cook young and was cooking dinners for my whole family as a teenager most days because my parents workedand I liked to cook. You just aren't interested in cooking or don't have a compelling reason to do so most of the time. Plenty of people of all ages are like that.

You can eat whatever you want as long as you stick to your calorie deficit and lose weight.
1500 is the minimum recommended calories for a male and 1200 for a female. Don't eat 1000 calories.
Try to get enough protein. Eat whole grains where you can. Eat vegetables and fruits- frozen or canned if necessary.
Don't go ultra low fat. Do watch your sodium intake if you are eating a lot of packaged stuff.
Yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, eggs, tuna, lunchmeat, nuts, canned beans, hummus, bananas, carrots, apples, oranges, pasta, oatmeal, bread, peanut butter, etc.
A lot of slow cooker recipes you prep quickly and then walk away while it cooks.
Cook once a day or once a week and have leftovers throughout the week.
Look up no prep or low prep recipes, 5 ingredient or less recipes, 10 minute recipes
http://www.tasteofhome.com/simple---delicious-magazine/10-minute-recipes
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/recipe_slideshows/10_minute_recipes

Stouffers (the makers of Lean Cuisine) has a new line called Fit Cuisine, which are larger, more filling and high-protein. They are all pretty good (steak Fajita is my fav) and in the 400-500 calorie range. Pair with some fruit or salad. Other pre-packaged staples: greek yogurt, hummus, bread with peanut butter, cottage cheese, protein bars, etc.

dmt4641 wrote: »

Also 1000 a day is way too low even for a woman. I think 1500 is the lowest healthy calories for a man.

This^

Breakfast is easy - hard boiled eggs, string cheese, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit, instant oatmeal (although that tends to be high in sugar....not terribly filling) or even a peanut butter sandwich.

Salads - pick up ready grilled chicken strips (Tyson).....although it will be much cheaper to make your own. I cook up a bunch of chicken on Sunday and parcel them out in zip-lock bags (store in the freezer).

Sandwiches with a fruit & veggie side. Ready to serve soups....again with a fruit & veggie side.

Dinners - there is a large assortment of frozen meals (Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers, Fit Cuisine). Most of these will be marketed to women (lower calorie counts).....look for the higher calorie meals and be prepared to add some veggies. Steam Fresh veggies are very easy. Even some of the regular Stouffers' and Marie Calender meals will work.

Are you planning on eating pre-packaged foods for the rest of your life? What's wrong with cooking?

Cooking doesn't have to take a lot of time and preparation. Pretty much all my meals take 20 mins or less to make, preparation included. This honestly just sounds like an excuse to eat crap food.

stir fries are incredibly quick to make, full of nutritious ingredients and low in calories.

If you also don't mind eating the same thin every day you could look into meal prepping, check out /r/mealprepsunday on reddit. It's basically where you prepare all your meals in advance and then not have to do any prep on the day of eating except maybe reheating.

I know a nearly 38 yo guy who doesn't cook beyond opening cans, too, and he's within his healthy BMI range. I learnt very quickly to just let it go even though I happen to nearly exclusively cook/prepare all my foods from ingredients to save money and always have. We're just at opposite ends of the conversation and neither is going to change the others mind. So if you can afford and want to spend more for food than you would otherwise for the convenience and/or always pay to have someone else cook for you, OP, have at it I say.

The diet you seek that fits all your requirements so you'll actually stick to it is what you are already doing. Just spend that ten minutes weighing and logging the calories for the portion sizes you are choosing to eat and stay within range of the daily caloric intake you set to lose weight. As far as eating out, I just go with the figure of the average US take out meal is 1.2K calories and either plan accordingly calorie-wise by either eating light all day or having half the order boxed to go for a second meal.

When you decide you want to learn to cook, if you ever do, you will. If not, you won't.

I also vote crockpot! I'll cook a bunch of meat once or twice a week so there's always a protein source ready. I like to do chicken especially because it's so versatile. You can top a salad with it, top noodles or zoodles with chicken and sauce of your choice (I like alfredo, chic, and bacon over zoodles), nuke a bag of veggies to eat with it, make a chicken sandwich, shred it and make chicken salad, top with salsa and cheese and heat, cut up and add beans corn green chilies and taco seasoning and eat with tortilla or chips, top with bbq sauce and boil some corn on the cob, stir fry in butter & soy sauce with veggies and top some steamable bag of rice...the possibilities are quick and endless;)

Get the Well Fed cookbook! It is a great Paleo cookbook with a section on how to batch cook, how to make protein in advance, different spices to change things up. Everything is pretty easy. No reason not to learn to cook. I have three boys 12-17, and they all are learning. I suggest doubling all recipes, starting putting half in the freezer or better yet portion out a meal in freezer plates that you can get at Walmart. That way when you do cook, it lasts for awhile.

cwgrant67 wrote: »

Get the Well Fed cookbook! It is a great Paleo cookbook with a section on how to batch cook, how to make protein in advance, different spices to change things up. Everything is pretty easy. No reason not to learn to cook. I have three boys 12-17, and they all are learning. I suggest doubling all recipes, starting putting half in the freezer or better yet portion out a meal in freezer plates that you can get at Walmart. That way when you do cook, it lasts for awhile.

I love love love both Well Fed books, but some of the recipes take a lot of time. I enjoy cooking but even I get tired of recipes requiring 2+ hrs. Some of the recipes are quick, but probably a little beyond the OP at this point. However once he gets comfortable moving beyond the microwave, these are stellar cookbooks. How she gets some much flavor out of whole food ingredients is amazing. I'm making the Chocolate chili this week for my 6 yr old son's birthday, his favorite food of all time.