Lean Cuisines to break a plateau?

SarahBelle43
SarahBelle43 Posts: 21 Member
edited November 16 in Health and Weight Loss
I have been working out and eating better for a couple of months now, and have lost 7lbs so far! (20 more to go!) For the past two weeks I have leveled out unfortunately, and have been looking for a way to get the weight moving down again. One of the biggest challenges for me is tracking homemade meals. I cook a lot, and even though the meals are healthy, there are a TON of ingredients and it is painstaking and discouraging to log everything. I have been thinking about switching to lean cuisines for dinner for a couple of weeks to see if that helps me with my tracking and getting back on track. Does anyone here have advice or a similar experience? This is all pretty new to me!
«1

Replies

  • bshrom11
    bshrom11 Posts: 25 Member
    I make all my stuff homemade(I'm a stay at home mom so I have plenty of time on my hands lol) and I just use the add recipe feature, and put in how many it serves and it gives you an exact count of everything.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    2 weeks is no time at all. I once went 6 weeks at the same weight. As we get closer to goal, weight loss slows. At 10-15 pounds to go, a 1/2 pound a week loss is good progress. That's only a 250 calorie deficit.

    Do you use a digital food scale for measuring solids and semi-solids? If not, you may find things on your daily menu that aren't correct.

    Lean Cuisines are okay but those sometimes vary in weight also.
  • btodd304
    btodd304 Posts: 106 Member
    I get a lot of recipes off pinterest and if there is a link you can just import the recipe, so much faster. But in my experience with lean cuisines I have issues with retention bc of the sodium content in them so just depend on how your body responds to them worth trying it out.
  • kenyonhaff
    kenyonhaff Posts: 1,377 Member
    Despite the sodium, I eat quite a lot of Lean Cuisines, Smart Ones, etc.

    It does make it easier to "grab and go" in my morning routine to have a lunch that I know what the calories are, that there are some vegetables in it, and most of them are pretty good. Portion control is also a thing...it's premeasured and everything.
  • lennyt91
    lennyt91 Posts: 40 Member
    Before I started drinking Soylent for lunch, I always had a Lean Cuisine or Smart Ones for lunch! I had pretty good success with them, but I tended to snack more or crave chocolate after eating them... which then caused my downfall (dang vending machines!!).
    I do think it would be a good idea for you to try.. They are super easy to log, obviously and maybe would help to push you back on track!!
  • SkinnyGirlCarrie
    SkinnyGirlCarrie Posts: 259 Member
    I usually keep Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones, Healthy Choice steamers, etc in my freezer. So much easier to grab in the morning, plus then if I have leftovers I am having different things for lunch and dinner. (Personally, I hate having something for dinner, then lunch the next day, then dinner again - get bored lol) If I don't have something quick like that to grab then I have to buy my lunch out and have a greater chance to pick something a bit more unhealthy.
  • JohnnyPenso
    JohnnyPenso Posts: 412 Member
    edited March 2017
    Not a fan LC or anything similar. Getting 1/3 of my sodium intake from what is essentially a snack for me seems way out of proportion and I don't find the giant list of ingredients attractive. What about simply repeating recipes you've already made for a couple of weeks, maybe with slight variations that are easy to track? How about making an excess and freezing or canning it?
  • SarahBelle43
    SarahBelle43 Posts: 21 Member
    Thanks everybody! I have used the recipe builder, and do use a food scale to measure. I guess I just over complicate things when I'm adding a little of this and a little of that... It is so much easier to scan a barcode and be done! Thanks for the heads up about the sodium. I don't have any health issues with sodium but it's a bad scale surprise!
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    JohnnyPenso wrote: »
    Not a fan LC or anything similar. Getting 1/3 of my sodium intake from what is essentially a snack for me seems way out of proportion and I don't find the giant list of ingredients attractive. What about simply repeating recipes you've already made for a couple of weeks, maybe with slight variations that are easy to track? How about making an excess and freezing or canning it?

    Whereas I can do a LC with a bag of frozen veggies, a can of chicken and then mix it with a condiment, (usually sweet n sour sauce or light Italian dressing), and come in under 600 calories for a really filling meal that holds me over for hours.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
    The healthy choice ones are pretty good on sodium if memory serves, and good ingredients (you actually get some veggies instead of just a bunch of cheap pasta). I used to get them a lot.

    I mostly prefer my own meals though - more control over calories (the diet TV dinners are too low unless you are sedentary so you have to add something to them) and macros. I do my cooking in large batches - so the P.I.T.A. entering into the recipe builder and creating a meal template only needs to be done once every week or 2. At lunch on a daily basis, I just need to check which numbered container I have, check my list, and enter the gram numbers for the items in that container.

    I'm going to be getting a LOT of sodium (and fat) this week. Corned beef briskets were, of course, on sale. A bunch of the meals for the next 2 weeks include some corned beef, plus I have a few chunks in the freezer for soup, plus I have some black beans rehydrating in the (yummy) salty, fatty liquid left over in the crockpot from the brisket.
  • newheavensearth
    newheavensearth Posts: 870 Member
    crzycatlady1 wrote: »
    I'm a big fan of LCs (and similar options). Easy, convenient and a good base-I add a bag of frozen veggies and a can of chicken to them for a filling, lower calorie meal :)

    I mix in cauliflower rice, spaghetti squash, broccolislaw, zoodles, or tuna pouches along with frozen veggies.
  • donjtomasco
    donjtomasco Posts: 790 Member
    I think 4 weeks is pretty much the minimum length of time to consider a plateau being hit. On my 15th day of one right now, but it was pretty much self inflicted on a vacation where I decided to not make eating so much about me and decided to just enjoy food. I logged it all, blew it out on sodium and calories, and am not surprised that my weight went up sharply, but is coming back down. But there was not a WHOOSH like I thought. I guess the calories over my TDEE made that much of a short term difference. I am fascinated how this all works. But I am not considering stalling out as a real plateau unless I experience it while 'on plan'.

    I read recently on another thread and agree, it is purely few calories in, burn off more with exercise, and weight comes off. There will be ups and downs, but it is simply mathematical unless there are health issues. But I AM a believer in mixing up the food, and will not take a look at these options people brought up, like Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones, and Healthy Choice.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    If you have a good feel for your ingredients and know you're not making a surprise calorie bomb, I'd stick to cooking but jot down on paper the amounts you're using and just make the recipe when you sit down later.
  • dovnkels
    dovnkels Posts: 25 Member
    That recipe builder can be a tedious and time consuming tool when you're making a big main dish with sides from scratch. One thing that takes some time but is totally worth it: make a lot of simple things and keep them in the fridge. If I make a meal for the family that isn't going to work for me, I quickly put together my own plate of simple, easy to measure and track foods. For example, on Sunday afternoons I will broil a bunch of chicken breast, bake some sweet potatoes, throw some rice in the rice cooker, rinse and drain some black beans...
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    I just want to echo that you don't need to change anything after only two weeks. Especially true if you only weight once a week and/or are female. So many things contribute to scale weight, hormonal fluctuations, sodium, larger carbs intake than usual, a larger volume of meal than usual meaning more waste in the system.

    Give it another two-three weeks and see where you are.
  • FreyasRebirth
    FreyasRebirth Posts: 514 Member
    Two weeks isn't long for a female. I had somewhat of a 2 week plateau last cycle, then lost about 3 lbs in 3 days as bloating subsided. I use Lean Cuisine (and bought some Smart Ones that were on sale) for lunches. I actually ate one for breakfast this morning because I was busy sorting, washing, and folding 3 totes of hand-me-downs. I had to eat something to take my medication and it was quick enough that I didn't get distracted from my task.
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
    Agreed with the two weeks part, that's not a plateau just really really frustrating. I'm usually tired when I get home from work, so I have a LC and punch it up with something. IE the spaghetti in meat sauce I add extra mushrooms, or the tikka marsala I'll add peas. I have taken them for lunch too when I was a bad person and didn't prep.
  • metalmeow1
    metalmeow1 Posts: 111 Member
    edited March 2017
    LC is usually high in sodium. Everytime you plateau just reduce your calories by 100-200.

    **Edit** I cook a lot at home too and trust me I know how daunting it can be. What helped me is I only measured and tracked each meal ONCE and wrote it down, so if I ever made it again I had the info already.

    Make a bunch and freeze it/can it as previously said above, trust me it helps IMMENSELY
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
    I'm gonna use these for lunches again, seems I had my most successful weeks while eating them
  • RedheadedPrincess14
    RedheadedPrincess14 Posts: 415 Member
    For me, the sodium makes me way overeat but bulking it up with lots of greens definitely helps. I swear there is something magic in spinach
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
    I usually bulk then with broccoli but I bet spinach would be awesome in the chicken carbonara I'm taking today
  • PrincessMel72
    PrincessMel72 Posts: 1,094 Member
    I usually have a LC or Smart Ones for lunch every day during the week and I've been consistently losing.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,572 Member
    I always have LC or Lean Pockets in my freezer. Not a thing wrong with eating them. But I think 2 weeks is nothing to get too worried about. Maybe wait another couple of weeks.
  • fitzmonkey13
    fitzmonkey13 Posts: 88 Member
    I've been trying to get in the habit of adding all my recipes for the week on Sundays when I have a bit of downtime. And I've started to skip ingredients like spices because if it adds 5 calories overall to something that will make 4 servings? I don't have that kind of time. (To clarify, I still use them when I'm cooking, I just leave them out of the recipe builder.)

    I cook the vast majority of our food from scratch, but I always have a few packaged things in the freezer for emergencies. I think I'd go crazy if I had to eat them for 2 weeks straight though because they're never as good as what I can make for myself.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories