Frozen Meals
SeanD2407
Posts: 139 Member
For those who are in a hurry and use preporpotioned frozen dinners lean cuisines, healthy choice Eating Well, do you scan the barcode trusting what is on the box... or do you weigh it in grams and measure it yourself.
For example Eating Wells Chicken and Fingerling potatoes is packaged as 1 serving for 270 calories for 283g... but lets say its weighed at 350g would you log it as eaten 1.3 servings? For those who like to eat frozen meals how accurate are they.
Also for warning save the "you should cook yourself for accuracy" comments, I already know and understand. That's not what I'm asking. I'm sure other people who prefer premade meals would like some clarity of how to log thsse as well.
For example Eating Wells Chicken and Fingerling potatoes is packaged as 1 serving for 270 calories for 283g... but lets say its weighed at 350g would you log it as eaten 1.3 servings? For those who like to eat frozen meals how accurate are they.
Also for warning save the "you should cook yourself for accuracy" comments, I already know and understand. That's not what I'm asking. I'm sure other people who prefer premade meals would like some clarity of how to log thsse as well.
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I weigh in grams until I get an idea of how much they tend to overfill, and then I log an average of that. Some brands overfill a lot, but some are pretty accurate, so once I get an idea of what they're like, I'll just keep that serving size saved (say, 1.1 servings for 10% overage) and use that. I eat frozen meals regularly, and this has worked for me. Although, if I don't have the ability to weigh and it's a new food, I tend to assume 10% overage for safety.4
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RelCanonical wrote: »I weigh in grams until I get an idea of how much they tend to overfill, and then I log an average of that. Some brands overfill a lot, but some are pretty accurate, so once I get an idea of what they're like, I'll just keep that serving size saved (say, 1.1 servings for 10% overage) and use that. I eat frozen meals regularly, and this has worked for me. Although, if I don't have the ability to weigh and it's a new food, I tend to assume 10% overage for safety.
I do the same and it also seems to work for me. If there is one that seems to vary more I will weigh it every time but most of the ones I get are in an acceptable margin for me. I would say I eat a frozen meal for lunch 2-4 times a week.2 -
So if i log each meal as 1.1 or 1.15 that should cover it? (if im at work and no scale)0
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So if i log each meal as 1.1 or 1.15 that should cover it? (if im at work and no scale)
There's no way to tell for sure, but it should cover it (or at least get you close). You'll just have to try it and see. If you lose weight at the expected rate, then you're close enough. If your weight loss results don't match your expected results over a few weeks, then it's probably worth a closer look.2 -
diannethegeek wrote: »So if i log each meal as 1.1 or 1.15 that should cover it? (if im at work and no scale)
There's no way to tell for sure, but it should cover it (or at least get you close). You'll just have to try it and see. If you lose weight at the expected rate, then you're close enough. If your weight loss results don't match your expected results over a few weeks, then it's probably worth a closer look.
I agree, go by scale trends. I didn't weigh fruit (I would just estimate) the previous time I lost weight, and never bothered because it didn't actually impede me. I only hunker down and weigh strictly if I start struggling. I still do weigh the bigguns, though, like cheese and whatnot, that would totally kill a deficit if you were off by too much.2 -
Yes, but I do weight at home before bringing them all to work so that I now know which proportion to log each brand as (I just keep them saved in my foods as weighted)1
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I keep a scale at work so I can weigh my frozen meals for lunch. Some can be quite a bit off the serving size.1
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etherealanwar wrote: »I keep a scale at work so I can weigh my frozen meals for lunch. Some can be quite a bit off the serving size.
I keep a scale at work too. I know that doesn't work for everyone since they don't necessarily have a place to put the scale. I leave mine in the kitchen because I trust people not to steal it, but I don't think anyone's used it either, lol. Nobody has commented on it.0 -
I guess I'm the exception. I've been eating them for lunch at work for years now and I've always just put in the listed calories.6
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I have never even considered weighing a frozen Healthy Choice or similar frozen meal. Seems too obsessive to me. What difference is tiny variance going to make anyway? But one thing I do is....there is a HC meal that I like the food part but hate the sauce (onions, ick!). So I mark that meal down as .80 portion instead of 100%. That works for me.4
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I don't weigh those and have not had it hold back my progress - I don't think it's necessary. I do however check what entry the scanner picked vs the label on the box, as I've noticed they tweak their recipes fairly often so it's not always the same. I also usually have to eat something else with my frozen meal or I won't stay full - I'll do a fiber one brownie for dessert, or have some fruit or side salad.1
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chris89topher wrote: »I have never even considered weighing a frozen Healthy Choice or similar frozen meal. Seems too obsessive to me. What difference is tiny variance going to make anyway? But one thing I do is....there is a HC meal that I like the food part but hate the sauce (onions, ick!). So I mark that meal down as .80 portion instead of 100%. That works for me.
If you are a small female or close to goal weight and your deficit is only 250 calories a day then everything counts. I have had frozen meals that were right on all the way up to 200 calories off. If I just took their word for it I would have pretty much wiped out my deficit for that day without even realizing it. If that same meal was always over and I ate it a few times a week my results would definitely be different and I would have no idea why.7 -
His point still stands though because wiping out a deficit for that day is small fry given you have an entire week/month etc to make progress on a deficit, even one as small as 250 cals daily. Obviously this is on the basis that you're not having frozen meals 3 times a day.tracybear86 wrote: »chris89topher wrote: »I have never even considered weighing a frozen Healthy Choice or similar frozen meal. Seems too obsessive to me. What difference is tiny variance going to make anyway? But one thing I do is....there is a HC meal that I like the food part but hate the sauce (onions, ick!). So I mark that meal down as .80 portion instead of 100%. That works for me.
If you are a small female or close to goal weight and your deficit is only 250 calories a day then everything counts. I have had frozen meals that were right on all the way up to 200 calories off. If I just took their word for it I would have pretty much wiped out my deficit for that day without even realizing it. If that same meal was always over and I ate it a few times a week my results would definitely be different and I would have no idea why.2 -
His point still stands though because wiping out a deficit for that day is small fry given you have an entire week/month etc to make progress on a deficit, even one as small as 250 cals daily. Obviously this is on the basis that you're not having frozen meals 3 times a day.tracybear86 wrote: »chris89topher wrote: »I have never even considered weighing a frozen Healthy Choice or similar frozen meal. Seems too obsessive to me. What difference is tiny variance going to make anyway? But one thing I do is....there is a HC meal that I like the food part but hate the sauce (onions, ick!). So I mark that meal down as .80 portion instead of 100%. That works for me.
If you are a small female or close to goal weight and your deficit is only 250 calories a day then everything counts. I have had frozen meals that were right on all the way up to 200 calories off. If I just took their word for it I would have pretty much wiped out my deficit for that day without even realizing it. If that same meal was always over and I ate it a few times a week my results would definitely be different and I would have no idea why.
I tend to eat the same few frozen meals. I eat them 2-4 times a week. If they were always off and I never weighed them then my deficit for the week would drop from 1,750 to 1,000 or 750. If that was true it would take me twice as long to lose weight (4 weeks to lose 1 pound vs 2 weeks). That combined with being a female and all the fun weight fluctuations that brings, I could not see any weight loss at all for months. For a lot of people that can be hard to understand and demotivating. That is why you see so many posts on here titled "Why am I not loosing weight". All I'm saying is that if you don't have a ton of wiggle room, weighing everything is your best bet.
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tracybear86 wrote: »That combined with being a female and all the fun weight fluctuations that brings, I could not see any weight loss at all for months. For a lot of people that can be hard to understand and demotivating. That is why you see so many posts on here titled "Why am I not loosing weight". All I'm saying is that if you don't have a ton of wiggle room, weighing everything is your best bet.
Exactly. People who don't have a lot to lose are scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of where they can cut. Accuracy becomes important.
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etherealanwar wrote: »I keep a scale at work so I can weigh my frozen meals for lunch. Some can be quite a bit off the serving size.
How do you know what the carton weighs? Are they metal or cardboard?
Oh I suppose you take it off after! Just realised!1 -
etherealanwar wrote: »I keep a scale at work so I can weigh my frozen meals for lunch. Some can be quite a bit off the serving size.
How do you know what the carton weighs? Are they metal or cardboard?
Oh I suppose you take it off after! Just realised!
Haha, yep, I just weight it frozen and then I weigh the packaging after and subtract.0 -
If it helps at all, I do lean cuisine pretty regularly, I always weight it, and it always weighs less then the packaging states...always!...On average its about 10% less. If I ever don't have my scale I just log 1 package and know that I am most likely overestimating my calories by a bit.2
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I love Amy's Three Cheese Kale Bake--but they are NOT low cal at 470 calories; so an overage could amount to a substantial amount of calories. Same with Marie Calendar's Creamy Parmesan Chicken Pot Pie; which I also love. That has 980 calories listed (if you eat the whole thing--one pie is two servings), if it was over even 10% that would put the meal at or over 1100 calories. I only eat these when my housemate is travelling and I savor every.single.bite!0
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Michael Angelo's, especially the "meal starter" multi-serving offerings, are notoriously underweight compared to the nutrition label servings/weight listed. One was an entire serving short weight-wise, along with 28 grams of weight that was nothing but pure oil had to separate off of. That was awesome to experience.0
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