Using Panda Express to meal prep
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Blooperss
Posts: 42 Member
They have a family meal that comes with 2 large sides and 3 large entrees for $34. I was planning on getting super greens for the two sides and teriyaki chicken for all three entrees. Both are healthy and relatively low in calorie - I would spread this over 5 nights for dinner. I love their teriyaki chicken and greens!
Does this sound like a good idea for someone that absolutely hates buying groceries and cooking? Of course I'll have other meals for breakfast/lunch too but those are easy.
Any other restaurant suggestions with healthy large sized portions I can order from and fit into my dinner meal prep would be appreciated!
Does this sound like a good idea for someone that absolutely hates buying groceries and cooking? Of course I'll have other meals for breakfast/lunch too but those are easy.
Any other restaurant suggestions with healthy large sized portions I can order from and fit into my dinner meal prep would be appreciated!
1
Replies
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Sure, that sounds like a good plan for you. Let us know how it works out!4
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The one thing I’d caution about is that whenever you did not cook food yourself, you don’t know how many calories it has. For restaurant food, the portion you get may match the portion used to calculate the published nutrition info, or it might not. Restaurants may give you a larger portion, use more oil/butter, etc. They may not be carefully weighing and measuring all ingredients. So if you’re frequently eating restaurant food and your weight is not behaving as expected, that may be something to consider.14
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Yeah, I’d be wary of the hidden ingredients, hidden calories, over-servings and sodium content. Suppose you could ask for some of that information as well. Definitely would be a yummy week for sure, though.3
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The one thing I’d caution about is that whenever you did not cook food yourself, you don’t know how many calories it has. For restaurant food, the portion you get may match the portion used to calculate the published nutrition info, or it might not. Restaurants may give you a larger portion, use more oil/butter, etc. They may not be carefully weighing and measuring all ingredients. So if you’re frequently eating restaurant food and your weight is not behaving as expected, that may be something to consider.
Thanks, definitely something to think about! The teriyaki chicken is grilled so I'm not too worried about that. If I do decide to order other entrees, I'd be worried about extra calories now that you've mentioned it. Will probably just stick with the greens and teriyaki chicken if I decide to make this an ongoing thing! $34+tax doesn't seem horrible for 5-6 nights worth of dinner!
I was looking at other meal delivery services and nothing seems as tasty/convienent/budget friendly as Panda Express!2 -
The sodium alone will kill any weight loss progress.1
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semperfi8997 wrote: »The sodium alone will kill any weight loss progress.
Sodium has zero to do with fat loss. Increasing sodium with often cause a water weight gain, but maintaining a similar level of sodium will not, and water weight is irrelevant anyway.12 -
The one thing I’d caution about is that whenever you did not cook food yourself, you don’t know how many calories it has. For restaurant food, the portion you get may match the portion used to calculate the published nutrition info, or it might not. Restaurants may give you a larger portion, use more oil/butter, etc. They may not be carefully weighing and measuring all ingredients. So if you’re frequently eating restaurant food and your weight is not behaving as expected, that may be something to consider.
Thanks, definitely something to think about! The teriyaki chicken is grilled so I'm not too worried about that. If I do decide to order other entrees, I'd be worried about extra calories now that you've mentioned it. Will probably just stick with the greens and teriyaki chicken if I decide to make this an ongoing thing! $34+tax doesn't seem horrible for 5-6 nights worth of dinner!
I was looking at other meal delivery services and nothing seems as tasty/convienent/budget friendly as Panda Express!
$6-7 per meal sounds very expensive to me. Honestly, if cost is the biggest concern, I'd invest in a cheap slow cooker instead. You can cook large batches of many foods for low cost and very little effort on your part. You also control everything that goes into those meals. I use mine to cook dried beans, spaghetti sauce, chili. I can dump some beans and spices in my crock pot, come back 6-8 hours later and throw some rice in my rice cooker, then portion everything out into individual boxes. Even adding in some vegetables and/or meat, that would be a LOT cheaper, and I spend maybe 15 minutes total on getting it started and weighing out the finished food.10 -
The one thing I’d caution about is that whenever you did not cook food yourself, you don’t know how many calories it has. For restaurant food, the portion you get may match the portion used to calculate the published nutrition info, or it might not. Restaurants may give you a larger portion, use more oil/butter, etc. They may not be carefully weighing and measuring all ingredients. So if you’re frequently eating restaurant food and your weight is not behaving as expected, that may be something to consider.
Thanks, definitely something to think about! The teriyaki chicken is grilled so I'm not too worried about that. If I do decide to order other entrees, I'd be worried about extra calories now that you've mentioned it. Will probably just stick with the greens and teriyaki chicken if I decide to make this an ongoing thing! $34+tax doesn't seem horrible for 5-6 nights worth of dinner!
I was looking at other meal delivery services and nothing seems as tasty/convienent/budget friendly as Panda Express!
$6-7 per meal sounds very expensive to me. Honestly, if cost is the biggest concern, I'd invest in a cheap slow cooker instead. You can cook large batches of many foods for low cost and very little effort on your part. You also control everything that goes into those meals. I use mine to cook dried beans, spaghetti sauce, chili. I can dump some beans and spices in my crock pot, come back 6-8 hours later and throw some rice in my rice cooker, then portion everything out into individual boxes. Even adding in some vegetables and/or meat, that would be a LOT cheaper, and I spend maybe 15 minutes total on getting it started and weighing out the finished food.
It's actually spending time buying groceries and prepping to cook it all is what I don't like. Everytime I eat out with friends, I spend $20 min on a meal, and so $6-7/meal isn't too bad to me especially since I'm very easy going when it comes to breakfast/lunch. I know I want this to be a life style change, but have a goal to lose 15 lbs in roughly 7 weeks (vacation), so this will have to do for now. Have been very stressed/busy with work lately so the goal is to not go completely off the wagon and eat like crazy again. I consider it a win if I can spend $10-15 or less a day on food!2 -
The one thing I’d caution about is that whenever you did not cook food yourself, you don’t know how many calories it has. For restaurant food, the portion you get may match the portion used to calculate the published nutrition info, or it might not. Restaurants may give you a larger portion, use more oil/butter, etc. They may not be carefully weighing and measuring all ingredients. So if you’re frequently eating restaurant food and your weight is not behaving as expected, that may be something to consider.
Thanks, definitely something to think about! The teriyaki chicken is grilled so I'm not too worried about that. If I do decide to order other entrees, I'd be worried about extra calories now that you've mentioned it. Will probably just stick with the greens and teriyaki chicken if I decide to make this an ongoing thing! $34+tax doesn't seem horrible for 5-6 nights worth of dinner!
I was looking at other meal delivery services and nothing seems as tasty/convienent/budget friendly as Panda Express!
$6-7 per meal sounds very expensive to me. Honestly, if cost is the biggest concern, I'd invest in a cheap slow cooker instead. You can cook large batches of many foods for low cost and very little effort on your part. You also control everything that goes into those meals. I use mine to cook dried beans, spaghetti sauce, chili. I can dump some beans and spices in my crock pot, come back 6-8 hours later and throw some rice in my rice cooker, then portion everything out into individual boxes. Even adding in some vegetables and/or meat, that would be a LOT cheaper, and I spend maybe 15 minutes total on getting it started and weighing out the finished food.
It's actually spending time buying groceries and prepping to cook it all is what I don't like. Everytime I eat out with friends, I spend $20 min on a meal, and so $6-7/meal isn't too bad to me especially since I'm very easy going when it comes to breakfast/lunch. I know I want this to be a life style change, but have a goal to lose 15 lbs in roughly 7 weeks (vacation), so this will have to do for now. Have been very stressed/busy with work lately so the goal is to not go completely off the wagon and eat like crazy again. I consider it a win if I can spend $10-15 or less a day on food!
Losing 15 pounds of fat in 7 weeks is not a safe or healthy pace of fat loss if that 15 pounds is all you have to lose. That’s over 2 pounds per week, which is only reasonable if one has over 75+ pounds to lose. Even then, weight loss does not happen at a linear pace. You may see a rapid loss of water weight at first, but fat loss should not be happening that quickly.9 -
The one thing I’d caution about is that whenever you did not cook food yourself, you don’t know how many calories it has. For restaurant food, the portion you get may match the portion used to calculate the published nutrition info, or it might not. Restaurants may give you a larger portion, use more oil/butter, etc. They may not be carefully weighing and measuring all ingredients. So if you’re frequently eating restaurant food and your weight is not behaving as expected, that may be something to consider.
Thanks, definitely something to think about! The teriyaki chicken is grilled so I'm not too worried about that. If I do decide to order other entrees, I'd be worried about extra calories now that you've mentioned it. Will probably just stick with the greens and teriyaki chicken if I decide to make this an ongoing thing! $34+tax doesn't seem horrible for 5-6 nights worth of dinner!
I was looking at other meal delivery services and nothing seems as tasty/convienent/budget friendly as Panda Express!
$6-7 per meal sounds very expensive to me. Honestly, if cost is the biggest concern, I'd invest in a cheap slow cooker instead. You can cook large batches of many foods for low cost and very little effort on your part. You also control everything that goes into those meals. I use mine to cook dried beans, spaghetti sauce, chili. I can dump some beans and spices in my crock pot, come back 6-8 hours later and throw some rice in my rice cooker, then portion everything out into individual boxes. Even adding in some vegetables and/or meat, that would be a LOT cheaper, and I spend maybe 15 minutes total on getting it started and weighing out the finished food.
It's actually spending time buying groceries and prepping to cook it all is what I don't like. Everytime I eat out with friends, I spend $20 min on a meal, and so $6-7/meal isn't too bad to me especially since I'm very easy going when it comes to breakfast/lunch. I know I want this to be a life style change, but have a goal to lose 15 lbs in roughly 7 weeks (vacation), so this will have to do for now. Have been very stressed/busy with work lately so the goal is to not go completely off the wagon and eat like crazy again. I consider it a win if I can spend $10-15 or less a day on food!
Losing 15 pounds of fat in 7 weeks is not a safe or healthy pace of fat loss if that 15 pounds is all you have to lose. That’s over 2 pounds per week, which is only reasonable if one has over 75+ pounds to lose. Even then, weight loss does not happen at a linear pace. You may see a rapid loss of water weight at first, but fat loss should not be happening that quickly.
2 lbs a week is actually about the average that I've lost before when I lost 20 lbs. That weight loss goal is doable for me to feel satiated because I can't still eat a large amount if it's somewhat healthy food. Have about 40 lbs to lose but have never reached a point of needing to lose less than 20 lbs, will re-examine my goals once I get to that point but would be ok with losing a pound a week when I do get there. The 15 lbs is including the initial water weight that I'll lose, which I'm ok with.0 -
I hear ya! Cooking is the absolute worst household chore and grocery shopping is a pretty close second. I have often ordered family meals and divided them up for the week. I like Papa Murphy’s too—they weigh the meat and cheese, so I’m fairly confident in their nutrition info. Plus, if you do salad, theirs are fantastic!1
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I'd also caution that relying on restaurants has other problems. I mean, you have this week covered, but what happens next week? You will get tired of the same "menu" at some point sooner or later.
It's sort of like the whole "Subway Sandwich Diet" in which a guy named Jared lost a bunch of weight eating Subway sandwiches.
I mean it sounds good. But most people would eventually get sick of eating at Subway.
And nutritionally, although Subway is pretty good, it comes up short with food items like fruit.
So Godspeed using restaurant resources sensibly.0 -
The one thing I’d caution about is that whenever you did not cook food yourself, you don’t know how many calories it has. For restaurant food, the portion you get may match the portion used to calculate the published nutrition info, or it might not. Restaurants may give you a larger portion, use more oil/butter, etc. They may not be carefully weighing and measuring all ingredients. So if you’re frequently eating restaurant food and your weight is not behaving as expected, that may be something to consider.
Thanks, definitely something to think about! The teriyaki chicken is grilled so I'm not too worried about that. If I do decide to order other entrees, I'd be worried about extra calories now that you've mentioned it. Will probably just stick with the greens and teriyaki chicken if I decide to make this an ongoing thing! $34+tax doesn't seem horrible for 5-6 nights worth of dinner!
I was looking at other meal delivery services and nothing seems as tasty/convienent/budget friendly as Panda Express!
$6-7 per meal sounds very expensive to me. Honestly, if cost is the biggest concern, I'd invest in a cheap slow cooker instead. You can cook large batches of many foods for low cost and very little effort on your part. You also control everything that goes into those meals. I use mine to cook dried beans, spaghetti sauce, chili. I can dump some beans and spices in my crock pot, come back 6-8 hours later and throw some rice in my rice cooker, then portion everything out into individual boxes. Even adding in some vegetables and/or meat, that would be a LOT cheaper, and I spend maybe 15 minutes total on getting it started and weighing out the finished food.
It's actually spending time buying groceries and prepping to cook it all is what I don't like. Everytime I eat out with friends, I spend $20 min on a meal, and so $6-7/meal isn't too bad to me especially since I'm very easy going when it comes to breakfast/lunch. I know I want this to be a life style change, but have a goal to lose 15 lbs in roughly 7 weeks (vacation), so this will have to do for now. Have been very stressed/busy with work lately so the goal is to not go completely off the wagon and eat like crazy again. I consider it a win if I can spend $10-15 or less a day on food!
Losing 15 pounds of fat in 7 weeks is not a safe or healthy pace of fat loss if that 15 pounds is all you have to lose. That’s over 2 pounds per week, which is only reasonable if one has over 75+ pounds to lose. Even then, weight loss does not happen at a linear pace. You may see a rapid loss of water weight at first, but fat loss should not be happening that quickly.
2 lbs a week is actually about the average that I've lost before when I lost 20 lbs. That weight loss goal is doable for me to feel satiated because I can't still eat a large amount if it's somewhat healthy food. Have about 40 lbs to lose but have never reached a point of needing to lose less than 20 lbs, will re-examine my goals once I get to that point but would be ok with losing a pound a week when I do get there. The 15 lbs is including the initial water weight that I'll lose, which I'm ok with.
Just because you did it before and felt fine does not mean it was healthy or safe, since the effects of undereating can take a while to show up. Two pounds of fat loss per week would be very, very rapid for someone who was 20 pounds or less from their optimal BMI range. After any initial water weight loss, one pound per week or slower is safer for your stats. Please be careful not to undereat in an attempt to lose weight faster. In a year, you're not going to remember what you weighed on your vacation, but you will remember it if you don't feel well due to undereating.5 -
kenyonhaff wrote: »I'd also caution that relying on restaurants has other problems. I mean, you have this week covered, but what happens next week? You will get tired of the same "menu" at some point sooner or later.
It's sort of like the whole "Subway Sandwich Diet" in which a guy named Jared lost a bunch of weight eating Subway sandwiches.
I mean it sounds good. But most people would eventually get sick of eating at Subway.
And nutritionally, although Subway is pretty good, it comes up short with food items like fruit.
So Godspeed using restaurant resources sensibly.
Yeah, that's why I'm looking at other restaurants too and looking for recommendations. I think with any meals (even if you cook them yourself), there needs to be some variety in there from week to week. I will say though, I do have fruits and other proteins budgeted into breakfast/lunch as well. Going to see how fast I get tired of Panda Express! Haha0 -
It's not take-out, but I use Freshly food delivery. They're fresh, pre-made meals that just require microwaving to heat up. They're $10/meal so I little more expensive than what you're paying for Panda Express.
I hate shopping/cooking so it has worked well for me to stay away from fast food b/c they're just as convenient, and pretty healthy.2 -
I usually buy the bigger plate (3 entrees + rice) at Panda Express + a large side of super greens for something like $12.00.
3 meals worth. I also do Subway and Arby’s often. Sprouts has some good prepared meals I like (salmon and veggies), more expensive, but good. I buy small bags of lettuce and hard cooked eggs to make a large salad to add to leftovers for one more meal.
I agree that restaurants often serve more than their suggested servings for more calories, but a stated 400 calorie meal at Panda Express that actually has 500 calories is miles ahead of my favorite go-to of Wendy’s 4 for $4 plus a frosty for 1500 calories.
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Sounds like a pretty good meal plan in your shoes, but my concern is those leftovers probably wouldn't be tasting all that great by day 4.
I was going to mention that slowcooker idea, too. It really is so easy! You could just dump in some boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts and a tasty teriyaki sauce. Microwave some veg and you're set. I use grocery delivery for convenience (and I even like grocery shopping); you might have that option in your location too. That said, I understand some ppl completely dread all aspects of cooking. (I love to cook.) My sister hates it and also buys mostly prepared food, so I get it.
Losing 15 pounds in 7 weeks, even if the first 3 or so is water weight, is a fast weight loss in your circumstances. It's not horribly extreme, but you will face a greater risk of losing muscle, which sucks. If you couple your weight loss with some resistance training, that should help retain muscle, but you may want to reconsider that pace.
I hope you have a great vacation!3 -
I didn't realize so many people hated grocery shopping, maybe I should hire myself out! It could be because I was bedridden from chronic pain and couldn't do my own shopping for years. Now that I'm stronger I can stand/walk well enough to take care of myself whenever I get annoyed standing in line or with crowds I remind myself I'm lucky. I'm not the best cook but enjoy finding new recipes. If I picked a couple restaurants that reheat ok I'd probably choose pizza, Indian, and good Chinese food.4
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semperfi8997 wrote: »The sodium alone will kill any weight loss progress.
Sodium has zero to do with fat loss. Increasing sodium with often cause a water weight gain, but maintaining a similar level of sodium will not, and water weight is irrelevant anyway.
Do some research. High salt diets are linked to obesity, belly fat especially. People on high salt diets also consume less water and are hungrier.2 -
Sounds like classic correlation without causation, and certainly not calorie controlled comparisons.9
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