whats your opinions on lean cuisine microwavable meals?

Throw them away.

this

take some responsibility and eat real food. many people justify eating this crap by saying they are just too busy. thats bs. its because they are lazy

Wow. Judgemental much? I eat them. Not every day, but I eat them. I work outside the home and have two small children. Sorry if you don't consider that to be "busy" but I'm on the move from the moment my youngest wakes up (usually between 5-6am) to the moment they hit the sack. Don't judge a book by it's cover. You never know what a person's day is like.

Wow, yeah I'd say judgemental! Spend days on end at hospitals with ill family members, try to fit in exercise, work, laundry, all of the yardwork, home maintenance AND then come home and prepare a meal from scratch? Yeah, I guess on those days I'm lazy when it comes to my meal but there is such thing as mental and physical exhaustion and I pray you never get there!

Yeah there is no room for judgement here. Of course we all want to cook our meals from scratch each day and eat clean. This just isn't reasonable for 99% of people and I won't feel bad about that. Eat on frozen meal lovers, eat on.

you dont have to cook from scratch to avoid putting crap like lean cuisine in your body. a can of salmon or tuna and an apple or orange is faster than waiting for a lean cuisine to heat up and about the same price.

there is no excuse for putting this factory food with salt added into your body. none.

You're right. There's also no excuse for your attitude. None. For the record, the poster asked for opinions on the meals themselves, not the people who eat them.

I find that lean cuisine is merely low calorie alternatives.

You get lots of artificial fillers, processed stuffs. Not alot protein, minimal anythign else. Not to mention the contents could feed a child.

I prefer Amys, while little more expensive are all good ingredients that I can actually count towards my daily. While they are better than mcdonalds, they are no panacea to healthy. Eat an oatmeal cookie and a glass of milk instead.

The amount of judging others, simply because they are not at the same place as 'you' in their journey is rather depressing.

To the OP, while the sodium content (as mentioned repeatedly) is high, for the occassional meal like you suggested, they work fine. My husband and I love them (talking generally - Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones, Healthy Choice, etc). My husband was really surprised at how much better many of them are now than when he tried them years ago.

To others - my husband and I are in the early stages of our MFP journey. We are using these types of meals for at least one meal a day right now for 2 main reasons:

1) portion control - we are trying to learn what an actual meal SHOULD look like, and in the process discovering that we don't need as much food as we used to think we did (surprise, surprise-but it's a lesson we needed to learn). And yes, the ones we are eating DO fill us up, and leave us feeling satisfied;

2) accountability - We want to start learning to make more meals (my husband made the Taco Cupcakes today :-)), but right now, as relative newbies, we're worried about making sure our tracking is accurate. With the frozen meals, there's no guess work.

And yes, we are losing weight, probably more rapidly than we technically should be - I'm down 19lbs in two months (ish), and he's down 26lbs in the same time.

I'm sorry if I'm coming across harshly myself - sometimes everyone needs to remember that everyone isn't the same, and what works for one person, may or may not work for others.

Well, I for one can't stand them (see ticker)

lol actually I used to eat those 4 lunch every day b4 I decided to kick processed foods. They filled me up just fine.

My mom and granny like them and have maintained their weight eating them during the week. I personally don't eat them, because they are too expensive for me to buy all the time, and most have lots of ingredients in them that I can't eat due to gastroparesis (for example, beans and spicy stuff).

If you absolutely must have one, I'd try the Kashi or Amy's TV dinners. Most have organic ingredients and have healthy ingredients. My favorite Amy's TV dinner is veggie lasanga (my caregiver grinds this up in a food processor, so its easier for me to digest).

I used to eat them all the time and was still able to lose weight, they tend to have alot of sodium but if you drink enough/alot of water it's not really a big deal in my opinion. But, as I increased my workouts and explored food options I noticed the frozen meals did not keep me hungry and that I could have alot more fresh food that I made myself for less than or the same amount of calories than the lean cuisines. In short they're not going to hurt you, and if they keep you full, go for it.

I relied on them when my son was in the hospital and we had nothing but a microwave to cook with and wanted to be away from his bedside as little as possible. It's not the best option, but sometimes "better" is the best we can do.

They are expensive, don't taste very good and aren't very filling.

You can find them on sale almost every week. I look for the sale and stock up.Can't make a meal for 2 bucks. Add a side salad some extra veggies and it's good for me.
I stay away from the pizza's and high carbs entrees

I work out 6 days a week, so my focus is on portion control, not so much carb control. I stay away from frozen meals, except for pizzas, since there are days I and my fiance do not have the energy to cook, sometimes from general tiredness, sometimes from working out hard.

I bring them to work with me on days that I don't have time or are too tired to prepare a meal in advanced. Most of them are around $2 at my local Wal-mart and I prefer them SLIGHTLY more to the SmartOnes. It stops me from eating the horrible pastries we have at the coffee shop.

When I get sick of cooking my options are frozen pizza or frozen food. I spend a lot of time trying to pick the ones with the least sodium, most protein, least sugar. Then I try to eat only one portion. Lean Q is just not enough food for me! But I have had others and split it to one portion reading the package. It's not usually the diet ones. It's never satisfying, but I do get a cooking break.

Better options are to cook in bulk and make your own freezer food to microwave. Cook a whole turkey and debone the entire thing to portion out for the freezer. Cook a wopper winter squash and cut it into 1/2 cup pieces and freeze. Find recipe's you can "lighten up" and freeze. I have a favorite chili recipe mostly made of low sodium foods and beans that freezes well, and I make it 22-35 cups at a time and freeze. That can be chili, taco, nacho's. You can eat way more food if you make it yourself. I know a lady that made muffin cup baked egg and meat things. Oil a muffin tin, crack an egg in each, slice of something like ham in each. You can put these in the fridge for low carb high protein snack or egg mcMuffin style. A weeks worth! Start thinking like that.