Anyone else eat Lean Cuisine daily?
 

I try to eat between 1200-1500 calories a day and have been having a lot of success this time around (a decade of dieting!) by planning my meals, which consists primarily of Lean Cuisine meals. I was skeptical about the sodium, but the box says it contains about 30% of my daily requirement, so I'm not too worried about that. I'm beginning to drink a lot more water too.

Anyone else need the structure of pre-packaged meals like Lean Cuisine? Anytime I try to eat a meal cooked by hubby, I have no control and eat several more servings of everything! The Lean Cuisines help me keep my portions under control. They taste good to me too! Lots of veggies in them now!:carrot:

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Heidi
180/163/140ish

I LOVE their pizza's!!! That reminds me to go pick some up at the grocery store! They definatly do help with portion control in my opinion.

Until about a year ago, I used to eat frozen meals for 1-2 meals per day. These were lean cuisine or healthy choice meals. I learned quite a bit about portion control from them. I found out that I didn't need to feel very full after eating in order to be satisfied.

However, I stopped eating them a year ago, because of some changes in my life and my introduction to 3FC. I learned about whole foods here, and the long lists of ingredients on the meals didn't look so good anymore. I now cook every day for dinner (healthy things that take no more than 30 minutes) and I make turkey wrap sandwiches for lunch.

However, like I said, I did learn a bit about what a normal portion is during the 1-2 years that I ate them daily.

I did those my first time around with calorie counting (5 years ago after my son, never got motivated to lose the rest the right way). This time around I am doing a whole foods approach because of some changes in our family. Its been a week of avoiding junk completely and eating more veggies than ever before (and several months of taking junk out of the house). I am feeling better than ever. I was thinking of making up my own "lean cuisine" by preportioning and freezeing some foods for crazy days. They do help alot by being convient and having something that you know is safe calorie wise.

Good Luck!

I had a Healthy Choice entree and I do agree with you, they help out a lot. You also can't argue how much you ate because the box says so lol!

When I lived alone I did this and it really helped me lose weight! When I see a commercial for Nutrisysytem and consider trying it, I think that I could almost as easily just do a Lean Cuisine diet and for a lot less money. Now that I have a family it's not as practical but I keep some around for when my husband has a late night. It's a lot harder counting calories when I'm cooking for everyone because the portion control isn't automatic (IMO).

I have done it in the past and I'm doing it now. The local supermarket had a sale on them. :D They work out great for me. I know they are not the healthiest food around but I throw in some vegetables,fruits and salads when I can.

I have about 4-5 meals a week of Lean Cuisine, Boston Market (I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their Potatoes Au Gratin with honey chicken), Smart Choice or Weight Watchers.

I love variety in my food and I don't care for a lot of their foods for this reason- they all seem to have the same kind of foods and the same veggies. Although, I must say, I am enjoying some of the stir fry meals that they have out with the linguini type noodles- mmmmm.

I have been doing some portion control meals at home lately, as hubby and the kids miss my home cooking. I've made some small adjustments to the recipes from cutting back amounts I cook to replacing fattening things with leaner choices.

I do eat them occasionally, but don't love the way they taste. I have tried practically every kind, too! Certain ones are better than others. I can eat the chicken kind (sweet and sour chicken is good!), but not the beef or seafood ones. I LIKE beef and seafood normally, but not in a TV dinner.

I was reading a soap opera magazine in the check out line a few weeks ago, and they had a "diet" section with the soap stars. One star from All My Children (she plays Babe) says that she likes to eat an "Amy's Organic Spinach-Feta sandwich Pocket" with a little bit of low-fat sour cream for lunch. I decided to try it (they come in a little rectangle box in the frozen organic section) and it is good! It fills me up very well, and has 260 calories. I have been eating one of those with my low fat sour cream (1 tbls) and a piece of fruit or small salad for lunch. You should try it--you may like it too.

I eat probably one frozen meal a day. Some Lean Cuisine, but my favorite is Amy's Kitchen brand foods. The Spinach Feta pockets mentioned above are one of my favorites, in fact! I think they're very convenient and help a lot with portion control. And they're tasty! I usually pair a 300 calorie frozen meal with a salad for lunch.

I had a few lean cuisine's left over in my freezer. I have switched over completely from Medifast to low cal now and feel so much better...i'm having a tough time planning meals and have decided to use the 200-300 cal lean cuisine's for an occasional lunch and also for when i'm cooking something for my family that is too high-cal for me (deep dish pizza, mac & cheese etc..). I also have a stash of Atkins bars that are around 150 cals...i'm using them in between meals and so far, i'm not hungry and am doing just fine. I think i'm hooked on meal replacement bars! :o But i'm taking a multivitamin so hopefully, it wont matter too much for now. :)

Last year when I lost my first 33 pounds, I ate alot of lean cruisine lunches. They were convient to just grab and go. Now, I make up a batch of chicken breast in the oven and have that everyday for lunch. But sometimes when they are one sale, i still like to load up on them. I love their Panini sandwiches....YUMMY!!!!

I eat Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice about 4x a week. In fact, just bought 7 LC's tonight cuz they were on sale this week (5 for $10 and I had a $1 coupon, too, lol). I had the Southwest Style Chicken Panini tonight. :p They've definitely been a help in my weight loss. So have the Lean Pockets.

I love Lean Cuisines! I probably eat 4-5 a week. My friend is obsessed with them too so we always call each other when we find them onsale somewhere - so we can stock up :D

I think they are so convenient and the ones I have tried are all super tasty. It really helps me with portion control - if I am still hungry I will have fruit or a salad as well. I worry about the sodium too sometimes - but I don't think most of them are too bad...

I haven't liked any of the other brands of frozen foods that I have tried - but I might have to try those Amy's Kitchen ones - sounds good!

My lunches and dinners are exclusively frozen meals -- and I'm vegan. You'd think it would be difficult to find stuff, but it's not. I don't cook, so I love the variety, portion-controlled convenience. All of my meals are all-natural, no gmos, etc. About the only thing I could complain about it sodium content, but given the portion sizing, I think it's fine.

I'm a big fan of the Amy's brand.

Seriously? You are vegan? No eggs, dairy or honey products and you find enough variety in frozen meals? Please share some of the things you have found! I am vegan and I LOVE Amy's (they cost too much and have to much sodium though) but the thing that really irritates me is that there are so few vegan options!

Tyler – I have to say you are the first vegan I’ve ever heard of so subsist on frozen convenience food! More power to ‘ya if that works, but you are quite the exception to my knowledge. Most people end up cooking a lot more when they go vegan.

I’m with SoulBliss, I love Amy’s but they’re way too expensive to eat every day. Plus I try to keep my frozen convenience foods to a minimum (probably 2 - 3 meals a week) and eat whole foods most of the time. The Amy’s non-dairy vegetable pot pies are really yummy! They’re great for nights I really don’t feel like cooking, just pop the pies in the oven and steam up some extra veggies and dinner is done.

I'm not vegan, but it seems to me Amy's has a ton of vegan foods (very delicious, too!). I just did a quick search and Amy's website says they have 75 vegan items:

http://www.amyskitchen.com/products/...p?form_vegan=1

I guess alot of what I buy would be in the expensive category but I think it is worth it for the quality. I definitely eat every canned or frozen vegan meal that Amy makes. Some of my other favorite brands that have various vegan options are:

Celentano (eggplant roulettes, yum!)

Moosewood

Green Guru

Tandoor Chef

Ethnic Gourmet

Cascadian Farm

Progresso soups

Fantastic Foods (and they have lots of other stuff if you're will to cook just a little which I'm usually not)

These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. My grocer (Publix) also carries cool stuff in the "greenwise" section of their store with lots of asian and indian foods that are vegan and don't even require refrigeration (just mix and microwave!).

Pretty much everything else I eat doesn't require "real cooking" (fruits, breads, veggies, nuts, canned beans, frozen rice, etc.). I was a lazy omnivore, a lazy vegetarian, and now a lazy vegan. It wasn't that hard of a transition. :)

Yes, there are many vegan items, just not many frozen meal "Lean Cuisine" style items. I LOVE Amy's and live in San Diego, California with many "Health Food" stores and more options than many people but I only have 3 vegan frozen Amy's meals to choose from at 15 different "Health Food" stores!

:carrot: That is good to hear! I like when it is easy for people because they are more likely to make lasting changes when it isn't difficult ;)

Prepackaged diet food
 

I tend to use this off and on but I prefer the Healthy Choice when I do. The sodium is lower and the portions are perfect. I also think they taste pretty good.

Mmmm...I am so addicted to Lean Cuisine, but I'm starting to cut back, I was relying on them too much :).

I use Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones and Healthy Choice. I usually buy what is on sale and keep a good supply on hand. Like many others it is helping teach portion control and getting my appetite under control. I always add extra veggies because I feel they all fall short. I think Smart Ones has a few that have a full serving of veggies now but still look small to me.

I don't like to cook any more than I have to. I want that time to do things like Curves, tanner, ride my horses, walk the dogs, gardening, clean house, you name it. I work full time, my DH works out of town and YDD fends for herself or eats them with me.

I love Lean Cuisines, I mean they are DELICIOUS! I am diabetic so I can only eat a few like the Thai Chicken with brown rice, or the wholewheat spinach mushroom pizza or whole wheat bruschetta.

I treat myself once every 2 weeks to a LC Dinner, but for the rest of the time I make my own non-processed/low sodium dinners, mostly chicken breast, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, veggies and fruits. As much as I love the Lean Cuisines I don't think too much processed food is good for you.

when lean cuisine went on sale not only was my freezer completely jammed packed but my neighbor's too (j/k didn't burden my neighbor but i did get my aunt to keep them in her freezer for me)

i lost most of my weight (long ago) while havin one frozen meal a day. it broke the stress of worrying on calculating how much am i eating w/ this or that for at least one meal in a day...the other two meals or snacks i managed...

I used Lean Cuisines (Healthy Choice & Smart Ones, too) for years. I just recently stopped buying them because I'm trying to eat less processed foods. But I think they are great in a pinch or as an alternative to eating out.

I'll echo this. I don't eat them all the time, but I always keep them around. Bought a new LC yesterday that I haven't tried yet, the pork stir fry. And I fell in love with the butternut squash ravioli. A little high on the calorie end, as far as Lean Cuisine's go (I try and stick with the meals that are under 300 calories), but it's delicious.

I love Lean Cuisine and I eat it almost every day for lunch. My favorite is the 3-Cheese Stuffed Rigatoni. I also love the butternut squash ravioli and and panini.

I'm very picky, though, and with the exception of the panini, am not too fond of eating chicken or meat from Lean Cuisine (or any other frozen thingy).

I used to be a horrible cook, but now I'm just limited. The fact Lean Cuisines have as much sodium as they do concerns me a little, but not enough to make me stop eating them. Yum yum. :D

Oh... Smart Ones are pretty good, too. I just pick whatever looks and/or tastes good to me, regardless of brand.

Mmmmm, Lean Cuisine. Their stuff is just awesome! I try to only buy one dinner at a time, because I will just cook them all and eat them all. YUM.

They do have lots of veggies, though, not just for a frozen meal but for a regular meal too. And I like that they use a variety of veggies, not the same old broccoli and carrots mix.

There is also the bagged family dinners called Skillet Sensations which is soooo delicious. Half a bag (!) usually only has between 260 cals to 380 cals depending on which one you purchase. And they are big portions, so for the higher calorie ones, you can easily cut the bag into 3 or 4 servings instead of two.

I eat them 4x a week for lunch,helps me stick ny "plan" and not eat out during lunch. I am too lazy to pack and lunch and they are quick easy and tasty and inexpensive.

I definitely use them to help me when I'm craving certain types of food - pizza, asian, etc. Rather than eat at a Chinese restaurant, I'll have the stir fry in peanut sauce, potstickers, whatever, and satisfy that craving.

I've just started with LC today...as well as a low cal lifestyle.....i'm such a "go out and eat lunch" person that if I don't take my lunch to work no telling what i'll grab. I had the BBQ chicken pizza for dinner tonight...it was wonderful! I'm taking a Panini tomorrow with an apple....i'm thinking that will hold me off...my kids are out of town this week so there's no need to cook...i'm using this and LC to get me into the routine and hopefully by the time they get back i'll already be in the swing of it.

Ok...I had the turkey club panini today for lunch...it was 360 calories...it was so GOOD! I will definetly get that again! Had an apple with it and I was very satisfied the rest of the afternoon...did not reach for a snack at all...that's a good sign...lol

I eat Lean Cuisines for lunch and dinner. Its so much easier for me to control what I eat, and I love their food. I usually eat one with a bowl of veggies too. I just figure its a lot better then what I would be eating, and that way I can't go back for seconds, and thirds. Plus they offer more variety then what I would cook myself. Its only me and husband, so he just gets Michalinas (sp?) and its pretty inexpensive for us to eat like that. It might have to change when we have kids one day, but for now it works out just fine. :)

Michelina's also has a lean variety. They are VERY cheap, and the ones I have had are very good!

I don't eat them daily, but I do like to have a stash of their pizzas in my big freezer. Although right now I seem to have a good assortment to choose from. Not all necessarily Lean Cuisine. Actually, the pizzas I really like are the South Beach Diet frozen pizzas. They have 9-14 grams of fiber! Cost the same and taste just as good. :)

Kimberly