I have been eating alot of the 5 pnt lean cuisines or 5 pnt smart ones frozen dinners, but still stay within my 20 daily points. But then a cashier told me that I cant lose weight eating them daily. Has that been other people's experience? These help me so much, I'd hate to give them up.

thanks

If you like them and they make it easier to stay on plan then you should keep eating them! Are you adding more veggies to balance them out nutritionally?

I lost 45 pounds on a Lean Cuisine diet. Pffffffffft to the cashier

uh...it seems to be working fine for you!! You've lost weight haven't you? I do know that you have to watch the sodium amounts on them. I have them a couple times a week and then just add more veggies on the side. I'd say the cashier doesn't know what she's talking about!!

Different things work for different people, if you find its working for you, stick with it.

I lost most of my weight before starting to eat the frozen diet dinners. My life is more chaotic, and I was having problems finding the time to make the right kind of meals. So rather than just give up, I started the Lean Cuisines. So I dont really know if they are "working". Weight loss has been slow, but I have already lost quite a bit, so I'm not sure if its the dinners or not.
But I always had a VERY large portion of vegetable to the meals (ie a full can of green beans, or large amount of frozen broccoli/spinach). The meals would never be filling enough without it.

AngelEyes, you said the sodium is too much. But does too much sodium keep you from losing weight?

Thanks for the responses!

Yes, sodium makes you retain (absorb) lots of water in your body. You can usually tell if your fingers swell up or your rings are tight. Most of those meals have around 800 grams (or mg ?) of sodium and I think the daily amount of sodium is supposed to be 2300.

Well, who knows what else the cashier was having to eat besides the lean cuisines?

You should be careful of the sodium content as frozen dinner seem to have a lot of salt but if you are still losing then why not just add a side salad or some veggies onto them.

I agree with everyone else let your weight loss be the judge but I see no harm in having the frozen dinners.

At this point for me its lean cuisine or McDonalds! So, Lean Cuisine it is.

Thanks!

Yeah much better than Mcdonalds!

Actually the sodium content in most of the lean cuisines has been reduced over the years, which is why I've argued in other forums as "pro-leancuisine".

My LC favorites typicalyl fall between 510 and 690 sodium. Which seems like a lot, but I'm not a big "salt" person. I rarely ever add salt to anything. A "normal" salt intakeis around 1100 - 3300 mg/day, a high salt intake ... 4000 - 6000 mg/day and anything under 1000 is considered "low". When I was watching my salt I tried to keep it to around 2000 a day average.

To give you an idea of how reasonable that sodium might be for a "meal"...

Typical half-cup serving of cottage cheese - 400-600mg
typical 1cup of most cereals - 170-300mg
A half of a can of soup is anywhere from 450 to over 1000mg per serving (there are typically 2 servings per can!!)
Half a cup of jarred tomato sauce - over 500mg
Two Tablespoons jarred salsa - 260mg
chunk light tuna - 250mg (this is one serving, typically more than one serving per can)
half a cup canned veggies - 390mg
Typical 6inch sub at Subway - 900-1300 (520 for veggie)
One TEASPOON of salt = 2000mg

I didn't pick the more obvious high-salt choices - processed cheeses, dressings, snacks, etc. But when you look at all the things we eat daily that are high in sodium that we don't necessarily think about, a 600mg frozen dinner where you get meat and a vegetable and possibly a grain, doesnt seem so bad anymore. I used to love when people would argue with me about sodium content in a frozen dinner and then scarf down 3 servings of cottage cheese or salsa.

Anyways, the good news is.. most of the options above you can choose low sodium or low salt or no salt added. Typically when shopping, I learn which products are the lowest in sodium and buy those. I try to stay away from canned soups and tomato sauces and make my own when I have time (which isnt always often)

My "lean cuisine" strategy last year when I lost 30 pounds was to have a lean cuisine that had the same kind of "taste" that the meal I couldn't have did. It was all about portion control, too. I liked to have something on hand for me for those days when I didnt have time to cook and my boyfriend wanted to order a pizza or stop by mcdonald's on his way home. I found them really helpful to bring to work and convenient. So when I first started on my diet, I needed all the easy lack-of-temptation I could get. I find, for me, its a lot easier to stick with a plan once I've been doing it for a couple months.

So if it helps you, use them. As you get more comfortable, you can start to make your own or wean yourself off them.

In the past, I lost 50# in 6 months on weight watchers and working out 6 days a week. I ate at least one or two of the frozen meals a day depending on how hectic life was at the time. She may be referring to the sodium content in them as it is high, so just drink plenty of water and avoid other foods with alot of sodium. I did great on it.

And you trust the weight loss of the cashier because???

Seriously, like others have related, I lost well eating LC or SO most days. I stopped because I got burned out on them. I just couldn't face another frozen dinner for months. Now, I'll have one once in awhile.

My negative point against L/C or any other frozen meal is I can get more food for the same or less points if I cook it myself. Many times I make my own frozen meals from my leftovers. But it is all a matter of each person as an idividiual.

Besides (WINK WINK) my food tastes better than those frozen dinners (LOL).