Does anyone eat "diet" meals such as Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, etc? Do they have too much food in them? I haven't had my first fill yet, and am having trouble figuring out how much I should be eating.

Hi, I was banded 6/25/09. I have (3) 1/2 cup meals a day and (2) 2oz snacks. I try to avoid the

pre-packaged/ frozen dinners because they are so high in sodium. I can roast a small chicken or just the breast meat and eat it for several meals. I try to get creative so I am not to bored by my choices. I eat mostly protein but tonight I had a small salad for the first time. I am a little unsure how much salad I can eat, but I didn't have any problems getting it down.

My nutritionist said those dinners are fine - we are allowed 2400 mg of sodium a day. Even if you ate two of those dinners in a day they would probably have less sodium than that. Her program promoted those low-calorie, low fat diet dinners. But every nutritionist is different and everyone has to decide what is best for them.

I couldnt eat a whole one but there's not much that's great about freezer food that comes in boxes anyway. Much much much better to cook from scratch without the salt, additives and chemicals and buy things like decent meat and not what they scrape off the abbattoir floors, lol.

They are ok to eat if that is what works for you. Just watch the carbs. Some of them are off the charts with the carb count. My doc has me trying to always eat more protein than carbs and it is so hard to do if I eat one of the frozen meals. You can always add a protein shake later in the day to offset some of the carbs to get a balanced mix.

My MD said the WW Smart Ones are the best in terms of calories and Sodium, so if I need them for convenience, I get those or Lean Cuisine. I always look for the ones with high Protein and low carb count, although I'm a Pasta lover so I sometimes get ones with noodles.

I like the chicken parmesan (eat the chicken first and then a few bites of noodles) and others that have chicken and veggies. I found that since I've hit my sweet spot I cannot finish a whole meal.

I have them sometimes at work for convenience, but can't eat a whole one.