The FastDay Forum

I regularly have a ready meal from Waitrose or M&S on my fast days as its much easier to put that in the oven and know exactly how many calories I'm consuming. I cook on other days when I'm not worrying about calories, but just found buying ready meals much easier, especially when I first started this WOE.

I now bulk them up with extra veg, but it worked well for me when I didn't have the time or energy to weigh and look up calories for every little thing on my plate.

As far as whether it affects weight loss, I doubt it does if you stay within 500 cals. I'm losing an average of 2 lbs a week doing it this way (over past 12 weeks), so seems to be ok. All I would add is to not become reliant on ready meals but use them at times when you need something quick and easy.

Not a huge fan of them since I prefer the taste of my own cooking - and playing with food textures a little more. I always find anything from M&S with mashed potato on it to be particularly pointless - tasteless gloop. And I dislike the tendency to stick cheese on lots of things; I expect it's to give flavour but it also tends to add pointless calories. And I find them pricey for what they are.

Having said that, I was having a wander around Waitrose the other night and spotted a new range that they have which had 1/3 off. There was a venison cottage pie with celeriac mash that served one (422 calories) and was about £2.70. So I had that for my fast day dinner with some added veg. It was surprisingly good so might bear that in mind for future days.

Good idea mresta - bulk cooking is a great idea.
Ready meals, even when on special are expensive for the small amount of food (with heaps of additives)
I think you can get so much more food for your calories when you prepare them yourself.
And of course you know exactly what you are having without all the fillers and additives.

I use M&S Count on us for my fast days. Particularly like the Chicken Chow Mein 285 cals & yogurt 80 cals & one I occasionally have which is really nice is the 4 cheese ravioli. They have lots of variety for 350 cals & under.

I agree with claireglen, the M&S Count On Us range is great for fast days and the Chicken Chow Mein is a favourite of mine.

I also like home cooking and have recently discovered the joys of stew for a fast day. I've always liked stews, but hadn't realised how low in calories they could be - especially if you use lean beef and good veg - you end up with a nice large portion for between 300-350 cals (certainly much larger portion than a ready meal).
You just need to forget about crusty bread with it

I think the thing about Fast days is that you have to find a way that works for you - including when you eat and what you eat.

Personally I don't like ready meals and we never have them. My concern about fitting fast days into our family life was finding meals that we could all eat together. I'm a bit nerdy and meal plan every week anyway so I just found cookery books with low cal recipes in (my favourite is Hairy Dieters) and used that for fast day meals that my kids would be happy to eat.

I find them easy and convenient on Fast Days when my family is away or are not eating at home. It suits me to have something I know is within the calorie count without measuring, etc. I found it helped me a lot for the first couple of weeks as well.
Now I just use it if I am rushed or feeling lazy.... otherwise I do prefer to have a fresh home made meal... unfortunately I need a 'cook' onhand!

I eat home cooked family meals (appropriately sized) if I'm with the kids on fast days, or usually something from the freezer my OH has made if I'm eating alone. If he didn't make them for me, I'd probably always have a ready meal, as I love going to the supermarket and choosing myself a "surprise" rather than eating a portion of something I'd made myself.

But the home made meals are lower carb, more nutritious, and free-range, so better I know.