MREs: What are they like, and where can I get them?

[BrandonR]

I’ve tried both eDiets and Weight Watchers’ online programs. So far I’m liking the Weight Watchers online program. Basically they assign a points value to every food based on the food’s calories, fat, and dietary fiber. As long as your daily points are under the recommended value, you’re pretty much guaranteed to lose weight. It’s easier than counting calories since they have most food pre-programmed into the program. The spiffy program online makes it very easy to track what you eat.

I think the important thing here is to pick a diet that you can sustain without losing interest. Sure, you could drink Slim Fasts and eat Lean Cuisines all day, but you’re going to tire of them very quickly. That’s another reason I’m liking the WW online program so far… They give you a weekly allowance of points to splurge that will still let you lose weight, but I think the most important thing of a diet is the ability to treat yourself otherwise you’re never going to be able to stick to it.

[Shinna_Minna_Ma]

@Makeitstop

I have been triyng to get in shape, and I work out nearly every day for at least an hour and a half each time. I have been trying to diet, but I find myself lacking the discipline to follow any rules I set for myself. I am never particular about the specific foods I eat, or whether they are warm or cold. But I don’t eat junk food, and I don’t eat foods that are markedly unhealthy. It is only the amount of food the I consume that concerns me.

I’m not a doctor, but have you tried working with a registered nutritionist? Have you consulted a doctor? Many health insurance plans cover part or all of nutritional counseling - ask your parents. One thing I’ve learned about losing weight (I just took off 30 pounds), is that is has to be done gradually and in a healthy manner. Good luck!

[Loach]

@BrandonR

I’ve tried both eDiets and Weight Watchers’ online programs. So far I’m liking the Weight Watchers online program. Basically they assign a points value to every food based on the food’s calories, fat, and dietary fiber. As long as your daily points are under the recommended value, you’re pretty much guaranteed to lose weight. It’s easier than counting calories since they have most food pre-programmed into the program. The spiffy program online makes it very easy to track what you eat.

I think the important thing here is to pick a diet that you can sustain without losing interest. Sure, you could drink Slim Fasts and eat Lean Cuisines all day, but you’re going to tire of them very quickly. That’s another reason I’m liking the WW online program so far… They give you a weekly allowance of points to splurge that will still let you lose weight, but I think the most important thing of a diet is the ability to treat yourself otherwise you’re never going to be able to stick to it.

The one time I was on the weight watchers online program I liked it. They have tons of good recipes on there and I still use some now even though I haven’t used it in a long time. For someone like the OP it would work well. At his weight he would be allowed quite a few points. The biggest problem I had was that when I got under a certain weight my points dropped pretty low and it was hard to maintain. I like the fact that you get extra points for exercising. If you stick to it you will lose weight at a steady but healty rate.

[NinetyWt]

Aren’t they also high in salt? I recall reading about the problems that FEMA had, trying to feed people after Katrina - older folks with blood pressure problems couldn’t eat MRE’s due to high salt content.

[DesertDog]

@CalMeacham

A Surplus store near where I worked (not military surplus, but general store-type stuff) had several different packaged meals that they said were MREs. They certainly looked the part, being packaged in the mylar packaging that resists breaking, but can be easily ripped open at the indent. But there were none of the other things I’ve been told Real MREs contain (like the hot sauce bottle). Nevertheless, they looked like at least a pretty good approximation of real MREs – you could get Spaghetti, or Beef Stew, or some other choices.

They weren’t awful eating, and reminded me of food you get for camping. I could easily see eating them with no or little prep. But diet food they weren’t.
I haven’t seen them since. The were pretty cheap, and I’d have stocked them for camping fare.

I’ve bought surplus MREs by the case with the crescent on it and everything, but that was a couple decades ago. I guess there has been a change in policy since then. Perhaps the ones you saw, Cal, were from Long Life Foods. They buy overruns and sell them, either the individual packages (entrees, desserts, etc.) or as meals. The meals come in a polyethyene pouch that is tan instead of O D and it has a sticker on it to show what the entree is. No Tabasco bottle, either.

[Alex_Dubinsky]

@Loach

The one time I was on the weight watchers online program I liked it. They have tons of good recipes on there and I still use some now even though I haven’t used it in a long time. For someone like the OP it would work well. At his weight he would be allowed quite a few points. The biggest problem I had was that when I got under a certain weight my points dropped pretty low and it was hard to maintain. I like the fact that you get extra points for exercising. If you stick to it you will lose weight at a steady but healty rate.

That all sounds pretty clever.

[Sleel]

Other people have already got the MRE angle covered. They’re not bad tasting, but yeah, damn near a whole day’s calories in a single pack.

For getting in great shape, I’ve been doing CrossFit since the summer of 2007. I lost over 10 kg, doubled my max lifts on all exercises compared to when I was doing regular Men’s Fitness type workouts, and went from puffing like a smoker in the Himalayas after running a relatively short distances of 1–2km to being able to crank out 5k in just over 20 minutes. Check out “Start Here!” in the side bar and also read the FAQ. There are a ton of videos for exercise demonstrations and inspiration. Start easy and light. I started doing a lot of exercises with a bare bar to get used to doing the form correctly.

For diet, if you know you’re bad at portion control you have two options: prepackaged (which you thought about here) and meal planning. Prepackaged foods are more expensive than buying stuff yourself and preparing meals. Weight Watchers meals are often recommended as being decent and not horribly expensive. Stay away from non-diet prepackaged stuff like TV dinners, even if they say they’re “healthy” because usually they are most definitely not.

Option two is planning out your meals, with or without the aid of a diet framework. I personally eat Zone-ish without any strict planning, food was never my problem; inactivity was. Zone proportions are roughly 40% carbs (mostly vegetables, few starches) 40% protein (lots of chicken, no skin, fish, limited amounts of lean cuts of pork and beef), and roughly 20% fat from your protein sources, oils, and some nuts.

Zone gives you good rules of thumb for estimating portions, and encourages you to spend at least the first two weeks weighing stuff so that you know what a real portion looks like. You also eat about 6 meals a day, so you don’t ever really get hungry, even though your actual meals are pretty small. Paleo, also known as the caveman diet or neolithic diet, is another option for losing weight while doing heavy training.

Either Zone or Paleo accomplishes weight loss essentially through: portion control, recommendations that specify high-quality foods that would be difficult to gain weight on unless you gorge, and meal timing. Those are all things you could do on your own if you wanted to spend the time researching foods and recipes, but it’s obviously easier if you follow diet plans since they’ve done the work for you. There’s free information on both Zone and Paleo/Neolithic diets out there so you don’t even have to buy a book unless you want to.

Since you know you’re prone to impulse eating, you’ll have the best success by planning out meals. Do your shopping for a week. Know what you’re going to be eating for the next day. Plan it out. Make your meals ahead of time if possible so that you’ve got stuff ready when you’re hungry. That means you’ll have good food available so you don’t hog out on junk food or whatever.

You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you. Be patient, keep plugging away at it. I only had about 15 kg to lose at my fattest and it took me about four months to see real results, and about a year to get down to low teens in body fat. You’ve got a lot more than that to lose, so don’t get discouraged. Good luck, man.