Hit my goal in a dorm room with a rice cooker

Congrats, 150.8 in a dorm is no joke. I lost ~60 a few years ago, regained 35, and I’m climbing back now. The rice cooker lentil/chili thing is genius. I used to do rice cooker quinoa + frozen edamame + canned chicken + hot sauce whn I was broke.

One dumb thing that helped: I pre-logged my tuna/yogurt/egg combo the night before, so the 3 p.m. vending machine run had to fight a plan.

Sharp question: how are you handling the dining hall? That’s where I always got ambushed by fries and soft serve.

Also, do you actually like lentils or is it pure survival food at this point?

Honestly, congratulations—this is such a steady, resourceful way to do it. Weekly averages were the thing that kept me sane: I log daily but only judge Sunday-to-Saturday, so a high-sodium Tuesday doesn’t send me spiraling.

A concrete dorm trick: I make a big rice-cooker pot of lentils with a jar of salsa and taco seasoning, then portion it into 1-cup containers and top with rotisserie chicken or a tuna packet when I’m ready to eat. It keeps the chicken from drying out and makes lunches grab-and-go.

Do you have a favorite lentil seasoning combo, or do you rotate depending on what’s on sale?

For what it's worth, hi, total newbie here, week one, so I’m just lurking and taking notes. The rice cooker + lentils thing is genius. Do you cook the lentils plain in the rice cooker and season later, or dump chili spices in with the water?

I’m in a tiny shared kitchen and my biggest fear is prep getting boring by Wednesday. Also, how do you store the rotisserie chicken so it doesn’t get rubbery? Sorry if that’s a dumb question. Seeing 214→150.8 with dorm food is really encouraging.

Fellow rice cooker survivor here. My trick for lentils that don't taste like sad chili: stir in a spoon of mustard or hot sauce right before you eat, and top with a fried egg. Tastes like a completely different meal. Also, congrats on 150.8.

Maintenance in a dorm is its own challenge—what's your plan for the dining hall or late-night vending machine temptation? I found keeping pre-portioned yogurt in the mini fridge killed the 11pm chips run.

The lentil-chili thing is clutch. What ratio do you use in the rice cooker? I do 1 cup red lentils + 2.5 cups water + a jar of salsa, then stir in rotisserie chicken at the end.

My chaotic-kid version is a snack drawer: tuna packets, roasted chickpeas, string cheese, apples. It saves me when I’d otherwise eat their leftover mac and cheese standing up. Did you batch lentils for the week or cook fresh? Trying to figure out if it holds 3 days in a mini fridge.

The rice cooker lentil thing is underrated. My dorm version: 1 cup dry lentils + can Ro-Tel + frozen spinach, cook, then fold in 4 oz rotisserie chicken. Portion into 4; roughly 35 g protein and ~450 kcal each. What’s your lentil-to-chicken ratio? Also, did you track daily or weekly averages?

Daily weights were noise for me; the 7-day median was the only thing that showed the actual slope. Curious whether you leaned on any trend metric, given dorm sodium and irregular sleep.

Rice cooker lentils are underrated. I still make a batch on Sundays: 1 cup dry lentils, 2.5 cups broth, a jar of salsa, cumin, and a handful of frozen spinach thrown in at the end. Top with Greek yogurt and it scratches the chili itch.

The dorm part is what makes this impressive—no fancy prep, just repeatable. Question: what’s your rice cooker ratio? Mine keeps changing depending on whether I’m using red or brown lentils, and I’m always looking to steal a better one.

There was a thread here last winter about cheap protein rotations; this belongs in it.

Steady is the word—214 to 150 in a dorm is genuinely badass. The “pretend they’re chili” line got me.

Something that helped me when I had a hot pot and no kitchen: cook a big batch of lentils, portion into old jars, and freeze. Reheat with a spoon of salsa, a scoop of Greek yogurt, and whatever hot sauce is on sale.

Felt like real food, not sad desk food. Do you do anything for the late-night dorm snacky hours, or did tht habit fade on its own?

That’s the one I’m still working on. Proud of you.

I’m not in a dorm—two kids, chaotic kitchen—but the rice cooker is the only appliance that gets used. Do you add the salsa/tomatoes before cooking or after?

I dumped salsa in at the start once and the lentils stayed weirdly crunchy. Now I cook them plain, then stir in salsa and frozen corn at the end, portion into 5 containers.

Snack-drawer backup: tua packets and roasted chickpeas so I don’t raid the kids’ crackers.

Tbh weigh lentils dry, not cooked; cooked weights vary with water and cause logging drift. I do 100 g dry red lentils + 1 lb frozen veg + jar salsa, portion into 4.

That’s roughly 18 g protein and 14 g fiber per container before add-ins. I treat it as volume/fiber, then anchor protein with chicken/tuna/eggs.

Rice cooker keep-warm dries them out—loosen with broth at reheat. What’s your protein floor per meal, and do you track weekly averages or daily?

Curious whether you recalculated calories as you dropped, or kept the same rice cooker menu and let the deficit shrink? I ask because my own trendline went flat for 19 days when I didn't re-weigh portions after losing 20 lbs.

Also, minor contrarian spreadsheet note: I tracked $/30g protein for a month, and on-sale rotisserie chicken beat tuna packets and plain lentils handily once I counted the lentil calories to get there. Greek yogurt was cheapest only when the big tub was marked down.

What was your cheapest consistent protein source over the 14 months?

The rice cooker lentil situation is so real. One thing that saved me when I was broke and dorm-bound: cook lentils with a jar of salsa and taco seasoning, then stir frozen spinach in at the end and let it thicken.

Top with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Tastes way less like sad chili and freezes in single portions.

Sharp question: what was your move for late-night study hunger? That’s where my deficit used to fall apart—pre-portioned yogurt, tea, or just going to bed?