It's hard for them to lose weight because they're addicts. They just won't admit it and society enables it.  Greedy gluttons make good consumerist citizens. I accept that I won't be making everything from scratch at home.  It's just about what and how much I buy when shopping.  So yeah, buying a pre-mixed bag of chopped vegetables for $5 to add to my salads probably isn't the absolute cheapest way to do it, but that extra $5-$10/week is worth it to me.    Buying one of each vegetable and chopping it up for my own pre-mix would cost a bit more and go to waste, as a single person simply can't eat that much.  And I'm a poor vet/college student, I simply can't afford to eat out.  Other students talk about their favorite places to eat, and I just give them a blank stare when asked, saying I don't eat out much or I'm new(ish) to the area. I don't even want to know what it would take to make the low-carb tortillas for my sandwich wraps.