Why does eating a frozen ready meal alone feel depressing even tho it's objectively good that I can have nice warm food easily

Because it's a little TOO easy.

Your body and brain know you didn't put any effort into it, not because you were in a rush, but just because you couldn't be arsed to. So it punishes you by making you hyper aware that you're consuming the uncanny valley of food. It's not NOT food, but it's not FOOD.

To be clear, I'm just using "you" generically. Absolutely no judgement here lol

Add some love to it. Put it on a plate, add a sprig of whatever, eat with a fancy fork, whatever it is that makes you happy. It's a little gift of love to yourself. Soon after living on my own I realized I could eat whatever I wanted out of those big wine glasses. So... I did. Juice, yogurt, cereal, mac and cheese. I liked how it looked and it was a small thing that made my day brighter.

its all in your head, your comparing your future food meal to the social options you arn't exercising and it makes you sad.

Self-judgement; it sucks and is useless and generally bad for you.

Maybe you're judging yourself for not cooking, but a lot of otherwise functional people can't cook or simply don't want to after a busy or tiring day. Enjoy your easy dinner!

Maybe you're judging yourself for eating a cheap meal on your own, but not every day can be a big party or expensive feast. Don't compare yourself to other people, especially when so much of what people depict on social media is misleading or exaggerated. It's fine to eat on your own (loneliness is a separate issue) and it's good to save money or live within your means.

Maybe you're judging yourself for eating something that you know is low quality or unhealthy, but health and fitness are much more about long term behavior patterns than any single day. As long as we're trying to be active and eat healthy on a regular basis there's nothing wrong with occasional junk food.

Anyway, the point is this: if you feel bad or depressed about something as small as what you're eating for dinner, it might be a sign of deeper problems with depression and self-judgment. And if you find yourself judging yourself, it can be very helpful in my experience to really think about why you're doing it, whether it's a reasonable critique, and whether you'd judge someone else for doing the same thing in your shoes.

You probably wouldn't judge someone else for eating a microwave dinner, so why judge yourself?

Record an album. You’ll feel better.

In part because the time we devote to something is felt as representative of how important it is - the sink cost fallacy can be visceral.

When you spend the minimum possible time feeding or looking after yourself, it's easy to feel like you're not treating yourself as important .

You could be focusing on "it's amazing how easy it is for me to make food!" But you're not. Your emotions are leading you somewhere, instead of your rational mind. Next time you recognize that you feel like that, pause, and pay attention to what exactly it is that you are feeling, without judgement. Use your rational mind to observe your emotional state. Just observe it, don't control it or try to change it. Hopefully you'll discover something, maybe even the answer you're looking for.

I've been poor before but I've always had access to food and decent shelter. I use to eat ramen noodles, chili and rice, and baloney sandwiches. I could really stretch out a $20 a week food budget.

When I eat a microwave meal I'm just happy I can afford to enjoy variety in my meals now though I still like sandwiches.

Probably all the textured vegetable protein that they use as filler makes everything seem like fake food.

I just wanted to say I love how you phrased the question and un upvote was not enough to express that

My biggest issue with them is they always say for 2 yet there's no way I could consider one a full meal. (might be a UK portion thing maybe).

I'd say a contributing factor could be tv/films. It's very common to see the divorced/dumped/bereaved/generally lonely people heating up frozen food and pushing some meat puck around with a fork, feeling pretty close to ending it all.. it's just dumb social commentary but I think it shares some blame for the "universal view" of one person heating up a frozen dish being kind of pathetic

Because there was no reason to try any harder, no one to impress, not even yourself.

Because it's low quality and stuffed with trash.

If it's real food you freeze and reheat it's different.

Eating is a social deal in every culture (as is smoking, doing edibles, or partaking in any other consumable, generally). It might even be an instinctive thing. I know when my wife isn't around (often due to business) I'll just make something simple for myself (like the stereotypical can of tuna) and when she doesn't want to eat (migraines, etc.) then I feel disappointed that I won't be making dinner for us.

Curiously, when it comes to dessert, I am a little sad if we don't eat it together, if say, there's pie and she had her slice while I was dogwalking or something.

And I say this as someone who's eaten alone for most of my life. My usual thing was just to make myself one of a few staples and snack while playing video games. (This also led to a preference for food I could handle without flatware but also wasn't greasy. Things wrapped in tortillas and carrotsticks.)

Now that I'm in the habit of prepping dinner every night, it feels weird when I don't.

"I sleep in a race car. Do you?"

1. You're alone, so that's part of it.
2. Frozen, microwaveable food is depressing in and of itself just due to itself often being bland, lacking in quality, and in an unsatisfying portion.

Because we live in a society.

Prepagaged food is generally quite bad for you. Rancid oils, high fructose corn syrup in everything, low fiber, mystery preservatives, and so on. When i lived on that kind of food, i rapidly gained weight to 210 lbs. I look at pictures of myself from back then and it's horrifying. I look like I'm dying. I started cooking my own food from simple ingredients, and within a year i was down to 140. I've kept it off ever since.

Because it’s not healthy. Check the nutrition content and it’s probably loaded on sodium for example.

Attitude. I love a night in solitude, watch a movie I fancy. Eat stinky fermented stuff with an air fried meal.

Some of those frozen meals are cheaply made and have ingredients that are not necessarily the best for your body.

Those meals are sometimes REALLY high in nitrates. Those can cause some issues for your gut biome.

Food has always been something that's very social and growing/hunting/preparing it a crucial part of culture. We're wired for it. It binds us. Even if you had made no effort as part of the process, the kinship of knowing someone went all that effort for you is difficult to replace.

Anyway, when you just heat frozen food and eat it alone, all that pretty much goes down the drain.

Because in general, most of them look like straight garbage. They say you eat with your eyes first so you’re swallowing a whole lotta depression before your first bite. Plate it up and pretty it up with some garnish. Some brands look better than others too. Stouffers and Boston Market come off as more of a home-cooked look.

Unless we’re focusing on the alone part. Can’t help you there. The answer as to why it feels that way is pretty obvious.

If it makes you feel any better, my wife and I eat tons of frozen meals.

Probably because you’re alone, and you don’t feel accomplished regarding your meal. If either of those changed, you’d probably feel better.

Foods just fuel to me unless I've had weed. But when my husband first started working long hours I didn't enjoy eating alone. It didn't matter what the food type was.

But unless I'm expecting someone around for meal time, I couldn't care less if I eat alone or not

How much harder is it to steam frozen vegetables and air fry a healthy protein?

You'd be eating real food and had to do all of what--wait 8 minutes instead of 5?

Because you eating alone, no matter what

Wait, it does? Huh, never felt like it, I just enjoy the food

Doesn't for me, so it's in your head. I actually feel less satisfied if I put the effort in, doesn't feel like a pleasant gift from the universe, more like a zero sum game.