Question for the seasoned dieters. Thanks!

bellabonbons

France? That is my dream. I was enrolled in the Cordon Bleu to become a pastry chef. My dream was to travel to Paris to go to the Cordon Bleu there. And I was honored to obtain a crème brûlée recipe from the Cordon Bleu Paris executive Chef. Bon appétit. My most favorite dessert in the world is crème brûlée.

Machka9

bellabonbons wrote: »

I am new to MFP. How on earth when you are a gourmet cook and love food to survive on 1200 calories a day? I am considering not eating breakfast to have enough calories for lunch, dinner and an evening snack. And It is impossible for me to not eat anything evenings. Thanks to all. The people here are awesome! Always super helpful !

MFP put me at 1200 ... I upped it to 1250.

And then I exercise a lot ... and eat approx. half my exercise calories back. More on days when I put in a larger effort than usual.

So for the most part, I lost my 26 kg eating somewhere around 1500-1600 cal.

sunfastrose

Just to point something out - even if you eat at 1200, you probably won't get the two pounds a week weight loss you want. When you have little to lose the margin between 1200 and maintenance is smaller; to lose 2 pounds a week you would to have a daily deficit of 1000 calories, which is unlikely to do with that small number of pounds to lose.

bellabonbons

Incredible tips, helps, and advice. Much appreciated!

bwogilvie

Unless you think that "gourmet" = "chock full of fat," it's easy to eat good food that is relatively low in calories and rich in nutrients. My dinner tonight was a curry with chicken thighs, onions, tomatoes, and chutney over brown rice with sesame-shiitake broccoli on the side, and totaled about 450 calories. I just had an easy hand with the oil when cooking, measured portions carefully, and ate slowly so I wasn't tempted to keep eating after I was full.

If you do make something that's calorie-rich, enjoy it slowly, in small servings, after filling up on lighter foods. That's what I do with anything that has a cheese or cream sauce.

A few other tricks: if you do a cheese course, serve only one or two cheeses. With several cheeses, it's tempting to have a bit of one, a bit of another, a bit of a third, and then another bit of the first one.... If you have wine, which is nice with a good meal, decide in advance how much you will have, put it in a glass or decanter, then seal up the bottle and put it away.

Also, look for tasty vegetarian and vegan dishes. I'm not vegan myself, but a dear friend is, and I love cooking interesting and tasty dishes for her when we have her over. (In fact, I often cook vegan food for me and my wife even when our friend isn't coming for dinner.) Vegan gourmet cooking is fun because you need to find something besides animal meat and fat to provide interesting flavor and texture, and it's usually not very high in calories as long as you don't rely too much on oils.

And finally, don't discount exercise. During my 65-pound weight loss, I took it easy (47 pounds the first year, 18 the second year), so I didn't have to deprive myself, and I averaged 450 calories a day of exercise, which let me eat a lot more than if I hadn't exercised, and made me feel better too. A lot of the exercise was deliberate: short runs, walks, and bike rides during the week, and one or two longer runs, hikes, or bike rides on the weekend. But much of it was incidental: commuting to work by bike rather than car, taking the stairs up to my 6th-floor office instead of the elevator, parking at the far end of the parking lot at the grocery store, etc. The last time I spent a year in Paris, I lost weight despite eating very well in restaurants and at home, because daily life involved so much more walking, cycling, and stair climbing that my usual routine in the US.

nutmegoreo

bellabonbons wrote: »

It's just harder to gage calories of gourmet recipes but I can estimate. 1200 calories does seem too limiting. I will bump it up to 1400 this week and see if I lose. I want to lose 2 lbs per week.

If you are estimating your calories you are not likely going to lose at the rate you think anyway. Better to take it a bit slower, enjoy the process more, and be feeling awesome for your event. I'm losing 1.5/week on 1700 cals, but my job keeps me on my feet mostly and I workout. Being too aggressive in your goal can have some negative impacts on your health. Mull things over a bit, and think about what people have said. Best of luck to you.

kk_inprogress

I'm at 1240, but have my expenditure set at sedentary. I eat exercise calories back at 50-75% on average (which you should when using MFP) and it makes it perfectly manageable.

bellabonbons

Much appreciated. The information given from MFP can't be bought yet it is priceless. I am learning more in two weeks that I have learned in five years. I thought I had it all under control.

kk_inprogress

bellabonbons wrote: »

Much appreciated. The information given from MFP can't be bought yet it is priceless. I am learning more in two weeks that I have learned in five years. I thought I had it all under control.

There is a lot to be learned here. You have to weed out the BS and find the people who have been here a while and have had success. There are quite a few!

bellabonbons

The people I have encountered here are dedicated, knowledgeable and so very helpful. I wasn't expecting so much assistance and sound advice. Given me a lot to think about. .

Sued0nim

As a gourmet chef you should enjoy the challenge of taking highly calorific recipes and experimenting with reducing the calorie count for the same taste and experience

I'm an adequate to good cook and I find this relatively good fun ...admittedly some have ended in the bin, cos even the dog won't touch them ...but in general go for it

Look at good cooks and their healthy versions

Mooch around http://www.skinnytaste.com ...she has a great range of recipes with a slightly tweaked approach and has done it for you ... Although I also tweak her recipes cos I'm a tinkerer

Use the recipe builder...import recipes from the web and in the app tweak them (I weigh all finished dishes and log a serving as 100g)

That said I agree with the anti 1200 brigade...it's a fair enough target when starting out and commitment is high and you have a decent amount of excess fat but IMO it does not lead to consistency or long term success ...I would say your weight loss goal per week should be no more than 1% bodyweight ...also Spanx