Living with parents makes calorie counting very difficult :/

You could help out in the kitchen & that way you'd know what was going into your food. You could also separate your portion out fir fewer calories (i.e. if chicken was being cooked to add to a white sauce, you could take out your portion of chicken and eat it plain, or just add a little sauce on the side.

Hmm..if she's the controlling type, maybe she would be more open if you asked for her "help" losing weight. You've been working hard to lose a few pounds, but you know you'll put them back on with all of her good cooking, so you need a little help staying focused. I dunno if it would work, but maybe?

rabbitjb wrote: »

Cook for them

This. Cook for them a couple of times a week. Share your recipes, let them know how many calories are in it, why it's good for them. Your step-mother may start volunteering the information about her recipes without you even having to ask.

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there are days that I choose to eat my mom food (basically I try to guess the best that I can) but almost daily I just do my stuff, or better yet cook for the week and reheat.

and about the whole weight your food, believe me everyone will just get used to it like everything in life!
my mom used to put the face but now psss she is so sweet that she asked me how to use my food scale and weight my food and be helpful.

and now when my family don't see me weighing my food they are like Holly *kitten* WTF is going on #Hilarious

rabbitjb wrote: »

Cook for them

That'll do it!

:drinker:

I can't believe how many "adults" let other people control what they can and can't eat just because they live there. You're an adult cook for yourself or move out if your step mom really won't let you prepare your own food (because if that's remotely true it can't possibly be healthy place for you emotionally to live anyways with that level of control). Surely they can't possibly care if their adult daughter cooks her own meals or cooks for them.

I work full time, but am living with my parents due to the end of a relationship, and needing to get money together for a new place. I take my mum shopping on the weekend, and we menu plan together. I don't actively push low cal food on her and dad - they love their food, and don't want to lose weight - but I plan my own meals around what we will eat as a family, and those I know I will change slightly or make an alternative. There are quite a number of dishes where I will take a portion of the main element, and pair it with salad, instead of the potatoes/rice etc that they're having.

Simply knowing exactly what I'm going to be eating each evening helps immeasurably with how I plan the rest of my meals. I know I'm going to have the same breakfast every weekday morning, I have packed lunches that I can vary according to my daily calorie needs (between 300 and 450 calories), and I can pretty much pre-log my evening meals most days. That alone keeps me on target, and my exercise calories take care of anything else.

Try and get involved in food purchasing and menu planning as much as possible. If they won't let you do that, you need to keep your meals separate from their's, and buy and make your own. I'm lucky that I share the cooking responsibilities with my mother, and that makes calorie counting much easier. Even on the days she cooks, she always uses recipes, that I can log into MFP, and I weigh my portions. My parents looked at me strangely at first, and now they don't even bother asking. I sometimes come in late to find a note telling me what the weights are, because my dinner has already been plated up for me, and they've done it for me!!!

I am in the same situation. I have little control over lunch, but I can eat what I want for breakfast and dinner, so I try my best to exercise and cut down on calories for those two meals. If you look at my food diary, you will see my lunch has upwards of 1000 calories. It's all homemade, but very caloric, unfortunately. Also, an easy way to cut down on calories when your stepmom is cooking is asking her to limit the amount of oil/butter she uses. As for counting on MFP, I just estimate (and sometimes even overestimate) quantities, which I know is not the best option, but it's all I can do at this point.

I totally understand the controlling step mother! My MIL is very controlling to the point that she will put everyone's serving right on their plate. When she visits us she has to buy all the food and she needs to cook. FIL is over 300lbs right now. Last time she visited, I asked her not to get my food, I would serve myself (so I could weigh my food at least) and she had a little melt down.

One of the things I have learned is to save a good portion of my calories for dinner when she is here. I eat a light breakfast and lunch. I also try to fill up on whatever vegetable she is serving and/or salad.

I'm in the same situation, I live at home and the only meal I have no control over is dinner. I've learned to allow at least 500 calories for dinner which isn't enough majority of the time, but I've drastically cut back elsewhere so it doesn't bother me if I go a little over. When mum is cooking dinner I ask what recipe she's using, and then I log that recipe according to how many servings I had. It's not completely accurate because I can't weigh and measure every ingredient, but at least I have a fairly good idea of how many calories was in my dinner.