Advice for dieting in a relationship - specifically, living with someone

There's no need to stick to chicken breast! We eat vegetarian a lot of the time. For things like chili and soup we will sub in ground turkey instead of beef. Fish is always an option (but not in my house--hubby won't touch it).

As for veggies, prep ones that keep well and you can always make a big batch of something that lasts multiple meals. For example, on the weekend we had roast beef with roasted squash as one of the sides. Now, it was enormous so we had straight up leftovers for two more meals, and also made homemade ravioli stuffed with the last of the squash. Omg was that good!

If your partner won't eat the veggie it just makes meal prep the rest of the week a bit easier for you. And you can always keep something on hand that he does like. For example my toddler is picky about which veg he will eat so we always have carrots, peppers and cucumber in the fridge as he will always eat those raw.

Being in a relationship doesn't change that you have to keep focusing on yourself, this should stay a priority no matter what!

Relationships may come and go, but if you arent working independently to be healthy person inside and out, what can you even bring to a relationship anyway?

OP, I am happy to hear you are back on the bandwagon and also getting support from your SO. Maybe also try and set it up so that is he stumbles, you've still got it!

I'm in a somewhat similar boat. My BF is considering dieting with me, but even so, he'd have a lot (like six or seven hundred) more calories to work with each day. In the meantime, I've found some cooking strategies to make sure I stay on track. Sometimes we'll eat the same thing in different ways. For example, we'll make fajitas in the oven (recipe courtesy of Budget Bytes--so good!). He'll make normal fajitas, and I'll make fajita salad with beans, cheese, salsa, and a bit of sour cream. Other times we'll eat the same thing in the same way, but I'll weigh out one portion for myself and cook it in a little pan/pot. (This works well with something like a casserole or a roasted chicken/potato dish.) Sometimes we'll make pasta or something "bad" like that, and I'll just have one serving with a big salad on the side. For me, this has really been about cooking what we've always cooked but making sure I can find a way to tweak it slightly/log it accurately. I'm sure you guys can come up with a plan if you put your heads together!

Also, it's great that he loves you the way you are! I'm in the same boat. I bet things would be a lot harder for us if they didn't, but what really matters is whether we love ourselves the way we are. Remembering that has been helpful for me.

When I cook (we don't live together yet), we eat the same foods. He has more rice, pasta, or potatoes, and I have proportionally more protein and veggies. I did stop making biscuits. Sometimes he wants a roll with his meal and picks one up on his way here.

When I make a high calorie dessert, he gets a bigger piece. Usually we just have one Ghiradelli square after dinner. I have a bedtime snack of about 200 calories after he goes home.

My sister and I live together, and we are both counting calories. I have a higher allowance, with a larger deficit (more wiggle room). The way it usually works out is that we have the same dinner, but I have more snacks. Depending on supper, I often have several hundred calories to fill. Sometimes I just eat some more chicken (pre-cooked, kept around for convenience), or sometimes I eat a bunch of ice cream.

When I was still living at home with my parents, I would often just cook my own meals. So making two meals doesn't sound excessive to me. You don't use any more food than you otherwise would, so it isn't wasteful, just time consuming.

As far as motivating him, don't worry so much about it. If you prepare most of the meals, then unless he has a Big Mac every day, in addition to the other meals, then it probably won't hurt. If you find he needs more energy through the day, just try giving him calorie dense snacks, like peanut butter. Personally, I prefer fruits and veggies as a snack, but I like to graze.

For different calorie goals, use different portions. Its not unusual for me to have 1 serving of whatever protein we're having while hubby has 2. And he typically has larger portions of veggies, bread, starch as well.

As to fast food and whatnot: its not verbotten. Just think about how the calories fit into your overall day, and if you have a smart phone: take MFP with you wherever you go. You'll ultimately learn calorie counts, but its easy enough to look them up. Unless there are reasons (medical I mean) for you to avoid certain foods, then you can have what you want. At McD's I'll typically have a small fry order and a Filet-o-fish w/ no cheese and light tartar sauce. (They put too much on - it just slides apart so I always asked for light sauce even when I was not counting calories.) Under 600 cals.

Well good luck.. My GF and I do our calorie counting, meal prepping, shopping, and weight lifting together. It has been great fun and super motivation for us both.

I've gotten accustomed to cooking separate meals for my family and for myself. Sometimes there is some cross-over, which is nice, but most of the time, it's totally separate. This has taken a lot of planning to get it to a workable place. I try to plan meals well in advance and plan shopping trips, too. I don't cook every day at all, just about 3 times per week, and I make big batches, portion things out, freeze some stuff, etc., so I can keep variety, especially for my family. (I don't mind eating the same thing over-and-over for awhile, I get in moods for things.)

One neat and unexpected thing that has happened so far is that both my hubs and my kid have made some changes for themselves, on their own, based on seeing my results so far. My kid has drastically reduced his soda portions. He drinks one of those little mini-cans of Coke once or twice a week. My hubby, a "I'll have a side of meat with my meat entree" guy, has (on his own!) suddenly been into trying and even enjoying meat substitutes, something he never would have even considered. He also has started exercising at home sometimes, which is new. And now when I ask if he wants to come along with me to the park for a walk, he actually does tag along.

It takes time to see results, sometimes lots of time, but when that happens it can be a great motivator because it feels so worth it. That's a lot of motivation with no words necessary. Best wishes! ♥

I'm married. My husband isn't trying to lose weight (which is totally okay with me), but he is interested in eating healthier, so that helps.

I pack him lunches that he likes. The main thing I want to keep out of the house is sweets. He doesn't care for sweets, so that's easy. He likes salty snacks, and I don't have a problem moderating those. So, sandwiches and chips and crackers like usual. I throw in fruit and yogurt instead of chips sometimes- he likes both of those. I've started to bulk up his sandwiches with spinach, lettuce, and tomatoes. We've switched out our white bread for whole wheat. We're getting leaner, lower sodium lunch meats sliced at the deli. Nothing too crazy there. My lunches don't have to be the same as his - I don't find sandwiches to be as filling as other options for the same calories.

I make the same dinners as usual on some nights, but I eat smaller portions. His portions are the same. As above with his sandwiches, I try to add in extra veggies where I can. We still eat fast food. We're ordering pizza for dinner tonight.

Other nights, we'll have salad for the main course and fresh fruit for dessert, or we'll have lots of veggies with the old standby of chicken. We eat a lot of chicken because it's cheap, but that's not actually too different from before I was working on my weight. Our grocery budget hasn't changed - it's small. He'll try anything once, so I'll find a recipe to try here or there. I like to try vegetarian or whole food type things. If he doesn't like it, then I don't make it for dinner again.

We have switched out white rice for brown, regular pasta for whole wheat, etc. We eat more beans. Things like that. Just little changes. We still use real butter and such.

If you look at choosemyplate.gov, it recommends a plate that is filled halfway with produce. Basically, we eat many of the same types of foods as before, but the proportion of our meals has changed, and apart from the occasional homemade loaf of white bread, it's all whole grains now. Produce, produce, produce has become our thing - with a side of Shake N' Bake chicken thighs or even evil, processed Hamburger Helper sometimes. Like I said, I just have smaller portions of the calorie dense stuff while his remain the same.

With a little bit of support and a willingness to try new things on your significant other's end and nothing too crazy on your end, there shouldn't be a problem.

I don't mind doing quick, simple separate meals if we're talking about packing a lunch or throwing together an easy breakfast, but I absolutely under no circumstances would cook individual meals. Nope, nope, nope. Hell to the no. Even if we had kids. Especially if we had kids, actually. Not sustainable or fair or fun.

I'm a vegetarian and my boyfriend eats meat. I prepare the same meals but make mine vegetarian and lower calorie. If I make enchiladas he gets chicken in his in addition to my filling (usually green chile, corn and black bean), I leave out extra cheese in my filling he gets more cheese, etc. if we do burgers, I do veggie burgers skip the bun in favor of avocado he gets a bun and avocado etc. We do crock pot pasta sauce and just cook meat for his and add afterwards. Etc. if he doesn't like what I'm making he's a grown man and he's more than welcome to cook for himself. We both work full time and it's not my job to be his mom. I cook about 1/3 of the time, he cooks the other 1/3 and the remainder we do our own thing.

You can still focus on you and be in a relationship. My companion and I practice martial arts and outside of the sessions we take up challenges such as push up or plank challenges. We can encourage and support our partners but only they can find their own motivations for doing something. You can make it work if you really want it t, just eat foods that are nutritious and tasty. There are plenty of cookbooks and websites out there that have a plethora of ideas for healthy and nutritious meals.

All the best

i gained 15 pounds of "relationship weight" haha but I blame it mostly to working 10 hours a day on my feet to not working... Anyway my hubs is a professional athlete and boy does he eat like one. I make a LOT of high calorie meals every week.. lots of pastas, potatoes, sauces, ect. I eat whatever he eats in smaller portions and weigh it all out. Im not gonna make Alfreado from scratch for him and eat a measly chicken breast.. I'm eating that stuff too. good ol CICO.