Chefs logging diarys?

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Soul_To_Squeeze
Soul_To_Squeeze Posts: 29 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My partner is a chef and says he wants to loose weight but thinks he couldn't count anything properly because of his job. He is tasting stuff all day long to ensure its perfect for their customers. Mostly cream based sauces but other stuff they make as well. So how would you go about logging this? I said maybe you could log something similar. He says to much ingredients goes into everything and probably tastes around 20-40 spoons of whatever a day depending on what's being made. Any suggestions? Also thinks it would be very hard to keep track as he is way to busy pretty much all day long. As in from 10am- 10/11pm

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  • panda4153
    panda4153 Posts: 417 Member
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    I can see how this would be tricky. A couple of questions that I would start with, is he currently gaining weight, or has he maintained a certain weight and would just like to lose from there? If he is maintaining, you could use the various calculators out there to determine his TDEE and then log everything he eats outside of his tasting for his job, the difference would be the approximate of how many calories he is consuming from tasting. For example, if he eats 2000 calories a day in normal meals and snacks, and his TDEE is 2500 and he has maintained the same weight for a while you know that he is eating approximately 500 calories per day as part of his job. He obviously can cut back there, but he could log everything else, and create a calorie deficit from that.

    If he has been gaining weight, he could essentially do the same thing by determining his average weekly gain. so if on average his is gaining 1/2pound a week, he is eating a surplus of 250 calories per day. Again figure out TDEE and track and log how much he eats outside of his tasting food for his job, and then you can still estimate how much on average he consumes from that. While it is still an estimate, it is a calculated estimate that may help him with food decisions outside of work.
  • Paiger816
    Paiger816 Posts: 129 Member
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    I would log meals, but build the "tastings" into his diary everyday. Maybe figure out around how many calories these "tastes" are (like 300-400 calories maybe?) and just use the Quick Add tool to add those calories in the morning. Then he can still do the tastings, but he knows how many calories he has left for meals.
  • Soul_To_Squeeze
    Soul_To_Squeeze Posts: 29 Member
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    Yeah he's been gaining weight. Probably about 3 stone over 5 years. I'm not sure how that works out in lbs a week. He also drinks a lot of alcohol that probably adds a lot of calories.

    These are great ideas, thank you both for your replies. I'll let him know both ideas, then I guess it'll be up to him to if he can be bothered to do it.

    Thanks again. :smile:
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,902 Member
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    panda4153 wrote: »
    I can see how this would be tricky. A couple of questions that I would start with, is he currently gaining weight, or has he maintained a certain weight and would just like to lose from there? If he is maintaining, you could use the various calculators out there to determine his TDEE and then log everything he eats outside of his tasting for his job, the difference would be the approximate of how many calories he is consuming from tasting. For example, if he eats 2000 calories a day in normal meals and snacks, and his TDEE is 2500 and he has maintained the same weight for a while you know that he is eating approximately 500 calories per day as part of his job. He obviously can cut back there, but he could log everything else, and create a calorie deficit from that.

    If he has been gaining weight, he could essentially do the same thing by determining his average weekly gain. so if on average his is gaining 1/2pound a week, he is eating a surplus of 250 calories per day. Again figure out TDEE and track and log how much he eats outside of his tasting food for his job, and then you can still estimate how much on average he consumes from that. While it is still an estimate, it is a calculated estimate that may help him with food decisions outside of work.

    Sure, similarly, Weight Watchers doesn't make you count fruits and veggies, but they have accounted for those calories already in your points allowance.

    If I were a chef, I would plug my stats into MFP, see what calories I get, Quick Add 300-400 calories per day for the tastings, and adjust as needed after a month or so.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,222 Member
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    Maybe try to make an educated guess. Like this:
    Try to figure out how many calories a tablespoon/teaspoon of a typical sauce is (by calculating all the ingredients then measuring the weight of a table/teaspoon of it etc). Then one day count the number of times he tastes a (any) sauce during the day. Then multiply by the calories per spoon. This obviously is not going to be completely accurate but is better than just guessing blindly. We can assume that he tastes roughly the same amount of times each day so he can use this number for every day I suppose.
  • BurnWithBarn2015
    BurnWithBarn2015 Posts: 1,026 Member
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    There are some options

    1. For one time calculate the "bite" and than you can log after that every-time you take a bite/taste that amount. You will have a estimation that is at least close.
    2. A taste of something dont have to be swallowed Do lie wine tasters, spit it out! ( gawd this sounds so wrong lol)

    Chice is up to him, when he want to lose weight bad enough he will find a way

    ~ another chef


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  • killielila
    killielila Posts: 30 Member
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    Having worked in kitchens for many years i think its the other lifestyle factors that put weight on chefs and cooks . Between split shifts late nights and as u said alchol (and for many drugs i know many who are living on uppers and downers )

    As others said log the tastes as a meal . Eat proper meals at home before shift and have a prepped healthy meal and treat at home for after shift knowing a nice steak and dvd at home might make sitting around downing 5 pints and snacking on a quick deep fried crap less appealing after a long shift

    Drink calories count . I couldnt believe how many calories i drank in the unlimited pints of soft drink i always had in the warm kitchen .

    And while kitchen work is exchusting its not exactly a work out try enourage adding exercise especially on the dreaded split shifts ... 100 covers for breakfast service then 300 dinner n all i wanted to do during my break was hide under duvet

    But bonus is im sure he looks food and experamenting so will find ways to liven up food without adding Cals

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