What's wrong with this picture?

[Rossana]

Ok guys... I have been thinking about this thread for weeks... and I am cutting into my bath time to do it... :) but I feel its really important.

While I was dieting for my comp, I still poured over the food mags to get ideas... healthy ideas. I still wondered at how people could eat normal food and not put on weight....

So while I was eating my porridge made with water and splenda I put pen to paper with a calculator. I took a "5 DAY MENU" published in one of these "celebrity chef" mags and looked at it in a PFC format instead. It's good that they provided their own break down but out of ALL the recipes in the mag, these were the only ones with a PFC breakdown.

So what do you think is wrong with this picture, apart from the obvious carb intake?

[Rossana]

Well I'll give you a hint: if I had Day 3's menu... and I was trying to maintain my weight at 1600 cals, what could could I eat throughout the day that wouldn't make me crave, and would make me feel satisfied....:rolleyes:

[Sherrie]

Apart from the high carbs

1: Too many calories for one meal ( I say one meal because the second meals is consumed pretty much straight after the first). Thats pretty much 1/2 to 3/4 of ones daily calorie intake in 1 sitting. No way you will burn all that.

2: Too much fat and carbs together. Won't be burning any of that fat consumed.

Meal 5 is'nt too bad compared to others but still looks like too many cals and carb/fat for one sitting.

[SandyJ]

Ditto with Sherrie

What are you going to eat for the rest of the day? And if this is supposed to be for a low calorie diet where diets of 1000-1500 cals are advocated then that doesn't leave much.

[Rossana]

exactamundo!

Admittedly these recipes weren't for weight loss. But I find it really scary about how, in blissful ignorance, women (in most cases) will cook and eat these meals under the guise that it is healthy. I am sure it is healthy... they looked great.... the ingredients were largely fresh...

But in the long term the only people who remain happy are their male partners who don't put on weight :(
Coming from a person who, at the moment, makes every calorie count, I was astounded! I kept thinking "yeah but what else can I eat throughout the day???? I need 7 meals!! :mad:"

So I looked at the portions and quantities of protein used to see if they were big portions... HA! Then I got really worried... 3 serves would go to Jesper and one to our daughter (how do you tell a growing kid not to eat the chocolate pudding???). I cook in min quantities of kilo lots so that there's food for meals the following day... :(

So just in case I waffled a bit (me? never! ;) ) I really just wanted to highlight how we can "think" we are doing the right thing but be unaware of the real ramificiations unless we are aware of what we put in our mouth. You can go over board to become a total neurotic (I have come close) but I guess what concerns me is that once we lose weight we sort of hope that we can "go back" to that sort of eating....

The celebrity chef thing is really hip and happening and being a real foodie I love it, but don't be lulled into the one side imagery presented to you....
The photo's depicted as "the present" were often taken years ago... I saw a recent one of Jamie Oliver (Naked Chef fame) and he was definitely "thicker" shall we say compared to his "skinnier" self.
Nigella Lawson rarely has full bodied photo's.
Donna Hay is rarely photographed but I looked at a photo of her team... half were really young ladies who probably would never get really overweight.... the other half were hidden behind them :(
Many of the chefs in the ABC Delicious magazine (which I love btw) are male anyway..... but over time the few candid shots taken of them show them becoming more rotund while the majority of photo's are "stock" images... images taken en masse at photo shoot days.... taken at one point in time

Anyway, enough rambling... :)

[Sherrie]

Yeah you could'nt possibly maintain your weight eating those meals day after day.

You know thats what we need. When people write recipe books we need them to put in the PFC and calories in with each recipe.
Would make life so much easier if you could look at a recipe and see it's value and plan it into your week.

There would be alot more healthier people in the world if they did this I think.

[Rossana]

I agree but these meals were marketed as "the weeks meals". And on top of that, at least in Sydney, alot of people eat out at least once or twice on the weekend.... it's scary.

So even if people are trying to do the right by cooking food at home, they're sort of "duped" into thinking that a week's worth of these meals would be OK. And even if the person did count these into their overall caloric intake, I feel that the other foods that are consumed throughout the day would reduce the effectiveness of how efficient their bodies became at burning calories ESPECIALLY if they did not exercise.

[Sherrie]

Oh dear I would'nt have more then one of these a week if I was maintaining my weight.
I dunno if I'm just being obsessive but If I had one of these meals I would still feel I'd have to run a deficit the next day to make it up...

It's amazing how much I've changed, I never used to care what I put in my mouth as for such a long time I got away with it.
When I first began this diet I was in serious denial, refused to count because then that would mean I was on a diet!. :p

[Sherrie]

Bumping to remind everyone what they are eating right now :p