Do you know any good cooks who are also very in shape/healthy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, no, I don’t. And I say this as an excellent cook who could stand to lose some weight. I’m not obese, but I wouldn’t call myself thin either.

I laughed at the post about “even using butter and red meats” too, other PP. I feel you!

I might be fat and sort of shy, but my dinner parties are always well attended and I don’t lack for friends! You can, in fact, cook your way into people’s hearts.

I do exercise at least an hour a day, 7 days a week, so I wouldn’t say I am that unhealthy.

I'm chubby from upthread. We could be friends!

Cheers to those of us willing to choose food and friendship rather than obsessing over our looks!

[Anonymous]

PP here. I should say my friend is a very intense, perfectionist person when it comes to everything including cooking and sports.

[Anonymous]

Me! I'm in shape.

Round is a shape.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I’m a good cook and I’m not overweight. I even use butter and sugar and red meats sometimes, but all that is balanced out with lots of fruits and vegetables. I rarely eat processed foods so that helps.

Cooking is a form of processing, but I'm pointing this out so you can announce that you mean food that is full of chemicals.

Anyway. I know good cooks who are thin, but they are also rich, so they have the time to cook and hit the gym. And they cook small, simple meals some nights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think I’m a good cook and I’m not overweight. I even use butter and sugar and red meats sometimes, but all that is balanced out with lots of fruits and vegetables. I rarely eat processed foods so that helps.

No? Really?
Guess what? I even use lard, like for eggs in the morning and I am not overweight. And I even use sugar and red meat....a lot.

You sound sarcastic and/or defensive. Why is that? I am not averse to using lard (like for making Mexican cornmeal doughs) but don't use it on the regular. I don't use a lot of sugar but I will use it where called for. I eat red meat sparingly because of high cholesterol. My family members and my guests all think I'm a really good cook. I have decades of experience, take care to buy quality ingredients, and read a lot of magazines/blogs. I sometimes eat something at a restaurant and try to recreate at home. My BMI is sub 19 and I'm above average in height. I exercise intensely 6 days a week. I don't drink soda, alcohol, juice. Mostly water, coffee, lattes, or tea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think I’m a good cook and I’m not overweight. I even use butter and sugar and red meats sometimes, but all that is balanced out with lots of fruits and vegetables. I rarely eat processed foods so that helps.

Cooking is a form of processing, but I'm pointing this out so you can announce that you mean food that is full of chemicals.

Anyway. I know good cooks who are thin, but they are also rich, so they have the time to cook and hit the gym. And they cook small, simple meals some nights.

Small, simple meals can be a product of good cooks. Through experience, I can make meals efficiently, less expensively, and in less time than it takes to order out. I don't make elaborate meals most nights, but they're still nutritious and satisfying.

[Anonymous]

No, not in my experience. The very skinny work hard to develop a reputation as a good cook, a hostess, to fend-off any criticism/concern that they are at an unhealthy weight, have unhealthy eating patterns, just don't eat enough.

[Anonymous]

Most of the top professionals chefs are thin, with a few exceptions. (looking at you, Mario Batali) You can’t be fat and out of shape and endure the intensity of a restaurant kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Yes. My dad is a wonderful cook, especially desserts. He’s struggled to keep enough weight on his whole life and has always kept fit with lots of hiking and walking and social dance. Genetics is just like that sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Small, simple meals can be a product of good cooks. Through experience, I can make meals efficiently, less expensively, and in less time than it takes to order out. I don't make elaborate meals most nights, but they're still nutritious and satisfying.

Sure, but plenty of people who cook perfectly fine small, simple meals can't do anything else. I think the question was whether people who can do more are thin, and I assume the real question was whether you can employ your cooking chops every night and not have a little more junk in your trunk.

Ina Garten, Emeril Lagasse, Tom Colicchio . . . . I'm thinking the odds are not in your favor. But I also think weight is mostly genetics, and a lot of people who aren't programmed to be thin manage to stay that way by not eating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think I’m a good cook and I’m not overweight. I even use butter and sugar and red meats sometimes, but all that is balanced out with lots of fruits and vegetables. I rarely eat processed foods so that helps.

No? Really?
Guess what? I even use lard, like for eggs in the morning and I am not overweight. And I even use sugar and red meat....a lot.

You sound sarcastic and/or defensive. Why is that? I am not averse to using lard (like for making Mexican cornmeal doughs) but don't use it on the regular. I don't use a lot of sugar but I will use it where called for. I eat red meat sparingly because of high cholesterol. My family members and my guests all think I'm a really good cook. I have decades of experience, take care to buy quality ingredients, and read a lot of magazines/blogs. I sometimes eat something at a restaurant and try to recreate at home. My BMI is sub 19 and I'm above average in height. I exercise intensely 6 days a week. I don't drink soda, alcohol, juice. Mostly water, coffee, lattes, or tea.

I was going for sarcastic so good of you to notice.
Defensive? Nope, why would I be defensive to someone who "even uses butter and sugar and red meats sometimes?"
You are defensive a ton though, and still clueless as to why people are mocking you. Hint, you are not a good cook. You keep digging your own grave with each new post.
Nobody is a good cook cause they read magazines and blogs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Me! I'm in shape.

Round is a shape.

And a wonderful shape it is. You are my fav pp here now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think I’m a good cook and I’m not overweight. I even use butter and sugar and red meats sometimes, but all that is balanced out with lots of fruits and vegetables. I rarely eat processed foods so that helps.

You're not a good cook.

Why do you say that?

If you say you "even use [extremely basic ingredients] sometimes" then you're just adept at making certain weight watchers nonsense palatable for yourself. A good cook wouldn't think this was some risque thing - to cook with butter! Or even sugar or meat! - or even worth mentioning. Also cooking is a food process so if you rarely eat cooked food I don't know how you can think you're good at cooking.

I’m not on any kind of weight watcher or diet anything. Why would you assume that? I mentioned the butter, sugar, red meat merely to show that I’m not cooking some sort of rigid diet meals. The question had to do with weight. I cook a large variety of foods from different regions of the world. I cook carbs, proteins, and fats of all sorts. Where did I say I rarely eat cooked foods? I cook almost every night for dinner. I rarely do take-out or eat out. I am thin, as is my whole family, because it’s of genetics, exercising 6 days a week, and eating wholesome foods.

DP. But do you (and OP) "get" that the bias in your verbiage causes an immediate and probably subconscious response to your readers? It speaks volumes and that's what the person you're responding to is pointing out.

To add another perspective, I also am trim AND I am a professionally trained (Le Cordon Bleu) chef. Even I read your post and thought, woohoo, "even use" was a bellwether that you probably have a pretty rigid repertoire that is outside of the norm in terms of protein and fats (in that you don't use them much). That's fine, of course, because to each his own, but my inference was that you and OP are two of a kind in terms of making judgments and focused more on low calorie and low fat, which typically result in not very good tasting foods. Also from my perspective, it isn't a healthy mindset and that type of extreme food preparation isn't necessary or as physically healthy as you might suppose it to be. IMO of course.

But you do you and I'll do me, and together we'll all get our bake on!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the top professionals chefs are thin, with a few exceptions. (looking at you, Mario Batali) You can’t be fat and out of shape and endure the intensity of a restaurant kitchen.

How do you know this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's very hard to be a "foodie" or otherwise make food your hobby and also be thin. Some people do it, but people who have a weight problem probably need to drop the foodie identity if they want to lose.

Not at all hard. I am one of those foodies, I prefer gourmand and a skilled home cook.
I wait for food that I like. I cook what I want to eat. I research and go shopping at ethnic markets. I have never been more than 120lbs. I am 51 and 5'4". Until 47, I was 107lbs. I love to eat, love it.
Love to cook too.
I do calorie cycling and have no trouble with my weight.

You sound psychotic. Gain some weight.