swantje: "no more than 1000 calories a day and you'll be dropping the weight, i promise you that..."

Isn't that kind of bad for your metabolism??? It sounds to me like a lot of calories to cut out... Exercise is a much healthier (albeit slower) way to lose weight!

"3. KFC (that's how bad it's getting)
4. Pistachio barfi
5. Old El Paso tacos (since I saw the advert for the new "Standable Stackable taco shell)."

KFC--its the greatest--well, not as good as Taco Bell, but...! What on earth is pistachio barfi? It cannot be what it sounds like...


Tacos are very good for you. Get shells that are made of anything but white flour, put healthy lean meats and fresh chopped veggies in, skip the sour cream, a dash of salsa ( I think you all Brits say chilli sauce!) and its a very healthy meal!

less than 1000 isn't good. i'm not losing weight very quickly either, 20 kilos since october is only about 2 kilos/month, that's average. if i started to exercise as well i would lose the weight quicker, but i'm too lazy...

Rosy, you shouldn't go below 800 calories a day if you are an avergae female, but 1000 calories is what doctors recommend for weight loss. You just need to make sure you are eating the right amounts of the major food groups (i.e. none of that Atkins nonsense).

Olivia: barfi are a type of Indian sweet: a bit like fudge. I think they're made from condensed milk. If you are in London you should be able to get hold of them easily.

So what happens when you decide you have reached your weight goal and start eating normally again (i.e more than 2000 calories)? Especially if you do no exercise.

H, I shouldn't eat more than 1,800 calories in a "normal", non-dieting day (that's the recommended amount for a small person with a reasonably active lifestyle: that's cycling to uni, and doing martial arts twice a week, in my case).

Then again, best not to obsess. You can eat like a pig some days as long as you cut back a bit to compenate the next day.

Today my mind is on junk food...potato cakes with sausages and beans. Or: Morrisons bread and butter pudding

Maybe doctors would recommend 1000 calories for people who were seriouly obese, but for a normal enough (i.e. only slightly overweight) person I think that is too low. Supposedly the most you can cut out with slowing down your metabolism is about 20%... So if your normal amount is 1800 you shouldn't cut out more than 360 calories per day. But I suppose it depends whether you want to lose it the healthy way or the fast way Anyway that is just my two cents!

Yeah, I'm hardly an expert: that's just what I read in my (old, undergrad) medical textbook. I'd like to eat more, it's boring being on a diet!

It is important to exerxise when you're dieting, to keep the metabolism going.

lol, I meant more than 1000 calories, not 2000!

I love my food and hate to diet. Best thing is to stop eating junk/fatty food (check saturated fat) and exercise.

Now if I could only motivate myself.....

Yeah, you're right. I'm only dieting now cos I have a conference next week and I want to wear my size 8 dress

What usually works for me is eating really well during the week and eating whatever I like at weekends. I just put on 8lb cos I was being greedy during the week too.

Olivia, thanks for the taco recipe: I think we do say salsa (chilli sauce, to my mind at least, is a sweet Thai dip).

Does anyone else have low-fat (and preferably cheap) recipes?

I use tomato puree as a base for loads of stuff: with basil for pasta, with garlic and chilli for chickpeas, and with cinnamon and garlic for tagines. And it's only 50p

Jambalaya--food of New Orleans!
Let me see if I can remember....

Sautee onions, green peppers ( not sure what you call them in the UK) and garlic in olive oil or other light oil. At the same time boil up some rice--best is long grain or dark rice, anything but sticky white rice. Meatwise, if you want, you can add a variety of things to the jambalaya, a purist would say use seafood and sausage or crayfish and sausage. You could use low fat chicken, low fat beef, low fat sausage, or even soya meat substitutes! Add whatever meat/meatlike substance you want to the sauteed onions, peppers and garlic. Add pepper to taste as you cook the meat/meatlike substance. Add tomato puree in--just enough to sort of make everything float...when the rice is done, mix the meat/garlic, etc. mixture with the rice, and add more tomato puree to the mix until everything is "wet"--you don't want a soup,

you just want a nice gooey mix at this point. Let the mix simmer on the stove top for as long as you can, an hour at least, several if you can, checking from time to time that everything is still gooey, if it starts to get dry, mix in more tomato puree, and stir. Simmer with a lid on. Taste from time to time to make sure you have the spices as you like. I myself prefer this with Italian sausage, which again, a purist would resist, but...its GOOD. If you like spicey, instead of tomato puree, use V8 Spicy...again, its GOOD. Its all how spicey you like the food. The result will be a rich tasting, savoury dish that is even better the next day. If you have left overs, just put in the fridge, and then re-heat the next day, it tastes even better, somehow the flavours mellow and mix and its just that much better.