Is Croque Monsieur Healthy? (3 Tips For Weight Loss)

If you love eating sandwiches - especially Croque Monsieur - but aren’t sure if this dish is healthy or good for your waistline, this article is right for you. Find out what Croque Monsieur is and see whether, or not you can lose weight and stay in shape, eating this popular and delicious French-style sandwich.

Croque Monsieur is the French version of an American ham and cheese sandwich. 

Although Croque Monsieur is quite delicious, is it actually healthy?

Croque Monsieur is not necessarily considered healthy or great for your waistline, as it consists of high calories per serving and sodium. However, if you eat Croque Monsieur in moderation and stick to one serving you won’t get off track. 

Here are three steps that explain what Croque Monsieur is, the calorie amount in one serving, as well as how to stay fit and healthy while eating this classic French dish. 

1. What Goes Into Making Croque Monsieur? 

2. How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Croque Monsieur?

3. How to Lose Weight, or Maintain Weight, While Eating Croque Monsieur

Now that we know our three steps, let’s get into the details that will help you stay in shape while enjoying some delicious Croque Monsieur. 

Tip 1. What Goes Into Making Croque Monsieur? 

A Croque Monsieur is basically a ham and cheese but with better ingredients. Traditionally, it is made with a country-style- or sourdough bread, dijon mustard, butter, gruyere cheese, and a good quality ham, such as Blackforest ham. Some places in France will also serve a Croque Monsieur with a bechamel sauce. 

You would butter the outside of each slice, on the inside goes dijon mustard, the ham and gruyere, and on on the outside goes more gruyere but shredded. You can either broil the Croque Monsieur in the oven or fry it on each side in a frying pan. It’s a pretty easy and budget-friendly dish.

Now that we know what goes into making a classic Croque Monsieur, let’s take a look at the nutrition facts and see how many calories are in one serving of Croque Monsieur.

Tip 2. How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Croque Monsieur?

Whether you live a sedentary lifestyle or an active lifestyle, it’s important to understand how many calories you need to consume daily.

Let’s take a look at the nutrition facts. As you can see, one Croque Monsieur has 390 calories with a macronutrient ratio of 27 grams of carbs, 19 grams of protein, and 22 grams of fat. 

Staying healthy and fit is all about calorie or energy balance, which means that you can still eat your fats and carbs, and stay in shape. Although the calories are a bit high in this dish, they can be easily incorporated into your daily calorie intake, as long as you are not overeating and are working out. This dish also delivers a relatively balanced ratio of macronutrients. 

If you burn more calories than you consume, then you will find yourself in a “caloric deficit” which is the only way fat loss can occur.  

It’s important to first go over your daily caloric needs, and figure out how many calories you need in a day. The next step is to figure out how much of each macronutrient you should be consuming.

A good rule of thumb for dieting is keeping a nice balance of macronutrients. A great ratio is sticking to 30% carbs, 40% protein, and 30% fats. 

There are a few factors that determine your daily calorie intake. Such as weight management, weight loss, or weight gain. Other factors that play a big role, are your gender and your height. 

So, how do you know how many calories you should be eating in a day?

The answer is through trial and error and finding a calorie range that allows you to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. 

However, a good place to start is to multiply your body weight by 12 or to use an online TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculator.

Your TDEE relies heavily on how active you are and how much movement you see in your day.

Within your TDEE lies a subsection, which is called TEPA (Thermic Effect of Physical Activity) which accounts for 15-30% of your entire day’s worth of calories.

This means, you are in control of 15-30% of how much you can eat, which is a huge portion of calories.

If you’re someone who loves to eat a lot while staying fit, then being active is the key to a balanced lifestyle that allows you to eat whatever you like, such as Croque Monsieur, and stay in shape. 

Once you know your calorie intake based on your weight and height, you can then decide how much you want to decrease it. If you want to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, we suggest you start with 100 calories less than what you are currently consuming and see if you notice a difference within a week. 

It is suggested, however, to not decrease the calorie intake below 1,200 per day for women, or below 1,500 calories per day for men.

If you don’t see any changes in your weight, decrease your calorie intake by another 100 calories and see how that works. 

The key here is to find foods that keep you full longer and still deliver a balanced amount of macronutrients. 

You don’t want all of your calories simply coming from carbs or fats, you want there to be a balance coming from carbs, protein, and fats.

So, just calculate whatever calorie range you find, and split up your calories by following those macro guidelines. 

Now that we know how many calories are in one Croque Monsieur and how many calories you should consume daily, let’s take a look at how you can, stay in shape, lose weight by eating Croque Monsieur. 

Tip 3. How to Lose Weight, or Maintain Weight, While Eating Croque Monsieur

Calories are direct sources of energy that fuel your everyday life, so you need to make sure that you utilize them efficiently throughout your day. 

The best way to do this is to build muscle and to also move more throughout your day. 

60-75% of energy expenditure comes from your basal metabolic rate (BMR) which is how much your body burns if it did nothing all day. (NASM)

10% of energy expenditure comes from the thermic effect of feeding (TEF) which is the calories you burn from digesting different foods. (NASM)

15-30% of energy expenditure comes from the Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA) which is movement such as working out and aerobics. Source (NASM) 

To sum it up, up to 30% of our energy expenditure can come from movement and activity so this is a huge portion of our weight loss journey that you can actively control.

The more movement the better and, to utilize and burn those calories, you should be moving all you can.

Building muscle allows you to burn calories at rest, which means you can eat more and still lose fat. 

This is the daily goal of working out and is what keeps you healthy as your metabolism increase. 

So if you love eating Croque Monsieur, you have to make sure your activity level is higher than usual, especially if you want to lose weight. 

Although working out and building muscle takes priority, having a consistent cardio schedule can help with expediting the fat loss process as it raises the energy expended throughout your week.

There are two types of cardio that you can do in your week that will speed up the fat loss results. Those two types come from LISS (Low-Intensity Steady State) cardio and HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) cardio. 

What you want to aim for is to burning around 1,000 kcals of cardio every week through means of either LISS or HIIT.

LISS is cardio that comes from walking or a brisk walk, you should be able to have a conversation while still building up a sweat.

HIIT cardio is intervals of a very high-intensity movement, such as sprints, battle ropes, or kickboxing movements aiming to quickly raise the heart rate.

The benefit of HIIT is allowing yourself to burn calories in a shorter amount of time. 

If you put calorie tracking, muscle building, and actively moving more together, dishes such as a Croque Monsieur won’t get you off track because the formula provides so much leniency for you to shed some fat.

Working out allows you to be more flexible in your diet and lifestyle, which is so important if you want to sustain a lean body and stay healthy. 

Keep in mind that weight loss is really the concept of calories in vs. calories out.

THERE IT IS!

If you like to lose weight by eating Croque Monsieur, you have to do portion control, watch your caloric intake for the day, add more protein-rich foods and fibers to your meals, and have a consistent workout routine.

The key to healthy eating is balance and moderation. Our three tips will help you stay fit while eating Croque Monsieur. 

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