Ice cream sundae?

Hello everyone!

If I were to eat a one or two scoop sundae for dessert 5 times a week or less, how much would that impact my weight loss goals? I eat 1200 calories more or less a day and do aerobic exercise for 45 minutes 3-4 days per week. I am trying to lose the last 10-15lbs, but ice cream, especially sundaes, are my weakness.

Also, why does it seem different when I eat a pint of ice cream in one day versus when I spread it out over the week?

Replies

  • taunto_
    taunto_ Posts: 91 Member
    A general rule to follow while on a "diet" is to allow yourself a little bit of junk food. 20% of your calroies are a decent number to allot to junk foods. Can can be your daily alowance to eat whatever/however you want. The rest can be lean proteins, veggies and whole grains but those 20% of the calories can be ice cream sundae, or chips or anything.

    This is not only not bad for your weight loss, but overall it improves your quality of life in terms of giving you satisfaction in terms of taste buds and also keeps you away from binging on those junk foods.

    Last thing, I strongly recommend looking into increasing your calories. 1200 is the bare minimum and very few people fall in the 1200 calories area. I am sure you can increase your daily calories. Lookup how much your TDEE is. Heres a good TDEE calculator(you can ignore the remaining of the site as its kinda useless and BS): http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • geneticsteacher
    geneticsteacher Posts: 623 Member
    How many calories are in your sundaes? Are you including syrups, nuts, or other toppings? If you have the calories to spare (unlikely on 1200 calories) and you have reached your other nutrient goals, it would be fine.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Are you eating this ice cream on top of the other 1,200 calories or as part of the 1,200 calories?

    Many people here have something sweet daily and still lose weight. Two scoops of ice cream would be a fairly big piece of a 1,200 calorie day (if that is your plan), so the main issue might be struggling to meet the rest of your nutritional needs.
  • sunnybeaches105
    sunnybeaches105 Posts: 2,831 Member
    Now I want DQ. Thanks, OP.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited July 2016
    I eat ice cream after dinner several times a week. I figure out how many cals I have left for the day, weigh out the right amount of ice cream on the food scale and enjoy!
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited July 2016
    Find the calories in your sundae. Multiply by 5, then divide the total by 3,500 (1 pound).

    Example (albeit not a very good one).

    McDonald's Hot Fudge Sundae = 330 calories. 330 x 5 = 1,650. 1650 / 3500 = .47 pounds. One McDonald's sundae 5 days a week (+1200 calories) and no exercise......would impact your weight loss by .47 pounds per week.

    1200 is MFP's lowest minimum default (and that's before exercise). What that means is 1200 is not a guarantee of xx pounds per week. It's just as low as MFP will go (before exercise).

    So if you ate 1200 + 330 and then exercised for 330.....you are back to 1200 net calories. This is how MFP works. Your exercise "earns" you additional calories, because you got a deficit BEFORE exercise.

    Bottom line - lifestyle changes. I allow myself a treat everyday. Maybe not a 2 scoop sundae....but something. I need to manage ALL foods when I get to goal. So I might as well start now. Cutting out all treats doesn't work for me.

  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    A sundae with 1/2 c Breyer's vanilla plus 2Tb Hershey's chocolate sauce plus 4Tb RediWhip whipped cream plus 1 maraschino cherry on top is 260 calories according to the MFP database. If you have one of these five days a week, that's an additional 1300 calories a week. Since there's 3500 cals/pound, that means your weight loss will slow down by a little more than a third of a pound a week. If you're losing 1.5 lbs/week without the sundaes, that means your weight loss rate would go down to around 1.1 lbs/week. Make it a large sundae (twice the size) and your weight loss rate would go down to around 0.75 lbs/week (everything else being equal).
  • walkdmc
    walkdmc Posts: 529 Member
    edited July 2016
    Try Halo Top ice cream. It's pricey but actually tastes like ice cream and an entire pint is around 250 calories.

    My favorite flavors are Birthday Cake and Lemon Cake. The mint chip is good also.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    My preferred DQ sundae is around 540 calories. I would not be able to fit that into a 1200 calorie diet weekly, let alone 5 days a week.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    I suppose it depends on your sundae -is it a 2,500 calorie sundae or a 250 calorie sundae? Log it and work it into your goals. Modify if needed to fit your goals.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    you can do a float.
    a&w 10 and a slow churn scoop of vanilla ice cream is like 160cal.

    you can try different floats....
  • Bearbo27
    Bearbo27 Posts: 339 Member
    Do you have to have a whole sundae? I love ice cream but I bought these mini Magnum ice cream bars. They are 170-190 depending on which on I have and whenever I get that craving for some ice cream I have one of those and make sure it fits in my calories. I have just over 1500 to use each day and I personally wouldn't be able to fit a sundae in my goals everyday.
  • NaturalNancy
    NaturalNancy Posts: 1,093 Member
    Lowfat ice cream
    One Bananna
    Natural chocolate/ lower sugar chocolate syrup
    2 tablespoons of whipped cream
    1 tablespoon of salted peanuts
    Sooo good!
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited July 2016
    I will not impact weight loss as long as it is included in your calorie bank for the day and you are still in a deficit at the end of the day!

    But are you sure you want to eat up (no pun intended) your calories from a sundae on 1200 calories or less? I would die if I did this several times a week eating calorie dense food like this on such low calories given to eat a day.
  • ElJefeChief
    ElJefeChief Posts: 650 Member
    edited July 2016
    I absolutely love sundaes, particularly the chocolate-peanut-butter-fudge variety. Unfortunately I find it extremely challenging to weigh and measure all the ingredients that go into them. So, my workaround is ice cream bars and ice cream sandwiches (e.g., Magnum bars and It's-Its) - which are also quite delicious but come in finite, premeasured packages
  • 123user456
    123user456 Posts: 68 Member
    walkdmc wrote: »
    Try Halo Top ice cream. It's pricey but actually tastes like ice cream and an entire pint is around 250 calories.

    My favorite flavors are Birthday Cake and Lemon Cake. The mint chip is good also.

    I had never heard of this. I just grabbed the birthday cake cake flavor, and I approve. Thanks for posting.
  • zumbagirl2526
    zumbagirl2526 Posts: 30 Member
    taunto_ wrote: »
    A general rule to follow while on a "diet" is to allow yourself a little bit of junk food. 20% of your calroies are a decent number to allot to junk foods. Can can be your daily alowance to eat whatever/however you want. The rest can be lean proteins, veggies and whole grains but those 20% of the calories can be ice cream sundae, or chips or anything.

    This is not only not bad for your weight loss, but overall it improves your quality of life in terms of giving you satisfaction in terms of taste buds and also keeps you away from binging on those junk foods.

    Last thing, I strongly recommend looking into increasing your calories. 1200 is the bare minimum and very few people fall in the 1200 calories area. I am sure you can increase your daily calories. Lookup how much your TDEE is. Heres a good TDEE calculator(you can ignore the remaining of the site as its kinda useless and BS): http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    I've never heard of that 20 percent rule before, but it makes alot of sense thanks. My calorie limits also go up after I workout for the day.
  • zumbagirl2526
    zumbagirl2526 Posts: 30 Member
    Now I want DQ. Thanks, OP.

    Oops, sorry :blush:
  • zumbagirl2526
    zumbagirl2526 Posts: 30 Member
    TeaBea wrote: »
    Find the calories in your sundae. Multiply by 5, then divide the total by 3,500 (1 pound).

    Example (albeit not a very good one).

    McDonald's Hot Fudge Sundae = 330 calories. 330 x 5 = 1,650. 1650 / 3500 = .47 pounds. One McDonald's sundae 5 days a week (+1200 calories) and no exercise......would impact your weight loss by .47 pounds per week.

    1200 is MFP's lowest minimum default (and that's before exercise). What that means is 1200 is not a guarantee of xx pounds per week. It's just as low as MFP will go (before exercise).

    So if you ate 1200 + 330 and then exercised for 330.....you are back to 1200 net calories. This is how MFP works. Your exercise "earns" you additional calories, because you got a deficit BEFORE exercise.

    Bottom line - lifestyle changes. I allow myself a treat everyday. Maybe not a 2 scoop sundae....but something. I need to manage ALL foods when I get to goal. So I might as well start now. Cutting out all treats doesn't work for me.

    Thanks for doing all of that math. It helps to see exactly what I will be working with. Based on your calculations I can still have my cake and eat it too, to an extent, so to speak.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Are you eating this ice cream on top of the other 1,200 calories or as part of the 1,200 calories?

    Many people here have something sweet daily and still lose weight. Two scoops of ice cream would be a fairly big piece of a 1,200 calorie day (if that is your plan), so the main issue might be struggling to meet the rest of your nutritional needs.

    All of this.

    OP - are you logging all the food you eat? Are you eating back exercise calories? What is your goal - how much weight are you trying to lose? Many people find prelogging the treats they would like to eat helpful, to see what impact that has on their day. Then you can decide if it is worth it, or if you need to save up some calories for later in the week.

  • BettyEtte
    BettyEtte Posts: 39 Member
    Maybe you should try that Protein Fluff they've been talking about on another thread. I ordered the stuff to make it this morning.