1 cheat meal per day!

EternalFury87

Hello world. I have tried many kinds of diet only to find myself binging and gaining more weight than when I started. I am 5'8 and was184lbs when I started this app 1.5 months ago. I downloaded this app for the sole purpose of calorie counting only. I ate whatever I wanted and I lost about 13lbs so far. I just had to make sure I had a deficit in calorie intake. Although I ate anything I wanted, I had to make sure I wasn't eating all my calories for the day in one meal and saved enough for a healthy dinner. I exercised 2 to 5 times a week lifting weights with 15 mins of elliptical afterwards. I overate my calories once in awhile and even drank a lot of alcohol to see if it would make me gain weight drastically, but it did not. Just to note; I alternated my calorie intake weekly from 1500 to 1650 (basically, 2lbs per week vs. 1lb per week) as I did not want my body to get used to certain number of calories per day. Right now, I am converting slowly for a semi-healthy meal with no drawbacks. I am not having the mad binges that I had with other diets. From what I can conclude, slowly cut back your calorie intake with your normal food while implementing healthy food. If you don't have time for the gym, just find a 10 minute exercise with high intensity on YouTube. I made my diary public if anyone wants to view it.

CattOfTheGarage

Confused about where the daily cheat meal comes in

kendahlj

1500 to 1650 calories a day is not the difference between one pound or two pounds a week.

EternalFury87

It's different for other people. For me, I need to take in 1500 calories to lose 2 lbs and 1660 if I wanted to lose 1 lbs per week. This is based off what the app tells me. I don't alternate the calorie intake everyday, I mentioned I changed it weekly. So for 1 week, I do 1500, then maybe 1660 the following week.

Sorry for making my post confusing. I can eat what I want in one meal, either breakfast, lunch or dinner. Even though it's anything I want, it's limited by quantity since it has to equal a certain amount of calories. For example: if I had a quarter pounder, fries, and sweet tea for lunch and the calories is 1060, I would only have 440 calories left if my goal for the day was 1500 calories. The only downfall for this is that you can only have 220 calories split between breakfast or dinner. If you're not a breakfast type of person, then you have 440 left for dinner. When I started out, I had a protein bar and banana and it would equal 220. I'll try to revise my post when I get the chance to make it more clear.

malibu927

Your body does not "get used to" a certain number of calories. As well, you are not reaching what would be 2 pounds per week loss as 1500 is the minimum calories it will give a male. In order to lose 2 pounds per week, you would have to eat 1160 calories, which is not recommended at all.

That being said, what exactly are you cheating on? You're fitting the food you want into your goals. Granted, you likely aren't hitting many of your micronutrients by eating such a large "unhealthy" meal and leaving little room for other foods. Nutrition is still important for your body (hence the minimum intake goal).

EternalFury87

Like I mentioned, I was going off what the app told me. It's not something I researched or formulated myself.
I did not research the part about the body getting used to certain calories, but I just felt like it probably did. And you are right, I'm not meeting the nutrients, but I take multivitamins.
My whole point to this is that I have lost weight and currently integrating healthy meals with no drawbacks.

dmt4641

1500 is the minimum calories for men. If you lose 1 lb at 1650, then it would take you 1150 to lose two lbs a week. However mfp will not give you calories that low because it is unhealthy. So they give you the minimum instead, which is 1500.

EternalFury87

Thank you for all the feedback. The point of me posting this is to share what I had done to lose weight. I'll make it short to not complicate things further.

1. I let fitness pal determine the calorie intake for me.
2. I ate anything as long I met the calories fitness pal told me.
3. I exercised so my calorie deficit isn't exclusive to food alone. So even if I did eat the bare minimum, my workout added extra calorie deficit.
4. I took multivitamins.
5. I ate some healthy food.

Pros:
1. I did not gain the weight back when I overate on some occasion.
2. I did not binge eat despite going over recommended calorie intake.
3. I did not feel hungry at night even if I ate way less than I normally do.
4. Made it easier to add healthy food in the process

Cons:
1. Like people have mentioned, lack of nutrients.
2. Although you will lose weight, it won't mean you are healthy.

I only uploaded this app strictly to see if calorie counting with no food restriction will make me lose weight and it did. If you are finding it too difficult to give up food you love, it's worth the shot to try just calorie counting.

Sued0nim

Ok

Good for you

Keep it up

TavistockToad

EternalFury87 wrote: »

It's different for other people. For me, I need to take in 1500 calories to lose 2 lbs and 1660 if I wanted to lose 1 lbs per week. This is based off what the app tells me. I don't alternate the calorie intake everyday, I mentioned I changed it weekly. So for 1 week, I do 1500, then maybe 1660 the following week.

Sorry for making my post confusing. I can eat what I want in one meal, either breakfast, lunch or dinner. Even though it's anything I want, it's limited by quantity since it has to equal a certain amount of calories. For example: if I had a quarter pounder, fries, and sweet tea for lunch and the calories is 1060, I would only have 440 calories left if my goal for the day was 1500 calories. The only downfall for this is that you can only have 220 calories split between breakfast or dinner. If you're not a breakfast type of person, then you have 440 left for dinner. When I started out, I had a protein bar and banana and it would equal 220. I'll try to revise my post when I get the chance to make it more clear.

It's not different for different people. A difference of 150 cals is not causing you to lose an extra pound in weight.