Diet or Smaller food portions?
ClaudiaKho13
Posts: 229 Member
I have been looking at other posts and some people say they don't change anything about their diets except smaller portions.
But some say they do go on diets. Or cutting certain things out.
Im confused
But some say they do go on diets. Or cutting certain things out.
Im confused
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Replies
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Different people do different things to achieve a calorie deficit.18
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That's the great thing about weight loss. You can do what works for you - there's not only one way to do it, except to be at a calorie deficit.9
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Could work for you but you'd be reading the tea leaves. Could be small portions with hugh fat content and low water content which are higher in calories than bigger portions of other food. If I can control exactly how much I lose I would never choose shooting in the dark.2
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I didn't "cut out" any foods, but I did cut down dramatically on my restaurant meals. I also started paying more attention to my food choices and making calorie dense dishes less often.5
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Logging all your food takes out a lot of confusion. See what you are eating now and make changes based on evidence.12
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Logging all your food takes out a lot of confusion. See what you are eating now and make changes based on evidence.
This.
Of course, to me "go on a diet" just means to eat fewer calories than I burn, so I'd say that everyone who intentionally loses weight goes on a diet, however they achieve that deficit.
I looked at what I was eating to understand why it was more than I needed to be eating and then made some cuts. I didn't cut out any foods, but I did find that it's easier for me if I mostly just eat main meals and don't snack.2 -
I did some of each.
I pretty dramatically changed what I ate for breakfast and weekday lunches; (more veggies, little or no meat or bread) but I kept many of my favorite dinners only in smaller portions.5 -
Smaller portions and better choices, but no harsh restrictions on stuff you actually like.0
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Do what works for you. Keep in mind that the best way to KEEP weight off is to permanently change some habits. The more stuff you "cut out" for a "diet" the more likely you are to regain wait when the "diet" ends. It's also a lot easier to stick to a plan that doesn't have you stressed and starving.
That's why people recommend learning proper portion sizes (a food scale is important for that), a reasonable calorie deficit, not cutting out the foods you like, and maybe making some more nutritious/less calorie dense substitutions. I tinkered with my preferred foods - once I started logging what I ate, I saw I was way low on protein. Happily, increasing my protein also made me less hungry between meals.
For example, I love peanut butter, but I no longer eat buckeyes by the handful - I satisfy my peanut butter candy craving with a few Trader Joe mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups (not a hardship, they're delicious and a serving is 26 pieces!). Something like that is easy, but saves me 400 calories, and is still satisfying.6 -
By focusing on only my calorie limit I am able to make better choices and don't feel the need to have cheat days.2
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totally an individual choice. Personally, I do a bit of both. I still eat the things I love, but in smaller portions and bulked out with vegetables. Just doing smaller portions wouldn't work for me - I'm a volume eater. And cutting things out doesn't work for me either - if I think I can't have it, I want it.
So I eat the things I like, lighten them up on the calories where I can, and bulk out with veg.4 -
You can do a big diet overhaul or you can reduce portion sizes. As long as calories are reduced enough to give you a deficit you lose weight.
I didn't change what I eat very much. I just look at the numbers. That is more sustainable to me than giving up a bunch of foods or trying to eat food I don't love.
I think sustainability is pretty important to keeping your weight off long term. I would advise people starting out to make smaller changes to their diet unless they have a medical reason to cut out foods and just stick to their calorie goal.2 -
I find it is not good to cut out any food (or drink) while you are losing weight that you are not willing to give up for the rest of your life. There is no end of a diet where you go back to eating like you did before - unless you want to weigh what you did before.4
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I do both, but mostly for me it was smaller portions. I bought a food scale a few months ago because I was tired of guessing how many ounces/grams of food I was eating and it's been so much better and easier to log. I still eat the foods I like as long as it is within my daily calorie and nutrition goals.
It's up to you if you want to do one or the other or both0 -
Logging and making exchanges has worked for me. I ditched Pepsi and not a fan of diet, but otherwise manage to my calories each day. This means I eat better/cleaner, but not necessarily on purpose. I loosely try to balance my macros so that each meal has a protein, a fat, a carb, and two veggie servings.
Today I had mushroom pizza and salad for lunch. Dinner was pulled pork, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I measured my portions rather than the heaping piles I used to eat.2 -
Okay, thanks for replying. Won't cut out completely food that i like but instead reduce portion sizes. But what about calories burned after a workout. Do you guys eat them back? Like my daily cal is 1200 and i burn 250 do i eat back the 250 cals?0
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The best "diet" is whatever you can be consistent with!
Diet is an awful word as people assume you have to deprive yourself or change your way of eating however this is not the case. All you need is a calorie deficit.4 -
Diet or Smaller food portions? Yes.
It all comes down to CI<CO.
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ClaudiaKho13 wrote: »Okay, thanks for replying. Won't cut out completely food that i like but instead reduce portion sizes. But what about calories burned after a workout. Do you guys eat them back? Like my daily cal is 1200 and i burn 250 do i eat back the 250 cals?
If I just burn a little bit, like 250, I would eat about 50% of that back.
If I burned maybe 750 cal, I might eat about 75% of that back.
If I burned up around 1500 cal, I might eat most of it back.
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I reduced portion sizes so I never felt I was denying myself the foods I loved. Do what works for you 1
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ClaudiaKho13 wrote: »Okay, thanks for replying. Won't cut out completely food that i like but instead reduce portion sizes. But what about calories burned after a workout. Do you guys eat them back? Like my daily cal is 1200 and i burn 250 do i eat back the 250 cals?
If I just burn a little bit, like 250, I would eat about 50% of that back.
If I burned maybe 750 cal, I might eat about 75% of that back.
If I burned up around 1500 cal, I might eat most of it back.
Can you explain your logic behind this? I would argue that as the calorie burns increase, you should eat a smaller percentage as the percentage inaccuracy will be a much larger calorie value and more likely to impact on a calorie deficit if miscalculated.
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trigden1991 wrote: »ClaudiaKho13 wrote: »Okay, thanks for replying. Won't cut out completely food that i like but instead reduce portion sizes. But what about calories burned after a workout. Do you guys eat them back? Like my daily cal is 1200 and i burn 250 do i eat back the 250 cals?
If I just burn a little bit, like 250, I would eat about 50% of that back.
If I burned maybe 750 cal, I might eat about 75% of that back.
If I burned up around 1500 cal, I might eat most of it back.
Can you explain your logic behind this? I would argue that as the calorie burns increase, you should eat a smaller percentage as the percentage inaccuracy will be a much larger calorie value and more likely to impact on a calorie deficit if miscalculated.
I find when I put in a decent effort on the bicycle (which is when I would burn a larger number of calories), if I don't eat most of them back on the day, then the next day I am incredibly ravenous to the point of being shaky, dizzy and very irritable. But if I do eat all/most of my exercise calories back, then I'm OK. I discovered this through trial and error.
I will also add that I use the calculation 100 cals/5 km cycled, so a 1500 cal burn would be a 75 km bicycle ride ... a decent ride. Some would suggest that calculation is a bit on the low side for that distance of a ride anyway, so my percentage of inaccuracy is probably not too bad.
That said, when I get up to 200 km rides and longer it is harder to eat all my calories back so I'll just eat till I don't want to eat anymore ... I don't actually count on those days, or for the day before or day after.
However, if I only burn a few calories (250 would be just over an hour's walk), I haven't exerted myself all that much so I don't feel I need to eat all that much - I don't have that incredibly ravenous feeling, and really, what's 125 calories anyway. It's not like I can go get a pizza or something. Plus it is on the shorter/lighter things like this where I figure I have a great percentage of inaccuracy. Did I really walk that fast or that far? What about those times where I stopped to take photos or slowed up to look at something.
Anyway, it seems to have worked for me. I lost the weight and have maintained the loss for a year now. 3 -
I figure that I need to learn how to eat as if I was skinny, so that's what I'm trying to do now. Not purposefully cutting anything out, but overall eating less and eating better. Once I am thin, I will be used to eating like this and won't need to change how I eat. Dropped 35 lbs so far.2
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trigden1991 wrote: »ClaudiaKho13 wrote: »Okay, thanks for replying. Won't cut out completely food that i like but instead reduce portion sizes. But what about calories burned after a workout. Do you guys eat them back? Like my daily cal is 1200 and i burn 250 do i eat back the 250 cals?
If I just burn a little bit, like 250, I would eat about 50% of that back.
If I burned maybe 750 cal, I might eat about 75% of that back.
If I burned up around 1500 cal, I might eat most of it back.
Can you explain your logic behind this? I would argue that as the calorie burns increase, you should eat a smaller percentage as the percentage inaccuracy will be a much larger calorie value and more likely to impact on a calorie deficit if miscalculated.
I find when I put in a decent effort on the bicycle (which is when I would burn a larger number of calories), if I don't eat most of them back on the day, then the next day I am incredibly ravenous to the point of being shaky, dizzy and very irritable. But if I do eat all/most of my exercise calories back, then I'm OK. I discovered this through trial and error.
I will also add that I use the calculation 100 cals/5 km cycled, so a 1500 cal burn would be a 75 km bicycle ride ... a decent ride. Some would suggest that calculation is a bit on the low side for that distance of a ride anyway, so my percentage of inaccuracy is probably not too bad.
That said, when I get up to 200 km rides and longer it is harder to eat all my calories back so I'll just eat till I don't want to eat anymore ... I don't actually count on those days, or for the day before or day after.
However, if I only burn a few calories (250 would be just over an hour's walk), I haven't exerted myself all that much so I don't feel I need to eat all that much - I don't have that incredibly ravenous feeling, and really, what's 125 calories anyway. It's not like I can go get a pizza or something. Plus it is on the shorter/lighter things like this where I figure I have a great percentage of inaccuracy. Did I really walk that fast or that far? What about those times where I stopped to take photos or slowed up to look at something.
Anyway, it seems to have worked for me. I lost the weight and have maintained the loss for a year now.
Thanks for the in depth response. I was being a bit narrow minded and thinking of people doing "cardio" for fat loss rather than sport (if that makes sense). If you are racking up the miles day on day, then you will definitely need to be eating the calories back. Sounds like you found what works for you.
I would say to people that are burning calories and going by the MFP or machine calorie burns from the gym equipment to exercise some caution as they tend to overestimate significantly.0 -
ClaudiaKho13 wrote: »Okay, thanks for replying. Won't cut out completely food that i like but instead reduce portion sizes. But what about calories burned after a workout. Do you guys eat them back? Like my daily cal is 1200 and i burn 250 do i eat back the 250 cals?
MFP uses the NEAT method, and as such the system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back.
My FitBit One is far less generous with calories than the MFP database and I comfortably eat 100% of the calories I earn from it back.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p10 -
It depends on your diet, OP. If you eat mostly high calorie foods, you'll probably have to cut some out and replace them with more nutritious foods or you'll just be hungry.
In the end it's about finding the right balance for you.0 -
I do a bit of both like many posters in this thread. I've learned over time to make better choices, but I generally tend to like what people consider "healthy" food anyway.
I haven't really cut anything out, but I do tend to eat high calorie/low nutrient foods with less frequency than I used to and in smaller portions.
This way, I still feel satisfied with being able to have foods I enjoy in my life (no sense of deprivation or "I'll never have that again" syndrome) while continuing to pursue my goals.
Win-win.0 -
Do what works for you. Keep in mind that the best way to KEEP weight off is to permanently change some habits. The more stuff you "cut out" for a "diet" the more likely you are to regain wait when the "diet" ends. It's also a lot easier to stick to a plan that doesn't have you stressed and starving.
That's why people recommend learning proper portion sizes (a food scale is important for that), a reasonable calorie deficit, not cutting out the foods you like, and maybe making some more nutritious/less calorie dense substitutions. I tinkered with my preferred foods - once I started logging what I ate, I saw I was way low on protein. Happily, increasing my protein also made me less hungry between meals.
For example, I love peanut butter, but I no longer eat buckeyes by the handful - I satisfy my peanut butter candy craving with a few Trader Joe mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups (not a hardship, they're delicious and a serving is 26 pieces!). Something like that is easy, but saves me 400 calories, and is still satisfying.
This is why my family makes them only once a year - and gives away most of what we make. Between the making and the giving away, we eat more than enough of them.
OP, the advice to check your current diet to find places to make reasonable cuts/substitutions is good. Try that for a while and see how you do. You'll probably want to make adjustments, and that's when you'll have the knowledge to make more directed choices because you'll know what you need to fix other than 'reduce calories'.0 -
I don't understand the question. If you are reducing calories in order to lose weight then you are on a diet. The food content of the diet does not change that. It's basic vocabulary.0
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I did cut out certain things when I did lchf but I could not keep that type of diet going for ever. I now just do smaller portions of the things I like and used to eat and could keep this up indefinitely.0
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