Viewing the message boards in:

"You can eat whaver you want, as long as you eat at a deficit" is true, but it's garbage advice.

1…2627283032

Replies

  • Posts: 19,588 MFP Moderator
    If you think that the healthy things in my diary mean I'm not eating what I want? That means you think that NO ONE would ever eat healthy things voluntarily. And what kind of nonsense is that? That's nonsense that leads to falling off the wagon, binging, and yo-yo dieting.

    Admittedly, that is not something I ever really thought of in relation to posters here, and probably should when discussing this on forums. I easily get fruit since I enjoy it, but have a harder time getting veggies in sometimes. My husband on the other hand will not eat a fruit or veggie... period....end of story. People like this do exist.

  • Posts: 592 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    So who has been given these confusing answers? Did you ask a question about what you could eat and get an answer that left you confused?
    Maybe I've misunderstood about what the rules are, but I saw someone else post something to the effect that we're not allowed to go around the boards quoting from other threads. Am I allowed to do that?

    Fwiw, I'm not focused on "eat only junk food". A diet doesn't have to be 100% junk to be unhealthy. I'm not sure I could put a percentage on it, but eating a substantial amount of junk food each day can't be good for you either, and I see lots of posts from people saying they eat that way. (I'm pretty sure I shouldn't clip and post those.)
  • Posts: 6,644 Member
    dfwesq wrote: »
    show previous quotes
    Maybe I've misunderstood about what the rules are, but I saw someone else post something to the effect that we're not allowed to go around the boards quoting from other threads. Am I allowed to do that?

    Fwiw, I'm not focused on "eat only junk food". A diet doesn't have to be 100% junk to be unhealthy. I'm not sure I could put a percentage on it, but eating a substantial amount of junk food each day can't be good for you either, and I see lots of posts from people saying they eat that way. (I'm pretty sure I shouldn't clip and post those.)

    Yeah... no. How do you know what's good for another person?
  • Posts: 6,771 Member
    dfwesq wrote: »
    show previous quotes
    Maybe I've misunderstood about what the rules are, but I saw someone else post something to the effect that we're not allowed to go around the boards quoting from other threads. Am I allowed to do that?

    Fwiw, I'm not focused on "eat only junk food". A diet doesn't have to be 100% junk to be unhealthy. I'm not sure I could put a percentage on it, but eating a substantial amount of junk food each day can't be good for you either, and I see lots of posts from people saying they eat that way. (I'm pretty sure I shouldn't clip and post those.)

    Depends on your definition of junk, which is a pretty arbitrary term. I've had days when that's all I've eaten (take away food from chain outlets for example, or pizza or a ready meal or two) and have hit my macros and a good amount of micros pretty easily. In fact, sometimes my micros are better because I suck pretty hugely at meting those!
  • Posts: 1,213 Member
    @Savithny- good points, brilliantly made. You've articulated an unease with "bad/good foods" I share, but can never explain well. I wonder, have you ever encountered this short story on 'healthy' eating? It was published over a hundred years ago, and yet remains oddly relevant today.
  • Posts: 19,588 MFP Moderator
    dfwesq wrote: »
    show previous quotes
    Maybe I've misunderstood about what the rules are, but I saw someone else post something to the effect that we're not allowed to go around the boards quoting from other threads. Am I allowed to do that?

    Fwiw, I'm not focused on "eat only junk food". A diet doesn't have to be 100% junk to be unhealthy. I'm not sure I could put a percentage on it, but eating a substantial amount of junk food each day can't be good for you either, and I see lots of posts from people saying they eat that way. (I'm pretty sure I shouldn't clip and post those.)

    Just to help with your question on quoting from other thread:

    That in and of itself is not necessarily a violation. We do have a guideline saying not to attack and stalk other posters, so where people run into trouble is they argue with someone in one discussion, then start bringing it up to pick a fight with them in another. It can be a problem if you cant talk without someone hassling you, and can be a problem in the new thread because others dont know the context and whole story when they get thrown in halfway through the arguement, so adds alot of confusion.

    But if you think of a good example that applies to this discussion feel free to paraphrase it. Talking about advice you have seen given here makes since as the whole thread is about giving good advice.
  • Posts: 30,886 Member
    dfwesq wrote: »
    show previous quotes
    Maybe I've misunderstood about what the rules are, but I saw someone else post something to the effect that we're not allowed to go around the boards quoting from other threads. Am I allowed to do that?

    I believe it would be fine to link to the thread you think contains confusing advice, as the topic of this thread is that, basically.
    Fwiw, I'm not focused on "eat only junk food". A diet doesn't have to be 100% junk to be unhealthy.

    But that's what the OP was talking about, as I illustrated by quoting it.
    I'm not sure I could put a percentage on it, but eating a substantial amount of junk food each day can't be good for you either, and I see lots of posts from people saying they eat that way. (I'm pretty sure I shouldn't clip and post those.)

    If you were able to eat what you needed to cover nutritional bases (I used to log on Chron and I think it's the best site for that), what difference would it make if you also ate a lot of so-called "junk" (which I am reading as not having much but calories). A lot of people (IMO) are confused in that they focus on not eating "bad" foods (which usually would be totally fine) and ignore other things -- like they never eat bread or pasta, but also rarely eat vegetables. IMO, far healthier to get adequate vegetables, protein, fiber, healthy fats, and also some junk food, than to eat a totally "clean" diet (however you define that) and not eat many veg.)

    Yes, there are some things that probably should be limited anyway (sodium, at least for some people, IMO sat fat, I avoid transfat, etc.), but for most people that's not going to be an issue if you focus on hitting nutritional goals. I think you are reading people saying "I have chocolate every day" or "I have fast food 5 times a week" to mean they eat "a substantial amount of junk food daily" but that might not be so at all.

    The bigger point, though, is that OP was talking about weight loss, NOT nutrition (although I always do bring up nutrition). You can lose weight and not care that much about nutrition, although I wouldn't recommend it. What's wrong or confusing about acknowledging that?

    I get a bit the sense that you think that we shouldn't be honest with people because they might use the true information to make choices you think are bad.

    When threads are about nutrition, there is a lot of good information about nutrition given (there is often good information about nutrition given in "how do I lose weight" threads too, but for more in depth discussions of what nutrition requires -- a rather debated topic -- you do need to go to threads focusing on that.
  • Posts: 592 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I get a bit the sense that you think that we shouldn't be honest with people because they might use the true information to make choices you think are bad.
    That's not what I think at all. Sorry if I gave that impression. The purpose of my post was to point out that it can be confusing, and that there are a number of us who actually thought the same thing, so it's not a phantom problem.

    Also, I agree with someone who posted earlier, that there might be a lot of undiagnosed eating disorders represented on the boards. There might also be a lot of people who have been diagnosed, but just aren't mentioning it. I think it's good to bear in mind that the person who's reading advice might be one of those people. Fwiw, I saw someone like that posting on the boards recently. She asked for advice and was told basically to eat whatever she wanted and just monitor calories. Then much further down the thread she mentioned that she had an eating disorder.

    Sorry, I'm not able to respond more thoroughly. I appreciate your thoughtful posts though.

  • Posts: 1,450 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    How many calories in your whole pizzas? Ours have 1280 and when my OH's brother's family is in town, on Pizza Night, several of them will eat a whole pizza and no one but me has less than 5 pieces. (8 pieces in a pizza.)

    That's a lot of pizza. When I was a teenager, and had two teenage siblings, so we were eating more to finish our growing. (I had my last little spurt after 18) and we split two large pizzas for 4-5 of us, depending if everyone was home.

    A regular weeknight dinner by then was a piece of chicken breast, some pasta roni, green salad, and some frozen veggies.

    We were not overweight.
  • Posts: 1,450 Member
    ccsernica wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    Chances are, the pizzas are smaller than a typical American pizza.
    There is a place by my house that makes Italian style pizzas and they are smaller. They also aren't as thick with toppings.
  • Posts: 117 Member
    This seems to have become the pizza thread. I never saw a pizza, let alone ate one until I was an adult. And it is still not one of my favorite foods since I don't like cooked tomatoes. The endless hours scalding, removing the skin, canning as a youth pretty much turned me off.
  • Posts: 201 Member
    jdb3388 wrote: »
    If you are a 135lb woman that's 5'9 which I think was an example somewhere in this thread, and you're only eating at a 500 calorie deficit, no *kitten* you are gonna be full before you run out of calories. You're small, even if you aren't at your "goal" you are going to feel satiated.

    Hmm...I'm 5'8" & 137#. I've averaged 2800 calories per day over the last 21 days & have lost 4 pounds. My appetite seems insatiable when I'm lifting regularly. I'm always sad to see the bottom of my calorie bucket & feel like it happens too soon.

  • Posts: 30,886 Member
    southernoregongrape wrote: »
    This seems to have become the pizza thread. I never saw a pizza, let alone ate one until I was an adult. And it is still not one of my favorite foods since I don't like cooked tomatoes. The endless hours scalding, removing the skin, canning as a youth pretty much turned me off.

    Heh, every year I think I am going to try to can my extra tomatoes. You are trying to talk me out of it, aren't you!

    ;-)
  • Posts: 592 Member
    4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »
    Just to help with your question on quoting from other thread:

    That in and of itself is not necessarily a violation. We do have a guideline saying not to attack and stalk other posters, so where people run into trouble is they argue with someone in one discussion, then start bringing it up to pick a fight with them in another. It can be a problem if you cant talk without someone hassling you, and can be a problem in the new thread because others dont know the context and whole story when they get thrown in halfway through the arguement, so adds alot of confusion.

    But if you think of a good example that applies to this discussion feel free to paraphrase it. Talking about advice you have seen given here makes since as the whole thread is about giving good advice.
    Because the examples I'd be quoting are bad examples, I wondered whether it would be fair. I wouldn't want someone quoting me on some other thread where I hadn't voluntarily posted and that I might not even know existed, especially if it was for the purpose of holding me up as a bad example. It also might be considered mocking the poster, which I know is mentioned in the community guidelines.

    The examples I was thinking of aren't cases where I can confirm that people were telling the truth. I'm not looking at people's diaries and don't know if someone really was eating what they claimed to eat, but I don't think it really matters because the people reading those comments don't know either. When we hear "I ate ___ every day and still lost weight" all we know is what they told us. But to summarize a few, one person claimed, in some kind of Supersize Me way, to eat nothing but fast food and sodas and still lose weight. I read someone saying they eat several pastries each day and little in the way of fruit or vegetables and still lost weight. Someone else banked calories every week for a big splurge on booze and ice cream. Someone else said they ate Pop Tarts and supplements. It wasn't clear whether this was all they were eating, but I could be taken that way. It could also have been a joke, but no way to tell. Some of these people were called out, and some not. I didn't catalog all these, so I don't have links. Just going from my memory of reading them.

  • Posts: 2,492 Member
    You can post the thread not individual posts.
  • Posts: 30,886 Member
    ronjsteele1 wrote: »
    show previous quotes

    Did you know you can actually freeze tomatoes whole and pull them out as you need them? I prefer to can them, but if someone didn't want to go to the work of doing that, freezing is an excellent option. :)

    Interesting, I did not know that.

    I do want to learn to can, but if I'm again too lazy I will freeze.
  • Posts: 30,886 Member
    leanjogreen18 wrote: »
    You can post the thread not individual posts.

    Yes--since the claim is that the advice given as a whole is confusing and unhelpful I think the thread is what's important. Often people don't repeat things already said, so pulling a post out of context would IMO be unfair.
  • Posts: 3,574 Member
    Sigh
This discussion has been closed.

Welcome!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.
Sign In
Register

Quick Links

Categories