Can you really eat celery all day long and never gain weight?

Gordorino
Gordorino Posts: 11 Member
edited November 23 in Getting Started
How about cucumbers? If true are there any other foods like that?
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Replies

  • Gordorino
    Gordorino Posts: 11 Member
    If I eat three meals of 500 calories a day, which would make me lose weight, but then eat two or three pounds of celery will that change the amount of weight I would otherwise lose? I ask because before I decided to care about my body (a month ago) I would be munching on stuff almost all the time. Even if I was not hungry, even when I was full I would munch and munch on chips, peanuts, snack cakes and whatnot. I could never eat just half a bag of tortilla chips. I made a point to finish the bag (because another cat might snatch it if it’s not in your stomach right?). So, I still want to munch all the time. I tried gum, but that doesn’t do it for me. I have been munching on celery a lot recently, and cucumbers. I avoid eating this stuff with any salad dressing or anything at least. Cabbage next maybe? I considered pickles but there is to much sodium for my high blood pressure to deal with I reckon. Yea, it’s called “Binge Eating Disorder” right? So, all else equal is munching on bunches and bunches of celery really gunna make me fatter? If not are there any other foods in this category?
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Gordorino wrote: »
    If I eat three meals of 500 calories a day, which would make me lose weight, but then eat two or three pounds of celery will that change the amount of weight I would otherwise lose? I ask because before I decided to care about my body (a month ago) I would be munching on stuff almost all the time. Even if I was not hungry, even when I was full I would munch and munch on chips, peanuts, snack cakes and whatnot. I could never eat just half a bag of tortilla chips. I made a point to finish the bag (because another cat might snatch it if it’s not in your stomach right?). So, I still want to munch all the time. I tried gum, but that doesn’t do it for me. I have been munching on celery a lot recently, and cucumbers. I avoid eating this stuff with any salad dressing or anything at least. Cabbage next maybe? I considered pickles but there is to much sodium for my high blood pressure to deal with I reckon. Yea, it’s called “Binge Eating Disorder” right? So, all else equal is munching on bunches and bunches of celery really gunna make me fatter? If not are there any other foods in this category?
    Calories in/out over time is what ultimately decides your weight.

    If you really eat 1500 calories every day, you will lose weight.

    Overeating is overeating even if it's celery. Overeating isn't healthy.

    We don't eat tasty, low nutritious (aka junk) food because we're hungry, we eat it because it's delicious, cheap, heavily marketed, easily accessible, easy to eat, associated with comfort, freedom, enjoyment and part of many social situations and we don't have any effective social norms against overeating anymore.

    You need dietary fat. Only vegetables is just going to fill your stomach and doesn't do anything for your health.

    Eating to punish yourself will eventually make you stop the punishment, and want to comfort yourself with food you like, and the you'll overeat that too.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    If you just ate celery all day, you'd lose weight. Not because celery has negative calories, but because it would be hard to eat maintenance calories on a celery only diet. You'd also be malnourished, and celery isn't all that special -- any low cal food would work.

    If you mean eating it in addition to other foods, depends on how much of the other food and how much celery you could eat. I find celery a fine (if dull) snack as it's super low in calories for how much time it takes to eat, and wouldn't worry about gaining weight from too much celery if you are just looking for something to snack on.

    Might as well log it, though.
  • cs2thecox
    cs2thecox Posts: 533 Member
    edited December 2017
    Well, I suppose there are *worse* things to snack on between meals than celery or cucumber...

    But really, maybe you should focus on reducing the amount of grazing even if it is low cal vegetables?
    Also, you may want to play around with meal timing and composition:
    - Some people don't feel hungry until after their first meal of the day, so find that skipping breakfast leaves them with more calories to play with later in the day.
    - Some people seem to do best with 3 meals and no snacks.
    - Some people (me!) prefer 3 meals plus 2 snacks in between.
    - Many people find proteins and fats satiating (keep them full for a long time) so build their meals around those.
    - Some people find they need more carbs to feel full, so focus on that.
    - Some people find they need to have a high volume of food (use the search function to find the "Volume eaters" thread) to be happy. Others don't.

    Have a critical look at the make up of your daily food, and maybe try out some of the above (within the same calories). You may have to give any sort of experiment a week or so to work, but you could end up hitting on something that works for you and gets you away from the (psychological) need to graze! Good luck!!
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    leggup wrote: »
    You can literally eat any food all day and never gain weight.. if the total calories are equal to your maintenance calories. My maintenance is around 1,900 calories. I would not be able to eat 1,900 calories of many high volume vegetables without losing my appetite/giving up.

    Example: 23 calories in 100 grams of spinach. That means to maintain (1,900 cals), I would do 1,900/23 =82.6 servings of 100 grams, or 8,260 grams of spinach. That's just over 18 lbs of spinach. A. Day. When I make a salad, I usually fill a plate with 100 grams. I'd have to do that 82 times in a day.

    There are 24 hrs in a day. Assume that you're sleeping for 8 hrs a night. So 16 waking hours is 960 minutes. Every 11 minutes you would have to eat a 100 g plate of spinach.

    Not to mention that you would also probably die from oxalate poisoning from eating that much spinach...
  • cs2thecox
    cs2thecox Posts: 533 Member
    ccrdragon wrote: »
    leggup wrote: »
    You can literally eat any food all day and never gain weight.. if the total calories are equal to your maintenance calories. My maintenance is around 1,900 calories. I would not be able to eat 1,900 calories of many high volume vegetables without losing my appetite/giving up.

    Example: 23 calories in 100 grams of spinach. That means to maintain (1,900 cals), I would do 1,900/23 =82.6 servings of 100 grams, or 8,260 grams of spinach. That's just over 18 lbs of spinach. A. Day. When I make a salad, I usually fill a plate with 100 grams. I'd have to do that 82 times in a day.

    There are 24 hrs in a day. Assume that you're sleeping for 8 hrs a night. So 16 waking hours is 960 minutes. Every 11 minutes you would have to eat a 100 g plate of spinach.

    Not to mention that you would also probably die from oxalate poisoning from eating that much spinach...

    And at some point would be welded to the toilet in a way that probably meant you couldn't access your next plate of spinach in time ;)
  • Slimpossible007
    Slimpossible007 Posts: 16,407 Member
    edited December 2017
    Gordorino wrote: »
    If I eat three meals of 500 calories a day, which would make me lose weight, but then eat two or three pounds of celery will that change the amount of weight I would otherwise lose? I ask because before I decided to care about my body (a month ago) I would be munching on stuff almost all the time. Even if I was not hungry, even when I was full I would munch and munch on chips, peanuts, snack cakes and whatnot. I could never eat just half a bag of tortilla chips. I made a point to finish the bag (because another cat might snatch it if it’s not in your stomach right?). So, I still want to munch all the time. I tried gum, but that doesn’t do it for me. I have been munching on celery a lot recently, and cucumbers. I avoid eating this stuff with any salad dressing or anything at least. Cabbage next maybe? I considered pickles but there is to much sodium for my high blood pressure to deal with I reckon. Yea, it’s called “Binge Eating Disorder” right? So, all else equal is munching on bunches and bunches of celery really gunna make me fatter? If not are there any other foods in this category?

    I'm guessing you are looking for an extra food to add to a healthy diet, basically because you like to keep eating so you are looking for low cal options ??

    so...

    from a google search it said there is 16cals per 100g celery

    so if you were on your 1500 diet you describe above and added 1KG of celery (I am sure that would keep you munching all day it would only add 160 calories to your 1500

    so if you can lose weight on a 1660 cal diet (your height, age and current weight will tell you if you can) and you want to also eat 1KG of celery a day then yes eat the celery eat all of the celery

    16 cals per 100g celery
    16 cals pet 100g cucumber
    25 cals per 100g cabbage
    15 cals per 100g lettuce

    I think theres a volume eaters thread somewhere in the forums (I'm not sure where to find it or I would link it here) ... that may be what you are looking for?
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Gordorino wrote: »
    How about cucumbers? If true are there any other foods like that?

    If that's all you ate, I would think you could with either celery or cucumbers. But geez!! WTH kind of day would that be? :s
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Why would you want to, and how does this help you in the long run?

    I got fat because I was shoving food in my face too often. Sure I could swap out celery for chocolate, cucumbers for chips, but that's not a realistic long term solution. To maintain a weight loss I have to learn to stop the mindless eating altogether.
  • Go_Deskercise
    Go_Deskercise Posts: 1,630 Member
    Yes, but make sure every 4th celery stick you eat is dipped in either ranch or blue cheese for some variety ....
  • pogiguy05
    pogiguy05 Posts: 1,583 Member
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    I'd rather be fat than have to eat celery all day.

    AMEN to that
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  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
    As long as it fits your daily calorie goal then yes you will lose, but why would anyone want to eat that much celery or cucumbers? Focus on making healthy choices and you won't want to munch on things all day long. More protein and fat to start. I would be hungry too if I at mostly carbs.
  • sgtx81
    sgtx81 Posts: 466 Member
    edited December 2017
    There are 72 calories in a pound of celery. If you're chewing well and hand washing it and cutting it, then that could potentially be getting close to a 0 calorie food when it's all said and done.

    Whether or not it's a "negative" calorie food is beside the point. Your body is having to perform actions that burn calories to cancel it out. Why not just make your body burn more of what you eat all of the time by exercising?
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    There is a way of eating called Volumetrics that some MFP users follow. The idea is that you can eat higher volumes of food with low calorie profiles. There's not really a negative calorie food, but some people just need to eat a lot of food to feel satisfied. Ultimately, however works for you best to keep your calorie deficit is how you'll lose. There's many paths to keeping that deficit--volume eating is one of them. There's a volume eaters thread in the Food/Nutrition forum.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    You would not get enough protein from eating only celery. Same with cucumbers. Your body stores fat and can make its own glucose, so you don't technically need to eat fat or carbs. But you cannot make your own amino acids without "essential" amino acids from protein consumption. You have to eat protein for this reason.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    You could eat chocolate chips all day and lose weight, as long as your calorie intake was less than the number of calories you burned.

    Realistically...do you enjoy celery or cucumbers? Do you enjoy them enough that you would be happy eating those things as your snacks? If so, then eat as much as you want of them, *as long as you are within your calorie goal.* But if you don't actually enjoy these things, then you're setting yourself up for an unsustainable and miserable time.
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
    I don't see how it's any different than chewing gum all day and lots of people do that for basically the same reason. I would recommend logging it though. You don't want to get into the habit of eating things you don't log. Slippery slope.
  • amandaeve
    amandaeve Posts: 723 Member
    I also want to much all the time. My mouth just wants to chew. I've lost a lot of weight, and my urge to much is the same as it was when I was heavier. My strategy has been this, and it has worked for me:

    -count calories and plan such so that I am not losing too quickly so I don't get too hungry
    -drink water before eating anything everytime
    -for the crunchies: 2-3 snacks a day, spread out over hours of: carrots, cucumbers, grapes, apples. I don't like celery. My fave is carrots because they are so crunchy. Lately I've taken to adding measured pb2, hummus, or Toby's tofu pate to make it more filling, I don't bother counting the veggies. It hasn't ruined me.
    -plain air popped popcorn (I do count this)
    -between snacks, I chew on gum, straws, pen lids, or these cool necklaces designed for kids with oral issues (not joking here, this has helped me).
  • karaken
    karaken Posts: 1 Member
    Put some hummus on that celery
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    All this thread made me want to do is bump this one, to keep balance in the universe http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10498878/looking-for-friends-who-dont-eat-clean-and-healthy#latest

    It certainly didn't convince me to eat celery!
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