Can you really eat whatever you want?

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Replies

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    damdam96 wrote: »
    Wait. Why are you eating under 1200 calories/day? That's the bare minimum for someone small and sedentary.
    I'm eating roughly 1,200 calories a day, this is the figure MFP generated for me based on my height and weight loss goals
    But is your weight loss goal realistic? No more than 1% of your body weight per week, on average, is realistic. A bigger deficit than that, is pointless.

    actually 0.5 to 1%. and I still think it would be better expressed as a % of TDEE. As in a deficit equal to up to 20% of TDEE (25% while having sufficient fat available to lose; usually people who do are classified as obese)
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    damdam96 wrote: »
    damdam96 wrote: »
    Thank you all for the advice so far! Just to clarify - I really do enjoy the "healthy" foods I cook. And I've stuck to low carbs so far mainly because I find it easier to stay under 1,200 that way.

    I genuinely want to be healthier but I'm talking about the few times a week I get cravings for stuff. It's currently popcorn, it's literally all I can think about haha.

    I was looking at the calories on things like donuts, granola bars or even crisps and because my lunch&dinners are usually so low calorie, I could fit in some other stuff on some days....I was just worried that the fact they are "unhealthy" would hinder my progress.

    I know CICO, but it's sometimes hard to believe that any calories that are less than what you expend will lead to a loss. I guess, I just wanted some clarification...

    I sometimes had foods like donuts, granola bars, and potato chips when I was losing weight. It never hindered my progress.

    One thing I will note is that if you're eating generally lower carbohydrate, increasing your carbohydrates on a given day can lead to a temporary jump in water weight because going lower carbohydrate tends to result in less water in your body and increasing the carbs will result in more. But this isn't the same thing as actually gaining fat. So you might see a temporary increase on the scale for a day or two, but it doesn't mean that your plan isn't working.

    Oh, interesting, I did not know this. I'm not too caught up in daily fluctuations on the scale but thanks for the heads up!

    Then you should be fine. I'm in your camp -- I don't pay attention to daily fluctuations, but it sure helps to know what might be happening when you see one!
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    damdam96 wrote: »
    Wait. Why are you eating under 1200 calories/day? That's the bare minimum for someone small and sedentary.
    I'm eating roughly 1,200 calories a day, this is the figure MFP generated for me based on my height and weight loss goals
    But is your weight loss goal realistic? No more than 1% of your body weight per week, on average, is realistic. A bigger deficit than that, is pointless.

    actually 0.5 to 1%. and I still think it would be better expressed as a % of TDEE. As in a deficit equal to up to 20% of TDEE (25% while having sufficient fat available to lose; usually people who do are classified as obese)


    This is so wise ... and, as far as I believe, it is true. For example, an obese individual weighing, say, 230 pounds, would need to cut about 1150 calories a day from their maintenance calories to target a 1% weight loss goal ... that's an awful lot of calories to cut if the person is not heavily engaged in hard aerobic exercise and has, let's say, a 2000 calorie maintenance TDEE .... But that same person can opt to cut calories by 25% and consume 1500 calories a day instead ... and be on target to lose about 1 pound a week. ... And I am speaking of hard losses here, not water retention weight loss.
  • duskyjewel
    duskyjewel Posts: 286 Member
    I took my husband out and had a great big bowl of pho tonight. We even split a fried chicken wing appetizer (3 each). I'm still under my calories for the day.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,611 Member
    damdam96 wrote: »
    I was looking at the calories on things like donuts, granola bars or even crisps and because my lunch&dinners are usually so low calorie, I could fit in some other stuff on some days....I was just worried that the fact they are "unhealthy" would hinder my progress.

    I know CICO, but it's sometimes hard to believe that any calories that are less than what you expend will lead to a loss. I guess, I just wanted some clarification...

    I ate a large meal of Mexican food, complete with appetiser (nachos and guac) and a dessert (tiramisu) and then half a chocolate cheesecake the next day for lunch on my birthday weekend a few weeks after starting with MFP ... still lost weight because they fit within my calorie limit. :)

  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    As long as you're covering your nutritional bases, not starving yourself, and not sensitive or allergic, and it fits in your calorie budget, yes eat what you want.
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  • Jackibrazil
    Jackibrazil Posts: 124 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    rankinsect wrote: »
    For weight loss sure, as long as you're burning more calories than you consume. For health? probably shouldn't lol

    How healthy it is depends pretty greatly on what one wants to eat. I'm a pretty firm believer that as long as you eat a good variety of different foods and you don't have any specific health issues causing you to need to pay particular attention to some aspect of your diet, nutrition tends to largely work itself out.

    Well duh. But for the vast majority of people "whatever I want" isn't going to be healthy. Especially if they have to ask that question. Hello, context.

    Why would you assume that?

    Whatever I want is healthy, because I want to eat a nutritious diet, I love a lot of foods that have lots of nutrients (fish, vegetables), my idea of a normal meal is basically nutritious (when I got fat it was from portion sizes, adding excess calories from oils and cheese, and especially from eating outside of meals). I don't know why people assume that whatever you want means mostly junk food -- I'd die of boredom and dissatisfaction on such a diet.

    Yes, "whatever I want" maybe also means eating without thought and as much as I want, but I assume "can I eat whatever I want" to mean "can I include smaller portions of foods I particularly enjoy but think aren't super high in nutrients within a healthy diet and my calories" and the answer is of course.

    When I read "can I really eat whatever I want?" I would assume they have junk in mind otherwise, a healthy balance seems obvious. Maybe that's just me though. If at least 85% of my food cravings were healthy nutritious things and not just chocolate and chips and macaroni n cheese then I wouldn't even question it. I do however question cravings that are obviously empty calories and high in sugars. The rest just seems obvious basic common knowledge to me. To me, when I hear that question it kind of reminds me of "how can close can I get to the edge without falling over?" and My respose would be stay a good distance and don't toe the line. Human nature tends to lean toward the "let's see how close I can get" side of things.
  • Jackibrazil
    Jackibrazil Posts: 124 Member
    I guess I could have said that it MIGHT not be healthy dependent on your diet but the point rings pretty much the same. Nitpicking over nothing.
  • starryphoenix
    starryphoenix Posts: 381 Member
    edited December 2017
    I’m not just aiming to lose weight. I am aiming to be healthy. Weight loss doesn’t equal health. My dad used to eat very unhealthy but he is a runner. He started to have an unhealthy heart because of what he was eating. The only reason he hadn’t had a heart attack up until a few years ago was because he ran. Now he has a really great heart because he changed his eating habits. I think he had clogged arteries or something like that. So, I CAN eat unhealthy, but I see no point. One thing though, I’m not afraid to have fun on the holidays.
  • EloiseBean
    EloiseBean Posts: 16 Member
    i lost 106 eating what i wanted
  • Jackibrazil
    Jackibrazil Posts: 124 Member
    edited December 2017
    I guess because I've never had that mentality about dieting I just figured that's what OP meant. Unhealthy..
  • Jackibrazil
    Jackibrazil Posts: 124 Member
    I guess I could have said that it MIGHT not be healthy dependent on your diet but the point rings pretty much the same. Nitpicking over nothing.

    Nitpicking over nothing? C'mon. You've been here since 2012. Surely you've seen the daily messages. "OMG, I just ate xxx and now I'll never lose weight." "My family avoids all sodium bicarbonate because it's used to strip paint and I don't want it in my body." (I'm not making that one up. I wonder about that woman sometimes during holiday baking season.) "I only eat chicken, broccoli, and cauliflower but I keep falling off the wagon. HALP!!" It's not nothing to say that a sustainable and healthy diet can include foods that aren't traditionally considered healthy. We all see too many people asking about it every day to consider it nothing.

    I've had an account since 2012. I don't look at emails and I've literally never used the message boards or looked at them before two days ago. My friends were all people I know who just use this to log. C'mon.
  • beaglady
    beaglady Posts: 1,362 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »

    For a recent potluck, I made mac'n'cheese that had 366 calories per serving (9x13" cake dish, cut 10), 19g protein (no meat BTW), 8g fiber, 82% RDA of vitamin A, . . . and I could go on with the nutrition. My non-weight-conscious friends loved it, judged by consumption, not just compliments. If eating that is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

    @AnnPT77 would you mind posting your recipe in the Recipe section please. That sounds like something I’d like to make. Thanks!