If You Eat Cookies, Cakes, Ice Cream Daily Do You Consider Yourself Dieting?

TrishSeren

I eat ice cream 2-3 times a week if it fits my calories and we bought some in the weekly shop. For me this has to be sustainable forever (literally). So I'd rather eat a little less of everything than cut out entire food groups.

Plus life is for enjoying and if you can't eat ice cream as part of a balanced diet then what's the point?

layladrew26

I hate the phrase 'on a diet'. It has so many negative connotations for me. When I was 'on a diet' in the past before I found out about CICO I used to restrict myself foods I enjoyed such as chocolate, crisps etc and thought that I couldn't eat those foods because it would ruin my progress.
After restricting myself I would crave those foods and subsequently binge on them and this was a viscious circle I couldn't break until...I discovered yes I could eat ANYTHING I desired and I still lose weight. I have lost 65 pounds and happily maintaining my weight eating big, nutritious, filling meals and BOOM....room left for chocolate and crisps.
I am happy, healthy and most importantly not deprived of what I enjoy.
Life's too short IMO

alexa0ne

I can't do that, I have a certain cheat day once a week. Consuming that food on a daily basis won't be good.

paperpudding

lantana411 wrote: »

I'm surprised at how many people eat cookies, croissants, ice cream, cake, chips, etc. on a daily or near-daily basis BUT LOG THEIR FOOD! I want to know - is it because they consider themselves dieting or getting ready to diet? Is this why people who diet are considered 'eating cleanly'? What do you do and what do you consider it? If you stay within your calories but drink/snack them away instead of eating meals is it dieting?

Can only answer for myself. But I lost weight over 10 month period in 2013 and been on maitenance ever since

I LOG MY FOOD ( capitals are such a nice touch ) because it keeps me accountable and when I eat to around my calorie goal, my weight does what I want it to.

I don't consider myself dieting - I consider this a way of eating and tracking my calories. But I guess that is just semantics

Semantics of 'dieting' word aside - I certainly never considered myself clean eating by any stretch of the imagination.

Not sure whether snacking or drinking some calories is ' dieting' - but I certainly do both.

However I am with those who don't think your motivation was really 'wanting to know'

paperpudding

lantana411 wrote: »

Some of them seem defensive of their food choices, almost like they want to lose weight but not if they have to back away from sweets. To me, it's a balance. I don't want dessert daily but I would eat it every once in a while IF I believe I can have it once and be done with it. NOT if I think it'll start me in a spiral of binge eating. That's why I was so curious about the mindset of others on MFP. And I'm glad for your answers - truly!

But they don't have to back away from sweets. They can eat sweets in appropriate frequency/ portion size and lose weight.

Maybe it starts binge eating for you and you are best to avoid them.

But surely you don't think that therefore applies to everyone??

LivingtheLeanDream

I eat all of those, not all of them every day, but at least one of them - I follow the 80/20 rule, 80% great nutrition and 20% whatever I fancy - and that's usually chocolate or cake! . Nothing wrong with these foods in moderation and certainly they didn't stop me from losing the weight I needed to and keeping it off long term.

hippysprout

lantana411 wrote: »

I'm surprised at how many people eat cookies, croissants, ice cream, cake, chips, etc. on a daily or near-daily basis BUT LOG THEIR FOOD! I want to know - is it because they consider themselves dieting or getting ready to diet? Is this why people who diet are considered 'eating cleanly'? What do you do and what do you consider it? If you stay within your calories but drink/snack them away instead of eating meals is it dieting?

Why do you think it's odd to eat dessert every day, or have a croissant every day, or any other food on a daily basis? Healthy people who eat intuitively and have no need to count their calories in order to maintain their weight eat these things regularly. I watch one of them (my daughter) do it every single day. She seems to have an internal monitor that allows her to balance her nutrition without thought and calculation. But she eats cookies, croissants, cake, chips, etc with regularity (right alongside her daily veggies, fruits, lean meats and whole grains) so I guess I'M curious about why YOU think this is abnormal.

Or is it the logging of food that you think is abnormal? Because with the obesity problem in the USA alone, I would say there are just as many people lacking that internal monitor as there are those who have it, and logging food replaces that missing internal ticker. Clearly, logging calories works - but you can see that for yourself in a 10 minute romp around the forum.

Or is it that you feel that people who are missing this internal macro/calorie monitor shouldn't be allowed to indulge in treats? Or if they DO indulge in treats, that they shouldn't log it (and if this is so, why not log it? Are we ashamed of our snickers ice cream bars?) Please understand, I'm not accusing you of any particular thought pattern here, I'm trying in vain to understand why you seem to be so befuddled by the fact that humans of all sizes eat treats, and that they aren't ashamed of it.

joemac1988

Your "diet" is the food you eat so every single person alive on this earth is on a diet. Some are in a deficit, some are maintaining and some are in a surplus. What foods make up their intake is irrelevant in this context.

The more I'm restricting my intake the looser I log. Having an extra 100g of broccoli isn't going to make a big difference.

Conversely, when I'm maintaining and more lax with my food choices the more OCD I log because an extra 32g of peanut butter and an extra cookie can make all the difference.

WinoGelato

Newcomers to the thread should read the whole thing, it’s enlightening...

sgriska

I budget 50 calories per day out of 1200 for chocolate (roughly two squares of a Cadbury bar, or a fun size Hershey’s Milk Chocolate). I look forward to it all day, and it’s just enough to melt in my mouth and savor but not enough to spark a binge. It’s part of my bedtime ritual.

For the record, I have lost 124 lbs tracking my caloric intake and output with MFP over the last 333 days, and I don’t frankly care who thinks I’m “not really dieting” or not eating “cleanly enough.”

pinuplove

WinoGelato wrote: »

Newcomers to the thread should read the whole thing, it’s enlightening...

Quite! It took an interesting turn around the end of page 3.

donabrown2017

TavistockToad wrote: »

People are eating in a calorie deficit... you can do that and still eat whatever you want...

totally agree

dragon_girl26

pinuplove wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Newcomers to the thread should read the whole thing, it’s enlightening...

Quite! It took an interesting turn around the end of page 3.

Heh, yep! Glad I took this advice. That little 'gotcha' was quite something, along with OP's indignant passive aggressiveness. Otherwise, the question makes zero sense to me.
Sometimes for breakfast, nothing will quite do it for me like a chocolate croissant or a slice of chocolate cake. I've been known to have pie, too. It's not something I do every single day, but if I'm hitting my macros for the day, I wouldn't be opposed to it. OP would probably have a heart attack at my diary. I've maintained most of my 80 pound weight loss for about 3-4 years now, so I think the whole calorie counting and logging thing still works for me.

cerise_noir

DIET shouldn’t be = Depriving Individuals of Everything Tasty. It’s more like Do It! Eat Tasty (while losing/gaining/maintaining weight.)

tinkerbellang83

cerise_noir wrote: »

DIET shouldn’t be = Depriving Individuals of Everything Tasty. It’s more like Do It! Eat Tasty (while losing/gaining/maintaining weight.)

Love that lol

jjpptt2

WinoGelato wrote: »

Newcomers to the thread should read the whole thing, it’s enlightening...

huh. I was wondering how this thread got to page 9. Guess I'll go back and find out...


ETA -
Ah, it was the tone of judgement.

jjpptt2

I don't know if OP is still reading, but...

Personally, if I don't log, I'm probably overeating (and hence, gaining weight). So I log to manage my intake. That could be to maintain my weight, it could be lose weight. In either case, I'm restricting my intake from what I would otherwise want it to be, and thus I consider myself dieting. Diet/dieting is one of those words that can mean different things to different people and trigger a variety of responses. But to me and for me, a diet is an intentional change/control to my desired eating patterns. In some cases, that can/does include ice cream, cookies, etc. In some cases it doesn't. But the controlled intake is what defines my diet (again, I'm speaking for myself here)... not what I am or am not eating as part of that control.

kellyjellybellyjelly

pinuplove wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Is this going to be one of those threads where OP makes a provocative statement/inquiry, then everyone chimes in to refute it or provide clarity and the OP never returns but we all still go on agreeing with each other?

Ok just checking. Carry on with all these examples of being able to eat delicious foods AND achieve our goals.

Is it a day that ends in y?

kellyjellybellyjelly

ITUSGirl51 wrote: »

My dinner was Cheez ITs and Peanut M&Ms because I’m stuck at work and so hungry for dinner with only a vending machine for options. I still have 218 more calories I can enjoy and be in a deficit. I’m not even hungry for them. No reason to blow off my entire day because I had to eat junk for dinner. I can still lose weight if I account for what I eat.

I pushed a lot of carts yesterday to help when the stockman called off. I burned around 4,400 calories for the whole day & only ate 1,800 calories yesterday. To account for the calories yesterday I ate a whole jar of cookie butter & it fit into my overall maintenance calories!

tbright1965

cerise_noir wrote: »

DIET shouldn’t be = Depriving Individuals of Everything Tasty. It’s more like Do It! Eat Tasty (while losing/gaining/maintaining weight.)

I would say, Dine Intentionally, Eat Thoughtfully, but that's just me.