Do I have to eat healthy all the time to lose weight?

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  • RealWorldStrengthLLC
    RealWorldStrengthLLC Posts: 552 Member
    There is actually a more complex answer to your question. If you want to lose MOSTLY FAT, you need to strength train (which in a deficit is less than fun), eat in a caloric deficit, and consume an adequate amount of protein/fats.

    Regular Strength training tells your body "we need these muscles, don't burn them for energy"

    Eating in a deficit is what is required to lose weight. Basic laws of energy here. But if you aren't strength training, some of what is lost will be muscle (actually you still will lose muscle on a cut but less so with moderately heavy lifting)

    Eating in a deficit is not enough. You could have a deficit diet of nothing but donuts and still lose weight, but you'll also lose muscle mass and end up a smaller version of you at roughly the same or even worse body composition.

    You need adequate protein, personally I go for 1g/lb of LBM. Fats are responsible for hormone production and having less than 20% of your cals come from fats is a bad thing, more is ok if you so choose. Carbs can make up the rest.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    i lost 130 pounds and eat the same foods i always have. difference now, i work out and count calories and the majority of days eat within my calorie goals. i have ice cream or chocolate in some form nearly every day.
  • magnusthenerd
    magnusthenerd Posts: 1,207 Member
    youcantflexcardio wrote: »
    There is actually a more complex answer to your question. If you want to lose MOSTLY FAT, you need to strength train (which in a deficit is less than fun), eat in a caloric deficit, and consume an adequate amount of protein/fats.

    Regular Strength training tells your body "we need these muscles, don't burn them for energy"

    Eating in a deficit is what is required to lose weight. Basic laws of energy here. But if you aren't strength training, some of what is lost will be muscle (actually you still will lose muscle on a cut but less so with moderately heavy lifting)

    Eating in a deficit is not enough. You could have a deficit diet of nothing but donuts and still lose weight, but you'll also lose muscle mass and end up a smaller version of you at roughly the same or even worse body composition.

    You need adequate protein, personally I go for 1g/lb of LBM. Fats are responsible for hormone production and having less than 20% of your cals come from fats is a bad thing, more is ok if you so choose. Carbs can make up the rest.
    Actually, muscle loss, as in actual protein structures, on a deficit while resistance training that maintains intensity and with adequate protein, is not likely to happen. Glycogen stores will diminish but that will return the instant one goes back to maintenance. Even on ridiculously harsh deficits like Lyle's RFL.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    No. You can make room in your calories for unhealthy food. It is up to you how you want to do it. If you’re trying to lose, just make sure you log everything.

    Some people have a treat daily, some weekly, etc.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,009 Member
    edited September 2019
    You have to be in an energy deficit to lose weight. You have to eat a healthy diet to be healthy. A healthy diet does not need to be health foods all the time and can certainly contain a treat every day.
  • JenniferM1234
    JenniferM1234 Posts: 173 Member
    You know what helps me, so it might help you? I think of my getting-healthier life in terms of weeks, not days. So, once a week or so, I really go "off the rails." I'm not going to stop going out with girlfriends or to social events, and while there, I just have fun -- and for me, part of that is wine/cocktails, and allllll the food. But that is just one (usually) weekend night a week.

    The other six days I do my best to stay under the mfp calorie daily limit. Because I'm only 5'3", it's only 1350 calories a day, which isn't a lot for someone who loves cheese and nuts and processed meat! But that once a week allowance lets me still live my life. And it might slow down my getting-healthier process, but it's still happening, and I'm not only miserably looking at my friends chomping on their onion rings or whatever. Don't miss out on life. :)
  • SarahAnne3958
    SarahAnne3958 Posts: 78 Member
    edited September 2019
    Nm
  • MySlimGoals
    MySlimGoals Posts: 754 Member
    edited September 2019
    No, you only need to have a calorie deficit as others have pointed out. You could eat KFC or chocolate only in your diet as long as you ate within your calorie deficit and you would lose.

    But of course you want your body to be working great in 10, 20, 40 years from now and the adult part of your life to extend as long as possible before you become frail and elderly. The better the choices you make the more likely you will have less problems down the line. Everyone's body fails eventually but you can be your best healthiest you if you make good food choices and do some exercise.

    I find the macro and nutrition graphs really helpful when filling out my diary and reviewing my day. There is room for improvement like my calcium intake and it has helped me get my sugars down to the right level. I wish it was even more extensive actually because I find it interesting.
  • padawan2302
    padawan2302 Posts: 2 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    padawan2302 wrote: »
    Technically you are all correct - you lose weight by having a calorific deficit. But to encourage people to continue eating unhealthily is denying the obvious health benefits from eating more of a healthy diet. The benefits for your heart, liver, blood pressure, diabetese etc, etc. from cutting out less healthy food are there for all to see. It's somewhat dangerous to encourage someone to eat what they want as long as its in the right amount. That's like saying if I ate nothing but cheese burgers for a year i'd be ok as long as I was lighter. Probably have serious heart disease, good chance of a stroke or liver failure as well, but what the hey, I've lost some weight.

    We aren't technically correct. We are literally correct. You can lose weight eating any food you want. "Losing weight" and "optimal health" are different goals, although they often go hand in hand.

    Nobody encouraged anybody to eat an unhealthy diet. Just confirmed that you can lose weight eating any food. We're all adults here, I'm not going to assume that because OP wants to eat a treat every day that means they don't understand the difference between "lose weight" and "be healthy".

    I'll add that if you are an obese person eating nothing but cheeseburgers, and you eat less cheeseburgers to lose weight until you are at a healthy weight, but still eat nothing but cheeseburgers, you will still be healthier than you were. Not as healthy as you could be, but still an improvement. And some people have to get to that point before taking the next step to change their diet.

    Obviously, OP is already aware of the correlation between diet and health since they are concerned that eating a treat every day might be a problem. Is there some reason you assume OP wants to eat an entirely unhealthy diet?

    I don't assume OP wants to eat an unhealthy diet. If you all read it properly, it wasn't referring to OP at all, but to a lot of peoples advice about "eating what you want, as long as you are in a calorie deficit". I would even suggest that eating a healthy diet and being slightly overweight has better health benefits than eating crap and being underweight. I was only pointing out that it's dangerous to suggest to someone to literally eat what they want to lose weight. If you read the initial replies they all suggest this. Apologies for sounding blunt or pedantic.
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