What's better eating less or healthier

edessastockard

I've been staying under my calorie limit but it's not because I'm being healthy it's just because I'm eating less idk what I should do about that because some of my friends say it's fine and others are saying I should eat the same just healthier food

glassyo

If the main goal is to lose weight, eating healthier but the same won't be a magic bullet. You have to still eat in a deficit.

Obviously healthy is optimal but it's not required.

musicfan68

That isn't an either/or question. Strictly for weight loss, eating less, even a bad diet, will make you lose weight. However, satiety and health suffers if you don't eat healthy. Learn to replace some of the junk foods with better foods, and eat less for weight loss.

AnnPT77

False dichotomy, so I'm not going to vote.

Eating a sensible number of calories will result in weight loss ("Sensible number of calories" means something such as your MFP goal, when your set-up is accurate and you haven't asked for a too-aggressive weight loss rate.) If all you care about is weight loss, it doesn't matter what foods you eat.

If you'd like to be healthy, not just thinner, then nutrition matters. Even then, what matters is your overall way of eating, not individual food choices, i.e., the issue isn't "eat only the healthiest possible foods" . . . especially in an environment where there's all kinds of nonsense published about which foods are healthy and which aren't. Most people are parroting nonsense they read on some silly blog or something, IME.

What you should do is ignore random advice from people around you, unless someone is a registered dietitian or something. Even then, considering their advice is fine, and you may still choose not to follow all of it - your call. For people around you without credentials in nutritional science - and especially people with neither credentials nor long term obvious excellent results of their own . . . ignore them.

Be you. Make your own choices. Your choices are not subject to majority vote from people around you. Learn as much as you can and want to about nutrition, make your own decisions, take responsibility for them. If you accomplish your goals, great. If you don't make progress toward your goals, adjust your tactics until you do.

P.S. If someone is significantly overweight, then losing weight may be the most important thing they can do in the short run to improve their health, and any way of losing weight that they can stick to sustainably, for long enough to lose that weight, is a "healthy way to eat" at that point.

Some years back, I was eating mostly healthy foods, working out hard 6 days most weeks (even competing athletically) . . . and I stayed class 1 obese for over a decade doing all of that, not to mention stayed unhealthy (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gall bladder problems, more). In 2015-16, I lost weight down to a reasonable weight for my height, eating the same foods (just less of them), exercising the same way . . . . and BP became normal, cholesterol normal, joint pain less, among other benefits. A healthy weight is called "a healthy weight" for a reason. It's not the only thing useful for improving health, but it's a big one.

glassyo

Oh and try to eat (and exercise, if you so choose) in a way that's sustainable to you.

Until it's not. I just hit that "not" part and it sucks.

asellitti6523

Both. You can eat just donuts and bread each day and lose weight if you stay within a caloric deficit. The problem is eating just that is likely not going to satiate you and you are going to be hungry and eat into a surplus. It also means eating that way could lead to other negative health conditions as you are not consuming enough vitamins and nutrients that you would from nutrition rich food. Eating healthy foods (lean proteins, healthy fats) are going to help your satiety so you feel full for longer period and make it easier to eat in a deficit.

thinlyfa1ry

Less is fine

side note i didn't mean to vote on this aah :')

emmamcgarity

Less is fine

This is your journey. You get to choose what you want to eat and what your goals are.

Some people have trigger foods that make it difficult to stick to their calorie goals (example - me and Reese’s peanut butter cups. I have absolutely no self control with them.). Identifying your trigger foods may help you stick to your plan.

I personally find that planning treats (small servings of cookies or ice cream) help keep me from feeling deprived. But for the bulk of my diet I generally choose what many consider healthy food choices.

gpanda103

I don’t really understand the question. “Healthy” is pretty meaningless. If I’m binging on oatmeal and broccoli, are they still healthy?

If foods that are considered unhealthy let you meet your goals, then they are healthy. There’s no reason to freak out over stuff because “oh there’s calcium triphosphate in it!”

Redordeadhead

Better for what?
Weight loss?
Health?
Energy levels?

sijomial

You can't separate it like that.
Eating the right amount is part of health, eating an overall nutritious diet is part of health, getting to a healthy weight is a part of health.

Your friends don't sound very help IMHO!!

e.g. - I gained a load of excess weight very rapidly eating healthy home cooked food. Loads of good nutrition but getting fat was a detriment to my health.

ReenieHJ

Healthier

While I agree with most of the replies, I chose healthy because I'd much rather be healthy than thin. A well-oiled machine performs better and longer than one with sub-par fuel.
As many said, it's not really down to the 2 choices, it has to be a good enough balance to lose weight, be healthy and enjoy life.

mackji371

The researchers said they discovered that even people who are healthy and lean can benefit from calorie-restricted diets. In addition, many biomarkers for aging were reduced, according to the study, and health improved. “One thing is certain,” Anderson told Healthline. “If you eat less and weigh less, you live longer

cwolfman13

Not even going to vote. It's a false dichotomy. Meeting your nutritional needs has many benefits, but eating a healthy diet doesn't default to losing weight or weight management in general. Weight management is about energy (calories). If you consume energy in excess of what your body needs you will gain weight regardless of how healthy the foods are that you are consuming.

Ideally one would want to meet their nutritional needs as well as their calorie needs and also have some wiggle room for things that are maybe not so high up in regards to nutritional profile, but enjoyable. Balance...

Seasonal_One

Less is fine

When people start a diet and comment here, some want to solve every issue today. Starting today, I'm going to eat healthy, eat less, and start an ambitious exercise program. I think if you start with one variable and over time, work on the other variables, it's easier and likely to be more successful. Starting buy just eating less and seeing results is a great first step. After some time, start fixing other items you feel need attention. Changing everything at once, often results in frustration.

asellitti6523

Seasonal_One wrote: »

When people start a diet and comment here, some want to solve every issue today. Starting today, I'm going to eat healthy, eat less, and start an ambitious exercise program. I think if you start with one variable and over time, work on the other variables, it's easier and likely to be more successful. Starting buy just eating less and seeing results is a great first step. After some time, start fixing other items you feel need attention. Changing everything at once, often results in frustration.

Exactly. Going 0 to 60 has never worked for me to sustain weight loss. I have started with extreme low calorie/lower carb healthy clean diets and rigorous exercise programs in the past and while I experience rapid weight loss early (1-2 months) I just don't find the pace sustainable. I end up using the calories I burn in the gym to justify questionable food choices/qty of food per consumption period and end up hitting a wall and getting discouraged to the point where I throw in the towel and revert to my poor habits.

This time around I am just focused on getting out to walk for 30 minutes a day and hitting my modest calorie deficit. Yes I am losing weight at a slower clip that I did a couple years back with a stricter diet and more exercise but I don't feel burnt out or feel like I am starving myself. In fact I actually feel more full and satiated now on a lower calorie diet than I did when I wasn't tracking and probably consuming in the neighborhood of 2800-3200 calories a day. Eventually I would like to go back to the gym and start weight lifting again but I need to prove to myself this lifestyle change when it comes to nutrition is permanent and that I have no desire to eat like I once did. I'm getting close but not there yet as I am still only 2 months in.

lemurcat2

As others have said: better for what?

Also, it depends on your weight, your goals, how little you are eating, your definition of healthy, etc.

I personally think that if you care about health and sustainability, you should eat a reasonably nutritious diet, at least. But that's not for weight loss, that's for anyone.

If your friend is saying you can lose weight just by eating healthfully, but the same cals on which you were (hypothetically) gaining or maintaining, no that is not true. But some people do eat fewer cals without thinking about it if they shift their food choices.

Another concern is that many people who focus on "eating healthy only" have messed up ideas about what eating healthy means.

And finally, there is such a thing of eating too little or a diet so deficient that it is dangerous in and of itself. Eating less is not always better even if you are focused mainly on weight loss. Sometimes people get the idea that if they have a goal of, say, 1500, for a reasonable rate of loss, eating 1200 is better and 1000 even better and 800 better than that and so on, and that is not the case at all. That's a dangerous way to think.

threewins

No option for both? If I eat fruit and veges, I'm probably doing both since I won't be hungry for a while.

cwolfman13

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Not even going to vote. It's a false dichotomy. Meeting your nutritional needs has many benefits, but eating a healthy diet doesn't default to losing weight or weight management in general. Weight management is about energy (calories). If you consume energy in excess of what your body needs you will gain weight regardless of how healthy the foods are that you are consuming.

Ideally one would want to meet their nutritional needs as well as their calorie needs and also have some wiggle room for things that are maybe not so high up in regards to nutritional profile, but enjoyable. Balance...

To add to my previous post, often...but not always, when one starts eating healthier they will end up putting themselves into a calorie deficit. Just as an example, once upon a time I ate fast food every workday for lunch. One of the changes I made early on was to brown bag my lunch. My fast food lunches were typically in the neighborhood of 1000-1200 calories...my brown bag was more like 600...so pretty easily hacked off 500-600 calories per day with that.

As others have noted, working things out piece meal is likely to lead to better success than trying to do everything all at once. I put an emphasis on healthier early because I didn't even know what a calorie was or anything about calorie counting. I lost a good 20 Lbs before I ever heard of MFP or calorie counting just making tweaks to my diet as noted above. Also cut back on sodas...started eating more veggies, etc.

The flip to that is that over the last 2 years I've put on about 20 Lbs...and I've been eating healthy...just too much.

edessastockard

For those of you asking the goal is to lose weight I want to drop 20 lbs

IAmTheGlue

I did not vote because this is not black or white.

To lose weight, eat less than you burn.

Example only: let’s say you eat your 1500 (or whatever your goal is) calories of twinkies only you are probably going to be a real crab because your hungry and not meeting your nutritional needs. Your human body needs protein, fiber, fats, vitamins, etc.

Now if you eat that same 1500 calories in lean protein, vegetables, fruit and whole grains (or whatever you deem is healthy… everyone has differing opinions on what is healthy for the human body), you will be meeting your nutritional needs which boosts your energy and along the way you are learning what to eat, how much to eat, overcome hurdles, find out how to not be miserable, etc so you can maintain it at the goal.

I think of it like this. You can lose weight either way, and that’s like winning the lottery. The lottery winners who tend to go broke already have a history of not making solid financial decisions. You can go on a crash diet and lose weight you might gain back immediately (plus more).

People who can already build wealth by saving and making sound financial choices can win the lottery and not go broke because they rely on what they already know how to do. You can figure out what works for you, it may take longer but you will ideally be set up to be able to maintain it.

I don’t know if that helped at all. If it’s working for you, go for it. I know that my personal body feels better when I eat cleaner. My goal is not solely weight loss. My goal is health. But your body, your choice. 💐

glassyo

Honestly, no matter what your goal, it comes down to this:

Calories for weight.
Food/exercise (snuck that in there) for health/satiety.