Eat what you want

00figg

soo, funny story. i went to the movies the other night and dinner after with friends. i ordered bbq chicken breast and grilled veg and when it came i was the first to admit it wasnt very sexy and we all laughed because around the table there was mac n cheese and fries and ribs...BUT...my food was delish and i enjoyed it. i went home and looked at my journal for the day and i had beers, popcorn, m&m's and ice-cream (along with healthy things of course). all fit in my cals. i have lost 50+ pounds and am on maintenance. i do eat what i want, but i am choosy about it...i don't want everything all the time...

Sarasmaintaining

Lost the weight that way and have been successfully maintaining the loss. Now, I'm starting to go in a different direction with how I eat, but it's not related to my weight. CICO met me where I was at and it got the job done. Now I'm going a bit deeper with my food choices/have different goals now, but I have no regrets at all for how I went about things.

Need2Exerc1se

"want" is a funny word. In one way I certainly do not eat anything I want. I can't without getting fat. I want to eat a rack of ribs, sides of gooey homemade mac-n-cheese, roasted veggies dripping with olive oil, dessert of homemade apple walnut pie with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. Wash it all down with a bottle or two of good red wine. Just the ribs are more than my daily calorie allowance. I want to be able to eat like that every day, every meal. So no, I do not and cannot eat anything I want and lose weight.

But, on the other hand, I want to lose weight so I choose not to eat that meal. I eat ribs maybe once or twice a year. Tiny little portions of mac-n-cheese or dessert occasionally. I do this because I don't want to be fat. So, in another way, I do eat what I want. I choose to skip some of the things that I want, because I want to lose weight more.

WinoGelato

OP I've lost about 30 lbs and am transitioning to maintenance eating the foods I love. I have wine and sweets pretty much every day. I have pizza or fast food about once a week. I make choices based on my calorie allotment, and this enables me to figure out how to fit in the foods I enjoy.

I was never a binger or a volume eater, I just wasn't paying attention to how much I was eating and I was eating too many of the calorie dense things in a day. Now if I want to go to a bar and have beer and wings, I do, but instead of also having potato skins and nachos, I may have a salad. I just am way more informed now, and that is what I feel has moderation a simple and successful tool for me.

jenniferinfl

I don't quite.. I mean, I did have a Mcdouble last week and about 4.7 ounces of pizza. But, I regretted those choices as I was still hungry when I was done eating them and I know I wouldn't have been hungry if I'd eaten my healthier meals with the same amount of calories.

But, yes, absolutely you can lose weight on just pizza so long as you are at a deficit. You could eat just at Mcdonalds and lose weight so long as the calories in, calories out lined up. I do have 'half n half' and real sugar in my coffee everyday.

I have lost 21 lbs in 37 days and not all of my diet has been 'clean' eating.

sijomial

I eat anything I want - I just can't eat everything I want as I'm greedy.
(Or should I say "addicted to food" as seems to be trendy these days?)

My diet is the same when I got fat, when I stayed fat, when I lost weight and when I maintain weight. Just the quantities changed.

PeachyCarol

I eat what I want, I've just learned that the quantities I used to want were entirely inappropriate to be the weight I ultimately want to be.

I no longer want to be fat, and it's become easy for me to accept that I need to eat in appropriate quantities to maintain the size body that I ultimately want.

32 pounds down and counting.

maillemaker

Sorry to burst your bubble, these people clearly want to eat broccoli and quinoa and chia seeds and wheat grass.........

If I got to eat what I wanted, and still stay close to my defecit calories, I would basically get like 1 scoop of ice cream, 6 fries, 2 cheese sticks, a slice of toast, and that would be my entire day right there. Can you say STARVED!?!? You can't get full enough on junk food within a certain caloric range!

With that said, depending on what your defecit is, you probably could eat a handful of bad things a week and still lose!! I do it

Exactly.

There simply aren't enough calories in my daily allotment to eat what I want. And definitely not enough to eat in the quantities I would want to eat the things I want to eat.

For example, I want to eat baby back ribs. But I'd want to eat a whole rack of them. But that's about 1300 calories and I only get 1600 calories for the entire day.

Generally, the things I want to eat are super calorie dense, which means you get have to eat a tiny portion or you've blown a large portion of your daily allotment. And I find that limiting good food to tiny portions takes even more willpower than just sticking to "OK" food. So I tend to stick to things that aren't so calorie dense. They are "OK" to eat, but not what I'd really prefer to be eating. But that's what it takes to make 1600 calories last all day and be able to eat food all day long.

earlnabby

Another here!


ETA: the main change is that, at the beginning, I ate what I wanted, just not how much I wanted. The "how much" is what has changed.

Dragn77

I eat what I want...just in moderation. I actually have been drinking more beer and eating more ice cream now that Im "on a diet" than when I wasnt... But thats only because before, Id consider them something I should avoid because of all the weight I gained... Didnt stop to think that maybe it was because I was eating a #1 with a milkshake for dinner, and ending my day with apple pie, donuts and a Starbucks frappe every dang day.

Now that Im eating a more well balanced diet, I actually have room for some guilt free treats here and there. I still eat fast food, just instead of fries I get the side salad, and instead of soda I get water. I dont do low fat, no sugar, chia seeds, powders, suppliments, blah blah.. I just eat food. Whatever Im in the mood for, just less of it.

Have lost 15lbs in 10 weeks... for an average loss of 1.5 lbs every week, Id say Im doing pretty alright!

gramarye

Yep. 95 pounds down (with about 45 more to go), and I didn't cut out a single thing. I choose certain foods a lot less frequently and use smaller amounts of a lot of things when cooking, like butter and cheese.

Seriously, I used to put SO MUCH CHEESE on things. Now I'm like, "Yeah, half an ounce is fine for flavor." Except on pizza. Then we're going back to Cheeseville.

earlnabby

Sorry to burst your bubble, these people clearly want to eat broccoli and quinoa and chia seeds and wheat grass.........

If I got to eat what I wanted, and still stay close to my defecit calories, I would basically get like 1 scoop of ice cream, 6 fries, 2 cheese sticks, a slice of toast, and that would be my entire day right there. Can you say STARVED!?!? You can't get full enough on junk food within a certain caloric range!

Yes, I want to eat actual meals of whole foods. I do not go for the "broccoli, quinoa, and chia seeds" type of diet, I go for the meat and vegetables and sandwiches, and yogurt, and fruit type of diet. Lots of stews. Some starches, some sweets, some alcohol.

I am not a big "junk food" eater and never have been. I gained 150 lb. by eating way too much of "normal" foods. At my highest, if I went to Mcdonalds I would get a burger and drink. The fries were just not appealing. One the other hand, I love my bread. I could get a loaf of whole wheat bread from a local bakery and it would be gone by nighttime. Now I still eat it, I just have one or two slices a day.

kristydi

Whatever I want absolutely. As much or as often as I want, not so much.

I think learning to choose when to indulge and when to resist is important. Its also important to decide which things you love enough to fit into your regular food and which things aren't yummy enough to be worth their calories on a regular basis.

lemurcat12

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

"want" is a funny word. In one way I certainly do not eat anything I want. I can't without getting fat. I want to eat a rack of ribs, sides of gooey homemade mac-n-cheese, roasted veggies dripping with olive oil, dessert of homemade apple walnut pie with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. Wash it all down with a bottle or two of good red wine. Just the ribs are more than my daily calorie allowance. I want to be able to eat like that every day, every meal. So no, I do not and cannot eat anything I want and lose weight.

But, on the other hand, I want to lose weight so I choose not to eat that meal. I eat ribs maybe once or twice a year. Tiny little portions of mac-n-cheese or dessert occasionally. I do this because I don't want to be fat. So, in another way, I do eat what I want. I choose to skip some of the things that I want, because I want to lose weight more.

I was going to say something similar about what "want" means being really the question here, because you can't eat all foods that might taste good and are always picking among them. Usually it's a matter of choosing something you want over something else you could conceiveably want, at least for me.

I eat what I want, in that when I think about "what do I want for dinner" I tend to think of the kinds of foods I eat, including the veggies, and never feel like I'm eating something I don't want and rarely feel like I strongly "want" something and am depriving myself of it. For me, for a way of eating to be sustainable it has to be based on foods I "want," but the nutritional value of the foods (as well as how they are cooked, of course) plays a positive role in whether or not I want them. I liked avocado anyway, for example, but I eat it more often because I know it's got positive qualities that fit well with my overall diet, so in that sense I'm more likely to "want" it.

Does that mean that I eat any food I might possibly think "oh, that sounds good" about or that I might desire over the course of the day (the cupcakes in the break room or whatever)? No, of course not. And it also doesn't mean I always eat as much as I would eat of something if I ate it in an unmoderated way. I don't have good food breaks (uh, as in "whoa, there, that's enough!), and I've had to learn this about myself.

lemurcat12

maillemaker wrote: »

For example, I want to eat baby back ribs. But I'd want to eat a whole rack of them. But that's about 1300 calories and I only get 1600 calories for the entire day.

Generally, the things I want to eat are super calorie dense, which means you get have to eat a tiny portion or you've blown a large portion of your daily allotment. And I find that limiting good food to tiny portions takes even more willpower than just sticking to "OK" food. So I tend to stick to things that aren't so calorie dense. They are "OK" to eat, but not what I'd really prefer to be eating. But that's what it takes to make 1600 calories last all day and be able to eat food all day long.

So isn't the trick teaching yourself to want the foods in smaller portions or to want more lower calorie foods?

I can eat a huge burger, but when I want a burger, I actually do simply want a tasty burger that will fill me up. That "want" can be met, most of the time, by a reasonably low calorie burger I make at home and combine with some veggies.

I love pulled pork (which is really calorie dense), but I've found I'm happy eating a smaller portion (NOT tiny, and I'm a reasonably small woman) with a bunch of veggies--it's filling and satisfies my desire for the food.

Need2Exerc1se

lemurcat12 wrote: »

maillemaker wrote: »

For example, I want to eat baby back ribs. But I'd want to eat a whole rack of them. But that's about 1300 calories and I only get 1600 calories for the entire day.

Generally, the things I want to eat are super calorie dense, which means you get have to eat a tiny portion or you've blown a large portion of your daily allotment. And I find that limiting good food to tiny portions takes even more willpower than just sticking to "OK" food. So I tend to stick to things that aren't so calorie dense. They are "OK" to eat, but not what I'd really prefer to be eating. But that's what it takes to make 1600 calories last all day and be able to eat food all day long.

So isn't the trick teaching yourself to want the foods in smaller portions or to want more lower calorie foods?

I can eat a huge burger, but when I want a burger, I actually do simply want a tasty burger that will fill me up. That "want" can be met, most of the time, by a reasonably low calorie burger I make at home and combine with some veggies.

I love pulled pork (which is really calorie dense), but I've found I'm happy eating a smaller portion (NOT tiny, and I'm a reasonably small woman) with a bunch of veggies--it's filling and satisfies my desire for the food.

I'm sure that works for some people. But what makes you happy won't necessarily make everyone happy. I'd rather not have baby back ribs either if I can't have at least one full rack. Some people might be satisfied with a small portion of ribs, but not me.

leggup

67 lbs down. Chocolate or ice cream most days. Nom nom nom.

scottacular

I had a 100g bar of dark chocolate on Sunday and I'll have a 125g one tomorrow, all fits.

SomeGirlSomewhere

DrWhoodles wrote: »

For the most part I eat what I want however what I want has changed a lot.

^^THIS!!^^ I do eat some of what I used to eat in moderation, but for the most part my "binge foods" don't appeal to me as much as they used to since I either find them too salty, too sweet, too greasy, etc. Also, I often don't really like the way I feel (bloated/tired/etc.) after eating them.

Lounmoun

StacyRenee77 wrote: »

Who truly eats what they want, but in moderation and lost a large amount of weight?

Well, I haven't cut any foods from my diet and have lost 20 pounds so far by just eating my calorie limit. I hope to lose more over the next year continuing to eat the same way.