Does it matter what I eat in my calorie budget?

MelodyandBarbells

Depends on goals. Is your goal purely weight loss or is your goal to be healthy and decrease risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke etc. No argument that decreasing calories below daily expenditure will result in weight loss. However cdc estimates are that 7 million americans have undiagnosed diabetes which is a direct result of our food consumption, quantity and quality. Untreated and undiagnosed diabetes leads to stroke, heart disease, kidney failure etc. The results may not be apparent for years but the damage is there none the less. Finding the balance between healthy and enjoyable diet is difficult with our current lifestyles, I struggle everyday with it but also know that it is worth it when we find that balance and that our bodies will be able to carry us through a lifetime of enjoying life instead of struggling to get through the day. Good luck on your journey.

These are purely my opinions and I'm obviously not a nutrition professional:

a) Eating whatever, but at controlled calories is often a vast improvement over how many of us would have eaten prior to deciding to lose weight

b) Deciding to loosen up the reigns and eat whatever really has meant whatever in my case: tofu cheesecake, my favorite item in DQ right now is their Asian peanut salad, single serving brownies, apple slices as a workout snack, cooking beans again - packing it for lunch, eating it with potatoes sometimes. Eggs eggs and more eggs. Somehow I think I would not have been open to all this if I drove myself into a mini panic saying eat this and not that. Maybe I'm that different. But ultimately as things normalize, I'm naturally eating mostly food and sometimes junk. I do have to keep certain items out of the house - there's just no controlled way for me to eat them in reasonable quantities right now

MelodyandBarbells

I do ~10 hours per week of fairly intense exercise mostly or all cardio depending on what you call BodyPump. I took a targeted approach to the fuel for exercise and take apple slices with me to classes. If I'm starting to feel low on fuel I munch on a couple. If it's just not happening I'll leave the class and go home

Perhaps if I were moving 200 - 400 lbs for fitness, this would absolutely not be an option

Laura732

Well, everybody has their own 'fuel mix'. That said, you have to log what you eat to find it. Can you eat whatever you want? In moderation. At some point in time you'll find that you can't eat as much with the less healthy foods. You'll be sitting there hungry with all of your calorie budget in your stomach wanting to gnaw your arm off. You do need to incorporate the good with the bad in order to get the volume of food you need to not be hungry.

geebusuk

I took a targeted approach to the fuel for exercise and take apple slices with me to classes.

Out of interest, what are you 'targetting' with apple?

Apple is high in fructose and fairly low in glucose.

Fructose isn't very good at replensihing muscle glycogen - glucose is much better, yet you've chosen a fruit that has pretty high fructose levels and low glucose levels?

I would expect some sweets like jelly babies would do a much better job of giving you energy.
I'd suspect that for the case of providing energy for a workout, an apple would be 'junk' and the "processed sweets" would be 'real food' .

MelodyandBarbells

I took a targeted approach to the fuel for exercise and take apple slices with me to classes.

Out of interest, what are you 'targetting' with apple?

Apple is high in fructose and fairly low in glucose.

Fructose isn't very good at replensihing muscle glycogen - glucose is much better, yet you've chosen a fruit that has pretty high fructose levels and low glucose levels?

I would expect some sweets like jelly babies would do a much better job of giving you energy.
I'd suspect that for the case of providing energy for a workout, an apple would be 'junk' and the "processed sweets" would be 'real food' .

LOL

The problem with the jelly beans is they would be gone in a week. Or a day. Can't very well do their job if they don't exist!

I pretty much have to be fairly desperate to eat apples, so all I have to do is buy a bag or two whenever I go grocery shopping and they'll be there in the fridge waiting for me whenever I pack my lunch/gym bag in the morning

I am not an expert on sucrose or glucose. There's probably much better choices out there! I figured apples have sugar. When I'm starting to feel 'meh' enough I grab a bite. Once when I forgot my apples I bought a banana at the gym.

But ya know I think you're right. When they had the free peanut M&Ms at the gym that was the happiest time of my workout life. 2 or 3 or 5 between classes and I seemed to be set for the next class! Some jerks may have complained about the temptation staring them in the face at a gym, though. :noway: Or whomever was buying them ran out of money or Easter candy. Never did find out the origins!!

geebusuk

I do suffer the same with having sweets lying around.
Saying that, I impressed myself on a couple of morning club runs taking a whole bag with me and offering them to others, but not eating any myself. When I did an ultramarathon I tried to make a point of eating a few every hour or so to keep energy levels topped up as best possible - seemed to work ok along with the carb preloading as energy wasn't really the issue - just aching legs!

Separating them out in to individual bags when I first buy helps me.

Other fruits have considerably more sucrose comapred to fructose.
From a little googling - grapes are getting near 1;1 and bananas have high levels of glucose and sucrose with relatively little fructose.

MelodyandBarbells

I do suffer the same with having sweets lying around.
Saying that, I impressed myself on a couple of morning club runs taking a whole bag with me and offering them to others, but not eating any myself. When I did an ultramarathon I tried to make a point of eating a few every hour or so to keep energy levels topped up as best possible - seemed to work ok along with the carb preloading as energy wasn't really the issue - just aching legs!

Separating them out in to individual bags when I first buy helps me.

Other fruits have considerably more sucrose comapred to fructose.
From a little googling - grapes are getting near 1;1 and bananas have high levels of glucose and sucrose with relatively little fructose.

Sweet! I'll definitely keep looking into this property of fruits and other food items. Guess I'm a lost cause , though - bananas and grapes, both banned from my house. If there's a bunch of two bananas going bad in the "managers sale" section I'll pick those up. The nice big fat cherries , too. I just have a sweet tooth and whenever nature has done a great job sweetening certain items those will get inhaled at indiscriminate quantities just like cake!

Great job with sharing your sweets! Strangely enough that thought never occurs to me

Confuzzled4ever

For strict weight loss it does not matter..as long as you come in with a calorie deficit.
if you are looking to be healthy, it matters what you eat.

So it depends on your goals and what you want.

PJPrimrose

I eat what I like but have upped the protein for weight lifting.

nic632

Thanks for the advice for both myself and OP. I think I might up my protein a bit and check the TDEE for advice re cals etc. I've just had some sausages and fries (thought I deserved it after spending 10hrs gardening this weekend!) and still got 1100+ cals outstanding. Thankfully all the hrs spent gardening is a one off, cos I've done most of the work that was needed but couldn't do cos of all the rain we've had.

Looking back at my diary, it seems that sometimes I haven't eaten my full calorie allowance before doing any exercise, maybe my stomach has gone into starvation mode? Anyway, I'll play around with it for a few weeks or so and continue tracking, which I have been doing, and see what happens. I only want to lose the last 10-14lbs, but also want to get muscle definition - instead of fat.

Just out of curiousity, if you've exercised in the evening before your main meal and don't feel hungry, what do you do? I didn't have my tea till 1 1/2hrs after gardening and even then I had to force myself. Thanks

geebusuk

No.

A) 'Starvation mode' is pretty much a myth.
Such adaptations happen over considerably more extended periods - days of eating incredibly little, many weeks seriously under eating and so on.

Don't feel hungry? I don't follow?

BUT.... I would say it depends on your defict and what you consider acceptable.
If I was had a fair bit of weight to lose and was on a 250 calorie deficit, I'd be happy to miss out on an extra 500 calories for a day, so my deficit was 750.

If I was on the same 250 calorie deficit but didn't have much to lose, I'd be mote tempted to eat it back.

MelodyandBarbells

Thanks for the advice for both myself and OP. I think I might up my protein a bit and check the TDEE for advice re cals etc. I've just had some sausages and fries (thought I deserved it after spending 10hrs gardening this weekend!) and still got 1100+ cals outstanding. Thankfully all the hrs spent gardening is a one off, cos I've done most of the work that was needed but couldn't do cos of all the rain we've had.

Looking back at my diary, it seems that sometimes I haven't eaten my full calorie allowance before doing any exercise, maybe my stomach has gone into starvation mode? Anyway, I'll play around with it for a few weeks or so and continue tracking, which I have been doing, and see what happens. I only want to lose the last 10-14lbs, but also want to get muscle definition - instead of fat.

Just out of curiousity, if you've exercised in the evening before your main meal and don't feel hungry, what do you do? I didn't have my tea till 1 1/2hrs after gardening and even then I had to force myself. Thanks

Three possibilities for me:

1. Let it be. No dinner
2. Skip dinner. Wake up at 2 in the morning and eat some grub
3. I actually started trying to figure out smaller meals for evenings I just didn't feel like eating much. For example I did a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter and 1 to 3 boiled or fried eggs for a while there. Guess this is an entire dinner to some people but the basic idea is to still try to eat something, that is maybe not your typical complicated cooked for an hour sit down dinner

Since you're just trying to lose 10-14 lbs it really makes sense that with such a small deficit, eating back inaccurate calories will easily wipe out your progress for an entire week. Also tracking condiments, sauces , splurges, night snacking, weekends, cheat days - all this must be accounted for an averaged out before you can conclude you're tracking accurately and showing a deficit