Weight loss without eating right?

butlera8

First off, I've been here for a while, but I'm finally ready to get things in gear.
Secondly, I know successful weight loss is a combination of eating right and exercising. However, the problem I'm running into is giving up food I love for healthy food. (I'm sure many of you know that some healthy food is not as good as we would like it to be). This is truly a tedious process for me, that I think few people truly understand.

As of right now instead of stopping cold turkey I've focused on portion control and giving up large amounts of sugary drinks. After all of this rambling can I expect to see some results by just focusing on exercise and portion control until I can fully wean myself off unhealthy food?

saraht131

I guess it depends on just how unhealthy your unhealthy food is! What are we talking about here?

janeite1990

I've tried the cutting back method, but it didn't work for me. I do better cold turkey. Dump the junk. When you do, your tastes will change and the healthy stuff will start to taste good to you. As long as you keep eating junk, even less of it, you'll crave it and eventually use portion control.

Just imo.

omma_to_3

Yes, you can absolutely lose weight with just portion control, or portion control and exercise. Cutting down sugary drinks will help a lot! My diet is not clean, by any means, and I've had good success.

Sidesteal

First off, I've been here for a while, but I'm finally ready to get things in gear.
Secondly, I know successful weight loss is a combination of eating right and exercising. However, the problem I'm running into is giving up food I love for healthy food. (I'm sure many of you know that some healthy food is not as good as we would like it to be). This is truly a tedious process for me, that I think few people truly understand.

As of right now instead of stopping cold turkey I've focused on portion control and giving up large amounts of sugary drinks. After all of this rambling can I expect to see some results by just focusing on exercise and portion control until I can fully wean myself off unhealthy food?

As long as the unhealthy food, in the portions you eat it, allows you to stay in a calorie deficit, then you will still lose weight.

Apply some common sense, obviously. If you're eating "mostly" whole and nutritious foods and you're eating "some" junk food, then you'll be just fine and I'd say keep going with that plan. If you're literally eating all twinkies and cookies and just eating so little of them that you don't exceed your calories, you will STILL lose weight, but you'll not feel good and you'll eventually have micronutrient deficient problems that will lead to health issues.

Individual food items outside of their contribution to your total intake of calories, do not make you fat.

cressievargo

If you think it's going to cause you problems, why go cold turkey?
It's better to eat stuff in moderation, learn portion control and slowly eliminate stuff (if you want to) than to quit cold turkey, be miserable and end up quitting.

MB_Positif

I agree with above posters that you can absolutely lose weight while still eating the foods you love. I've been doing that this whole time. I have changed some of the things I eat, but overall I try to eat healthy with some treats thrown in there! For me, portion control works well! Feel free to add me as a friend and look at my crazy diary

katharineshalia

Speaking from my own experience, most definitly YES. By cutting out 1 soda a day you are potentially cutting out 100+ calories and portion control is probably the most important thing I have learned from logging in my food. I remember the first time I saw 4 oz of chicken, so tiny, but now I'm used to it. Hope this helps and good luck!!

ElizabethRoad

I think it's a good idea, actually. Of course everyone is different but, to me a radical change in everything I was eating, plus restricting calories, would be too much and I would never stick with it. Making changes over time is more sustainable, in my opinion.

And as long as you're eating the right number of calories you will lose weight. It's better overall to eat healthy foods, but as far as weight loss is concerned, the calories are what matter.

DeepAsAPlate

I still eat the things I like, just make substitutions to make it better for me. Instead of beef tacos, I do chicken or turkey on a bed of greens. If I can't make substitutions, I just eat less of it, Seems to work so far.

angieleighbyrd

Different things work for different people. I have a friend who lost a lot of weight in the beginning. (like first month) by eating nothing but garbage. But instead of having 2 big macs she'd have 1 etc. She started a blog with what she was eating everyday and how much of it. And what exorcises she was doing. I imputed her meals into here once just cause I was curious, she was at 3,000 calories before dinner once. It eventually caught up to her. She stopped dropping and started gaining again.

I think though, if you do more than just portion control, and maybe count your calories you could do well. I haven't given up everything. If I have extra calories at the end of the day and I want a candy bar, I have a candy bar.

mslindsay

I have lost 20 pounds just by limiting the portions of the foods I love, and adding in veggies and fruit. (For a snack I would chop up veggies and eat them with hummus, or take fruit and peanutbutter with me). Adding the fruits and veggies help me feel fuller and I didn't go to crazy with eating something I enjoyed. Or at least less likely too, I still am trying to get a handle on my emotional eating. I am now trying to clean so of the less nutrional stuff out (like gummy worms).

honeysprinkles

I only pay attention to my calorie goal. Some days it's through exercise to burn off extra calories, some days I eat healthy, and some days I just eat small amounts of junk food. As far as weight loss is concerned, if you create a calorie deficit you WILL lose! I'm proof of that

katejkelley

I agree - do a two-week program of only healthy food (the 17-Day Diet really worked for me). Once you've rid yourself of the excess fat and sugar, you don't really miss it. I gave up sugar a year and a half ago and can actually easily forgo cookies and candy - this from a person with a mouthful of sweetteeth! In the long run, you'll be doing your body a favor.

TheDoctorDana

I am from the south, I totally understand about the flavor thing! I have the occasional junk and as long as it fits in my daily goals, I don't see a problem. I do understand also that the junk is usually loaded with salt so I expect to see a stall or slight gain in my weight afterwards. I am finding a lot of tasty recipes though that are "like" my junk (Monty Cristo Mmmm....) but heathier and they aren't bad.
Hope this helps :flowerforyou:

butlera8

I guess it depends on just how unhealthy your unhealthy food is! What are we talking about here?

Well, I typically do home cooked meals so I know that's definitely healthier than fast food. I don't fry, but I do tend to eat a lot of rice. Honestly, I think starches and sugar is my biggest downfall. I crave it like crazy. If I find something that satisfies that craving, I typically don't know when to stop eating.

TripleJ3

You can lose weight by eating junk and just cutting back. Some of my closest friends eat a vending machine bag of chips for lunch, lots of ramen noodles and lots of beer and have always been thinner than me who always ate mostly healthy foods. I was always the chubby one even though I ate good foods and worked out. I just ate too much.

To be healthy you will want to try to cut back on the junk more, eliminate or replace with healthier ingredients. Do what works for you and that you can live with.

kristen6022

Technicially, as long as you stick within your calorie and macro goals you should lose weight. But you may find as you get farther into your journey that there are a lot of "health" foods that will fill you up more and you can eat more of them. Like say, if I'm out at a restaurant and I can eat 2 chicken fingers or a giganic salad with lean protien and light dressing, I'm going to pick the salad because it will fill me up and give me more energy.

At the beginning of my journey (a year 1/2 ago) I gave stuff up cold turkey, pop and french fries first, then pretty much eliminated white flour/pasta/rice from my diet. Now, that's not to say I never have a diet coke, a french fry or two or white rice, but I make conscience decisions about them. Most of the time I decide if it's worth it, will it make me feel nasty, or if I really want it.

I'm 5'11, 155 (at goal, finally) and 33 years old. I was the biggest pop and fried food junky that ever lived. I never exercised. Now, I eat very healthy 95% of the time and splurge 5%. I like feeling good and being thin more than I like unhealthy food!

Homer3D

I got to my goal weight I don't think I ate the "best". I just made sure to work the calories off to get back under my daily limit. One of my issues with a show like the Biggest Loser is they put you in this bubble of good food versus real world food. In the real world, you will have a big cheese burger and fries or have a candy bar for a snack. It happens. I learn to balance what I eat (whatever I want to eat) with the required exercise to work off those calories. So basically if I am looking at a donut and I want to eat it, I just have to make sure I am willing to burn that off as well. If not, I pass on it.

Rae6503

First off, I've been here for a while, but I'm finally ready to get things in gear.
Secondly, I know successful weight loss is a combination of eating right and exercising. However, the problem I'm running into is giving up food I love for healthy food. (I'm sure many of you know that some healthy food is not as good as we would like it to be). This is truly a tedious process for me, that I think few people truly understand.

As of right now instead of stopping cold turkey I've focused on portion control and giving up large amounts of sugary drinks. After all of this rambling can I expect to see some results by just focusing on exercise and portion control until I can fully wean myself off unhealthy food?

As long as the unhealthy food, in the portions you eat it, allows you to stay in a calorie deficit, then you will still lose weight.

Apply some common sense, obviously. If you're eating "mostly" whole and nutritious foods and you're eating "some" junk food, then you'll be just fine and I'd say keep going with that plan. If you're literally eating all twinkies and cookies and just eating so little of them that you don't exceed your calories, you will STILL lose weight, but you'll not feel good and you'll eventually have micronutrient deficient problems that will lead to health issues.

Individual food items outside of their contribution to your total intake of calories, do not make you fat.

This, exactly.

ampa916

I think as long as you mostly try new healthier foods then yes, you will lose weight if you stay under your calorie goal.

I can't do the "in moderation." that some people seem able to do. If I say I am only going to have one piece of pizza, I end up eating 4. So I just don't have pizza often. I do however eat fried chicken etc (I am a southern girl and if there is one thing I learned from the South it's how to cook with oil/shortening/gravy lol) But I can portion it out better and make sure I know how much is in something if I cook it myself even if it's unhealthy I still choose better choices.

Speedtrap

One of the first thing the Dietician taught me when I started my journey was the weight loss is 80% Nutrition and 20% exercise.
This was then confirmed by my physiotherapist. So no, you may lose a bit of weight, but it will be slow and a lot of work.
Now you can still eat some of the things you love, but you need to start to ask yourself, is that sugary drink worth the 30-40 minutes on the treadmill it will cost you, even in the proper portion, if you say yes, then go for it. IF you can fit it into your plan, go for it, but also start to add some other healthy choices in to help keep you full and not craving so much of the bad.
As an example I had Ice-cream last night, I had a proper portion and made it work into my plan, but I also ate most of the day healthy.
Trying to do it through exercise alone is setting yourself up for failure; you would need to be spending 4-5 hours in a gym 7 days a week. Start slow, add a few health options in the menu and remove or cut down on unhealthy, over time keep adding and removing until the health choice is a habit, this can take months to happen, stay positive and keep working at it, you can get there.

mrh1227

Let me start off by saying congratulations on your decision to really kick your weight loss goals into gear! The hardest step is always the first one, but I'm sure once you begin to habituate yourself to new habits you'll find its actually quite enjoyable.

Your concerns with limiting portions and sugary drinks is an excellent first step to take. There is a major difference between the idea of weight loss and getting ripped. For something like getting perfect 6 pack abs, there may be specific foods you have to avoid. When doing general weight loss, portion and calorie control are usually more important as well as trying to make slightly better eating decisions when available. The sugary drinks aspect is a big one that you'll see great results from giving up. However, there are several really healthy recipes that you would never know were healthy based on the taste. My facebook page is actually doing a focus on healthy recipes this week, so if you're interested I'll post it at the bottom of this post. So far, I've covered Pizza, Pancakes, side salads, and today I posted a recipe for a Steak Sandwich!

www.facebook.com/OHealthCenter

butlera8

Yes, you can absolutely lose weight with just portion control, or portion control and exercise. Cutting down sugary drinks will help a lot! My diet is not clean, by any means, and I've had good success.

Yes, I love sugary drinks! I try to drink mostly water during the day and maybe one sugary drink a days (I said it was a process lol)

roachhaley

As long as you fit the food you're eating inside your calorie goal, you should be fine.

However, you'll probably switch slowly to more healthy food because unhealthy food generally doesn't make you feel full as long and gives you less energy to work with.

I hardly ever eat (very) unhealthy food anymore. It just doesn't supply me with enough energy

omma_to_3

Yes, you can absolutely lose weight with just portion control, or portion control and exercise. Cutting down sugary drinks will help a lot! My diet is not clean, by any means, and I've had good success.

Yes, I love sugary drinks! I try to drink mostly water during the day and maybe one sugary drink a days (I said it was a process lol)

I have never been a big pop drinker, but would have about 12 oz. of Mt. Dew a day during the week (mostly for the sleepy afternoon issues LOL). I restricted myself initially to one a WEEK, usually on Fridays. And I've slowly lost my taste for it. I'll still have one occasionally, but maybe 1 a month now, or even less.

I've noticed my beloved Flavor Ice popsicles (only 25 calories each LOL) are sometimes too sweet for me as well. Especially the blue ones. Man, those suckers are sweet now LOL.

ladynica

There is a person on my friends list who's food diary consist of mostly fast food. If there's a vegetable to even be seen, it's generally a french fry or a tater tot, maybe a fried mushroom. She has been losing weight because she remains consistently under her calorie goal, but I would guess that she is starving in terms of nutrients and will have health related issues down the line (heart disease, gall bladder issues, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc).

i would suggest making small changes at a time... things that you can live with and stick to. If you don't mind drinking tea instead of a large coke or have wheat bread instead of white, the little changes over time count towards gradually improving your health. I don't think there should truly be a total elimination of anything. It's all about a balanced, healthy diet, not 100% grass and berries, or 100% fat and junk food.

Good luck to you.

TaoBear

"(I'm sure many of you know that some healthy food is not as good as we would like it to be)". Well, here's the thing, and someone started to mention this but I thought I'd expand on it. When one eats primarily processed foods, you actually lose the ability to taste non-processed things, which is why healthy food reportedly tastes 'bad' or 'not as good as we would like it to be'. But take heart, as you cut out (gradually, or cold turkey) the unhealthy foods, you develop a taste for healthy ones! My personal favourite example of this is with yogurt. I didn't really like it, but I wanted to give it a try so I tried all kinds of flavours, and fat free or not, sugar free or not. I found I loved vanilla, strawberry, and blueberry yogurt with other stuff. Then I thought," I'll try some plain". YUCK! But then I tried greek yogurt, plain, but adding some honey and my own fruit. Fast forward, now all those flavoured yogurts taste gross to me! They're too sweet, too false tasting! My taste buds recovered. Today things that once didn't have flavour before do! I can tell the difference between lettuces, whereas before I could only taste the difference in dressing. So just keep trucking, and keep trying new :happy: things. Keep coming back to retry foods too, you might hate it today... but come to love it next week, or month, or year!

butlera8

Thanks everyone so much for your input! I really appreciate as I have no one to talk to outside of this forum once ring my weight loss. Not only am I tired of how I look, but my job is in jeopardy as well. Since many say portion control I ok, I think I need to make some kind of game plan and schedule to help with this process. I completely understand that ultimately healthy eating is the way to, go but it's so hard to undo years of southern cuisine ;0)

Francesca3162

if there is a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.. but you might not feel that great if you are not getting the right nutrition. I cut out alot of sugars and empty calories, and if I want to have chocolate, or a fancy high calorie coffee, I add more exercise to my day to counter it, instead of replacing my meals with the empty calories.. but this is a journey and not a destination so we call travel our own path...

michelleepotter

I have not completely cut out the less-healthy (and even totally unhealthy) foods I love, and I don't ever plan to. I believe in "all things in moderation." Here's what I have focused on:

* Portion control. My trainer says that your stomach is the size of your fist. He said to imagine your meal squished into a ball -- it ought to be about the size of your fist. If it's more than that, you are eating too much for one meal.

* I do count my calories. This helps me get an idea of how much I am eating through the whole day. It also encourages me to eat lower calorie foods, because if I ate 1300 calories worth of Twinkies, I'd still be starving!

* I concentrate more on adding healthy foods to my diet than on cutting out unhealthy ones. I set my food tracker on here to show me protein, vitamin A and C, and iron (instead of showing me how much fat or carbs I'm eating), and I try to maximize those in my diet. I figure, if I am eating only 1300 calories, and most of it is actively doing me good, then there's not enough room for it to be doing me much bad.

* Oh, and drink a TON of water. I drink water all day long, and only occasionally have a soda (usually if I'm at a bar). Not only does cutting down the sugary drinks really help with calories, but drinking water all day helps you not feel so hungry. I've gotten to where I actually prefer water. I bought myself a Sprite Zero this morning, and ended up putting it in the fridge, because I'd rather drink water.

Also, a tip I read that has really worked for me, is to eat the same foods over and over. I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day, and then I keep two kinds of healthy snacks on hand at all times. (I do mix it up for dinner, because I'm cooking for the whole family.) If I know I am going to eat X, then there's no temptation to eat Y. There's no rummaging around in the pantry looking for something to eat, and coming out with a box of oreos. Then, when I go out to eat, or decide to buy a cherry pie for dessert, there's no guilt because I know I eat healthy most of the time.

Oh, and the result? I've been doing this for 75 days now, and I have lost 12 pounds. That's more than a pound a week.