Eating "junk" and losing weight?

80/20 eater ensuring I get in the correct daily macro/micro nutrients each day and stay within calorie limits. I have some "junk" in some form every day.

Today I had a donut.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I eat junk and loose. I dont cut anything of out my life so i dont feel deprived. It has worked for me. As long as it fits your calories!!

I see SO many people on here who have their diaries open and eat more than half of their calories from what's considered "junk" food. What's the deal with this?! I realize I'm the one with 150 pounds left to lose, but wouldn't these people be losing more if they would eat fruits and vegetables at every meal? I'm striving for 75% fresh food. Is that maybe unrealistic? And there are people losing .5 pounds per week but eating candy, chips, etc. Would it not make a difference if they'd eat real food instead? Maybe I'm just confused!

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I see SO many people on here who have their diaries open and eat more than half of their calories from what's considered "junk" food. What's the deal with this?! I realize I'm the one with 150 pounds left to lose, but wouldn't these people be losing more if they would eat fruits and vegetables at every meal? I'm striving for 75% fresh food. Is that maybe unrealistic? And there are people losing .5 pounds per week but eating candy, chips, etc. Would it not make a difference if they'd eat real food instead? Maybe I'm just confused!

Weight loss is calories in/calories out. Good nutrition is a different matter altogether...but yes...as long as you have a caloric deficit, you can eat junk and lose weight...did that for awhile myself, but my blood work wasn't improving...so I had to improve my diet overall, not just for weight loss.

For me, the biggest difference is how much I can eat.

Today, for example

Domino - Light Brown Sugar , 2 tsp (4 g)
365 Organic - Raspberries (Frozen),
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal , 0.5 cup
Egg•Land's Best - Grade A Large Eggs, 1 egg
Nature's Own - Healthy Multigrain Sandwich Thins, 1 Roll
Oil - Olive, 0.5 tablespoon 60
Salmon - Atlantic Caught Fresh (Nutritiondata.Com - Salmon Fillet (Half), 120 g
Squash - Zucchini, includes skin, raw, 135 g
Green Giant Fresh - Baby Cut Carrots, 85 g
Kikkoman Original - Teriyaki Sauce Takumi Collection, 2 Tbsp (18g)
Broccoli - Raw, 60 g
Hummus - Athenos, 2 tbsp (30g)
Celery - Raw, 100 g
Green Giant Fresh - Baby Cut Carrots, 85 g
Generic - Honeycrisp Apple, 1 medium apple

I'm still only at 900 calories for the day. So I can still have another meal, eat some ice cream,and have a beer if that's what I want to do and lose weight. Or for the same number of calories I could have had a quarter pounder with cheese and fries. I feel better eating the way I do, feel much more full and have more energy.

Having said that, I still have a little bit of something that is less nutritious almost every day. I just try to keep it below 150 calories each day because it isn't worth it to me to eat more junk than that.

To each their own.

I can attest to the fact that deprivation and restricting don't always lead to weight loss. For me, I deprived myself and restricted, weighed and measured, and did all that other stuff that was supposed to make my body slimmer. It didn't work. You know why? I have an eating disorder. A chemical reaction to certain foods. My body has a switch that I can't control through depriving and restricting. What happens to me is when I do the deprivation of certain foods, I become obsessed with them until I finally break down and eat them, in quantities that aren't necessary for nutrition or even pleasure.

What I am learning to do with using MPF is that I can have anything and everything as long as I keep the quantities within what I need to lose the weight I need AND to be happy. Being miserable and thin isn't much better than being fat and miserable in my opinion.

As someone pointed out there isn't anything as unhealthy food. How it is prepared and the quantities that we consume is the problem. Bread in and of itself isn't problematic. Two slices of bread fried in butter and covered in syrup are problematic if you are trying to lose weight. Some people think that eating healthy is going for the salad bar instead of a hamburger and yet a plate of salad for some is some lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers piled with eggs, meat, cheese, and slathered with about 8 or 9 tablespoons of salad dressing.

I say all that for myself and to answer your post. I have come to the realization that for me, I have to learn to change the way I approach eating. It is not about deprivation and restricting for me any longer. It is about finding a way to enjoy foods I like and to have the body size I want. It can be done. I see if on this board and in every day life.

I heard that eating when you have an eating disorder as taking a hungry, untamed tiger out of a cage, feeding it and putting it back in before it maims or kills you. These days, I'm making friends with my tiger. I'm holding out my hand in friendship and showing it compassion when it does bite me. That seems to be working. I'm a lot happier since finding the MFP even when I eat what you call non-healthy food.

I'm probably one of these people you're talking about. I never cut out anything when I was losing weight, and I'm not about to cut it out now that I'm maintaining. So yes, you see cupcakes and slurpees and pizza and burgers in my diary on a regular basis. However, I do try and focus on eating mostly healthy food, hitting my macros and overall calorie goal. I refuse to assign food labels such as "good" or "bad" or "junk". If at the end of the day I have the carbs and calories left over to enjoy a slurpee, I'm going to have the slurpee, and enjoy every sip of it.

As for how quickly I lost, I lost my weight at an average pace of just over a pound a week, exactly as fast as I wanted to lose it.

All of this!

one of the great things about using MFP actively is you'll start to realise that the labels people assign to food like "junk" or "healthy" are only relevant to those concerned. Eat a big mac, manage your calories and macros or eat a 10 apples, You'll find the 10 apples have more calories.

I've been losing weight steadily and am using supplements to help keep the intake of certain nutrients. Don't believe those who just say "ooh you should be eating this its more healthy". Those people will get you fat. Whats right for them might not be right for you.

It's not just about how much you weigh, people. Fill your body with garbage and eventually you will suffer for it. I don't eat crap and I'm still not "thin" but that doesn't justify to me any reason to eat crap. I mean come on. That genetically altered chemical filled puff isn't going to do you OR your body any justice in the long term.

Doesn't make any difference; though it's probably healthier eating healthier, obviously

I sometimes just eat junk food on some days and has no effect on loss