Have you lost weight eating "junk food"?

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  • tryskinni
    tryskinni Posts: 50 Member
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    I'm going to go against the norm here. Just because you CAN lose weight on junk food doesn't mean you should. I'm all for balance and one should enjoy once in a while but if you're losing weight by eating 1200 calories worth of Snickers bars, this will only lead to being skinny with heart disease.

    I try to live by the 80/20 rule. A minimum of 80% of the time I eat clean. Weekends, i have about one cheat meal a day. Not saying I'm perfect but if I do have some mac & cheese, I'm washing it down with spinach & kale.
  • RoadsterGirlie
    RoadsterGirlie Posts: 1,195 Member
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    I lost weight fitting in small amounts of junk food into my daily calorie allotment. The majority of my diet is pretty healthy, but I gotta live. Tomorrow I've decided to eat some ice cream.
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
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    Yep I do and still losing.
  • Elzecat
    Elzecat Posts: 2,916 Member
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    The short answer: yes.

    But why do people (not necessarily you, OP, but lots of people on MFP) think this has to be such an all-or-nothing thing? It's not like it's a required choice of either McDonalds all day every day, or salads and chicken breasts and nothing else. There is lots of room for variety. I eat some junk, like probably a small piece of chocolate every day. I eat out occasionally, but not every day. I eat pasta but not every day, because I have difficulty with portion control. I eat lots of vegetables and I love a good salad, but I'm not subsisting on just those things, or on "salmon and quinoa" either (although both of those are delicious). You have to figure out for yourself a good balance between healthier foods and foods that may have less nutritional value (aka junk food).
  • Otterluv
    Otterluv Posts: 9,083 Member
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    I looked in your diary, you aren't eating nearly enough. It looks like you are eating half of what you should be. Increase your intake, you'll find it much easier to stick with.

    I posted a thread about that just a few days ago actually! It was a problem, but I'm working on it :) I'm upping my calories by about 100 calories a week so that it has time to adjust. I'm excited to actually eat again haha.

    Glad to hear it! :flowerforyou:
  • purple4sure05
    purple4sure05 Posts: 287 Member
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    I'm going to go against the norm here. Just because you CAN lose weight on junk food doesn't mean you should. I'm all for balance and one should enjoy once in a while but if you're losing weight by eating 1200 calories worth of Snickers bars, this will only lead to being skinny with heart disease.

    I try to live by the 80/20 rule. A minimum of 80% of the time I eat clean. Weekends, i have about one cheat meal a day. Not saying I'm perfect but if I do have some mac & cheese, I'm washing it down with spinach & kale.

    I see where you're coming from. I'm planning on adding foods like pita pit, panera, and chipotle on the occasion that I'm out, and an occasional dessert. Not mcdonalds and Arby's lol :3 I'll eat clean most of the time for health reasons, but if I have an off week, I want the reassurance that calories in/calories out is all that matters in respect to my weight, you feel me? :P
  • purple4sure05
    purple4sure05 Posts: 287 Member
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    I've lost about 20 pounds in the last 6 weeks. I've been eating McDonald's at least a couple times a week (because you can't beat a 40% discount!), and I also get a free sub at work every day. I still eat pizza some days. I still eat ice cream, more often than the pizza. I'm not changing WHAT I'm eating, just how much I'm eating, and it's totally working for me.

    Literally getting giddy over all of these success stories. I don't have to be grumpy and hungry ever again! hahaha.
  • tryskinni
    tryskinni Posts: 50 Member
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    Sounds like you're heading in the right direction. I'd be miserable without my weekend brunch out :-)
  • Alohathin
    Alohathin Posts: 360 Member
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    9 pounds from goal, and there is nothing I have cut out of my diet completely. I just don't eat it nearly as frequently, and never supersize my fast food orders. Personally, I try not to do it more than once a week at most, otherwise I start craving it, and that leads to bad things.

    Find the balance where you are not craving that food. Often enough to avoid it causing you to fall off the wagon when you finally do have some, and seldom enough that it doesn't set off an out of control sweet tooth.
  • craigmandu
    craigmandu Posts: 976 Member
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    The truth is the vast majority of people eat some type of junk food on a daily basis and have absolutely no issue with it. I wouldn't suggest your entire diet be that way....but if that's what you want, go for it. As long as you are in your calorie levels it's all good :smokin:

    ETA: I had 4 pieces of pizza hut tonight...I opted for a "relatively" healthier chicken and peppers thin crust...but it was still pretty damn delicious!
  • LabMonkeySteph85
    LabMonkeySteph85 Posts: 64
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    Yep! I eat whatever I want as long as it fits my calories and reasonably with my fats and carbs :)
  • mamadon
    mamadon Posts: 1,422 Member
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    I eat whatever I want as long as its in my calorie allotment. Some is junk, some is not.
  • AmandaReimer1
    AmandaReimer1 Posts: 235 Member
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    I'm definitely not a full clean eater, and I love my snacks. I just found more lower calorie options for my snacking/ sweet tooth. So far I've lost 25 pounds since Janurary.

    I'm a it fits my calories person, but I find my new snacks aren't as bad compared to previous ones for sugar and what not.
  • yaseyuku
    yaseyuku Posts: 871 Member
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    I eat what I want as long as it fits in my macros and have been seeing progress lately. Besides for a temporary weight gain after upping calories, things have been going well. I generally eat healthy and give myself something that I want per day -- provided it fits into my calories and macros, which has yet to be a problem.

    I just try to have smaller portions of foods like pastas etc and fit everything into my daily calories.
  • carrington2005
    carrington2005 Posts: 7
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    Sure, Tom Naughton did exactly that in his excellent and riveting documentary Fat Head :
    http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/about/
  • purple4sure05
    purple4sure05 Posts: 287 Member
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    I eat what I want as long as it fits in my macros and have been seeing progress lately. Besides for a temporary weight gain after upping calories, things have been going well. I generally eat healthy and give myself something that I want per day -- provided it fits into my calories and macros, which has yet to be a problem.

    How much weight did you gain? I'm a little worried about that myself.
  • asia_hanebach
    asia_hanebach Posts: 275 Member
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    The way I see it, as long as the number of days that you spend eating healthy and exercising well outnumbers the days when you don't eat so well, you're doing fine. Mostly I eat cleanly. I've never watched my macros that closely (occasionally I pay attention to how much protein I have, just because that tends to be way too low). I don't go out for dinner often, so when I do, I splurge and enjoy. I also don't eat much junk at home on a daily basis, so when I occasionally have junky food, I don't worry too much about it. Essentially, I'm trying to make sure that the way that I eat now, when I'm trying to lose weight, is easily transferable to how I plan to eat for the rest of my life.
  • ThoseRabbits
    ThoseRabbits Posts: 65 Member
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    thatz how ive lost weight. no other way. i lyke some fruitz but i lyke wendys and mcdonalds too much :(
  • Sparlingo
    Sparlingo Posts: 938 Member
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    I would love to be a completely "clean eater".... But I've found that I cannot manage to stay sane and on track when I limit myself to fruits, veggies, and rice (yes yes I know there are plenty of other options aside from these :P). I've found that if I allow myself something sweet at the end of the day (or a meal every few days from restaurants that fit into my macros), I'm much more likely to eat a clean meal. Today I had some pork and veggies and fruits and was able to eat a tastykake for a dessert.

    So my question is, have you had success in weight loss even when you fulfill your calories with "junk food"? Whether it be mcdonalds or chocolate cake? I'm curious to see exactly how, well, "unhealthy" a person can be as long as they stick to their macros. Mostly as a mechanism for making myself feel better about not being able to keep up with all you health freaks eating salmon and quinoa day in and day out ;)

    *Raises hand*

    Just this week: digestive cookies, espresso wafer cookies, peanut butter m&ms, stove popped popcorn with butter, diet coke.

    I eat healthy things, too, but I love the "bad" stuff too much to give it up - so whatever I'm going to accomplish, it'll be accomplished while eating what I enjoy, in more reasonable quantities.
  • seanezekiel
    seanezekiel Posts: 228 Member
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    I eat chips and chocolate on a regular basis. No problem. Just need to work harder for the calorie burn.

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