can you eat what you want and lose weight?

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  • 89nunu
    89nunu Posts: 1,082 Member
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    I have chocolate or ice cream pretty much every day! As long as it fits my macros I eat anything I want!!
  • kazhowe
    kazhowe Posts: 340 Member
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    Sure you can lose weight by eating what you want as long as you stay within your calorie allowance .... but you need to ask yourself 2 things .... will I be healthy and secondly if i just eat the same stuff that I always have - what have I learned to prevent me getting fat again ? This is a journey not a destination .. let's make it the best it can be! Just sayin' :ohwell:
  • darrensurrey
    darrensurrey Posts: 3,942 Member
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    Basically I want to know if you can eat what you want, as long as it's within your calorie goal? I've had a peak at a few members food diarys and it seems that people are eating what they want e.g chocolate,chips,cakes etc and they seem to have lost weight.
    Can you still lose weight if these foods come under your calorie limits? Or is it best to give them up?

    I'm in it for the long term and encourage people to do the same. If you cut out all the stuff you enjoy, you're *more likely* to binge and quit. I've seen it too many times.

    I lost weight consistently despite eating all manner of proper fattening family foods - pies, cakes, puddings. Pick any Monday, Wednesday and Friday from my diary last year - see the estimated calories? That was me eating restaurant and English pub food, not a salad in sight. Eat **** and diet. :D
  • chloeobe
    chloeobe Posts: 72
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    Personal experience is that I lose weight easier if I eat well becuase I have more energy to go the gym!! and eating healthy options means that you can eat more, so I can have a yoghurt and fruit for dessert and then later in the evening I can have something else, rather than blowing it all one chocolate bar! But I do need to fit treats into my allowance too or ill go crazy! The odd bit of junk food wont kill you as long as your doing everything else right!
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    Sure you can lose weight by eating what you want as long as you stay within your calorie allowance .... but you need to ask yourself 2 things .... will I be healthy and secondly if i just eat the same stuff that I always have - what have I learned to prevent me getting fat again ? This is a journey not a destination .. let's make it the best it can be! Just sayin' :ohwell:
    I've learned portion control. Hopefully that will prevent me getting fat again. :smile:

    Bottom line is (for me, not for everyone) I'm going to eat the foods I like. It's going to happen, whether I decide to cut them all out for a time until I "fall off the wagon" and go back to old habits, or whether I learn to eat them in appropriate amounts, as part of a balanced diet.

    I know some people have genuine success with radical dietary overhauls, but to be honest, looking at the people around me in real life, they fall into one of the following categories: people who have always been slim, eat whatever they want, but have always had a good handle on controlling portions/eating intuitively or whatever, and people who have struggled with their weight all their lives and are constantly "on a diet" with extreme restrictions, or they're "off the wagon", eating too much, and planning their next diet.
  • Camera_BagintheUK
    Camera_BagintheUK Posts: 707 Member
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    Basically I want to know if you can eat what you want, as long as it's within your calorie goal? I've had a peak at a few members food diarys and it seems that people are eating what they want e.g chocolate,chips,cakes etc and they seem to have lost weight.
    Can you still lose weight if these foods come under your calorie limits? Or is it best to give them up?

    You need to treat yourself a bit now and again! And you need to be able to continue your new good habits once you've reached your goal - so if you spend weeks and months and sometimes years denying yourself - once you reach your weight goal and think you've finished your diet, you're more likely to go mad like a kid in a sweetshop because you haven't been re-learning your eating habits! So you do need to try to eat healthy to keep yourself well - don't overdo your fats and sugars for example (not like me :ohwell:) but don't deny yourself either. I am finding that I'm learning moderation - I am able to say no which I couldn't so well, I am able to eat a small piece of cake or chocolate and stop, have one glass of wine and put the cork back in the bottle, whereas before that wouldn't be enough. So I'm looking forward to the rest of my life like that instead of going back to gorging myself on crap at every opportunity!
  • clareyoung80
    clareyoung80 Posts: 177 Member
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    The more processed food I eat, the more of it I want. When I have a phase of eating say...90% clean then my weight loss is fine. But then, I have a cake here, biscuit there...then some more and I start craving them even more. I never not eat what I want - meaning if I want a cake I'll eat it even if it's over my calories for the day. But I soon find that I'm scoffing whole bars of chocolate in one sitting, 600 or so calories in one go. And I horde water weight like crazy. So, even though my weekly calories overall are still in a deficit, I'm just hoarding water...

    So I work much better if I cut processed foods out as much as possible. After a while, I don't miss it. Really, I can go on forever like this - going through phases of clean eating then eating more processed food for a bit, then back to more clean eating - so that's fine. But I need to be aware of what I'm doing, and what foods for me act like 'gateway' foods (biscuits are the worst. Can never just have one).

    So, in conclusion, for me - no, I need to stick towards eating as cleanly as possible for weight loss to be sufficient.
  • Cherry_T
    Cherry_T Posts: 62 Member
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    Sure.
    The key is mederation.
  • MatthewMacG
    MatthewMacG Posts: 27 Member
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    You could eat your entire calorie allowance in chocolate if you wanted, you would probably be hungry all the time but as long as it was within your calories you would still lose weight. A healthy balanced diet of whole foods will obviously be a healthier option providing your body with all it needs, but weight loss is as simple as calories consumed being less than calories expended.
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member
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    You can still lose weight. However, I have found that calories in certain foods do not work the same as calories in other foods, at least for my body.

    Me too. :heart:
  • NonnyMary
    NonnyMary Posts: 982 Member
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    YES I am eating what I want ......

    ............... and what I want is good healthy food choices,,,,,

    so that what I choose to eat is all good for me!

    But yeah, im not going to go on some diet that dictates what i eat when i know im not going to follow it.

    This MFP is a truly excellent tool for helping me see which food contribute to my good health or which are slowing my weight loss down.
  • harphy
    harphy Posts: 290 Member
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    MFP is tricky. You have your limit per day similar like a budget. If you have 200 $, you can either pay your bills or spend them at casino. If your bills are paid, you don't have to worry about creditors and you sleep well. If you gamble them, your bills are still waiting to be paid but you have no more money.
    If you intend to be reasonably full and have enough energy, you have to cross unhealthy food - there is no other option. Sugar, soda, cookies, chocholate, bacon, fast food, french fries have to go, white poisons have to go. I stretch my calories to 5 meals per day and eat small portions. I'm probably feeding myself at best and properly for the first time in my life. My diary is open.
  • anaDorsin
    anaDorsin Posts: 2
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    You can east what ever you like as long as its ok by your calories meter

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