Moderation DOES NOT WORK for me

I've also had luck eating 10-15 Peanut M&M's, junior mints, mike& ikes (6 cal per candy instead of the 10 most are).

This is the kind of "moderation" that I cannot fathom.

To me, the willpower required to open a bag of M&Ms, pluck out only 10-15 of them, and then not eat the rest is far, far greater than the willpower required to not eat any.

This is my experience as well.

Ditto.

That sounds like absolute torture.

And not worth it. Again, for ME pizza and tortilla chips are tough to resist, and I'll make or order healthier options and then factor them in. For candy and sweets, I'd rather skip it than eat 10-15 M&Ms.

And if I'm going to have pizza, as a foodie it's going to be a damned good probably artisan pizza. No Pizza Hut for me. But it's going to be on a whole wheat crust (or cauliflower if I get the hankering, which happens), and have lots of veggies.

At the end of the day you control what goes in your mouth and any additional output (exercising or movement in general) to burn more calories.

Sorry, I have to eat what mom and dad buy isn't good enough. You do have a say in what groceries your family buys, I bet mom will be more than happy to help stock the house with foods that will enjoy and maybe even make healthier meals. Even if you don't, just because mom buys a tub of ice cream or fries up some chicken doesn't mean you have to eat it or that you can't practice moderation.

I grew up with a family of obese people and now that I'm calorie counting I'm starting to realize that meals they were preparing werne't necessarily the problem. Consumption of sugared sodas contributed to my family's obesity, excess consumption of deserts and fried foods, not measuring snacks like potatoe chips and ultimately lack of exercise from watching TV or playing video games all day.

THere are so many things you have control over, stop making excuses.

I'm both the obcessed with sweets type and finally worrying about my health and this kind of comment doesn't help. The only way to really understand how bad or not bad stuff is for you is to start calorie counting, it really opened my eyes to stuff that I thought wasnt so bad that is terrribly calorie dense and on the flip side- stuff I can eat WAY more than I even want and not overeat.

Egg - 70 calories (fry in pam)
2 strips of bacon (i cut mine in half before frying so I get 4 strips...it's a mental trick that works on me) - 90 calories - I get Hempler's which is local, but local bacon will often be less fatty so you can have more

Mustard - 0 calories (I love mustard)

Make a list of foods you like and find out which ones are surprisingly calorie light and focus on them, I also don't eat out much due to financial issues, food you don't prep yourself and/or that has no nutrition facts on it is KILLER.

At the begining you just have to be super vigilant, it's almost like a part time job, but after a couple months you get used to calorie counting.

I'm kind of confused, you say my comment doesn't help but you go into your reply describing the benefits of calorie counting. The point of what I was saying was in response to the OP stating that he has no control and moderation does not work for him, additionally he even mentions that he doesn't have a say in what his parents feed him. No excuses, he does have control.

Telling someone to "Just get over it, you are in control" doesnt help. THat type of statement puts someone instantly on the defensive. Suggestions are helpful, blanket statements like "don't make excuses" just make people defensive

Not here to hold anyone's hand. If they want honest feedback they're going to get it.

You can in fact lose weight eating any and all of your favorite foods and for one to be healthy for life they must develop a healthy relationship with food. Not being able to control yourself around food is an excuse and an unhealthy relationship.

Telling someone to "Just get over it, you are in control" doesnt help. THat type of statement puts someone instantly on the defensive. Suggestions are helpful, blanket statements like "don't make excuses" just make people defensive

Not here to hold anyone's hand. If they want honest feedback they're going to get it.

You can in fact lose weight eating any and all of your favorite foods and for one to be healthy for life they must develop a healthy relationship with food. Not being able to control yourself around food is an excuse and an unhealthy relationship.

The problem being, when you put someone on the defensive, they will stop listening to the GOOD parts of the advice and focus on the accusation. It's psychology 101

We will have to agree to disagree then. Me telling someone that they have control over their life isn't a debby downer statement.

At the end of the day you control what goes in your mouth and any additional output (exercising or movement in general) to burn more calories.

Sorry, I have to eat what mom and dad buy isn't good enough. You do have a say in what groceries your family buys, I bet mom will be more than happy to help stock the house with foods that will enjoy and maybe even make healthier meals. Even if you don't, just because mom buys a tub of ice cream or fries up some chicken doesn't mean you have to eat it or that you can't practice moderation.

I grew up with a family of obese people and now that I'm calorie counting I'm starting to realize that meals they were preparing werne't necessarily the problem. Consumption of sugared sodas contributed to my family's obesity, excess consumption of deserts and fried foods, not measuring snacks like potatoe chips and ultimately lack of exercise from watching TV or playing video games all day.

THere are so many things you have control over, stop making excuses.

I'm both the obcessed with sweets type and finally worrying about my health and this kind of comment doesn't help. The only way to really understand how bad or not bad stuff is for you is to start calorie counting, it really opened my eyes to stuff that I thought wasnt so bad that is terrribly calorie dense and on the flip side- stuff I can eat WAY more than I even want and not overeat.

Egg - 70 calories (fry in pam)
2 strips of bacon (i cut mine in half before frying so I get 4 strips...it's a mental trick that works on me) - 90 calories - I get Hempler's which is local, but local bacon will often be less fatty so you can have more

Mustard - 0 calories (I love mustard)

Make a list of foods you like and find out which ones are surprisingly calorie light and focus on them, I also don't eat out much due to financial issues, food you don't prep yourself and/or that has no nutrition facts on it is KILLER.

At the begining you just have to be super vigilant, it's almost like a part time job, but after a couple months you get used to calorie counting.

I'm kind of confused, you say my comment doesn't help but you go into your reply describing the benefits of calorie counting. The point of what I was saying was in response to the OP stating that he has no control and moderation does not work for him, additionally he even mentions that he doesn't have a say in what his parents feed him. No excuses, he does have control.

Telling someone to "Just get over it, you are in control" doesnt help. THat type of statement puts someone instantly on the defensive. Suggestions are helpful, blanket statements like "don't make excuses" just make people defensive

Well people need to toughen up and not be so defensive. We are not everyone's mother than will coddle you and sugar coat the truth.

Telling someone to "Just get over it, you are in control" doesnt help. THat type of statement puts someone instantly on the defensive. Suggestions are helpful, blanket statements like "don't make excuses" just make people defensive

Not here to hold anyone's hand. If they want honest feedback they're going to get it.

You can in fact lose weight eating any and all of your favorite foods and for one to be healthy for life they must develop a healthy relationship with food. Not being able to control yourself around food is an excuse and an unhealthy relationship.

The problem being, when you put someone on the defensive, they will stop listening to the GOOD parts of the advice and focus on the accusation. It's psychology 101

We will have to agree to disagree then. Me telling someone that they have control over their life isn't a debby downer statement.

but people INTERPRET it that way, and you can't control someone's interpretation.

The problem being, when you put someone on the defensive, they will stop listening to the GOOD parts of the advice and focus on the accusation. It's psychology 101

As a recovering binge eater one thing I can tell you is that the less of the unhealthy stuff you eat the less you will crave it. The more of it you eat the worse it gets. If you can cut out the junk food for a while you will go through a type of withdrawal but once you get past that it gets way easier. I rarely have cravings and when I do it is usually for a particular macro nutrient that I am shy on that day.

However, when I went on a trip last month and was eating out non-stop I didn't make the best choices. As a result, I found those cravings creeping back in I am having to stamp it back out. If you stick with good habits and eat less and less processed junk you will wake up one day and find you are no longer a slave to food.

Good luck

To many people like to play the victim. And all you do by doing that is sabotaging yourself.