eat right and no need to count calories

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Replies

  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    jasonmh630 wrote: »
    kim_m_kk wrote: »
    Why do people say all foods are healthy? That isn't true. You might be able to maintain a healthy body and eat some nonhealthy food but there is nothing healthy about a donut for instance. I don't get how you can say it is. I think that clean eating would mean lower calories and most people would maintain or loose weight eating clean but you can clean eat and gain if you eat too many calories.

    A donut provides carbs and fat, which are necessary nutritional aspects that you need. So yes, even what you call "unhealthy" foods are healthy to a certain extent.

    Mental health is important too. Sometimes, we need little treats. And food is part of social and cultural gathering, ritual, and celebration. Being moderate with all food is part of living in the world around us and enjoying it.

    Absolutely, and this point often gets overlooked.

    It's not to say that if you have a trigger food, that you need to eat it and 'force' moderation, but more not 'having' to eat only from a limited list of foods.
  • 1DEF
    1DEF Posts: 45 Member
    I agree it is not a good idea to categorize a food as good or bad. Too easy to get into the mindset that that you are also 'bad' to eat something you want and enjoy. Or that ALL 'bad' food should be off limits.

    And definitely ditch that annoying term 'clean' eating . It’s counterpart is unclean.

    But I don't worry so much about negative consequences with the terms healthy and unhealthy as it pertains to food. As far as defining it-- to paraphrase S.C. Justice Potter Stewart's famous observation on porn--I may not be able to define it but I know it when I see it.

    And yes, some 'healthy foods' can have a lot of calories -- but I think of it has having more nutrients. Or greater satiety. More fiber. Or minus the transfat, etc. etc.

    You only get into trouble when you say I am going to eat NOTHING but healthy food and you unhappily munch away on carrots sticks and cottage cheese.

    And I completely disagree that you can’t gain weight on a ‘healthy diet’ for all the reasons stated above.

    If some folks think healthier foods are undefinable and they would just as soon not think of food with those classifications I get the reasoning. And it obviously works for many posting.

    But you have to understand you blow the heads off people (maybe that is the point) when you flat out say there are no healthy foods or that such classifications shouldn’t be considered when food ‘choices’ have to made.

    When I say I want to eat 'healthier' it usually means more vegetables and it can be as simple as eating spinach (which I actually like) with my Whopper Jr. Or tomato salad with feta cheese and olive oil instead of potato chips. Nothing wrong with potato chips if you want them and count the calories but for me, they don't give much bang for the buck.

    I want to eat healthier foods IN ADDITION to my less than nutritious food choices. I know what I mean even if others don’t.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    keziak1 wrote: »
    I've read in a number of books and articles, one today, that if you are eating right (or healthy or clean or however you call it) then you don't need to measure food or count calories. Since this is a calorie-counting site I assume you have not found this to be the case? Is it likely one will continue to carry excess fat even when eating healthy, if calories aren't controlled too?

    For me, I find, when I'm eating more natural foods and less processed junk it's easier to stay in a calorie deficit without thinking about. So they might say you don't need to count calories, and that's usually because you'll tend to feel more full on healthy foods than on others and you'll end up eating at a calorie deficit anyway.

    But for me, that will only work for a little while. Then I get comfortable with what I am eating and start eating more without realizing it and the weight loss will either stop or I'll gain while still eating healthy.

    Yes, this. You can prevent this without counting if you internalize ways to keep track of how much you are eating (which some do intuitively, and don't get fat, some of us find easy to do in our heads, and some find difficult without counting or other rules that force it). But I think it's really normal to not only stick to "healthy" foods (however one defines it) but also impose rules that enforce the deficit at the beginning of a diet and then relax that.

    For example, when I first started logging at MFP (after I'd lost my first 20 lbs), I was surprised at how low my calories were, since I'd just been "eating healthy." But of course that's nonsense, I was doing other things too, since I ate pretty healthy when I wasn't trying to lose. I was cutting fat (no cheese, spray oil vs. pouring it, no oil in dressing, lean meat only, skim dairy only, supplementing with egg whites, etc.), I was cutting starchy carbs (and this includes "healthy" carbs like whole grains, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and beans), and I was being restrictive with portion size (4 oz of salmon, say, instead of the 6 oz I'd usually eat now). So big shock that I could find that my day was about 1000 calories.

    Now, I changed that once I realized what I was doing because that's way too low, especially as I wanted to start exercising more. But even if I had not (and why I say this problem usually takes care of itself), it wouldn't have lasted, since nothing about cutting carbs, cutting fat, and cutting portion sizes are inherently about "eating healthy." They are about eating low calorie. I didn't feel deprived in the first month of a diet. I would have felt deprived in month 3 or 6, of course. (If someone really enjoys eating that strictly all the time, good for you, although I don't see the point. It's not for me. I love food and think it's possible to love a good variety of food and still eat healthy.)
  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
    edited January 2015
    kim_m_kk wrote: »
    Why do people say all foods are healthy? That isn't true. You might be able to maintain a healthy body and eat some nonhealthy food but there is nothing healthy about a donut for instance. I don't get how you can say it is. I think that clean eating would mean lower calories and most people would maintain or loose weight eating clean but you can clean eat and gain if you eat too many calories.

    Yes, it is true- bearing the individual has no medical conditions.

    A donut can help a person hit their macros… specifically carbs and fat. A donut may not be nutrient dense but it does have a purpose. It all depends on a persons goals.

    P.s. I just had two mini donuts yesterday… cinnamon sugar and chocolate Oreo. They were delish… helped me meet my fat goal and I stayed within my calorie goal :)
  • What is "healthy" is dependent on the needs of the individual, not a generalization.
  • 1DEF
    1DEF Posts: 45 Member
    For people not into hyperbole (ie heads exploding) , I just mean that it goes against everything they have ever thought to be true. Sometimes this is a good thing and necessary. Others times not so much. Or in this case , despite some acrimonious posts I still see it as an honest disagreement on how you see food or want to define it for you own goals.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    What is "healthy" is dependent on the needs of the individual, not a generalization.
    Good thing the body doesn't discriminate and accepts all comers, despite any short circuitry.

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    kim_m_kk wrote: »
    I think that clean eating would mean lower calories and most people would maintain or loose weight eating clean but you can clean eat and gain if you eat too many calories.

    "Clean eating" has no definition that is agreed upon. If you define it as "eating lower calorie foods," then of course it has fewer calories--as others have said, that's circular--but then it makes no sense to call it "clean eating" as if it were something separate.

    If what you mean is eating mostly nutrient dense foods with some others in moderation to the extent they fit, that's not "clean eating."

    If you mean not eating "bad foods," how do we decide what's "bad" and what's unhealthy about eating them in moderation? Isn't it obvious that someone who has a high TDEE (an endurance athlete, say) may have a need to get extra calories/energy even apart from the nutrients in the foods that supply that energy? That's why (for just one example) my grandfather could eat a diet far more filled with grains and other starchy carbs than mine has ever been and not gain weight. He was bigger than me and far more active than me (he was a farmer who did various other physical work on the side). (He also enjoyed sweet foods, and put tons of sugar in his tea.)
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    Aviva92 wrote: »
    keziak1 wrote: »
    I've read in a number of books and articles, one today, that if you are eating right (or healthy or clean or however you call it) then you don't need to measure food or count calories. Since this is a calorie-counting site I assume you have not found this to be the case? Is it likely one will continue to carry excess fat even when eating healthy, if calories aren't controlled too?

    Most people who "diet" fail in the long term, whether it be CICO or other methods. Some people do really well with CICO. Others fail because counting the calories of every pretzel and cookie can be a real drag. Others have done very well simply by eliminating most sugars and junk carbs (bread, pasta, cereal) from their regimens (yes, I know it's hard to believe, but there are people who lose a ton of weight without counting a single calorie).

    So you have to figure out what works for you.

    Yeah, what's the long-term success rate for giving up carbs and maintaining any kind of loss? Also? How many calories are consumed on this carb free diet?



    giving up all carbs would not be maintainable, but lowering them is.

    i would regularly eat huge piles of pasta back when i was at my highest weight. i no longer do that. it was an easy thing to change.

    Based on what data? Because you're telling me? What is the long-term success rate of low-carb dieting? And, honestly, you don't need to defend it since you weren't making the claim that CICO wasn't "sustainable" (as if a scientific principle stopped being sustainable, I'm waiting for gravity to stop being sustainable so I can fly!).

    The other point inherent in all of this nonsense is just HOW does low-carbing bypass CICO? Some proof of that too.

    I'm just saying that the o.p.'s question of whether or not you can stay at a healthy weight without counting calories works for me by making a few minor tweeks such as lowering carbs. It might not work for everyone else though.

    Maybe I'm confused here as to where we are going with this. I was referring to the o.p. with that.
  • bethanyka
    bethanyka Posts: 159 Member
    someone in the beginning of this thread brought up Intuitive eating ---- eat when hungry .... don't eat when not. Not an easy task. But in response to OP's post, that's what came to my mind when the OP said eating "right"
    I don't think you'd have to count every single calorie if you followed this , however... that suggests the definition of moderation, which considering I'm on this site and find it necessary to count/weigh/ measure everything .. isn't my strongest quality either.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I have found out, after several months using MFP (been here a year now), that it is easier to hit my calorie and protein goal, and feel full and satisfied, if I base my diet on whole foods and home cooking. As a result of that, I've ended up with a more traditional diet.

    If I eat a balanced and varied diet - five meals a day, with mostly whole foods, some stuff from every food group, fatty protein and vegetables at every meal, three servings of fruit, and don't overeat, except maybe sometimes because of generous amount of meat at dinner - and occasionally deviate completely from plan because of birthdays, holidays, eating with friends, being sick etc - I kind of automatically hit my calorie and protein goal, at least I'll be in the ballpark.

    MFP teaches me to eat right and loving it.

    So, if I eat right, I don't really need to count calories.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    "You can eat too much of "Healthy" food too!"
    Yeah, ok. I dare some one on here to try eating 2000 calories worth of apples. Then try eating 2000 calories worth of Krispey Kreme and tell me the two foods are the same.

    Definitely not the same. One of them won't kill you with listeria. http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/apple-lovers-beware-nationwide-recall/
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    swansorp09 wrote: »
    I watch an obesity show once where a 600+ pound guys gained 2 pounds. The doctor assumed he was bad with his diet. The man said all he ate was oranges the past 2 days. The doctor asked how many oranges. The man said he ate 54 oranges a day. Healthy food but gained weight.

    Hmm there are about 50 calories in a small orange, so 54 of them would be about 2700 calories.. which is not solely going to make a 600lb man gain 2lbs.

    54 oranges...4.5 oz per orange...243 ounces...15 pounds. Assuming it had been at least two hours since his last trip to the bathroom, I could see him being 2 pounds heavier.

    Ha! Trick answer! Two days after eating nothing but 54 oranges, there's no way he'd be able to go more than two hours between bathroom visits.

    But seriously, two pounds? That's within a daily unexplained fluctuation for me and I'm less than a third of what that guy weighed. Two pounds over two days is easily within the margin of error.

    TL;DR - Your anecdote tells us absolutely nothing about this topic.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    vismal wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    When I began, I was advised to eat healthy, exercise and not worry about anything else. I had special restrictions in addition to that, but could eat all the fruits and veggies my little heart desired.

    Without logging, counting, weighing myself or doing any of the things that are so common for weight loss, I lost my first forty pounds. I was shocked when I found out how much I'd lost. Since my clothes got bigger and too big, I knew I'd lost, but was FLOORED by forty pounds. I literally got off and back on the scale and considered that I might've been weighed wrong in the first place, but it would've required like a dozen people doing it wrong in six or eight different places, so there was no error.

    If you eat only the healthiest of foods - all healthy, all the time - it's really hard to overeat. You'll see people here asking about how to get to 1200 eating only the healthiest of food. While it's theoretically possible, it would be very difficult to gain weight eating All Healthy, All The Time.
    I completely disagree with this. There are too many high calorie choices that could be considered "healthy". If I ate grass fed steak, eggs, almonds/almond butter, milk, avocados, coconut oil, bananas, natural peanut butter, oats, granola, etc I could easily eat above my maintenance, and my maintenance is over 3000 calories. Someone with a smaller maintenance could do it even easier.
    Healthy eating includes watchingcholesterol, sodium, fat content and sticking to lean, white meats. You won't be able to eat too many of those eggs sticking to All Healthy, All The Time.

    I'm not saying you couldn't gain weight eating whatever you choose to eat, just that people sometimes have a really hard time hitting 1200 when doing All Healthy, All The Time.

    But I respect your opinion and think the boards are better when there are multiple opinions posted. Not trying to start a big fight, just clarify. :)
    Your definition of healthy includes sticking to lean, white, meats. That's not everyone's definition of healthy. I happen to think eating salmon, mackerel, steak, lamb, avocado, almonds, etc is perfectly healthy. This is an inherent problem with trying to "eat healthy". There is no definition of what "healthy" is. I also find no reason to pay much attention to sodium. I do not have hypertension or kidney disease and until I do, I find no problems with eating twice the RDA for sodium some days. Someone who has moderate to severe hypertension really aught to watching their sodium. While it's not necessarily "unhealthy" for me to eat a lot of sodium, it can be quite "unhealthy" for someone else too. This is why it is an exercise in futility to classify individual foods as clean and dirty, or healthy and unhealthy. It's completely subjective and in the end, it's how those foods fit together in a total diet and how that total diet complements the individuals needs that matter.
    It isn't my definition, lol. I take advice from experts.

    I know many MFP people do not trust:
    Doctors, because they're not smart
    CDC, because government lies
    Health associations, like Amercian Heart, because they have an agenda
    Etc.

    I do trust all those people when they all say that eating healthy (as they define it) may help me avoid illness. Avoiding illness is something I'm in favor of doing!

    For various reasons, they suggest avoiding certain foods and keeping the salt lower than most Americans do.

    If you stick to their recommendations and only their recommendations - All Healthy, All The Time - it's hard to gain weight.

    If you add a bunch of stuff that they don't recommend and call it "healthy," that's a different ball game.

    If you overdo it on the sodium, you may end up regretting it later. I'm not sure where you got the info that it's cool to eat "a lot" of sodium until it causes cardiovascular problems and then cut back, but I know it is said here a lot. You may end up wishing you'd done it differently.

    I don't personally care how much sodium you eat. Eat only salt all day, every day. I don't care. I'm not trying to be Right On The Internet because then I feel smarter and more confident. Just a heads up. For whatever it's worth.

    I'm posting this as FYI and not attempting to begin a Link Duel. I'm not suggesting it makes me smarter or right about anything. Just in case you're interested in reading what some people - people who you may or may not trust! People you may or may not wish to hear out! - have to say:
    http://sodiumbreakup.heart.org/sodium-411/sodium-and-your-health/
  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
    Kalikel wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    When I began, I was advised to eat healthy, exercise and not worry about anything else. I had special restrictions in addition to that, but could eat all the fruits and veggies my little heart desired.

    Without logging, counting, weighing myself or doing any of the things that are so common for weight loss, I lost my first forty pounds. I was shocked when I found out how much I'd lost. Since my clothes got bigger and too big, I knew I'd lost, but was FLOORED by forty pounds. I literally got off and back on the scale and considered that I might've been weighed wrong in the first place, but it would've required like a dozen people doing it wrong in six or eight different places, so there was no error.

    If you eat only the healthiest of foods - all healthy, all the time - it's really hard to overeat. You'll see people here asking about how to get to 1200 eating only the healthiest of food. While it's theoretically possible, it would be very difficult to gain weight eating All Healthy, All The Time.
    I completely disagree with this. There are too many high calorie choices that could be considered "healthy". If I ate grass fed steak, eggs, almonds/almond butter, milk, avocados, coconut oil, bananas, natural peanut butter, oats, granola, etc I could easily eat above my maintenance, and my maintenance is over 3000 calories. Someone with a smaller maintenance could do it even easier.
    Healthy eating includes watchingcholesterol, sodium, fat content and sticking to lean, white meats. You won't be able to eat too many of those eggs sticking to All Healthy, All The Time.

    I'm not saying you couldn't gain weight eating whatever you choose to eat, just that people sometimes have a really hard time hitting 1200 when doing All Healthy, All The Time.

    But I respect your opinion and think the boards are better when there are multiple opinions posted. Not trying to start a big fight, just clarify. :)
    Your definition of healthy includes sticking to lean, white, meats. That's not everyone's definition of healthy. I happen to think eating salmon, mackerel, steak, lamb, avocado, almonds, etc is perfectly healthy. This is an inherent problem with trying to "eat healthy". There is no definition of what "healthy" is. I also find no reason to pay much attention to sodium. I do not have hypertension or kidney disease and until I do, I find no problems with eating twice the RDA for sodium some days. Someone who has moderate to severe hypertension really aught to watching their sodium. While it's not necessarily "unhealthy" for me to eat a lot of sodium, it can be quite "unhealthy" for someone else too. This is why it is an exercise in futility to classify individual foods as clean and dirty, or healthy and unhealthy. It's completely subjective and in the end, it's how those foods fit together in a total diet and how that total diet complements the individuals needs that matter.
    It isn't my definition, lol. I take advice from experts.

    I know many MFP people do not trust:
    Doctors, because they're not smart
    CDC, because government lies
    Health associations, like Amercian Heart, because they have an agenda
    Etc.

    I do trust all those people when they all say that eating healthy (as they define it) may help me avoid illness. Avoiding illness is something I'm in favor of doing!

    For various reasons, they suggest avoiding certain foods and keeping the salt lower than most Americans do.

    If you stick to their recommendations and only their recommendations - All Healthy, All The Time - it's hard to gain weight.

    If you add a bunch of stuff that they don't recommend and call it "healthy," that's a different ball game.

    If you overdo it on the sodium, you may end up regretting it later. I'm not sure where you got the info that it's cool to eat "a lot" of sodium until it causes cardiovascular problems and then cut back, but I know it is said here a lot. You may end up wishing you'd done it differently.

    I don't personally care how much sodium you eat. Eat only salt all day, every day. I don't care. I'm not trying to be Right On The Internet because then I feel smarter and more confident. Just a heads up. For whatever it's worth.

    I'm posting this as FYI and not attempting to begin a Link Duel. I'm not suggesting it makes me smarter or right about anything. Just in case you're interested in reading what some people - people who you may or may not trust! People you may or may not wish to hear out! - have to say:
    http://sodiumbreakup.heart.org/sodium-411/sodium-and-your-health/

    I wish that statement was true.
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  • allanakern
    allanakern Posts: 245 Member
    you could get fat off of broccoli if you ate enough of it
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Kalikel wrote: »
    I know many MFP people do not trust:
    Doctors, because they're not smart
    CDC, because government lies
    Health associations, like Amercian Heart, because they have an agenda
    Etc.

    If you stick to their recommendations and only their recommendations - All Healthy, All The Time - it's hard to gain weight.

    It's also hard to stick to their recommendations and only their recommendations - All Healthy, All The Time, because we are not merely machines or rational beings, we are humans, animals, and we have lives, feelings, drives, will, some even have jobs and/or friends, that makes Doing The Right Things Always And Never Fail very difficult. More lenient guidelines but still considered healthy enough would IMO be more efficient. A few days ago I saw recommended sweets intake per week, for men: 3, for women: 0. Ain't nobody got time for that. Hence dismissing all the advice, good and unnecessary alike.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    allanakern wrote: »
    you could get fat off of broccoli if you ate enough of it

    Can you eat enough of it?

    I couldn't.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited January 2015
    Kalikel wrote: »
    I know many MFP people do not trust:
    Doctors, because they're not smart
    CDC, because government lies
    Health associations, like Amercian Heart, because they have an agenda
    Etc.

    It's not that. It's that there are varying advice and studies and advice given in the past that has been somewhat discredited. For example, the idea that we should eat no more than 2 eggs per week. If we go beyond the interminable (but kind of fun) debates about whether we should think of individual foods as "healthy" or not, we have to get into the discussion of which ones are which, and that's one where the proponents of "healthy" or "clean" foods end up all pitted against each other, since you all have different ideas (backed by various doctors) as to what is "healthy" and what isn't.

    Another reason why just "eating healthy" isn't really enough.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited January 2015
    keziak1 wrote: »
    I've read in a number of books and articles, one today, that if you are eating right (or healthy or clean or however you call it) then you don't need to measure food or count calories. Since this is a calorie-counting site I assume you have not found this to be the case? Is it likely one will continue to carry excess fat even when eating healthy, if calories aren't controlled too?

    The assumption is that it is much more difficult to overeat when you're eating primarily whole foods and meals prepared from scratch, whole ingredients. Calories are what matters, it's just harder to over-eat your calorie goals when you're primarily eating whole foods

    I find this largely to be true and weight control has been pretty easy for me without counting calories for over 1.5 years now. My diet overwhelmingly consists of whole foods with a smattering of "junk" here and there.

    That said, counting calories is what taught me how to eat and how much of that "junk" I can have in combination with my other nutrition and still achieve my weight control goals.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    When I began, I was advised to eat healthy, exercise and not worry about anything else. I had special restrictions in addition to that, but could eat all the fruits and veggies my little heart desired.

    Without logging, counting, weighing myself or doing any of the things that are so common for weight loss, I lost my first forty pounds. I was shocked when I found out how much I'd lost. Since my clothes got bigger and too big, I knew I'd lost, but was FLOORED by forty pounds. I literally got off and back on the scale and considered that I might've been weighed wrong in the first place, but it would've required like a dozen people doing it wrong in six or eight different places, so there was no error.

    If you eat only the healthiest of foods - all healthy, all the time - it's really hard to overeat. You'll see people here asking about how to get to 1200 eating only the healthiest of food. While it's theoretically possible, it would be very difficult to gain weight eating All Healthy, All The Time.
    I completely disagree with this. There are too many high calorie choices that could be considered "healthy". If I ate grass fed steak, eggs, almonds/almond butter, milk, avocados, coconut oil, bananas, natural peanut butter, oats, granola, etc I could easily eat above my maintenance, and my maintenance is over 3000 calories. Someone with a smaller maintenance could do it even easier.
    Healthy eating includes watchingcholesterol, sodium, fat content and sticking to lean, white meats. You won't be able to eat too many of those eggs sticking to All Healthy, All The Time.

    I'm not saying you couldn't gain weight eating whatever you choose to eat, just that people sometimes have a really hard time hitting 1200 when doing All Healthy, All The Time.

    But I respect your opinion and think the boards are better when there are multiple opinions posted. Not trying to start a big fight, just clarify. :)
    Your definition of healthy includes sticking to lean, white, meats. That's not everyone's definition of healthy. I happen to think eating salmon, mackerel, steak, lamb, avocado, almonds, etc is perfectly healthy. This is an inherent problem with trying to "eat healthy". There is no definition of what "healthy" is. I also find no reason to pay much attention to sodium. I do not have hypertension or kidney disease and until I do, I find no problems with eating twice the RDA for sodium some days. Someone who has moderate to severe hypertension really aught to watching their sodium. While it's not necessarily "unhealthy" for me to eat a lot of sodium, it can be quite "unhealthy" for someone else too. This is why it is an exercise in futility to classify individual foods as clean and dirty, or healthy and unhealthy. It's completely subjective and in the end, it's how those foods fit together in a total diet and how that total diet complements the individuals needs that matter.
    It isn't my definition, lol. I take advice from experts.

    I know many MFP people do not trust:
    Doctors, because they're not smart
    CDC, because government lies
    Health associations, like Amercian Heart, because they have an agenda
    Etc.

    I do trust all those people when they all say that eating healthy (as they define it) may help me avoid illness. Avoiding illness is something I'm in favor of doing!

    For various reasons, they suggest avoiding certain foods and keeping the salt lower than most Americans do.

    If you stick to their recommendations and only their recommendations - All Healthy, All The Time - it's hard to gain weight.

    If you add a bunch of stuff that they don't recommend and call it "healthy," that's a different ball game.

    If you overdo it on the sodium, you may end up regretting it later. I'm not sure where you got the info that it's cool to eat "a lot" of sodium until it causes cardiovascular problems and then cut back, but I know it is said here a lot. You may end up wishing you'd done it differently.

    I don't personally care how much sodium you eat. Eat only salt all day, every day. I don't care. I'm not trying to be Right On The Internet because then I feel smarter and more confident. Just a heads up. For whatever it's worth.

    I'm posting this as FYI and not attempting to begin a Link Duel. I'm not suggesting it makes me smarter or right about anything. Just in case you're interested in reading what some people - people who you may or may not trust! People you may or may not wish to hear out! - have to say:
    http://sodiumbreakup.heart.org/sodium-411/sodium-and-your-health/

    Sigh more nonsense

    Truly so, especially about it being difficult to gain weight if you eat "all healthy all the time."

    Kalikel,

    The only requirement to gain weight is to eat more calories than you burn. Unfortunately, fat builder gremlins do not discriminate as to type of food. It's easy to overeat on any type of food.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    allanakern wrote: »
    you could get fat off of broccoli if you ate enough of it

    That's extreme. Chances are it's no one food making you fat but the entire combination of that surplus.
  • LovingLifeInCalifornia
    LovingLifeInCalifornia Posts: 9,362 Member
    It's not that simple. Different people define "clean" eating as different things.

    When I ate a plant based diet (no meat, no dairy, no processed foods), I didn't have to count the calories...but I did anyhow (primarily to ensure I was hitting nutritional goals of calcium, etc.) I would consistently eat over my calorie goal - and I lost weight anyhow. That was for me. I can't say for everyone's experience. But I ate tons of avocados and pistachios (high in calorie and fat) and was still losing.

    But for me, it's not a lifestyle I will keep 100% of the time. I like the idea of it, sure...and often, I will eat a plant-based diet, but once in awhile, if I want to eat prime rib or sweet french bread, I will.



  • njitaliana
    njitaliana Posts: 814 Member
    tomatoey wrote: »
    Fact is, when people mostly ate nothing but home-cooked meals, fewer people were overweight. Fact is, wherever the fast food industry takes hold, obesity rates rise in previously normal-weight populations.

    Nearly all my meals are home cooked, yet I am obese. I am now eating less in general, and I have 53 lbs off. Not because I changed what I am eating, but because I changed how much I am eating.
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    While it's hard to argue when people say you gain weight from oreos or carrots, I will say this from personal experience: it is effing hard to overindulge on raw veggies (like eat 1500 calories over my goal); it is the easiest thing in the world to overindulge in buffalo wings and beer. So while it's true you can gain from anything, you'd be working pretty goddamn hard to gain serious weight chomping on balanced amounts of chicken breast, egg whites, raw veggies and fruits. Not saying it's impossible, but much more difficult.
  • karlsantiago
    karlsantiago Posts: 90 Member
    edited January 2015
    in my opinion you can be healthy and fit without tracking. tracking macros are really helpful if you have specific goals, like getting six pack....but hey if you take EXACTLY what you are eating now and eat a little less of it next week and the week after, and reach a point where you eat just enough for your body to maintain...you will most likely lose weight
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    allanakern wrote: »
    you could get fat off of broccoli if you ate enough of it

    I should have quoted this in my response.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    I would agree that it is hard to gain weight if you are following standard diet recommendations consistently. That is because our weights are generally stable. If you don't do too much eating for non-hunger reasons and eat a reasonable diet, your weight will most likely stay stable (unless you had lost a lot of weight, in which case your body's tendency will lead you to eat enough to regain the weight).

    However, that is very different from losing weight. Generally you won't lose significant weight just doing that. For most people that takes a much more determined effort.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    I know many MFP people do not trust:
    Doctors, because they're not smart
    CDC, because government lies
    Health associations, like Amercian Heart, because they have an agenda
    Etc.

    It's not that. It's that there are varying advice and studies and advice given in the past that has been somewhat discredited. For example, the idea that we should eat no more than 2 eggs per week. If we go beyond the interminable (but kind of fun) debates about whether we should think of individual foods as "healthy" or not, we have to get into the discussion of which ones are which, and that's one where the proponents of "healthy" or "clean" foods end up all pitted against each other, since you all have different ideas (backed by various doctors) as to what is "healthy" and what isn't.

    Another reason why just "eating healthy" isn't really enough.
    I'm not arguing that anyone should change anything. Hear me now, believe me whenever you want: I do not care what anyone else eats. No caring. At all. Even if someone knows their whole diet is unhealthy and chooses it eat it anyway, it's fine by me.

    If anyone or everyone wants to eschew any or all recommendations made by experts because the recommendations have changed before and may again, I not only am not against it, I totally support their right to do it.

    Everyone should do what is right for them.
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