Does it matter what you eat if you stay within your calorie limit?

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whereslisa
whereslisa Posts: 38 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Can you eat whatever you want while staying under your calorie goal and still lose weight?
I've been eating healthier (for the most part lol) but I'm genuinely curious. Not that it's ideal, but scientifically, can you eat only junk food but stay under your calorie limit and lose weight?

My question being: does it matter WHAT you eat?
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Replies

  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    whereslisa wrote: »
    Not that it's ideal, but scientifically, can you eat only junk food but stay under your calorie limit and lose weight?

    Yes, assuming you can stick to the caloric deficit.

  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    For weight loss, no it's doesn't matter what you eat. Stick to a calorie deficit.

    But for overall health, balanced nutrition is optimal.

    Of course some days can't be perfect. :)
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
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    Yep.

    Scientifically, your body takes a certain amount of energy to not die. Breathing, heartbeat, etc. If you do not supply it with that energy, it cannot magic up extra... it has to tap into its own stores. It doesn't matter if you didn't give it enough by eating all doughnuts or all celery, not enough is not enough. It will have to get the energy from somewhere (fat, muscle, etc), or you know, die. Similarly, if you give it too much, more than it can use, it will have to store it... whether that came from doughnuts or celery.

    However, of course it "matters" what you eat. If I ate nothing but cookies and cola, I'd feel like crap. I could lose weight doing it if I kept it under my calories, but I might end up in the hospital or yelling at people or something. You'll find certain foods fill you up better, keep you feeling more energetic and even, that sort of thing. You'll work in other foods that you enjoy but that are less useful for these goals, you just won't rely on them to be your main foods (unless you want to feel low energy and hangry every day, I guess).
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    edited April 2015
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    whereslisa wrote: »
    Can you eat whatever you want while staying under your calorie goal and still lose weight?
    I've been eating healthier (for the most part lol) but I'm genuinely curious. Not that it's ideal, but scientifically, can you eat only junk food but stay under your calorie limit and lose weight?

    My question being: does it matter WHAT you eat?

    Technically yes, but if you truly ate nothing but junk you'd likely have a difficult time sticking to your calorie targets. Then of course, there's the nutritional ramifications and other health issues...and your body composition would be for *kitten*.

    Also, why does this discussion always have to be "nothing but junk" or "nothing but healthy"? Eat a well balanced and nutritious diet and enjoy some pizza now and then. It's not that frackin' hard. Eating well and still enjoying yourself is really pretty easy.
  • Oldbitcollector
    Oldbitcollector Posts: 229 Member
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    IIFYM -- Yes, but you will discover that certain foods are both high calorie and not very filling. (Mostly junk) -- Continue to track what you eat, make it all fit in your numbers and you'll discover the poorer choices that "weren't worth the calories" to eat and replace them with better choices as you move forward.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    whereslisa wrote: »
    My question being: does it matter WHAT you eat?

    yep, a diet devoid of protein or fat would be a bad idea.
  • Blackthorne99
    Blackthorne99 Posts: 250 Member
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    It makes a huge difference for me. I eat Low Carb/High Fat, and can consume almost 1000 calories more than when I did a Medical fast that was 75% carbs. I also currently weigh 35lbs less than I did on the fast.

    Here's information on that: https://pinterest.com/blackthorne99/ketolchf-if-science-information/
  • Spyer116
    Spyer116 Posts: 168 Member
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    Yes. IIFYM is pretty much almost perfect, once you go by it sensibly and with some logic.
    You can't just eat like 20 poptarts or 10 double burgers everyday and hit most if not all your macros.
    But treats are totally fine.
    The problem with eating alot of junkfood and sweets is that they don't fill you up at all. Even if you stuffed your face with them. Half an hour later, you'd be hungry again. And after a couple of hours you'd be starving for something proper to eat.
    The problem is that a bar of chocolate, would probably be about 200 calories. Imagine if you used your entire daily calorie limit on chocolate. THat'd be 6 bars of chocolate spread throughout the entire day if your limit was 1200. You'd be starving. Or even if you stuffed yourself full of it with all 6 bars in 10 mins. Less than an hour or two later, you'd be hungry enough to eat a full dinner.

    Most days I usually leave 100-200 calories (or do some extra exercise so I can have more calories in my day's limit), for something i'm craving. Usually chocolate. But sometimes a bag of crisps. Or an unhealthy/fatty dinner that'd fill up more calories than one of the more healthy dinners.
    But in my opinion, If 80-90% of your daily diet was of relatively healthy/good foods. Then leaving a few calories for a treat or craving each day, is perfectly ok, once you're sensible with it. :) (I preferably try to do it just a few times a week though. Rather than daily)
  • whereslisa
    whereslisa Posts: 38 Member
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    My question was sincere curiosity. I just wanted to know if that's how our body works.
    I mostly eat veggies/fruits but do occasionally have some fries or candy while staying at my goal. Nobody said all I ate was junk food (not saying anyone suggested that but I feel it coming on) I have fibromayalgia along with many other issues and I WON'T eat junk all day because if I did I couldn't get out of bed.

    I was just wondering.
  • Spyer116
    Spyer116 Posts: 168 Member
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    whereslisa wrote: »
    My question was sincere curiosity. I just wanted to know if that's how our body works.
    I mostly eat veggies/fruits but do occasionally have some fries or candy while staying at my goal. Nobody said all I ate was junk food (not saying anyone suggested that but I feel it coming on) I have fibromayalgia along with many other issues and I WON'T eat junk all day because if I did I couldn't get out of bed.

    I was just wondering.

    I didn't look at the other posts, so wasn't keeping track.
    But yeah, you could live off junk food I guess. Just not healthily. And at some point, (probably wouldn't take long to reach), you'd start hitting various vitamin and mineral deficiencies, since alot of unhealthy stuff would probably be made from similar ingredients/chemicals. :)
  • Hollywood_Porky
    Hollywood_Porky Posts: 491 Member
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    Blackthorne99 wrote: »
    It makes a huge difference for me. I eat Low Carb/High Fat, and can consume almost 1000 calories more than when I did a Medical fast that was 75% carbs. I also currently weigh 35lbs less than I did on the fast.

    Here's information on that: https://pinterest.com/blackthorne99/ketolchf-if-science-information/

    That's awesome @Blackthorne99 !! More evidence that removing starchy carbohydrates and replacing with protein/fat works wonders!
  • whereslisa
    whereslisa Posts: 38 Member
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    I eat fruits/vegetables/meat for the most part. Mostly I eat meat like chicken in my salads and the occasional steaks. Typical day for me includes fruits, 1-2 salads (1 with chicken usually) and vegetables/more meat or something a little less healthy for dinner like fries (my weakness hehe). I'm doing fine, I have a food list from my nutritionist/doctor since I have issues with stomach pain. I cheat more often than I'd like to admit but I eat, no arguing that LOL. I also take food vitamins based on deficiencies I have determined by a serious of tests (yes, done by a licensed nutritionist).

    My question was pretty much just asking if your body burns calories differently depending on what you eat. I've been curious about that for a while now. :)





  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    whereslisa wrote: »
    Can you eat whatever you want while staying under your calorie goal and still lose weight?
    I've been eating healthier (for the most part lol) but I'm genuinely curious. Not that it's ideal, but scientifically, can you eat only junk food but stay under your calorie limit and lose weight?

    My question being: does it matter WHAT you eat?

    Technically yes, but if you truly ate nothing but junk you'd likely have a difficult time sticking to your calorie targets. Then of course, there's the nutritional ramifications and other health issues...and your body composition would be for *kitten*.

    Also, why does this discussion always have to be "nothing but junk" or "nothing but healthy"? Eat a well balanced and nutritious diet and enjoy some pizza now and then. It's not that frackin' hard. Eating well and still enjoying yourself is really pretty easy.

    This.
  • Kath_George
    Kath_George Posts: 10 Member
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    No. That's a really bad way to lose weight. Plus fast food has so many calories so you would maybe only be haveing 1 or 2 a day and then you would get hungry. And it's not about losing weight it's about being healthy by eating the right foods and exercising.
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
    edited April 2015
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    whereslisa wrote: »
    Can you eat whatever you want while staying under your calorie goal and still lose weight?
    I've been eating healthier (for the most part lol) but I'm genuinely curious. Not that it's ideal, but scientifically, can you eat only junk food but stay under your calorie limit and lose weight?

    My question being: does it matter WHAT you eat?

    From a weight loss perspective-as long as you're within your calorie targets, you'll lose weight. From a good health perspective it gets a bit trickier (from my own experiences). For me-I continued to eat a very SAD diet while I was in active weight loss mode (still ate fast food several times a week etc etc). Not only did I lose weight at a steady pace, my blood panels also improved-including my glucose number going from the pre-diabetic range down to the normal range. And you look at things like the teacher who went on a Twinkie diet experiment, who also not only lost the weight but he also improved his blood panels.

    Long term is another matter (probably). I've been successfully maintaining for two years now still eating whatever and just focusing on the calorie end of things. And my blood work continues to be pretty much perfect, blood pressure is great etc. But, I'm becoming more interested in long term health right now and how food may or may not contribute to that. I'm changing my food up right now and experimenting with a lower carb/more whole foods woe. But, right now I'm doing it for abstract reasons because I was in good health eating the other way. So, who knows lol.
  • pixiestick
    pixiestick Posts: 839 Member
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    I am just repeating what has already been said, but I would like to add that calorie counting is just one (limited) way that we measure the energy content of food. You could count a whole range of different numbers (carbs, fat, protein, etc). The basic idea is that you have to put less energy into your body than you expend. And as you get more efficient at processing energy, your body needs less of it.

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