Exercise without eating healthily - Is it counter productive?

I do not see anything you necessarily need to take out of your diet.
You need to add more meat, fat, and vegetables. Vegetables include olives, romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, corn. Add some fruits if you like them more than vegetables.

1 Saturated fats are o.k. We are not living in the 1980s any more. We have better information, so eat the saturated fats. Eat the sodium because you are eating out and eating packaged foods. Salt only matters to certain populations and people with certain health risks. We have VERY few hydrogenated fats allowed to be sold in the US and the UK (vegetable shortening like Crisco, some boxed cake mixes, packaged cakes, artificial creamer, microwave popcorn ). If you do run across an item or two, it will not matter much for now because it is a small amount in your overall day AND you are working on adding regular fats into your days/week.
2 Instead of skimmed, drink regular milk. You need more fats and oils so eat nuts (the kind with no salt). They will increase your protein and your over all calorie count on days when you need caloires.

3 Eat two steaks a day or find some way to eat more meat. Chicken legs are are easy to cook. So are pork chops. Or open a can of beans for protein. Also, eggs (hard boil a dozen at a time and put in the fridge), hot dogs, home made hamburgers, canned tuna/salmon/sardines.
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Most likely you will reduce some of the sugary drinks to get more protein but you do not have to do everything all at once. Find places to modify.

I looked at your diary and I'm a little shocked. The amount of sugar and carbs is scary. The World Health Organization recommends less than 50g of sugar per day and preferably less than 25g. You are consuming a very unhealthy amount which will put you at risk of messing up with your endocrine system no matter what your weight is. Your heart, pancreas, brain and liver are all working extra hard due to the high variations in insulin and glucose in your system. It's a very good thing that you want to change your diet because you are young and you don't want to do that to your body. The sooner you make healthier choices, the better results you will get. I would start by getting rid of all the non-water drinks because they are loaded with sugar and unnecessary calories. When you have options for food, choose the option with the highest amount of protein. If it has more carbs than proteins, don't eat it unless it's a pre or post workout food.

Eating a deficit and working out will draw on fat stores.

That is good.

The food you eat being nutritious helps you have energy and feel full. So eating smart to fuel your body will be helpful long term.

A day where you have a couple doughnuts won't be a big deal. A week of half your calories from doughnuts would be different if you are lifting hard

When I have a weekend of hard training I have to eat right to survive and not fee like I have been ran over.

The harder you train and closer you get to elite athlete level the more nutrition becomes critical.

Just getting started, don't go all food obsession with it. Getting used to working out and eating a nutritious meal plan is work and takes time.

So many great suggestions in this thread.

I predict with your current level of dedication and lots of new helpful info, you will see this continue to work!

Stick with it!

Great that you're losing weight. However, IMO, you're trying to build a house on a plastic foundation instead of concrete based on your diet. For long term heath, get the diet cleaned up. Look for around 90% of your calories from nutrient dense foods, get your macros (looking briefly at your log, probably need to up the protein). The other 10% of calories can be from whatever.

Best of luck.

rabbitjb wrote: »

Packerjohn wrote: »

Great that you're losing weight. However, IMO, you're trying to build a house on a plastic foundation instead of concrete based on your diet. For long term heath, get the diet cleaned up. Look for around 90% of your calories from nutrient dense foods, get your macros (looking briefly at your log, probably need to up the protein). The other 10% of calories can be from whatever.

Best of luck.

He said he's going to

Best to learn step by step for some people

I realize that. I was providing some specific input on diet suggestions.

nebaru wrote: »

I looked at your diary and I'm a little shocked. The amount of sugar and carbs is scary. The World Health Organization recommends less than 50g of sugar per day and preferably less than 25g. You are consuming a very unhealthy amount which will put you at risk of messing up with your endocrine system no matter what your weight is. Your heart, pancreas, brain and liver are all working extra hard due to the high variations in insulin and glucose in your system. It's a very good thing that you want to change your diet because you are young and you don't want to do that to your body. The sooner you make healthier choices, the better results you will get. I would start by getting rid of all the non-water drinks because they are loaded with sugar and unnecessary calories. When you have options for food, choose the option with the highest amount of protein. If it has more carbs than proteins, don't eat it unless it's a pre or post workout food.

I just wanted to point out that these numbers are for what the WHO calls free sugars, not total sugar. The WHO defines free sugars as

monosaccharides (such as glucose, fructose) and disaccharides (such as sucrose or table sugar) added to foods and drinks by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.

...

The WHO guideline does not refer to the sugars in fresh fruits and vegetables, and sugars naturally present in milk, because there is no reported evidence of adverse effects of consuming these sugars.

The MFP sugar number includes both types of sugar so its not a good way to measure by this standard.

rabbitjb wrote: »

Scientific or opinion?

Would vote for science. I saw it in a USDA publication. Here is a summary poster:

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/sites/default/files/printablematerials/mini_poster.pdf

Suggests 260 empty calories or 13% in a 2000 calorie a day diet.

The text said 10-15% of calories from empty calories, can't find that exact part right now.

hockey7fan wrote: »

Well I spent $3,000 on a personal trainer and went to the gym every day. But I didn't change how I ate and I didn't lose a single pound. Big waste of money.

I would disagree. If you went to the gym every day and put in some work, you did something to improve your health.

Best of luck.

Packerjohn wrote: »

Great that you're losing weight. However, IMO, you're trying to build a house on a plastic foundation instead of concrete based on your diet. For long term heath, get the diet cleaned up. Look for around 90% of your calories from nutrient dense foods, get your macros (looking briefly at your log, probably need to up the protein). The other 10% of calories can be from whatever.

Best of luck.

Come on now, don't rain on his parade. He made small changes and they were effective.

Excellent news, Josh.

Well done Josh, 2 pounds is great.

Of course exercise isn't counterproductive. Anything that helps, helps.