I LOVE food and HATE dieting. This is a really hard change.

I'm definitely a "foodie" that absolutely loves to eat good food. I've lost 103 pounds. How I have learned to do this:
1. I had to get it into my head that this is not a "diet." It's a diet in the definition that this is how I eat, but not in the common definition that I am punishing myself to lose weight and once I get there, I can eat "normally" again. The way I eat now is the way I will eat forever. Period.

2. I had to learn to incorporate everything I enjoy into my diet. Since this is the way I'm going to eat for the rest of my life, I had to learn how to eat my favorite foods without going over my calorie goals. I still eat pizza, hamburgers, fries, chocolate (daily), ice cream, etc. I just eat less of it and not all of it in one day. I treat my calories like money. I know I only have so many to "spend" and I have to budget accordingly. I eat everything in *MODERATION*! This does not mean that I eat pizza and burgers every single day. This means that I mostly eat healthy fruits and veggies, lean proteins and whole grains, but incorporate all the other stuff into my diet when I really want it. I learned that incorporating all these things into my diet resulted in eliminating my feelings of deprivation, binging and failure. If I know I can have ice cream if I want it, I want it far less often.

3. I quit trying to substitute less quality food/ingredients for the things I really enjoy. I don't eat light butter, low-fat cheese, sugar-free sweets, etc. If I want something, I eat the *real* thing. I discovered that if I eat high-quality food, I am satisfied with much much smaller portions.

4. I *enjoy* my food. I take time to really enjoy what I eat. I take small portions, but sit down, eat on nice dishes, enjoy the company and surroundings around me and truly enjoy my food. It sounds silly, but it works!

5. I experiment. I try new recipes all. the. time. I have learned so many more foods and ingredients that I like and enjoy. Many of them easier to fit into my calorie budget. I also found out that I love to take cooking classes - especially ones that include eating the food! I've learned new recipes, new ways of food preparation, new ingredients, etc. It has made eating all the more fun!

6. I eat only the things that are worth the calories they cost. I don't waste my time with frozen pizza or cheap chocolate (among other things). If I'm going to eat it, it's got to be worth what I am spending on it and if I want something, I want the real thing and I'm going to enjoy every bite of it. It doesn't bother me to throw something away if I've taken a bite and it wasn't worth the calories.

7. I cook for the enjoyment of cooking. I love to cook and bake. For Christmas, I baked 40 dozen cookies of multiple varieties. I ate a grand total of 6 of them. (6 single cookies, not 6 dozen!). I gave everything away. I made them because I enjoyed it and that is my tradition with my son. I had a few of my favorites, saved a good variety for my husband and son, and then we packaged everything else up and gave it to our friends and neighbors.

8. I learned to enjoy the celebrations and parties without guilt. I know parties happen, holidays happen and unexpected meals out with friends happen. I had to find a way to attend those things, enjoy them and move on. I make a conscious decision whether I'm going to indulge and go over my calories or not and then stick with that plan, log it the best I can no matter the numbers in the diary, and move on. If I indulge, and I definitely do at times, it's not an excuse for the next week or month "since I ruined my diet for this week...." I get right back to normal eating the very next meal. No excuses. I did this as recently as last week for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I ate normally all day Christmas Eve and then complete indulged on crab legs, cheese fondue and wine that night and enjoyed every last bite. I then enjoyed the prime rib and trimmings on Christmas Day. On Saturday, I was right back to my normal eating patterns. I will not indulge tonight or tomorrow because I simply don't want to. Instead, we will go to bed early tonight and get up early tomorrow morning to ski - that is our tradition.

9. I plan. and plan, and plan and plan. I know I have to count calories and if I don't, I will gain weight. I also know that I enjoy food. A lot. Therefore, I plan ahead. This has gotten easier as time has gone on. If I'm going to have a big dinner, I plan my breakfast and lunch to be smaller. If I eat a large breakfast, lunch and dinner are adjusted, etc. I knew I was going to indulge on Christmas, so the week leading up to it was planned for consumption on my minimum calories. Like I said earlier, I treat my calories like money and budget accordingly. This means lots of planning.

This has gotten too long! Sorry for the novel. The short version is that you absolutely can be a "foodie" and still lose weight. You just have to look at food a little differently.

ToughHippieChick wrote: »

I'm a food lover as well OP. I have no advice for you really, but I wanted to let you know you're not alone in your mindset. I have been actively trying to lose weight and yo-yo dieting for about 10 years now. I will always be "on a diet" because I will never want to actually make a lifestyle change that includes celery and gyms. But as long as I am dieting, I'm not gaining more and more year after year and ending up on my 600 pound life on TLC.

It really doesn't have to be celery and gyms. That's the lifestyle of someone else, yours could be totally different and 100% personalized to your preferences. Mine involves never setting a foot in the gym and being allergic to celery. I eat all the foods I like, but I try to make them lower in calories as demonstrated in my previous posts, and I really enjoy walking scenic routes for exercise.

Try to think of it as making healthier choices. I love food too, but I love feeling healthy and slim. Do the french thing. They don't diet, but they have smaller portions of what they love. Hope this helps for what it is worth.

I LOVE food sooo much!!

Yesterday I had a steak, potato, and salad for dinner. I also had dessert and a couple glasses of wine. I did not go over my calories. I planned for this meal and made sure I had the calories to eat it. It was delicious.

Listen, if I had to eat celery all the time to lose weight, I'd probably just decide to stay fat. I am learning to make the necessary substitutions I need to eat well and lose weight. You can do this as well.

One of my favorite meals is spaghetti with meat sauce. Man is that good. I used to eat a really giant portion. But I rarely eat pasta now because I cannot eat the amount I want unless I use a lot of my calories. Instead I eat the meat sauce over a baked potato. It is really delicious and actually fills me up.

One of my main things, this time around, is to eat delicious foods. I hate feeling like I'm "dieting" or just plain missing out on good foods.

amusedmonkey wrote: »

I REALLY love food and would be very miserable if I had to cut something I love out of my diet. I love variety, creativity, the way ingredients synergize in certain foods, I love the whole lot.

First thing I did was to cut out or extremely reduce the foods that I don't really like. No point wasting my calories on something that isn't awesome. I don't care for doughnuts, so that was the first thing to go and I don't even miss them. I like peanut butter, but meh, I don't care for it enough to justify the calories. Fruit juices are nice, but are not awesome if I compare how they taste to how hungry they leave me feeling after spending my calories on them. You get the idea. Once I cleared the non-awesome clutter from my diet I was ready for step two.

Substitution. I substituted for things that aren't too different in taste to me, but are lower in calories. Full cream milk became 1.5%, soda became diet soda, some of my sugar became splenda, chocolate became dark chocolate (it isn't lower in calories but I'm satisfied by less of it), I later discovered PB2 which was a valid replacement for peanut butter in my oatmeal.. and so on.

Reduce, bulk up and/or substitute. To be able to reduce foods from my usual gigantic portions to normal portions I had to bulk up my meals to make up for the portion reduction. This is easily done by introducing soups, salads, and all kinds of vegetables with my main meals. I like pizza margherita for example, and low fat cheese doesn't do it for me one bit. It has to be real pizza with real melty cheese and real dough. None of that cauliflower crust nonsense. I happen to like it thin crust so that's one thing it has going for it to begin with. For a meal I have two slices + a large arugula salad (I love it) + a large side of roasted green beans (also love them). That's a sizable 500 calorie meal, and that's with proper olive oil dressing and oil and garlic seasoned beans, that leaves me full for hours instead of eating the whole pizza (thin crust, remember?) for 900 calories like I used to do (plus sides). I still get to eat pizza, I still get to reduce my portion without feeling hungry, and I still get to feel satisfied physically and emotionally. Now for certain things substitutions work for me. My pasta doesn't have to be all pasta for me to enjoy it. I cut my usual amount by 1/3 to 1/2 and replace the other half with zucchini pasta. On top of that, I add other vegetables like broccoli and such. I love it this way. To go for broke I sometimes have a soup as a first course before the pasta, so my meal ends up being quite large and satisfying.

Creativity. No need to live on "bland diet food". Food doesn't have to be boring. It can have interesting flavor combinations even though it's lower in calories. For example, today I had oatmeal brulee. Cooked my oats as usual (I cook them with water, add splenda, then mix with milk), layered it with sugar free fruit spread and a bit of dry fruits, then topped it with a thin layer of brown sugar that I then torched. Heaven on earth for 350 calories! Oats tend to be one of the most filling foods for me so I also had that going for me.

Higher base calories and exercise calories. You don't have to live on 1200 calories. The difference between 1200 and 1400 is less than half a pound a week but it makes a huge difference in how you feel. Would you rather lose 0.4 extra pounds a week and be hungry or lose a little bit less but be happy? Now that 1400 can become 1600-1700 if you also exercise. That's plenty of calories to play with.

Bank. If I know I will need to go out and have a large dinner, I eat 150 calories less a day (15 extra minutes of walking + 100 less calories of eating) and that gives me about 1000 extra calories to spend on my dinner day, in addition to my base 1600-1700 calories.

This. All of it. Every word. I wish I had read this 2 years ago. Took me a long time to get this sorted in my head, but you have nailed what works for me (and why I gain when I'm not sticking to what works...)
Thanks!

OP, since it got bumped recently I will direct you to this thread to see what people are eating and how some of the meals are really respectable in size, look delicious and appear to be reasonable in calories:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/823358/what-do-your-meals-look-like-show-me-pictures

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callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

mistake #1 is considering it a diet

i love food. LOVE FOOD. my ex husband was a chef and i learned to cook from him. I dont know many people who are better cooks than I am. I eat what I want, and eat out all the time. I've lost 70 some pounds in the past year.

eat less. move more.

That must actually really help, you can probably make kick *kitten* lower calorie meals!

I'm definitely not a great cook but I've cooked a lot more in the last 3 years than the 10 years before that! If I want something, I find a recipe for it, then tweek it to make it lighter. Most of the time, it's just as satisfying for me (well, not desserts, but well).

And I work out. A lot. 1.5 hour some days. There's no way I would have lost on diet alone. Just not happening. And I'll never be super thin either, because I'm just not giving up my 200 daily treat calories to lose and maintain 5 less pounds (I've been 3-5 pounds away from my goal for 1.5 year as it is). And even with only 200 calories of treats in my 2200 maintenance calories, I still get hungry most of the time...

smartparker wrote: »

So when I say I love food, I LOVE FOOD. I get such a joy from eating. The whole "life-style change" response may be true, but it's kind of annoying. Any foodies about there who still eat delicious regular sized meals without looking like a Oompa Loompa?

To be absolutely honest - no. You can't eat the same rich, decadent or truly foodie foods that you would get at a Michelin star or the epic sauces, meats and sauces in the same way you would if you were dieting.

The lifestyle change this is really annoying to say but it's true. Now you can have those portions and types of food once in a while but really 90% of the time you have to eat like everyone on here suggests.

Now that's not to say that eating healthily tastes bad or the food is less delicious in certain ways but it's not the same. Like before, you could have a big slab of rare steak, glazed, bearnaise sauce, fries, creamed spinach. On a healthier eating plan, you'd have grilled steak the size of your palm, no oil, some boiled or steamed spinach, seasoning no sauce.

It takes a while to get used to and I've lost stones and then when I've gained its mainly because I reverted to eating like a foodie again. It's not to say my portions are f-img massive but truthfully it was just going back to eating whatever, whenever like 80% of the people I know and not counting calories!

I delayed this effort for a long time because I too love food and hate the idea of denying it to myself. But now I find that my stomach quickly shrank, so I feel full faster and am rarely troubled by hunger. Also, I'm more deliberate about what I eat when I do get hungry. Knowing there's only so much food that's good for me to eat in one day, I focus on the food that I want most right then. As a practical matter, that means that everything I eat is something I truly love and enjoy right down to my toes. It feels like I'm always eating my favorite foods.

My husband is a chef and makes the most amazing high calories dense meals you have ever tasted in your life. I was able to still eat his amazing food by not having an aggressive weight loss goal. I set my diary to lose .5 pounds a week so I can still eat his amazing food.

michaelmelo wrote: »

I don't think you are ready to diet or make a life change.

Based on what you wrote, OP, i agree with michaelmelo. You HAVE to be willing to make some changes, however small they are. I won't deny myself any food or drink, but i will have the ones with less "bang for my buck" nutrition wise less often and in smaller portions. I am currently working on being more active, but i also pre-plan most of my meals and snacks. It's not easy, but it is worth it in the end.

If you are hungry all the time you are probably not eating adequate protein for your lean body mass (subtract your approximate fat percentage). And you might want to make sure you get enough healthy fats. Those two things make me feel satiated. Also you need to find what works for you personally. When there are sweets a tiny serving makes me feel exactly the same way half an hour later, so I cut those down. But when it's fish & chips night you better believe I want fish, chips AND a pint. So I only do that now & then.