Eat what you like in small portions vs. eat more but lower calorie foods?

Both. Depends on the day. Today I'm eating very little crap but all of it at once. You can see my diary. Tomorrow I'll probably eat a ton of low-cal to feel fuller throughout the day (and because tomorrow is no work out day). I prefer the former because I can eat what I want if I'm willing to suffer long bouts of not eating anything throughout the day, and the latter so I don't have to feel hungry all day. Starting out, I did the low calorie throughout the day a lot more, it helped me get through the transition to not eating whatever I pleased whenever with no thought as to caloric intake.

I do both. We make things lower cal by substituting or reducing certain items and have reduced the serving size of many meals. I've also added a lot of veggies to my meals. I think it depends on your preference but would say most people who need to lose weight should do a combo. If you only cut back on quantity, you can easily go back to eating the same quantities later on and gain it back.

ilex70 wrote: »

Both.

But with the caveat that there are some foods I know I'm not good at moderating and those I usually just avoid.

This ^

I've lost weight by putting less on my plate at mealtimes and snacking less. I think I was generally eating a bit too much, not vast amounts, but consistently too much. I was also snacking too often in front of the telly with a glass of wine. I still have my wine, and occasionally *measure out* some snacks if there are any calories left for them. Exercising more has helped too, more calories for a bit of what I fancy ☺

I eat high calorie meals twice a day. It makes it a lot easier (for me) to prepare delicious, satisfying food I want to eat when I'm not scrimping and saving calories for snacks or a third meal. As a bonus, I can maintain my weight without counting calories which makes sense considering even huge 900 calorie meals twice a day only total 1,800 calories.

As for cravings, I stopped eating foods that cause cravings on a regular basis and the cravings went away. I limit those sorts of things for holidays and the like which suits me perfectly.

I'm in the "both" column as well.

Both. I eat what I like, but then I supplement it with high-volume foods. My dinner tonight was some smoked BBQ sausage (with rice-a-roni as a side for the family). I took a smaller portion of the sausage (one of the smaller chunks instead of 2-3 of the medium-large sized ones), mixed it with zucchini noodles, and added some broccoli sprinkled with Parmesan cheese as a side instead of the rice-a-roni. I still got the food I wanted to eat -albeit in smaller portions-, got a ton of food from the high-volume zucchini noodles and broccoli, and met my calorie goals.

Both ... just depends.

It's definitely not a one-or-the-other situation.

A little bit of both. There are some very high calorie things that are nutritionally empty that I don't eat much of anymore, but mostly I love carbs in general more than sweets specifically, and a lot of my issue was with portion control, so just being mindful of appropriate servings is my main approach. I find if I start with a reasonable portion, I'm usually not ACTUALLY hungry after eating it- I was eating more out of habit and boredom and because things taste good. But I feel fine eating less of the same things if I actually pay attention to it.

Both. I carefully moderate calorie dense foods like nuts, chocolate, fats and cheese. But I eat nuts and cheese daily. Itsy little bits.

I am freer with popcorn, soup and vegetables. I eat lots of vegetables.