Eating anything you want?

When doing this whole counting calories thing is it alright to eat anything you want as long as it's under your calorie range? Will I still lose weight? I exercise 5 days a week for about and hour and a half so I'm exercising as well. Power walking on the treadmill, biking, and weights.

Not all calories are created equal. Any food item starting with a fast food restaurant name should be avoided.

What's worked for me is to "allow" myself anything I want so that I don't feel deprived, BUT, before I eat something I tell myself "Yes, its allowed, but will it benefit me? I'm not in this JUST to lose weight. My main goal is to be healthier. That means giving my body healthy foods so it has the nutrients it needs and being careful of how much fat, sugars, sodium and calories I'm taking in. So, while I allow myself to indulge in my favorite pizza or chocolate occasionally, I limit the amounts so that the majority of my calories are from healthy foods.

Good luck!

It depends on what your goal is. If your only concern is weight loss, then yes. As long as you have a calorie deficit you will lose weight. But if healthy weight loss is your goal, then no. To be healthy you need to eat healthy.

Took the words right out of my mouth. There are many unhealthy 'thin' people for this very reason.

Mathmatically yes you can eat anything and stll lose weight.

if you google "not all calories are created equal" you'll find a lot of articles on the topic

I would give "eating what you want" a try... but it comes with sacrifice. I will STARVE all day in anticipation of a pre-planned high calorie meal. Most times the high calorie meal is not that satisfying because it will fail to fill me up, or will trigger more cravings (I am a notorious sweet tooth). So unless you have lots of will power, it's easier to stick to the foods you know are working.

What's even more difficult is doing the reverse of above. Say you eat a large breakfast... well then the rest of the day you're going to be hungry. I had banana chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast last Sunday and decided to eat as many as I wanted (3). So for the rest of the day I only had about 500 calories to eat (that's only 250 for lunch, 250 for dinner plus any exercise calories I earned (about another 200)). It was miserable but I did it and the one day of indulgent eating did not hurt me at all I just really had to be careful what I ate the rest of the day. If I hadn't built up my will power this high I would definitely have caved into the "but I'm still hungry" feeling at lunch time, ate a lot, felt lousy and not worked out.

Yes you should still lose. Watch the salt though it will make you retain water.

Sure, once in a while. But your main diet should consist of nutrient packed food. That will help give you the energy to keep going and stay healthy.

But, of course, there are those days you just have to have some chocolate, or birthday cake, or something. Just keep it to small amounts and don't go overboard. This is, after all, a lifestyle change, not just a temporary "till the weight's gone" thing (at least, it should be if you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle), so make it all what you can live with.

Eat what you want. If you want faster results, cut your carbs way back. LOTS of people have problems with gluten and don't even know it, so if your diet isn't working eating what you want, go without for a couple weeks, see if it jump starts your weight loss. Also, carbs don't do enough to keep you full between meals, so you're hungry a lot more. Protein is the thing you'll probably have the hardest time getting enough of (particularly if you're poor), but getting no less than 20% of your calories from protein will make a huge difference in how you feel, how much weight you lose, how much muscle you can build (or at least retain), and especially in how strong your hunger between meals will be.

My top 3 dieting tips:

Eat frequently
Eat your veggies
Track everything

I lost about 25 pounds 2 years ago by limiting calories only and eating pretty much whatever I wanted but making sure to log everything. It will work for most people. I find that if I tell myself I won't eat that thing or that I will only have so much per day, I end up with cravings and I MUST have it. That's when the plan fails for me. But if I don't restrict my food and just count calories, I find that I tend to make slightly better choices. After all, a 100 calorie apple is so much more food than 100 calories of french fries. But sometimes you just gotta have those fries!!