Eat whatever you want AND Lose Weight!!
Replies
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stevencloser wrote: »@Kgeyser Unless someone has a health reason, CICO is a simple general rule. However, I absolutely see what you are saying. Though, something to think about, and the reason for my post, is to explain a simple principle.
Losing weight has become exhausting. People have turned to trying diets and buying every new “weightloss pill” and every new “ab cruncher” because they are trying to figure out how to lose the weight.
Yes, moderation is extremely important. But, you CAN eat whatever you want, COUNT your calories, and lose weight. Again, as long as there are no underlying health reasons, CICO works for everyone. It’s not complicated. You don’t have to give up your favorite foods either. If it fits in your calories for the day, eat it.
But, it is without a doubt true, that healthy food choices will keep you fuller longer, give you energy, and everything else I mentioned before.
The problem with the "simple principle" is that it becomes oversimplified. Yes, a calorie deficit is needed to lose weight. But beyond that, there is no one size fits all approach to weight loss. For some people, it does end up being a little more complicated than "eat whatever and lose weight," and not just for medical reasons.
While it is nice to break down the concept of a calorie deficit, I find most of the struggles people have are with behavioral/ physiological issues related to weight loss, not the inability to understand a calorie deficit. People learn in different ways and often have individual ways of doing things to achieve the same goal, and weight loss isn't any different.
Again, not knocking your success, I'm glad you've found a way that works, but I think it's important to clarify that it isn't necessarily going to be that easy for everyone else, and I don't want people to feel discouraged if the "eat whatever and lose weight" approach isn't the approach for them.
For some people, moderation is something they would have to learn while for others it comes naturally with being confronted by what they're eating. Some of those some people don't want to do that, fine, let them, there's other approaches that work. But really, if everyone was deterred by "but it isn't easy", we would still be in the stone age.
We had a thread about this a while back and the conclusion was that 'moderation' really varies from one person to another too... For some it's a little bit of something regularly, for others it's the whole slice/box once in a while.
The bottom line is to find the right balance for a diet that will keep us satisfied physically and emotionally... and in the end it's really different for everyone. Some people just cut out some foods and don't feel deprived at all, but for others it just leads to binging down the road... So it's a lot of trial and error for people to find what works for them, but I think that OP's message is that you don't have to eat rabbit food or bland food to lose weight (and maintain the weight loss).8 -
But what about fat burners and detox cleanses?
Don't work.
What I needed to give up was large portions. That is where my problem was. When I started learned what a proper portion should be I was shocked.I have so many people ask me what I gave up to lose weight.
I still eat chips but now I eat 1 portion -- 12 chips -- not half the bag. I still eat ice cream but 1/2 cup not a giant bowl full.
When I finally stopped drinking Pepsi that helped a lot too. Now if I could only truly embrace the idea that 1 portion of wine is not the bottle.
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flimflam87 wrote: »When you're doing CICO, it kind of forces you to make better decisions. Like yeah... I could eat that bacon egg and cheese bagel for breakfast but then I have like 400 calories for the rest of the day!
Yes this is it exactly. I have a sweet tooth, In the evening I used to eat bars of Chocolate, maybe 150 cals plus and I'd maybe have 2 of them. Now I have a Rich Tea biscuit, around 35 cals each, quite a saving.
All in all it kind of reminds me of being on unemployment benefit, you only have a small amount of money and you try to make it stretch as far as you can.4 -
Very true. & I tell people that almost every day. They ask me how I lose this weight, and I tell them that I just count calories. That is all. I work at a restaurant, and for lunch yesterday, I had a grilled chicken breast with green beans and mashed potatoes. Someone tells me that our mashed potatoes are not healthy with all that butter in them. Well no duh! I told them that I'm all about the calories, and they just gave me a dumb look.
Please tell the 40 lb that I have lost that CICO doesn't work!
I totally agree with the post since January 1st 2016 I've lost 80 pounds during that time I've had Wendy's hamburgers McDonald's love their French fries Pizza beer on the beach spare ribs mashed potatoes I've eaten out. I could go on and on but everybody understands where I'm coming from.
It is a simple matter of eating less calories than your body Burns to lose the weight yes you can lose weight eating Snickers bars and drinking vodka but what it would do to your body would mess you up but it is simple calorie in calorie out
The sad part is when people ask me how I did it and I explained to the process to them they look at me confused. Due to social media commercials blah blah blah blah blah blah we've all been conditioned to think you got to do something really weird and different to lose weight. You really don't it's a simple matter of CICo4 -
So how much body fat did you lose and how long have you kept it off?0
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Yeah, that's why I had to give up wine.
Once the bottle was open, it was gone.
No portion control possible with wine. But, ice cream, I have daily and do OK.2 -
Eating what you want I THINK is KEY to keeping it off too. I think if you "TRY" vegan, vegetarian, LCHF, LCHP etc and it's not the way you normally eat it MAYBE harder for you to stay on it for the rest of your life. Note I do understand people like Vegans totally change up their diet and give up animal products for ethical reasons.
maintenance has been my problem mostly because I didn't understand TDEE until this go round of losing...0 -
Yes! I relogged into My Fitness Pal in April because I was desperate to do something fully expecting another failure. In the past I had always tried things like LCHF and all clean eating which led me straight to binge town after about a week and I'd give up again.
Anyways, the first thing I did was check out the forums and I read a comment that changed my life. Someone said "Why can't you have a chocolate bar if it fits in your calories? You can!"
Down nearly 70 pounds now. I will agree that you naturally start making healthier choices because something has to be worth the calories and keep you full!13 -
oliverneedsyou wrote: »Yes! I relogged into My Fitness Pal in April because I was desperate to do something fully expecting another failure. In the past I had always tried things like LCHF and all clean eating which led me straight to binge town after about a week and I'd give up again.
Anyways, the first thing I did was check out the forums and I read a comment that changed my life. Someone said "Why can't you have a chocolate bar if it fits in your calories? You can!"
Down nearly 70 pounds now. I will agree that you naturally start making healthier choices because something has to be worth the calories and keep you full!
I'd like to like this post more if I could!
At some point one has to drop ones defensiveness, preconceived ideas and listen to the really knowledgable folks even if they say it harshly. Because clearly what one was doing in the past wasn't successful. I've learned so much about diet, weight loss etc in the last 40 months than I have in my 50 years.
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Nice except it's not entirely true. Not everyone has a huge calorie allowance. Some people can have one of those 800+ calories in a double cheeseburger meal and be left trying to manage the rest of the day with not many calories to work with and end up hungry. So yeah. It's true, more true for people with larger allowances. But it just is not worth it to spend half of my daily allowance on a single meal.1
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ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Nice except it's not entirely true. Not everyone has a huge calorie allowance. Some people can have one of those 800+ calories in a double cheeseburger meal and be left trying to manage the rest of the day with not many calories to work with and end up hungry. So yeah. It's true, more true for people with larger allowances. But it just is not worth it to spend half of my daily allowance on a single meal.
But that's your preference. I'm on 1200 a day for like 17 more pounds and I have been known to save all of my calories for some olive garden at dinner.8 -
ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Nice except it's not entirely true. Not everyone has a huge calorie allowance. Some people can have one of those 800+ calories in a double cheeseburger meal and be left trying to manage the rest of the day with not many calories to work with and end up hungry. So yeah. It's true, more true for people with larger allowances. But it just is not worth it to spend half of my daily allowance on a single meal.
But see thats the beauty of it. You CAN have it you just choose not to because you don't want to use 1/2 your allotment. If you are overly restrictive and tell yourself you CAN'T have it then it becomes bigger than just a calorie planning issue.8 -
ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Nice except it's not entirely true. Not everyone has a huge calorie allowance. Some people can have one of those 800+ calories in a double cheeseburger meal and be left trying to manage the rest of the day with not many calories to work with and end up hungry. So yeah. It's true, more true for people with larger allowances. But it just is not worth it to spend half of my daily allowance on a single meal.
In that case, I would buy a burger, split it in half, then eat it for lunch and dinner so that it fits with my calorie intake. Of course, eat whatever you want as long as it's within reason. That means you can eat that cheeseburger as long as you portion it. That's how CICO works anyways.
When I tried to lose weight the first time around a few years ago (I didn't know about CICO/MFP then), but I figured it out more or less. I ate the same foods still, just lowered the amount of carbs that I ingested (because I ate a plateful of rice back then with each meal, so I just lowered it to a reasonable amount). I was still able to lose 2 kgs in a month by lowering my rice, but I was still able to eat anything I wanted to (like fried chicken).7 -
oliverneedsyou wrote: »ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Nice except it's not entirely true. Not everyone has a huge calorie allowance. Some people can have one of those 800+ calories in a double cheeseburger meal and be left trying to manage the rest of the day with not many calories to work with and end up hungry. So yeah. It's true, more true for people with larger allowances. But it just is not worth it to spend half of my daily allowance on a single meal.
But that's your preference. I'm on 1200 a day for like 17 more pounds and I have been known to save all of my calories for some olive garden at dinner.
It's my preference to not walk around starving half the day. Exactly. And for a great many people spending hours each day feeling seriously hungry leads up to hunger fueled binging. I think that is a ridiculous thing for you to say in regards to preference. The general sentiment is for people to eat in a way that prevents out of control binging because you won't have success if you continue that pattern. Not everyone wants to starve all day just for a single meal. So if starving all day just for one meal at night works for you then go for it. But the point here is that this is not going to help a lot of people in their efforts to lose weight.3 -
I'm not sure anyone is telling others to starve. That's what one person does to fit in a big meal she wants.
Others lets say have 1200 allotment eat the cheeseburger and go over 200 will just decrease their next few days by 50.
I think the point is that denying the foods you normally like to eat can sometimes set one up for failure.6 -
ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Nice except it's not entirely true. Not everyone has a huge calorie allowance. Some people can have one of those 800+ calories in a double cheeseburger meal and be left trying to manage the rest of the day with not many calories to work with and end up hungry. So yeah. It's true, more true for people with larger allowances. But it just is not worth it to spend half of my daily allowance on a single meal.
But see thats the beauty of it. You CAN have it you just choose not to because you don't want to use 1/2 your allotment. If you are overly restrictive and tell yourself you CAN'T have it then it becomes bigger than just a calorie planning issue.
I NEVER said I COULDN'T. I am pointing out the flaw in this one size fits all idea. This exact idea has set a lot of people up for disaster. Thinking they should try to cram in some insanely high calorie meal and still be able to eat the rest of the day. For people who have the calories to spare I'm sure it works great. This is like telling poor people they "can" afford the new iPhone. Sure, you won't be able to pay the rent but who cares! Have it because you can! SMH.....4 -
No need to smack your head I think we just have a small misunderstanding.
No one is saying to cram in a high calories meal, at least not that I've seen. We are just saying denying yourself foods you like to eat can set some people up for failure so ON OCCASION (caps for emphasis not yelling) some people plan to fit in HIGHER calorie foods. This isn't an everyday thing for some folks.
Anyways I surely didn't mean to upset you so that you are SYH just having a discussion, I thought.7 -
Many people recommend viewing your calorie goal on a weekly basis. Personally, I do 5:2 and eat under 590 calories on Mondays and Wednesdays. This allows me to lose weight while eating at maintenance the rest of the week and makes fitting in an 800 calorie meal a lot easier.ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Nice except it's not entirely true. Not everyone has a huge calorie allowance. Some people can have one of those 800+ calories in a double cheeseburger meal and be left trying to manage the rest of the day with not many calories to work with and end up hungry. So yeah. It's true, more true for people with larger allowances. But it just is not worth it to spend half of my daily allowance on a single meal.
But see thats the beauty of it. You CAN have it you just choose not to because you don't want to use 1/2 your allotment. If you are overly restrictive and tell yourself you CAN'T have it then it becomes bigger than just a calorie planning issue.
I NEVER said I COULDN'T. I am pointing out the flaw in this one size fits all idea. This exact idea has set a lot of people up for disaster. Thinking they should try to cram in some insanely high calorie meal and still be able to eat the rest of the day. For people who have the calories to spare I'm sure it works great. This is like telling poor people they "can" afford the new iPhone. Sure, you won't be able to pay the rent but who cares! Have it because you can! SMH.....
It doesn't even need to be that much. You can save 100 calories throughout the week and have an extra 500 calories for whatever meal you'd want.3 -
I'm glad you've found what works for you, however I wouldn't extrapolate that to everyone. Many people struggle with moderation, or have issues with counting calories, so sometimes people do need to eliminate or seriously limit certain foods in order to be able to get into a calorie deficit. And depending on your TDEE, a reward meal or two during the week can completely derail your progress, so it's important to pay attention to what you are choosing for a cheat meal. A burger and fries in all their greasy awesomeness could easily take up someone's entire calorie allotment for the day, or even push them over their maintenance calories.
Yet the fact remains that when someone asks, "Can I eat X and still lose weight as long as I stay under my calories for the day or lower my intake the rest of the week to make it up?" the answer is always "Yes." Always.@Kgeyser Unless someone has a health reason, CICO is a simple general rule. However, I absolutely see what you are saying. Though, something to think about, and the reason for my post, is to explain a simple principle.
Losing weight has become exhausting. People have turned to trying diets and buying every new “weightloss pill” and every new “ab cruncher” because they are trying to figure out how to lose the weight.
Yes, moderation is extremely important. But, you CAN eat whatever you want, COUNT your calories, and lose weight. Again, as long as there are no underlying health reasons, CICO works for everyone. It’s not complicated. You don’t have to give up your favorite foods either. If it fits in your calories for the day, eat it.
But, it is without a doubt true, that healthy food choices will keep you fuller longer, give you energy, and everything else I mentioned before.
The problem with the "simple principle" is that it becomes oversimplified. Yes, a calorie deficit is needed to lose weight. But beyond that, there is no one size fits all approach to weight loss. For some people, it does end up being a little more complicated than "eat whatever and lose weight," and not just for medical reasons.
While it is nice to break down the concept of a calorie deficit, I find most of the struggles people have are with behavioral/ physiological issues related to weight loss, not the inability to understand a calorie deficit. People learn in different ways and often have individual ways of doing things to achieve the same goal, and weight loss isn't any different.
Again, not knocking your success, I'm glad you've found a way that works, but I think it's important to clarify that it isn't necessarily going to be that easy for everyone else, and I don't want people to feel discouraged if the "eat whatever and lose weight" approach isn't the approach for them.
No one said it was easy. Simple =\= easy.
Marathons are simple.8
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