Can you eat whatever you want as long as you stay in your calorie range and still lose weight?

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13

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  • ldnewlady
    ldnewlady Posts: 25 Member
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    I wish I can eat what ever I want and lose weight but unfortunately I can't. Even with exercising and burning more than I'm consuming. Carbs is my enemy.(I'm talking bread, pizza, stuff like that).
  • Wicked_Seraph
    Wicked_Seraph Posts: 388 Member
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    Yep! I've managed to lose 56lbs so far without cutting out any major food groups or food types.

    I limit pizza because of calorie content, as well as the fact that the high amount of carbs and salt often leads to gaining quite a lot in water weight... and because I am dangerously capable of eating the whole pizza. I've noticed this pattern in general - very carby, salty days tend to lead gaining water weight (that can always be lost, of course).
  • JBApplebee
    JBApplebee Posts: 481 Member
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    CICO is only true in theory. In reality, you can't eat 2000 calories of ice cream & maintain a healthy weight. Why? Because you have no protein & very little vitamin intake. You think you can eat 600 calories of ice cream for breakfast, lunch & dinner with 200 more for a snack & not be starving (or sick) all day. Especially if you eat it right after working out.
  • ElJefeChief
    ElJefeChief Posts: 650 Member
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    I always have room for donuts
  • ElJefeChief
    ElJefeChief Posts: 650 Member
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    ldnewlady wrote: »
    I wish I can eat what ever I want and lose weight but unfortunately I can't. Even with exercising and burning more than I'm consuming. Carbs is my enemy.(I'm talking bread, pizza, stuff like that).

    How do you gain weight on a caloric deficit???
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
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    JBApplebee wrote: »
    CICO is only true in theory. In reality, you can't eat 2000 calories of ice cream & maintain a healthy weight. Why? Because you have no protein & very little vitamin intake. You think you can eat 600 calories of ice cream for breakfast, lunch & dinner with 200 more for a snack & not be starving (or sick) all day. Especially if you eat it right after working out.

    Nope. Yes, nutrition is important, but you can eat nothing but junk food and still lose weight as long as you maintain a deficit.

    Satiety and nutrition are different from weight loss.

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,426 Member
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    In my 62 day experience, i've eaten more bread than before mfp & loosing weight. Before i avoided it, but never lost weight. I have one slice to have P&J, tuna or chicken salad on. Some things are just too much calories that i used to eat but i modified it, like i ate a chicken dish i made often with skinless chicken thighs & lots of veggies, sauteed in olive oil with garlic & onions, but after it was done i'd add cream cheese or cream of mushroom soup & used chicken broth with tons of sodium. Now i make it & use no sodium chicken broth & skip the cream cheese, add a little sour cream or yogurt, I use lite mayo, lite yogurt, lite almond milk, instead of a hamburger, i eat a hamburger patty with a sweet or regular potato( instead of fries) & a veggie with cheese so i found there's a lot of room to be creative. I also bought sardines as snack at nite
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,426 Member
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    sorry, forgot & wanted to add that i love Lays potato chips & do have some, but i have one ounce & it's easier if i have it along with a meal than by themselves
  • BrokeBirkin
    BrokeBirkin Posts: 73 Member
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    You can still lose weight because calories are the same and substituting a few things is absolutely fine. But if someone who ate junk only changed their calorie intake they would be starving and feel sick. This is because they won't be able to eat enough to ever be full and won't be getting enough nutrients. I tried to do this when I was younger until I saw that chart that showed a stomach filled with veggies that said "100 calories" next to a stomach with a tiny bit of pizza or something that said "100 calories" and I finally got to it.
  • CasperNaegle
    CasperNaegle Posts: 936 Member
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    The bottom line is yes.. so long as you stay in a calorie deficit you can lose weight.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    kgirlhart wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    kgirlhart wrote: »
    fr33sia12 wrote: »
    Yes as long as you have the willpower to only stick to small amounts that fit into your calories.
    Personally I don't have that willpower and that's why I put on weight in the first place, by eating loads of junk food and not being able to stop a one item every now and then.

    I see post like this a lot. And while I get your point I don't understand how you can not have the willpower to eat only a small amount of something but you do have the willpower to restrict it altogether. I think it must just be differences in personalities. For me it is much easier to restrict the amounts I eat than to forbid myself to ever eat certain things. I do a lot better allowing myself a small portion of something I love than I do making things off limits. Restrictions like that lead me to have cravings and eventually over eat.

    For me it's SO MUCH EASIER to have no tortilla chips than 10.
    https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/salty-snacks-corn-or-cornmeal-base-tortilla-chips

    Easier to have no nachos than 6.

    https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/nachos-with-cheese?portionid=40522&portionamount=1.000

    Definitely easier to have no oreos than three oreos...

    I truly think there's two kinds of folks when it comes to tempting foods.

    I certainly agree. And I wasn't trying to say that I think that one way is right or wrong. I just can't imagine having the willpower to completely restrict any food.

    For me, it requires a ton more willpower to stop at a serving of ice cream or a few chips/nuts etc etc than it does to just not have them in the first place. If they're not in the house then i don't think about it. If i have a box of cheerios or peanut butter cups sitting in my kitchen, they will torment me until i devour the lot of them!!
  • SouthernPeach1
    SouthernPeach1 Posts: 21 Member
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    kgirlhart wrote: »

    I see post like this a lot. And while I get your point I don't understand how you can not have the willpower to eat only a small amount of something but you do have the willpower to restrict it altogether. I think it must just be differences in personalities. For me it is much easier to restrict the amounts I eat than to forbid myself to ever eat certain things. I do a lot better allowing myself a small portion of something I love than I do making things off limits. Restrictions like that lead me to have cravings and eventually over eat.

    I'm an addict; a food addict, but still an addict in the way an alcoholic is. If I am around one of my "trigger" foods I will eat it until it is gone. Just as an alcoholic usually can't have just a little drink, I can't have just one donut or 3 cookies or a half cup of fettuccini Alfredo or just one slice of pizza (with the rest sitting in the box taunting me.) It doesn't matter if I've had 50 or 5000 calories already that day. So I've learned to make myself happy with foods I enjoy but that don't set off my out-of-control behaviors.

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    Also, if i don't buy my trigger foods then there is zero chance i will overeat them :wink: The less i eat them, the less i think about them. It makes staying in a deficit a hell of a lot easier and less stressful.
  • Karihappy
    Karihappy Posts: 116 Member
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    It is indeed calories in/calories out. However, tonight I had a choice to eat my usual banana/Greek yogurt/peanut butter snack for 217 calories or a Klondike Reese's Ice Cream sandwich for 250. Even though they were really close in calories, I knew after eating the Klondike I would be hungrier later, and it wouldn't give me near the nutrition (protein and fiber) as my dessert did. Plus, who needs all that sugar? So, yes, even though it's calories in/calories out, you've got to pick your poison, because, believe me, it's not that I always pick the smartest, most nutritious choice! :)
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  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
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    TL;DR version of whole thread:

    Well, like, don't eat nothing but donuts cause you'll die, but yeah you can still enjoy portion controlled helpings of all the stuff you like...
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
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    Jakep2323 wrote: »
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »
    JBApplebee wrote: »
    CICO is only true in theory. In reality, you can't eat 2000 calories of ice cream & maintain a healthy weight. Why? Because you have no protein & very little vitamin intake. You think you can eat 600 calories of ice cream for breakfast, lunch & dinner with 200 more for a snack & not be starving (or sick) all day. Especially if you eat it right after working out.

    Nope. Yes, nutrition is important, but you can eat nothing but junk food and still lose weight as long as you maintain a deficit.

    Satiety and nutrition are different from weight loss.

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

    CICO is too basic, it is just oversimplified. Eating nothing but junk food will make you unhealthy either way. Article from 2010 that says this is temporary and not long term

    It is simple. Weight loss doesn't have to be complicated.

    Of course his diet was temporary. You can't live on Twinkies forever and be healthy. That was not his point. His point was to prove that you can eat anything and lose weight. And you can. His health markers even improved.
  • ruthd1401
    ruthd1401 Posts: 23 Member
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    So if I'm trying to lose weight should I just focus on staying within my calorie limit (which is currently 1400)?
    Or should I stay within the other limits provided by MFP like the fat and sugar etc. I am contstantly going over the sugar limit due to fruit and milk.
  • ItsyBitsy246
    ItsyBitsy246 Posts: 307 Member
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    ruthd1401 wrote: »
    So if I'm trying to lose weight should I just focus on staying within my calorie limit (which is currently 1400)?
    Or should I stay within the other limits provided by MFP like the fat and sugar etc. I am contstantly going over the sugar limit due to fruit and milk.

    Yes to the calorie limit. The macros are an indication of nutritional value.

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