Will you lose weight as long as you're in a deficit?

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Relaxingmind
Relaxingmind Posts: 55 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Today I had some strong cravings so for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner I had half a pint of ice cream. I'm still about 500 hundred calories under maintenance and am thinking about calling it a day because I'm just not hungry anymore even though I've only eaten under 1300 calories. I also did over an hour of cardio today. Will I still lose weight? For some reason the ice cream kept me really full compared to days when I ate a lot of protein and fats. I'm considering doing this again if I can technically lose weight on it.

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  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    You will lose fat if you are in a deficit, yes.
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
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    Well you can lose weight eating any and all food as long as you're in a deficit, but your body's going to be very unhappy if you're not getting the nutrients you need. Believe me I've had my days of eating nothing but ice cream but this is a very bad idea on a regular basis. If you've spent any time reading on these boards you already know that and are just being provocative. If not read the stickies at the top of the page.
  • aliem
    aliem Posts: 326 Member
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    You technically can. But it isn't exactly healthful. If your only goal is to lose weight, or you only do this once in a while, then yes, this is fine. But a balanced diet will give you more energy, lower your chances of serious illness and will be easier to maintain over time (veggies bulk up the amount of food you eat and have more fiber so they will keep you full vs. things like potato chips that are like 12 for 150 calories and you will be hungry again in 10 minutes.) Have I eaten a pint of ice cream for dinner, yes! But I try to eat healthful most of the time.
  • Relaxingmind
    Relaxingmind Posts: 55 Member
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    aliem wrote: »
    You technically can. But it isn't exactly healthful. If your only goal is to lose weight, or you only do this once in a while, then yes, this is fine. But a balanced diet will give you more energy, lower your chances of serious illness and will be easier to maintain over time (veggies bulk up the amount of food you eat and have more fiber so they will keep you full vs. things like potato chips that are like 12 for 150 calories and you will be hungry again in 10 minutes.) Have I eaten a pint of ice cream for dinner, yes! But I try to eat healthful most of the time.

    What if the ice cream and/or other desserts keep you full better and longer than whole nutrient dense foods for some weird reason?
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Anything in moderation is fine. I wouldn't have an ice cream only day every week but every once in awhile doesn't seem like a big deal to me.
  • Rocknut53
    Rocknut53 Posts: 1,794 Member
    edited December 2016
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    Relaxingmind wrote: »
    aliem wrote: »
    You technically can. But it isn't exactly healthful. If your only goal is to lose weight, or you only do this once in a while, then yes, this is fine. But a balanced diet will give you more energy, lower your chances of serious illness and will be easier to maintain over time (veggies bulk up the amount of food you eat and have more fiber so they will keep you full vs. things like potato chips that are like 12 for 150 calories and you will be hungry again in 10 minutes.) Have I eaten a pint of ice cream for dinner, yes! But I try to eat healthful most of the time.

    What if the ice cream and/or other desserts keep you full better and longer than whole nutrient dense foods for some weird reason?

    Then at some point as you're still losing weight your health will begin to suffer. Who knows how long that may take as you are still getting nutrients some beneficial, some not so much. Sounds like a good science experiment for the holidays if you ask me. ;)
  • aliem
    aliem Posts: 326 Member
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    Relaxingmind wrote: »
    aliem wrote: »
    You technically can. But it isn't exactly healthful. If your only goal is to lose weight, or you only do this once in a while, then yes, this is fine. But a balanced diet will give you more energy, lower your chances of serious illness and will be easier to maintain over time (veggies bulk up the amount of food you eat and have more fiber so they will keep you full vs. things like potato chips that are like 12 for 150 calories and you will be hungry again in 10 minutes.) Have I eaten a pint of ice cream for dinner, yes! But I try to eat healthful most of the time.

    What if the ice cream and/or other desserts keep you full better and longer than whole nutrient dense foods for some weird reason?

    I mean if it works for you, than more power to you. But I would never recommend an all dessert lifestyle. That would still not be good for your health overall, even if you got to a healthy weight. Since this has happened once, I would be hesitant to say that this will work for you in the long run, but if you can make it work and by some miracle have good lab results in your annual physical, than I guess you must be an anomaly. But you definitely would be missing out on a lot of needed vitamins and minerals. As much as vitamin companies tout the miracles of vitamins, it is not the same thing as getting those vitamins naturally. Your body does not absorb them the same way and they are lab made nutrients (and definitely stay away from herbal remedies, I think a study found that when they tested them more than half (or some crazy amount) did not even have trace amounts of the ingredient they say were in them)

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