Eating take out but staying under your cal limit?

CB8504
CB8504 Posts: 29 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I will have some kind of fast food several times a week but I still stay under or at my calorie goal for the day. Or let's say I go over my calories by 300 but then I work out and burn 500 calories so now I'm 200 calories under my daily goal. Does that make it (the fast food) ok? I've read it doesn't matter what you eat as long as you meet your calorie goal. I know I still need to make healthier food choices. Just thinking about this

Replies

  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
    Why do you think fast food calories would somehow be different than other calories? Your body doesn't know where you bought the food from.
  • CB8504
    CB8504 Posts: 29 Member
    Haha I just imagine a 500 calorie greasy fatty cheeseburger would form fat & stick around faster than say 500 calories of clean nutritious baked chicken (or insert some other "healthy" food)
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
    Well the chicken and say veggies are going to probably be more filling so you don't eat more calories later and might leave you feeling better depending on how greasy that burger is so nutritionally and how you feel might be different, but fat in food doesn't get stuck to your butt as body fat. Think of Jared and his subway diet - all he ate was fast food but it put him at a calorie deficit so he lost weight still.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    CB8504 wrote: »
    Haha I just imagine a 500 calorie greasy fatty cheeseburger would form fat & stick around faster than say 500 calories of clean nutritious baked chicken (or insert some other "healthy" food)

    You imagine wrong for the way it works then.

    If you have already had a full day's worth of calories to maintain your weight and gotten your nutrition in with that already - and you decide to eat 1 extra meal of either the cheeseburger or the baked chicken - guess what is going to be the case for all those extra calories no matter what it is.

    Same as if you are eating under maintenance already and you decide to make one of your meals one or the other - guess what is going to be the case that your day ended up under calories.

    How you ended up burning more than you ate doesn't matter (exercise or just more active or just ate less) for the weight loss.
    It will for transforming your body though.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    I like McDonalds cheese burgers but I skip the fries.
  • Aerona85
    Aerona85 Posts: 159 Member
    A calorie is a calorie in terms of weight loss. As for "health" depends on what your goals are, how frequent the fast food, and what else you eat when you aren't having the fast food.
  • Tulip9
    Tulip9 Posts: 143 Member
    I definitely eat fast food, but I look up nutrition values, and try to make good choices.
  • timtam163
    timtam163 Posts: 500 Member
    The thing with takeout is watch your portion sizes and don't rely on MFP's generic entries to tell you how many calories are in your dish. Because takeout tends to be full of grease, it's really easy to underestimate the calories.

    But otherwise no, a calorie is a calorie. Here's an excellent thread you should check out: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10571895/the-junk-food-diet-seriously/p1
  • JustRobby1
    JustRobby1 Posts: 674 Member
    edited September 2017
    Not that hard to pull off. I have a Google Drive doc I have compiled that has just about every common fast food and casual dining restaurant imaginable with go-to options for each. Most of the corporate chains publish their nutritional information, and most also offer options that are ideal for calorie counters. You could eat fast food for every meal and lose weight provided you order smart. I am not quite sure you understand CICO fully. What form (or where) the calories come from are irrelevant.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I actually recall someone commenting on having a small traveling scale for eating out - never saw brand mentioned to look it up, always made me wonder how that would work. Plate too big at home and I can't read the display, can't imagine how that works at table with tiny thing.

    The problem I've seen with most guides from restaurants or fast food is they don't exactly say what the grams are on their standard sized item.

    So you get a cheeseburger and weigh it, but their table just gives stats on cheeseburger but never the weight on that serving - so you can't enter what your serving size was anyway.

    Pizza usually ticks me off - 1/6 of the whole thing is serving size, no weight, and the slices are of course never as uniform as 1/6th.
    So just eat the whole thing! :p
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,937 Member

    Pizza usually ticks me off - 1/6 of the whole thing is serving size, no weight, and the slices are of course never as uniform as 1/6th.
    So just eat the whole thing! :pensive:

    Doing it right.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,937 Member
    Weird that the smiley face changed with that quote. hm.
  • wpbarrett
    wpbarrett Posts: 3 Member
    Staying under my calorie limit regardless of quality of food has worked for my weight loss. However, i never feel very good after eating something greasy compared to eating clean.

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