If You Eat Cookies, Cakes, Ice Cream Daily Do You Consider Yourself Dieting?

I don't consider myself to be "dieting" no matter what I eat. I have a diet that consists of a variety of foods (including cookies, cake, ice cream, etc.) but I log and count calories so that I can eat at a caloric deficit in order to lose weight.

Forget dieting. Being 'on a diet' implies that someday you'll be 'off your diet.' Guess what happens when you go back to eating cake and cookies again after your 'diet.'

I'm eating in a calorie deficit to lose weight (fat) right now. When I'm happy, I'll switch to eating at maintenance. I'll keep eating the same things, just a bit more (just a couple hundred calories more, because I'm close to goal and purposefully losing slowly now). No need to label things.

Yup. As long as it fits in my calorie goal, why not?

Those are part of my diet (not everything every day...ice cream most days, but the others are on occasion), but I eat in a calorie deficit to lose weight. And there are too many definitions of "clean eating" to say it's one particular diet.

I don't consider myself to be dieting yet I'm currently in a weight loss journey. I fit those type of food in my calories and stay within my calorie goals.

I still eat satisfying and nourishing meals, I just set aside calories to be able to eat snack, if I want to.

Right now my calorie goals to loose weight is 1630 calories. Yesterday I had:
Breakfast: grilled cheese
Lunch: chicken thigh in a wine/cream sauce with fresh corn and cauliflower mash
Snack: Watermelon
Dinner: Linguini with tomato/zucchini sauce and parmesan
Snack: crackers, aged cheddar cheese and avocado
And I still had a few calories not consumed

The day before, I had regular meals and 65g of chips (Which is surpringly enoug quite a big bowl) at night. again with calories to spare.

lantana411 wrote: »

I'm surprised at how many people eat cookies, croissants, ice cream, cake, chips, etc. on a daily or near-daily basis BUT LOG THEIR FOOD! I want to know - is it because they consider themselves dieting or getting ready to diet? Is this why people who diet are considered 'eating cleanly'? What do you do and what do you consider it? If you stay within your calories but drink/snack them away instead of eating meals is it dieting?

If I'm eating in a calorie deficit, I'm "dieting." I can have a cookie for desert and still be in a calorie deficit and thus lose weight...thus I would be dieting.

ETA: ultimately you need to find a way of eating that is sustainable long term...not just for losing weight, but also maintenance. I had no intention of never eating pizza again or never eating a cookie again, so I learned to incorporate those things into my overall diet in reasonable amounts. Most of my diet (noun) is very nutritionally sound and probably what most people would consider for the most part would consider "clean"...but I have pizza most Friday nights and usually something for desert most evenings.

I guess I just don’t understand the question. I dont use the word “diet” in the same way as you apparently.

lantana411 wrote: »

I'm surprised at how many people eat cookies, croissants, ice cream, cake, chips, etc. on a daily or near-daily basis BUT LOG THEIR FOOD! I want to know - is it because they consider themselves dieting or getting ready to diet? Is this why people who diet are considered 'eating cleanly'? What do you do and what do you consider it? If you stay within your calories but drink/snack them away instead of eating meals is it dieting?

Why wouldn't it be? If it's in a deficit (or maintenance, if that's the goal), it doesn't matter.

Why are you surprised that people can eat sweets/pastries, and still be what you consider "dieting"? And frankly, I *don't* consider people who "diet" to "eat cleanly" -- you can't operationalize either term.

Well most days i have 3000+ cals thanks to around 25-30k steps/day. You bet that some of these are spend for icecream. Well not today, today i hat some nice cheese (150g=550cals) as a treat.
And days like yesterday when i am over by 1500 i log still so that i know whats up and also maybe i can something save thru watching my weekly average.

lantana411 wrote: »

I'm surprised at how many people eat cookies, croissants, ice cream, cake, chips, etc. on a daily or near-daily basis BUT LOG THEIR FOOD! I want to know - is it because they consider themselves dieting or getting ready to diet? Is this why people who diet are considered 'eating cleanly'? What do you do and what do you consider it? If you stay within your calories but drink/snack them away instead of eating meals is it dieting?

Count me in the "confuzzled by your questions" category.

1. Are you asking if it's possible to eat cookies, croissants, ice cream, cake, chips, etc and still lose weight? Of course! Losing weight comes from a calorie deficit - period. The type of foods you eat doesn't directly impact your calorie deficit and your ability to manage your weight accordingly.

2. Are you asking if people are gearing up to get serious about weight loss so they start with just logging the foods they eat every day, with no purposeful effort to change their dietary habits? Maybe. Or... see answer to #1.

3. Are you asking if people need to "eat cleanly" in order to be successful at losing weight? Absolutely not. "Clean Eating" is a vague, subjective, and not particularly helpful term that means something different to everyone who purports to follow it. It has no bearing on whether or not you will be successful at weight management. Again, see answer to #1.

You seem to be using the term "dieting" in a very specific way, that I would not utilize. I lost weight eating a variety of foods within a calorie deficit, including, but not limited to, the ones you mentioned above. Also pizza, wine, doughnuts, fast food, lean protein, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains along with implementing a more active lifestyle.

What do I consider that? WINNING

Not everyone who is here to lose weight is restricting what they eat, just how much or how often they have it. For myself, I find that it’s much more sustainable in the long run to work those types of treats into my diet (noun).

I log to count calories, do I remain at a deficit. I may choose to 'eat vlean' as you put it, or eat junk, but whatever I eat, I know how many calories, and the macros of what I have eaten.

I don't see myself as on a diet, it's a lifestyle change, bit as I am at a deficit, you might choose to see me in that way.

lantana411 wrote: »

I'm surprised at how many people eat cookies, croissants, ice cream, cake, chips, etc. on a daily or near-daily basis BUT LOG THEIR FOOD! I want to know - is it because they consider themselves dieting or getting ready to diet? Is this why people who diet are considered 'eating cleanly'? What do you do and what do you consider it? If you stay within your calories but drink/snack them away instead of eating meals is it dieting?

Weight management is about calories not type of food. Eating clean is a vague term and has nothing to do with actual fat loss.
A "diet" will only result in fat loss if you are eating less calories than you burn (have a calorie deficit). You might see people refer to this as CICO (calories in, calories out). It is how the body functions not a particular way of eating.
If you figure out that to maintain your current weight you need to eat 1,600 calories and you consistantly consume 2,000 calories of any food or drink then over time you will gain fat even if the food is the most raw, organic nutritious thing you can find. If you eat too many calories of broccoli, boiled chicken, quinoa, avocados, almonds and bananas you will gain fat the same as if you ate over your maintenance calories with frozen pizza, ice cream, casseroles and chips every day. Beware of diet plans that do not talk about calorie intake.

Dieting is a term with a lot of baggage implying very restrictive or temporary eating patterns. The term diet can also refer to any food you eat though. I did not change the type of food I am eating much so my diet did not change. I prefer to say I am watching my calorie intake rather than dieting. Logging my food daily helps me to eat what I like in appropriate amounts for my goal. My diary includes fast food, frozen foods, canned foods, sweets, bread, butter, potatoes, pasta, homemade foods from scratch, fresh vegetables and fruits. It has been most sustainable for weight management in my world to learn to eat the food I like- and that those around me eat- in appropriate portion sizes for me.

lantana411 wrote: »

I'm surprised at how many people eat cookies, croissants, ice cream, cake, chips, etc. on a daily or near-daily basis BUT LOG THEIR FOOD! I want to know - is it because they consider themselves dieting or getting ready to diet? Is this why people who diet are considered 'eating cleanly'? What do you do and what do you consider it? If you stay within your calories but drink/snack them away instead of eating meals is it dieting?

For me, while I was restricting calories I always knew that there would be cookies, ice cream, cake, chips, etc around for the rest of my life. Sometimes because of my own choices and sometimes because of the choices of others. If I didn't learn to work around them and to take power over them instead of letting them have power over me, how was I going to manage? So yes, I ate ice cream and cake occasionally and considered myself to be dieting (successfully, I might add -- 55 pounds lost over 52 weeks thank you very much).

I never considered it "eating cleanly" whatever that means. And I never "snacked away" my calories instead of eating meals. There was room for a bit of everything in my diet, and there still is. Good protein sources, veggies, fiber, high quality fats, and a couple of oreos if I have a craving that just won't disappear or an orange creme bar just because it's summer.