How bad were your eating habits?
Replies
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not bad. not great. just ate too much overall. nothing shocking3
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My worst eating habits were in the late 1990's, with 5 or 6 1000-calorie meals each day. I had an epiphany at midnight of Y2K and decided to live for life. I self-managed to get down from 7 extremely high calorie days each week to just 1. That 1 day was stubborn and I learned how to get through a weekend within a calorie budget after I joined mfp 3 years ago.2
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I didn't graze through my kitchen...I MOWED through it. I easily ate at least 5,000 calories. Potato chips were my go to snack, and I used food as a constant entertainment device.0
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firecat1987 wrote: »All of my meals were fast food. I was consuming 4500+ on a daily basis and wasting a lot of money.
This was an unexpected side effect of weight loss for me! I'm actually putting significantly more money into my savings account now due to how much less I spend on junk food bingeing, fast food, restaurant meals and alcohol. I don't even bat an eye at the price of fresh produce or healthier proteins either. If I want it, I buy it. And I'm still spending significantly less at the store than I used to. Such a wonderful surprise!5 -
firecat1987 wrote: »All of my meals were fast food. I was consuming 4500+ on a daily basis and wasting a lot of money.
This was an unexpected side effect of weight loss for me! I'm actually putting significantly more money into my savings account now due to how much less I spend on junk food bingeing, fast food, restaurant meals and alcohol. I don't even bat an eye at the price of fresh produce or healthier proteins either. If I want it, I buy it. And I'm still spending significantly less at the store than I used to. Such a wonderful surprise!
Yup! Between my wife and I, we were spending sometimes 50 bucks a day on fast food!1 -
My eating habits weren't too bad although sometimes got a bit too happy to snack and havechips and dip before dinner etc. But I had an injury that meant I spent all of last spring taking it easy and not doing anything active, and didn't change my eating habits, and gained weight. I've now lost that weight plus ten pounds but wouldlike to lose a bit more.0
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I think my eating habits were not too terrible before. I know they are a LOT better now, but so much of that is just the influence of my husband who cooks most of our meals and is very into healthy eating and knows about all of the "vegetarian stuff" I had never liked or maybe never even tried before him (tofu, chickpeas, nutritional yeast, lentils, HUGE range of veggies cooked different ways, etc). Even at my heaviest, I cooked at home frequently and ate lots of fruits & veggies and not a ton of fried food. I did go out to eat a LOT more but I was usually that person who got a $1 McChicken and an iced coffee with loads of sugary syrup. I was consuming too many calories, sure, but I wasn't having the super sized Baconator meal or anything.
Maintaining a loss of 130+, I still have a super sweet tooth and indulge it often. I still count pizza and burgers among my favorite foods. Mostly for me it's been a case of learning how many calories are in things and avoiding some meals entirely (chain steakhouse panini with 970 calories for example)...steering clear of the lattes & mochas at Starbucks and using portion control w/ everything, but especially when having treats and desserts. I've been logging my food for almost 6 years now and I know the biggest place I run into trouble is with restaurant meals and with desserts. I can undo a great day of healthy eating with too many Oreos if I'm not careful, and I think that's where I screwed up in the past. That was also what made it so hard for me to figure out. I'd have a turkey sandwich with mustard & lettuce and cucumber slices for lunch and then get a small peppermint mocha and feel like "I didn't eat poorly today, what gives?" But looking at the numbers I was eating more calories than I do now.3 -
The way I was eating before when I think about it now, yikes. I had “ big eyes” aka greedy eating like it was the end of the world. Eating bread (buns) with foods that didn’t make sense it’s a Portuguese thing to have bread on the side with every single thing. Eating when not hungry, just something to do.
I’d have KFC, a poutine full of gravy and thick cheese ( yummy) with a chicken sandwich with it, now ill have either or, not both. My coffees were so fulll of sugar. I was putting everything in my body and a lot of it.
Portion is everything. I’m surprised I was only five pounds overweight according to the BMI seriously felt morbidly obese and unhealthy.0 -
For me, there is no "were". My eating habits are bad. My urge to overeat is the fundamental cause of my weight problem. Not too many carbs, not night eating, I just tend to eat too much. It's a constant and daily struggle that for me at least, will never go away.2
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Fatty_Nuff wrote: »For me, there is no "were". My eating habits are bad. My urge to overeat is the fundamental cause of my weight problem. Not too many carbs, not night eating, I just tend to eat too much. It's a constant and daily struggle that for me at least, will never go away.
That's a sad attitude, anyone can change their behavior with the right motivation.2 -
I "thought" I was healthy. Even worked at a health food store for awhile. Now its clear to me that a smoothie and a meal is too many calories. That "organic" chips are still just chips and full of calories. I've always eaten veggies, cooked at home. But I would eat snacks mindlessly, with no regards for portion. MFP has been the best tool to stay on track and get a serious reality check!
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I remember some days picking up thru the drive thru going to work a greasy breakfast sandwich with a hashbrown, then at lunch a greasy fast food burger with fries and a dessert then at home eating fast food again at supper - KFC or something like that. That was around 2.5 years ago and I weighed the heaviest I have been, close to just about 40 lbs heavier than I am now.1
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Fatty_Nuff wrote: »For me, there is no "were". My eating habits are bad. My urge to overeat is the fundamental cause of my weight problem. Not too many carbs, not night eating, I just tend to eat too much. It's a constant and daily struggle that for me at least, will never go away.
its all about changing your habits and the way you think about food.
could i out-eat my husband? absolutely. any day. but i dont. i eat until satisfied. we both eat a well balanced diet. i have cookies and pizza and things 'most' people do. but i dont eat half a pizza. i dont eat half the bag of oreos.
i dont consider it a struggle. ive done it for 5 years and lost a lot, and maintained that loss for 3 years. no one NEEDS that much food. and eating past the point of being satisfied, is ridiculous.
my desire to be healthy, and to model that behavior for my children, and even my friends, and to live a wonderful, active life that I enjoy.6 -
My eating habits were very skewed towards the weekends.
During the Mon-Fri working week I'd be good and by good I mean probably ate close to or slightly under maintenance. Then because I'd been good all week I'd convince myself I could safely relax and enjoy my weekends which meant eating probably close to 12,00-16,000 calories between Friday night and Sunday night.
So I'd probably rack up between 0 and maybe 500 calorie deficit during the week and create a 4000-8000 calorie surplus over the weekend. It was crazy and I was straight up delusional.3 -
thepainmaker88 wrote: »Fatty_Nuff wrote: »For me, there is no "were". My eating habits are bad. My urge to overeat is the fundamental cause of my weight problem. Not too many carbs, not night eating, I just tend to eat too much. It's a constant and daily struggle that for me at least, will never go away.
That's a sad attitude, anyone can change their behavior with the right motivation.
Changing your behavior doesn't always mean that the struggle disappears. It's been 4+ years for me and I have to consciously choose not to overeat every single day. It's extremely rare that I eat anything, from brussels sprouts to steak to chocolate cake, and don't want to eat enough that I feel stuffed. Do I do it? Mostly no. But realizing it's a lifelong thing I'll deal with is not a bad attitude. It's just reality.17 -
thepainmaker88 wrote: »Fatty_Nuff wrote: »For me, there is no "were". My eating habits are bad. My urge to overeat is the fundamental cause of my weight problem. Not too many carbs, not night eating, I just tend to eat too much. It's a constant and daily struggle that for me at least, will never go away.
That's a sad attitude, anyone can change their behavior with the right motivation.
Changing your behavior doesn't always mean that the struggle disappears. It's been 4+ years for me and I have to consciously choose not to overeat every single day. It's extremely rare that I eat anything, from brussels sprouts to steak to chocolate cake, and don't want to eat enough that I feel stuffed. Do I do it? Mostly no. But realizing it's a lifelong thing I'll deal with is not a bad attitude. It's just reality.
That’s exactly my experience Jemhh...thanks for stating it so well!2 -
Honestly? They were horrid. It was mostly eating bad take away (because i was just lazy).
In addition to that drinking a lot of sugary drinks or more alcohol than usual.
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Oh hell. Honestly, someone who ate as much as me should have been at least twice my size. It wasn't a lot in each meal (not a volume eater unless I'm snacking), but 99% of my diet was either fried food, fast food, or sugar, sugar and tons of sugar. Almost no fruits and vegetables, never had whole grains, if I ate at home it was 100% something frozen that I microwaved or pizza. I basically grabbed something every hour or so throughout the day.
I think maybe I was within or close to maintenance at least a few days a week, just because I was the same weight (about 120lbs overweight) for seriously like 10 years, without ever going above a certain number. I think it just evened out. But definitely way too much to ever lose anything.0 -
Ugh it’s embarrassing but it went like this:
Breakfast: drive thru bagel shop for a chocolate chip bagel with cream cheese. Energy drink
Lunch: soup or sandwich from cafe in building, chips and cookie
Dinner: Taco Bell/Take our Buffalo Wild Wings/McDonalds or homemade nachos
Snack: 2-3 cupcakes or brownies or cookies.
And I still wonder how I’ve managed to gain 100+lbs in about 5 years...2 -
whatalazyidiot wrote: »Oh hell. Honestly, someone who ate as much as me should have been at least twice my size. It wasn't a lot in each meal (not a volume eater unless I'm snacking), but 99% of my diet was either fried food, fast food, or sugar, sugar and tons of sugar. Almost no fruits and vegetables, never had whole grains, if I ate at home it was 100% something frozen that I microwaved or pizza. I basically grabbed something every hour or so throughout the day.
I think maybe I was within or close to maintenance at least a few days a week, just because I was the same weight (about 120lbs overweight) for seriously like 10 years, without ever going above a certain number. I think it just evened out. But definitely way too much to ever lose anything.
I hear you on that same weight thing. I weighed between 260-275 lb from age 20-24, lost some weight (down to 220s), then was back at 260-275 from age 26-30. Seriously every single time I weighed in those years it would be 266, 270, 274, repeat. That's why it took hitting 300+ at 31 to make me sit up and take notice (I gained rapidly at a new sedentary high stress job). I was so comfy with that former range. Even when I first started losing from my highest weight, I stalled around 260-275 for MANY months! When I joined MFP, I weighed 272 and was so excited to be down from 300+ but really had low expectations due to feeling like my body just "picked" that range somehow. I didn't understand CICO then!
Actually I am feeling sort of the same way now - just the range is now 165-175 instead, for literally years. I'll take it...but it's still kinda weird to me!1 -
The composition of my food diet was quite good I think but my downfall in latter years has been......
Portion sizes too large
Decrease in movement
Too much alcohol on a regular basis3 -
thepainmaker88 wrote: »Just curious were you guys are all coming from ... like how bad were your eating habits before you came here to change them?
Not bad at all.
When I went on a mission to lose weight, I dropped the handful of cashews I was eating in the afternoons (those things have a lot of calories!), I reduced my evening meal serving size, and I dropped one of my late evening snacks.
I was eating probably about 2200 calories a day which was just enough to cause me to gain ever-so-slowly.
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I got to a point where I was eating restaurant food for every meal. Two breakfast sandwiches from Tim hortons or Dunkin every morning, two burgers fries and nuggets from McDonald’s most lunches, and takeout for dinner (tacos, pizza, Chinese.) I was truly addicted. Then I took the advice of a friend and started going to a behavioral therapist who specialized in disordered eating. Thank god.4
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Less fruits and vegetables. Much higher sodium. Less protein. More calories than I needed.
I still eat a lot of the same foods. I did not drastically change my diet just changed amounts.1 -
seltzermint555 wrote: »whatalazyidiot wrote: »Oh hell. Honestly, someone who ate as much as me should have been at least twice my size. It wasn't a lot in each meal (not a volume eater unless I'm snacking), but 99% of my diet was either fried food, fast food, or sugar, sugar and tons of sugar. Almost no fruits and vegetables, never had whole grains, if I ate at home it was 100% something frozen that I microwaved or pizza. I basically grabbed something every hour or so throughout the day.
I think maybe I was within or close to maintenance at least a few days a week, just because I was the same weight (about 120lbs overweight) for seriously like 10 years, without ever going above a certain number. I think it just evened out. But definitely way too much to ever lose anything.
I hear you on that same weight thing. I weighed between 260-275 lb from age 20-24, lost some weight (down to 220s), then was back at 260-275 from age 26-30. Seriously every single time I weighed in those years it would be 266, 270, 274, repeat. That's why it took hitting 300+ at 31 to make me sit up and take notice (I gained rapidly at a new sedentary high stress job). I was so comfy with that former range. Even when I first started losing from my highest weight, I stalled around 260-275 for MANY months! When I joined MFP, I weighed 272 and was so excited to be down from 300+ but really had low expectations due to feeling like my body just "picked" that range somehow. I didn't understand CICO then!
Actually I am feeling sort of the same way now - just the range is now 165-175 instead, for literally years. I'll take it...but it's still kinda weird to me!
Yes! I was honestly surprised because I ate enough to be more than the 250-260 I always found myself at. And you do get comfortable - you feel ok at that size because you're used to it, you know what size clothes you wear and where to buy them. It's that much harder to make the decision to do something about it.1 -
I just didn't care about it. And I was muscular, my weight didn't matter.
I worked out a lot, and ate a lot of home cooked food, the very occasional meal out and takeaway. I ate what most people give the advice to be healthy. I didn't eat a lot of desserts.
But basically I just ate too much of everything.
- I'd have the whole pizza because I was hungry.
- I'd eyeball the portions of rice, pasta, potatoes and well I was hungry today, I'll just add a little more.
- I'd eat lots of fruit, lots of veg.
- I mean, olive oil is healthy right? So it doesn't matter how much I drizzle on this salad.
- Fatty cuts of meat? Delicious!
- Nuts? YUM!
You get the point
I gained weight by regularly and consistently eating just that little bit more than I burnt.1 -
My eating habits were fine - my period of rapid weight gain coincided with eating 95% good home cooked food and 5% hospital food.
I just far too much as I was injured/bored/depressed and inactive apart from a couple of miles walking on crutches most days and rehab exercises.1 -
The actual foods I ate were fine, I still eat them but in more reasonable quantities and not constantly.0
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It was all portion control for me. My last "Aha!" moment came while getting a 2nd (or 3rd??) plate of my wife's spaghetti, and I realized I couldn't remember the last time I stopped at only one plate, be it Spaghetti or salmon or eggs...I just love to eat. but I'd love to be healthy and hang with the grandkids a few years longer even more.1
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Sometimes I ate drive-thru fast food for three meals a day, super sized, with regular soda. Plus a few more Pepsi 20oz throughout the day. Candy bars and chips whenever I wanted. I would eat healthy foods, too, just so many calories.1
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