How bad were your eating habits?

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.

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.

jemhh wrote: »

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

The actual foods I ate were fine, I still eat them but in more reasonable quantities and not constantly.

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.