Nutrition deep dive?

anicolemast · February 2020

I’m curious about having little treats while on diets? Since I’ve started my latest journey, I have logged everyday for 4 weeks. I log everything. Since I began, I have only gone over my allotted calories 1 day. And that day I burned over 700 calories, so I was still in the green at the end. However, I have a friend (who has never struggled with weight) telling me I can’t have anything I want. If I can’t indulge on rare occasions, I don’t think I can do this, and she doesn’t understand. “Just don’t eat it” like it’s that easy. I’m just curious about how watching what you take in means in the long run. Looking at my weekly view, I’ve only gone over on vitamins and ‘good’ fats; and not by much; only once. 4 weeks of being pretty strict, exercising every day. I am starting to plateu, though. I’ve had chocolate maybe 2 times in 4 weeks. Is it really that bad? Even if I haven’t gone over my nutrition goals?

I guess what I am wondering is; if I have the available space in my calories/sugars/sodium etc. can I squeeze in a little not-so-good-for-you treat?

Nony_Mouse · February 2020

If you have the calories available, and it's not crowding out other nutrients, then of course you can have it. Food is food, forget good and bad as individual labels and think in terms of the context of your overall diet.

It sounds like you are happy to have just a little, and by doing so you're making your weight loss more sustainable and workable for you.

kshama2001 · February 2020

anicolemast wrote: »

I’m curious about having little treats while on diets? Since I’ve started my latest journey, I have logged everyday for 4 weeks. I log everything. Since I began, I have only gone over my allotted calories 1 day. And that day I burned over 700 calories, so I was still in the green at the end. However, I have a friend (who has never struggled with weight) telling me I can’t have anything I want. If I can’t indulge on rare occasions, I don’t think I can do this, and she doesn’t understand. “Just don’t eat it” like it’s that easy. I’m just curious about how watching what you take in means in the long run. Looking at my weekly view, I’ve only gone over on vitamins and ‘good’ fats; and not by much; only once. 4 weeks of being pretty strict, exercising every day. I am starting to plateu, though. I’ve had chocolate maybe 2 times in 4 weeks. Is it really that bad? Even if I haven’t gone over my nutrition goals?

I guess what I am wondering is; if I have the available space in my calories/sugars/sodium etc. can I squeeze in a little not-so-good-for-you treat?

To answer the question you asked, yes, you can certainly squeeze in little treats.

However, something about your post makes me wonder how fast you've been losing and if your statement "I am starting to plateau, though" is actually a realistic concern.

How many pounds do you have to lose total, and what was your loss for each of the 4 weeks?

AnnPT77 · February 2020

Of course you can. If you're meeting reasonable calorie and nutrition targets, and still have calorie room for a less nutrient-dense treat, that's fine. Once the major nutritional boxes have been checked, I don't think we get extra credit for more broccoli.

Overall, I'm a great believer in well-rounded nutrition. But I also believe that (1) eating needs to be about a good, healthy balance of nutrition, satiation, tastiness, social connection, celebration, and a little joy; and (2) the weight loss process is just practice for maintaining a healthy weight long term, and I for one am not willing to give up reasonable treats permanently.

Sometimes, I think some people believe that "diets" are supposed to be a miserable experience, as if becoming overweight were a sin for which we needed to suffer in penance. I think that's silly. It's just food. Food is necessary. We formerly ate a little too much of it, and now we want to eat a little less in order to reach and maintain a healthy weight. It's that simple. Drama and misery and abject self-denial are optional.

Any of us with a meaningful amount of weight to lose needs to stick with a weight loss process for a relatively long time. The more bearable, even enjoyable, we can make that process, the better odds of success, if you ask me.

Nony (who gave you advice above about this) is experienced at this game. I'm in year 4+ of maintaining a healthy weight after 3+ decades of obesity. It's just possible that she and I may have insights into this that your "never struggled friend" doesn't . . . ya never know, eh?

Best wishes!

gremloBBPT · February 2020

anicolemast wrote: »

I guess what I am wondering is; if I have the available space in my calories/sugars/sodium etc. can I squeeze in a little not-so-good-for-you treat?

Absolutely! Being thin doesn't make your friend an expert on weight management for everyone.

Different things work for different people.

Except for a couple exceptions, I've been "thin" most my life and I regularly incorporate what some food ascetics

would consider imperfect foods. Health and weight management are much more about your overall diet. And exercise is important, too. Not so much for weight loss* but for health, and it makes maintenance easier/more likely. By exercise, I don't necessarily mean anything intense. Walking is excellent.

*Although most ppl probably don't need to exercise to lose weight, the times when I've lost it helped me a lot to incorporate exercise. My calorie allowance is relatively low bc I'm short, so the exercise helped me create a reasonable deficit that would've been challenging to do with calorie restriction alone. I also need to stay somewhat active to maintain my preferred weight but, like I said, nothing major. So long as I'm not a sedentary slug, I do fine.

Sounds like you're on fire, btw! Keep up the great work! Plateaus are totally normally and you should expect them from time to time.

cwolfman13 · February 2020

anicolemast wrote: »

I’m curious about having little treats while on diets? Since I’ve started my latest journey, I have logged everyday for 4 weeks. I log everything. Since I began, I have only gone over my allotted calories 1 day. And that day I burned over 700 calories, so I was still in the green at the end. However, I have a friend (who has never struggled with weight) telling me I can’t have anything I want. If I can’t indulge on rare occasions, I don’t think I can do this, and she doesn’t understand. “Just don’t eat it” like it’s that easy. I’m just curious about how watching what you take in means in the long run. Looking at my weekly view, I’ve only gone over on vitamins and ‘good’ fats; and not by much; only once. 4 weeks of being pretty strict, exercising every day. I am starting to plateu, though. I’ve had chocolate maybe 2 times in 4 weeks. Is it really that bad? Even if I haven’t gone over my nutrition goals?

I guess what I am wondering is; if I have the available space in my calories/sugars/sodium etc. can I squeeze in a little not-so-good-for-you treat?

Losing weight is about calories, not this particular food or that particular food. As nutrition goes, does it really make any rational sense that some chocolate or whatever occasionally would some how undo all of your nutrition? You are far better off looking at your nutrition on the whole rather than getting into the weeds of this particular food or meal or that particular food or meal.

For breakfast this morning I had a turkey sausage, spinach, mushroom, and egg omelette...for lunch I had a chopped salad with tuna. For dinner tonight we're having a kale and chickpea stew. All pretty healthy and nutritious stuff. For a snack a bit ago I had a mini snickers...that doesn't undo all of that other nutrition.

I have pizza and movie night most Friday nights with the family. I enjoy the occasional pub grub. I like hitting up the local New Mexican restaurants from time to time. What is going on most of the time is what matters where your nutrition and health are concerned. Don't drown in minutia.

extra_medium · February 2020

Of course. It's all about calories in vs calories out over time. There's nothing magically good or bad about any particular food, and there's nothing magical that happens when one day ends and the next begins. If you were over by 200 one day, and under by 400 the next day, you'll still lose weight. Even if they were "bad" fats.

Keep in mind plateaus happen when you have lost weight and the number of calories needed to maintain your current weight goes down as a result. It's not about having had chocolate a couple of times as long as you accounted for those calories like every other calorie. If you're plateauing it just means you need to eat less or move more as you continue to lose weight.

Nutrition deep dive?

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