What’s The Real Deal With Bacon???

cwaller7
cwaller7 Posts: 25 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everybody, according to almost every article I read on google bacon can’t be eaten ever day. I have been counting calories & tracking my macros. my macros are at 37% protein, 24% fat, & 39% carbs. I cook 4 strips of Oscar Meyers uncured bacon on a pan every mon-sat morning & my daily sodium intake is 3050mg daily. I also lift weights 6 days a week doing a push/pull/leg split twice a week. I train for hypertrophy and I lift pretty heavy. Am I living a “healthy” enough lifestyle to consume bacon 6 days a week?? or do I need to ditch the bacon? I’m 26 y/o, 5’9”, 189 lbs, sitting at about 17% body fat. I’m consuming 1800 calories a day this week, trying to lose 2 lbs of fat a week. I want to get down to like 12% body fat before 1/1/21, but I’m trying to figure out if bacon is the right or wrong way to go. Please help. Thanks!
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Replies

  • maggiepz
    maggiepz Posts: 141 Member
    sounds like you are eating bacon without all the chemicals. Go for it! BACON YUMM.
  • ALZ14
    ALZ14 Posts: 202 Member
    cwaller7 wrote: »
    I was just wondering because it seems every article I read says it increase your risks of cancers, diabetes, etc. and that it should absolutely not be eaten everyday.

    There are lots of things that have links to serious illness/disease/death. While I’m trying to improve my health and quality of life by losing weight I’m also not going to eliminate foods/food groups because I might get X disease or die Y years earlier (obviously I’m not talking about things like allergies or carbs/sugar for diabetics). None of us are getting out of this alive so I’m not going to avoid things I truly enjoy due to a slight increased risk of something.

    Now bacon is delicious and if it fits in your goals then eat it. But variety is good so eating a ton of bacon in a day/week probably isn’t the best choice but probably won’t do any harm. If you are concerned you can talk to a doctor to make sure the articles you are seeing are legit science based pieces and not some click bait article.

  • cwaller7
    cwaller7 Posts: 25 Member
    ALZ14 wrote: »
    cwaller7 wrote: »
    I was just wondering because it seems every article I read says it increase your risks of cancers, diabetes, etc. and that it should absolutely not be eaten everyday.

    There are lots of things that have links to serious illness/disease/death. While I’m trying to improve my health and quality of life by losing weight I’m also not going to eliminate foods/food groups because I might get X disease or die Y years earlier (obviously I’m not talking about things like allergies or carbs/sugar for diabetics). None of us are getting out of this alive so I’m not going to avoid things I truly enjoy due to a slight increased risk of something.

    Now bacon is delicious and if it fits in your goals then eat it. But variety is good so eating a ton of bacon in a day/week probably isn’t the best choice but probably won’t do any harm. If you are concerned you can talk to a doctor to make sure the articles you are seeing are legit science based pieces and not some click bait article.

    that is very true, can’t live in fear. I guess I let those articles scare me, & I began to overthink.
  • cwaller7
    cwaller7 Posts: 25 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Well. Interesting.

    I take issue with your chosen rate of loss given your current weight and goals. They don't quite make sense to me.

    I suppose the answer re bacon rests with your doctor. We live on a continuum and I'm fairly sure that bacon every day does not beat non contaminated lettuce everyday in terms of optimizing health outcomes. Assuming equal calories, mind you, that would be a heck of a lot of lettuce!!!

    Having said that I eat evil sugar and cookies everyday, so there's that.

    Neither saturated fats, nor nitrites, nor red meats that include porc, nor burning meats to a nice crisp top the list of "how to reduce cancer and heart disease risks"

    are slices of 🥓 the only food you can tolerate in the morning? Maybe try some oatmeal on your bacon or choco puffs for a change up! I hear yogurt and fruit are crowd favorites... I'm sure we can dig up some more...

    But eat some food. You're not going to optimize muscle by eating sub 2K and going for 1000 Cal deficits....

    yea I figured my deficit was a little extreme, but I also figured that if I was losing weight too fast then I could always add additional calories.

    I started lifting again September 1 (that’s when my gym reopened post COVID-19). & then I started counting calories on 9/14 I weighed in at 191.2 lbs. from the week of 9/14-9/20 I was eating 1920 calories per day & I went from a weekly average weight of 191.2 lbs to 190.1 lbs. then from 9/21-9/27 I went a weekly average weight of 190.1 lbs to 189.6 lbs. so for this week from 9/28-10/4 I was cutting calorie intake down to 1800 because I wasn’t satisfied with rate I was losing weight.

    I wasn’t sure if this was the right move because I was also detrained since I haven’t been in the gym since March. so I figured the weight loss being stagnant could have been a result of losing fat but rebuilding muscle.

    however, in March right before the gyms closed I weighed in at 176 lbs. now weight pretty much 190 lbs I just wanted to get this fat off as quickly as possible. but I wanted some advice on that as well that’s why I put all that information in my original question, so thank you for your response.
  • Fitforevermore
    Fitforevermore Posts: 399 Member
    The nitrates in some hams and bacon are carcinogenic. But there are brands that don't use nitrates to preserve, such as naked bacon
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    So, I don’t eat pork (pigs are as smart as dogs and some people have pet pigs; once I learned that, I could no longer eat them). However, if you want to eat bacon every day, go for it. If you have issues with blood pressure, choose a lower sodium bacon. As said above, certain preservatives are carcinogenic, but there are certainly enough brand options that you can find one that doesn’t use carcinogenic preservatives.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
    Bacon and other processed meats tend to be calorie-dense and high in sodium, saturated fat, and a variety of chemicals like nitrates and nitrites. So, bacon is not "good for you" on our peculiar scale of good and bad foods. That doesn't mean I intend to give up the Sunday bacon that comes with brunch but I wouldn't eat it or red meat or high mercury fish or pie crust or ... every day of the week.

    The risk one takes is under-consuming important nutrients while saving room for bacon (and its sodium, saturated fat, nitrates/nitrites, etc.) You are making a choice of what not to eat every time you decide TO eat something. Two slices of bacon is about the same calories as an apple. I think we can all guess which is the healthier choice. Meanwhile, on Sunday, pass me the bacon.
  • Go_Deskercise
    Go_Deskercise Posts: 1,630 Member
    I ate bacon in my salad for lunch today - delicious :)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,889 Member
    cwaller7 wrote: »
    Hey everybody, according to almost every article I read on google bacon can’t be eaten ever day. I have been counting calories & tracking my macros. my macros are at 37% protein, 24% fat, & 39% carbs. I cook 4 strips of Oscar Meyers uncured bacon on a pan every mon-sat morning & my daily sodium intake is 3050mg daily. I also lift weights 6 days a week doing a push/pull/leg split twice a week. I train for hypertrophy and I lift pretty heavy. Am I living a “healthy” enough lifestyle to consume bacon 6 days a week?? or do I need to ditch the bacon? I’m 26 y/o, 5’9”, 189 lbs, sitting at about 17% body fat. I’m consuming 1800 calories a day this week, trying to lose 2 lbs of fat a week. I want to get down to like 12% body fat before 1/1/21, but I’m trying to figure out if bacon is the right or wrong way to go. Please help. Thanks!

    Since bacon is a better source of fat than protein, it's not a great choice for your macro goals.

    Are you trying to get back to 176 pounds? Or is your goal more that 12% BF, and in this case, what are you using to measure BF?

    Either way, your rate of loss is overly-aggressive, which tends to be counter-productive, as it can lead to burnout and binging.

    9kjwnia17qv9.jpg
  • briscogun
    briscogun Posts: 1,135 Member
    I have bacon every Sunday. Usually one, sometimes two, slices. I don't think I could eat it EVERY day, but if it works for you, do it! I think a slice of bacon is like 40 calories give or take? There's a lot of worse stuff you can have then bacon, too.

    You're losing weight and your eating bacon. Sounds like a win-win!
  • dolliesdaughter
    dolliesdaughter Posts: 544 Member
    Bacon is a gift from a higher power.
  • cwaller7
    cwaller7 Posts: 25 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    cwaller7 wrote: »
    Hey everybody, according to almost every article I read on google bacon can’t be eaten ever day. I have been counting calories & tracking my macros. my macros are at 37% protein, 24% fat, & 39% carbs. I cook 4 strips of Oscar Meyers uncured bacon on a pan every mon-sat morning & my daily sodium intake is 3050mg daily. I also lift weights 6 days a week doing a push/pull/leg split twice a week. I train for hypertrophy and I lift pretty heavy. Am I living a “healthy” enough lifestyle to consume bacon 6 days a week?? or do I need to ditch the bacon? I’m 26 y/o, 5’9”, 189 lbs, sitting at about 17% body fat. I’m consuming 1800 calories a day this week, trying to lose 2 lbs of fat a week. I want to get down to like 12% body fat before 1/1/21, but I’m trying to figure out if bacon is the right or wrong way to go. Please help. Thanks!

    Since bacon is a better source of fat than protein, it's not a great choice for your macro goals.

    Are you trying to get back to 176 pounds? Or is your goal more that 12% BF, and in this case, what are you using to measure BF?

    Either way, your rate of loss is overly-aggressive, which tends to be counter-productive, as it can lead to burnout and binging.

    9kjwnia17qv9.jpg

    so my current goal is to lose 2 lbs (preferably of fat) every week over the next 12 weeks in an effort to lose about 20 lbs to get down to 170 lbs which is where I feel happy with my physique. I was very aggressive with my approach because this is the biggest I’ve ever been & after researching I came to the conclusion that 2 lbs weekly is the most weight I could lose while retaining a sufficient amount of muscle mass as long as I train heavy & focus on retaining as much strength as possible in the gym during that time.

    now if I lost strength too quickly or loss weight too quickly I would then add on more calories weekly but I’m 2 weeks in of tracking everything that I eat & I see that I’m only losing about 1 lb per week & I’m actually getting stronger w my lifts in the gym so I figured I should lower my calorie intake to 1800 per day. I got these numbers from a calorie calculator on google based on my weight, height, age, etc.aw17b5m2lgoc.png
  • Jacq_qui
    Jacq_qui Posts: 429 Member
    Fitforevermore wrote: »
    The nitrates in some hams and bacon are carcinogenic. But there are brands that don't use nitrates to preserve, such as naked bacon

    This. I've not found any ham that doesn't have nitrates in. Rumour has it that Waitrose has some, but not been there in a while! Therefore, we eat it sparingly. As per usual, everything in moderation (unless you have a specific health concern/issue). I personally wouldn't eat ham or bacon every day, and try to limit red meat generally.

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