Weight loss trouble

barragann03
barragann03 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
ok soo I think my problem is that I think eating bad calories is the same as good calories like for example, if my fitness pal tells me I have lets say 400 calories left I eat like a bag of hot Cheetos and that’ll be leaving me at at least 260 calories I think that im good and that’s what’s maybe holding me back from losing weight, any tips anyone?

Replies

  • MacLowCarbing
    MacLowCarbing Posts: 350 Member
    Weight loss is in one way a complicated formula that depends a lot on not only food but lifestyle and metabolism and such, however, in general, for most people, yeah-- if you're eating a calorie deficit per day, you will lose weight in the long run whether that 1200 comes from salads or cheetos.

    You might consider the salt content of cheetos may have you retaining water, when you're bloated you're gonna weigh in a little heavier the next day or two. IDK for sure but that could be an issue, make sure you're drinking water and try cutting the salt for a few days to see if that helps.

    Another issue could be miscalculating your servings in general, or mis-measuring them; that trips people up sometimes.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,755 Member
    positivelysimful wrote: »
    Weight loss is in one way a complicated formula that depends a lot on not only food but lifestyle and metabolism and such, however, in general, for most people, yeah-- if you're eating a calorie deficit per day, you will lose weight in the long run whether that 1200 comes from salads or cheetos.

    You might consider the salt content of cheetos may have you retaining water, when you're bloated you're gonna weigh in a little heavier the next day or two. IDK for sure but that could be an issue, make sure you're drinking water and try cutting the salt for a few days to see if that helps.

    Another issue could be miscalculating your servings in general, or mis-measuring them; that trips people up sometimes.

    Mostly true. I'll only add that *everyone* will lose weight in a calorie deficit, no exceptions. It's the law of thermodynamics. But, you're right in that lifestyle and diet play a role in how many calories would put you in a deficit.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited September 2023
    The Cheetos aren't holding you back. Cheetos might hold ME back, if I didn't find them filling and so kept eating. With some foods for me, it's like the calories had zero impact to help me feel full or even made me hungrier.

    I need to hit my protein and fiber goals in order to be satisfied, and Cheetos wouldn't help me with that.

    But when I earn sufficient exercise calories, I have room in my budget for foods that don't contribute towards my nutrition goals.
  • cdahl383
    cdahl383 Posts: 726 Member
    Calories are calories. If looking to lose weight, you just need to be in a deficit.

    I've found that if I allow myself some junk food I can stay on track better. I can't just eat healthy stuff 100% of the time 24/7, it gets boring.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,353 Member
    I don’t cook and while I don’t have any particular moral feelings about food, I’m sure 75% of what I eat would be “bad” in a system like that. I mean, takeout is probably half my diet. And yet I lost 60 pounds and have maintained that loss for close to a decade now.

    It’s the calories.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 921 Member
    A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. If you eat more calories than you use in a day (regularly) you will gain weight. If you eat less, you will lose weight.

    400 calories of Cheetos is the same as 400 calories of apple.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    barragann03 wrote: »
    ok soo I think my problem is that I think eating bad calories is the same as good calories like for example, if my fitness pal tells me I have lets say 400 calories left I eat like a bag of hot Cheetos and that’ll be leaving me at at least 260 calories I think that im good and that’s what’s maybe holding me back from losing weight, any tips anyone?

    A calorie is a calorie just like an inch is and inch and a mile is a mile. I was watching a guy on TicTok who's eating nothing but McDonalds as his diet plan...wouldn't recommend for a variety of reasons, but he was losing weight just fine.

    Often this is a matter of misplaced expectations and that the weight should just be falling off...that's not reality, losing weight tends to be a very slow and inconsistent process because we complicated biological beings, not machines.
  • cdennis9154
    cdennis9154 Posts: 114 Member
    barragann03 wrote: »
    ok soo I think my problem is that I think eating bad calories is the same as good calories like for example, if my fitness pal tells me I have lets say 400 calories left I eat like a bag of hot Cheetos and that’ll be leaving me at at least 260 calories I think that im good and that’s what’s maybe holding me back from losing weight, any tips anyone?

    Alot of people are saying the calories don't matter and perhaps they are right. But I think your cheetos might be holding your back for other reasons.

    Like what if you ate some fruit or veggies or protein. Something a bit more filling and less likely to over eat and something that will have nutritional value.

    Also are you eating just because you have calories left or because you are actually hungry.
  • gains4lif3
    gains4lif3 Posts: 37 Member
    edited September 2023
    I think one thing to consider is how the types of calories we are eating may affect our physical bodies. You could very well lose weight eating Cheetos, sloppy joes, and cake as long as you are meeting a calorie deficit from your base metabolic rate and activity level. That would hit your 3 macronutrients needed to live. However, imagine you would like to lose 20 lbs.

    If you did the Cheeto, sloppy joe, and cake diet, it’s more likely you would lose 15 lbs of lean muscle mass and 5 lbs of fat. So you’re getting slimmer, but in the wrong places. Also, by losing lean muscle mass, it’s going to take even longer to burn calories than you would have earlier because lean muscle mass burns more calories than fat.

    Now consider a more balanced diet with rich protein sources like chicken, tuna, pork, complex carbs like sweet potato, whole grains, fibrous vegetables, and good fats like almonds, light olive oil, etc. Instead of losing 15 lbs of lean muscle, you may lose 10-15 of fat and 5-10 of lean muscle instead. So the effects would be more visible and help maintain your higher base metabolic rate at that same weight.

    Please keep this in mind, and why it is important to have a diet rich in complex, healthy macronutrients. The occasional Doritos most likely will not ruin your diet, but having them regularly definitely could affect your diet and ability to lose fat and maintain lean muscle mass.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    if you eat nothing but cheetos, you'll still lose weight as long as you continue to eat less calories per day than your body needs.

    as far as weight loss goes, calories are calories - there are no bad or good calories, and if you eat less calories than your body needs, you'll burn your fat stores - if you eat more than your body needs, you'll store the extra calories as far, and if you eat the amount of calories your body needs, you'll stay the same weight, which is called eating at maintenance.

    of course, if you eat nothing but cheetos, you will run into issues from not eating enough protein, and you may become constipated from eating no fiber. you'll probably also need vitamins and may eat too much sodium. but eating nothing but cheetos would also make cheetos become boring, which is too bad as they're delish!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    OP, eating Cheetos won't inherently hold back weight loss. That said, but under-nutrition can have negative consequences, but even that's a pretty nuanced thing.

    It's an unpopular opinion here - and probably anywhere people apply common sense? - but if a person's calorie goal allows, it's possible to get reasonable overall nutrition while eating pretty crazy, ultra-processed, SAD-type foods. There was a guy who used to post here, even had a thread here about his routine at one point (it got deleted :D ). He also generally ate less protein than most would suggest for muscle gain goals.

    He started out as a pretty normal-looking slightly-pudgy young guy, built an amazing physique. (Workout wise, he's a beast.) For a taste of his eating routine, take a look at his food log over on the bodybuilding forums, in context of his profile photo. (He posted enough here that I'm quite convinced his physique is in fact him.)

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/home/leaving?allowTrusted=1&target=https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=141807961&p=822484731#post822484731

    It's a pretty good argument for the position that nutrition matters, but food choices may not necessarily need to be quite as strict as some believe. (BTW, I wouldn't want to eat what he does!)

    Reasonable typical sample from his starting post in the long log thread there:
    01/19/12 total calories 2209 deficit: 893 RDI(%) Fat(g) Carbs(g) Prot(g)
    74 126.78 211.13 70.39 2209

    Breakfast: 1 serving 14" Large Italian Sausage & Red Onion Hand-Tossed Style Pizza

    Lunch
    2 3/4 servings gordos
    2 servings on the border chips

    Dinner
    1 serving diet coke
    1 serving hash brown
    1 serving sausage and egg mcmuffin

    Snacks / Other
    3/4 cup 1% milk
    1 serving Cinnamon Cake Donut
    1 1/4 servings gordos
    2 servings on the border chips
  • gains4lif3
    gains4lif3 Posts: 37 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    OP, eating Cheetos won't inherently hold back weight loss. That said, but under-nutrition can have negative consequences, but even that's a pretty nuanced thing.

    It's an unpopular opinion here - and probably anywhere people apply common sense? - but if a person's calorie goal allows, it's possible to get reasonable overall nutrition while eating pretty crazy, ultra-processed, SAD-type foods. There was a guy who used to post here, even had a thread here about his routine at one point (it got deleted :D ). He also generally ate less protein than most would suggest for muscle gain goals.

    He started out as a pretty normal-looking slightly-pudgy young guy, built an amazing physique. (Workout wise, he's a beast.) For a taste of his eating routine, take a look at his food log over on the bodybuilding forums, in context of his profile photo. (He posted enough here that I'm quite convinced his physique is in fact him.)

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/home/leaving?allowTrusted=1&target=https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=141807961&p=822484731#post822484731

    It's a pretty good argument for the position that nutrition matters, but food choices may not necessarily need to be quite as strict as some believe. (BTW, I wouldn't want to eat what he does!)

    Reasonable typical sample from his starting post in the long log thread there:
    01/19/12 total calories 2209 deficit: 893 RDI(%) Fat(g) Carbs(g) Prot(g)
    74 126.78 211.13 70.39 2209

    Breakfast: 1 serving 14" Large Italian Sausage & Red Onion Hand-Tossed Style Pizza

    Lunch
    2 3/4 servings gordos
    2 servings on the border chips

    Dinner
    1 serving diet coke
    1 serving hash brown
    1 serving sausage and egg mcmuffin

    Snacks / Other
    3/4 cup 1% milk
    1 serving Cinnamon Cake Donut
    1 1/4 servings gordos
    2 servings on the border chips

    Whoa! That guys story and diet are unreal. One thing to note is that he was also seriously tracking his activity levels, down to desk job calories, sleeping calories, exercise, and more. That’s some unreal dedication. One thing to note is that everyone has different metabolisms, and some people are able to process unhealthy foods better than others. I myself cannot do that as I put on weight too easily. I had cousins though who could eat anything and would burn it quickly.

    All in all, there are many factors contributing to your ability to lose the weight. If you’re meeting the calorie deficit, and eating reasonably well, and exercising, losing weight is almost a given if done with consistency.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    edited September 2023
    It's about context and dosage. I can eat crisco and really crappy name your food imitation products and cheetos and get ripped and improve my health markers if I'm losing weight. Yeah, losing weight is the easy part and the person doesn't even need to know anything about nutrition for it to work. Weight loss is healthier than staying fat, who would have thought. But yeah, you can eat absolutely anything and lose weight. People do get a little more animated if the fifty pounds is weight gain as opposed to weight loss, funny how that works. cheers

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