fast food sandwiches/subs

varianval · February 5

Is it bad to eat a sub sandwich every day, or is 3-4 times a week good enough for youngs?

nossmf · February 5

Subway once had an ad campaign featuring a man named Jared who famously lost a ton of weight while eating a Subway sandwich every single day for a year. There's nothing inherently wrong with subs, and can have a pretty good nutritional profile, if you follow a few simple rules:

Add vegetables for fiber and vitamins (lettuce is basically worthless, use spinach instead...trust me, uncooked spinach leaves are NOTHING like the cooked version!)
Limit use of oils and mayo spreads to small doses (or skip completely) due to empty calories
Be aware of overall calories, maybe sticking to the small or 6-inch versions
If you are sensitive to the effect of sodium on blood pressure, limit having processed meats (salami, pepperoni) to once a week and instead focus on whole meats (chicken, turkey)

Eating a sub every day can be ok nutritionally, just easy to go over on calories (especially if you include chips and sodas). It can be expensive financially, though.

glassyo · February 5

I used to also have them gut the inside of the bread to shave a few calories.

Oh, and I'd leave off the cheese. I couldn't tell the difference anyway altho it's a nice bit of extra protein and fat.

Corina1143 · February 5

Theoretically, it's fine as long as it fits your goals.
Actually, only you can answer for you. Does it satisfy your hunger? Does it satisfy your soul? Does it make your life easier(easy to shop, easy decision, convenient) or harder (harder to plan other meals to meet goals, boring)?
Try it for a while. You can always change your mind later.

AnnPT77 · February 5

If your goals involve weight loss, fitness, and/or health, what matters is your calorie intake and nutrition averaged over a few days to a week. Any number of subs you can fit in while reasonably-happily sticking with your calorie goal and getting good nutrition would be fine. I don't know how many subs that is: It depends on details of your choices.

I know this isn't what you're implying, but . . .

If your goal is weight loss, what directly matters is your calorie intake on average. In that sense, if weight loss is your only goal, you could eat only subs and lose weight, as long as within calorie goal. In party-stunt diets, people have lost weight eating only food from McDonald's for all meals, eating almost entirely foods they could get at a convenience store, eating a large quantity of Twinkies and relatively little else, etc. They lost weight, and their health markers improved.

If eating only subs left you hungry/craving, or tanked your energy level, that could have an indirect effect on weight loss, but the direct mechanism would still be the calories from going over calorie goal because of appetite, or dragging through life from fatigue so burning fewer calories than predicted.

If health matters to you, then nutrition matters. I don't know how many subs you could eat and still get reasonable overall nutrition, but that would be the boundary condition there.

Personally, I virtually never eat subs. That's not because there's anything wrong with them in theory, but more because I don't enjoy bread very much, especially that type of bread. It's not worth the calories to me to eat them, other than the occasional one I might have while traveling when choices are limited. It's just a taste preference.

If you like subs, can fit them into your calorie goal, are reasonably full/energetic/happy doing it and can get nutrition that meets your personal standards, fit in as many as fit, no problem.

varianval · February 6

nossmf wrote: »

Subway once had an ad campaign featuring a man named Jared who famously lost a ton of weight while eating a Subway sandwich every single day for a year. There's nothing inherently wrong with subs, and can have a pretty good nutritional profile, if you follow a few simple rules:
Add vegetables for fiber and vitamins (lettuce is basically worthless, use spinach instead...trust me, uncooked spinach leaves are NOTHING like the cooked version!)

Limit use of oils and mayo spreads to small doses (or skip completely) due to empty calories

Be aware of overall calories, maybe sticking to the small or 6-inch versions

If you are sensitive to the effect of sodium on blood pressure, limit having processed meats (salami, pepperoni) to once a week and instead focus on whole meats (chicken, turkey)

Eating a sub every day can be ok nutritionally, just easy to go over on calories (especially if you include chips and sodas). It can be expensive financially, though.

It means i can subscribe my self to subway's sub of the day promotion with no fear. 😍

varianval · February 6

By the way, thank you all for your suggestions!!

neanderthin · February 6

1000 calories on average of some the crappiest and highly processed foods around. But, that's not going to stop many people, and hasn't.

nossmf · February 6

Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, @neanderthin. Sure, if you go large, lots of processed meats and mayo and cheese and bacon and whatnot, you can be right. But if you get a 6-inch sub on wheat, with grilled chicken and veggies but no mayo, you have a nutritionally healthy meal with lots of protein and fiber for only 400 calories. It's all in the choices you make.

neanderthin · February 6

Yeah for sure, although some 6" are as high as 750 calories. Health conscience people are one demographic of many and I'm sure they'll make good choices elsewhere as well, those aren't the ones I'm referring to. If most Americans were health conscience then we wouldn't be seeing around 75% of the population fat.

fast food sandwiches/subs

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