1500 cal burn then eat crap???

I feel you.
I do that sometimes and feel HORRIBLE!
My solution is to plan a weekly "free day" where I eat to maintenance, and a monthly binge where I eat like a pig anything and as much as I want all day.

I usually average around 8-10 thousand calories.
LOVE IT!

This gives me the satisfaction I need as well as a sense of control.

This is a lifestyle change, not a "diet"! You can have whatever you want in moderation. Portion control is a key thing.

You also should only worry about yourself and not what others are doing. Its their bodies not yours.

I've lost 23lbs since being on MFP, (started Oct. 7th, 2011) and I eat what I like, I'm not going to give up ice cream for the rest of my life or breads, pasta and so on. Before I joined I had already lost 35lbs. So 58lbs down and I eat what I want and do what I want.

So don't worry about the others, offer helpful suggestions when asked and just be there to say hey your doing great and to give some motivation when you notice someone struggling.

We are all different and do things in different ways.

P.S. The word diet shouldn't be used. Your changing the lifestyle your led before.

Good luck too everyone here.

I eat what I want, when I want, & how much I want AND log everything. I SOMETIMES (like yesterday) go to the gym & work extra hard JUST so I can eat more. As one lovely lady has saId at the bottom of her post... "perfection isn't attainable, but happiness is." something I definitely live by... While rocking the world out of my bikini. So good luck & super kudos to those who eat ZERO junk food, which means there's a LITTLE more for me on the DAYS that I want it. :drinker: :flowerforyou: :happy:

I love having total binge days where I have cake for breakfast, pizza for lunch, then go out for drinks and appetizers for dinner. I don't log those days, because the point in them for me is to enjoy what I'm eating and I'm not enjoying it if I'm weighing/measuring everything and counting how many tortilla chips I dipped in queso.

I don't eat like that every day, and it doesn't affect my progress. Maybe I'd have a flatter stomach if I never ate like that. Maybe I'd be a faster runner. But... I don't care. I'm not a fitness model and I'm not a professional athlete. I'm a middle aged wife, artist and web publisher. :laugh:

Perfection isn't attainable. Happiness is.

amen! amen! I will never judge what is on your plate, do me the favor of not judging mine. Eating healthy should be a goal, loving your body beyond a weigh issue....BUT there will be splurges. We already feel enough personal guilt over foods we choose, we dont need anyone to point out to us what a LOSER we are, that we arent SERIOUS about our health, because we just hit up the local buffet....Come on now....
Should we start on smokers next....bc why would you exercise and eat healthy, yet smoke? (I am not judging here, only making a point...)

Many of us have been on this so-called "journey" before. The reason we didn't stay slim was in many case because we chose a route that wasn't sustainable. Personally I couldn't get round a 10-mile run or club tempo repeats without daydreaming of the heaping roast dinner washed down with a few glasses of wine I'll be having later. Today's was beyond awesome, thankyouverymuch :drinker:

A million times this! If I didn't allow myself 'junk food' I would have given up ages ago. Being able to eat something 'junk' keep me on the straight and narrow at other times. For me it's mental far more that physical.

I totally get having a little something..but like 2 or 3 meals or even a day of crap?? u just destroyed all your hard work...wether your goal is to lose weight or eat healthy etc...it still seems pointless...when I go into maintenance I am looking forward to being able to eat a little n not gain but by no means will I burn a crap ton of calories to throw it away by eating 500 cals of fat,sodium n crap...

My boyfriend loses 6-8 lbs a week and every sunday he takes a day off and eats breakfast tacos and donuts and i think he's wanting whataburger tonight. He gets away with it b/c he eats super clean all week and works out everyday and he has alot of muscle mass. His maintenance calories are pretty high. he burns like 1000 calories on the elliptical for 30 min where as i would only burn 300. At first I was like, are you crazy, you can't be eating like that all day. but it's worked for him every single week! basically i think he's just eating maintenance calories every sunday. I have a "carb up" day on sunday where i eat alittle more too. but i don't go over my maintenance calories. it really works for him b/c it keeps him motivated all week and he knows he can't give up some o fhis favorite foods forever. but it's really all about finding what works for you and not judging what others do. We all have our own paths and our own eating styles that will work for us. Saying someone else's "way" is stupid, is not nice at all. Look at the little ticker on there page and if it says they've lost weight, any weight, i wouldn't say their diet is stupid.