Eating what you want and losing weight

When I lost 22 kg 5 years ago with weight watchers, I had exactly the same attitude - eat what you want and don't deny yourself the treats you love. If you make sure you're under your calorie count (or "points"), you will still lose weight.
This worked initially, but I was never able to lose the last 10kg that I wanted to. I tried and tried - for 4 years. In the last year, even though I always kept under my "points" I still ended up gaining weight, until I almost ended up back at the same weight I started with. I don't eat fast foods at all (being vegetarian), but I would constantly crave carby sugary things, such as muslei bars. The up and down sugar spikes constantly send me back to the pantry, and I felt my cravings were controlling my life.
Eventually, I released that the only thing that worked for me was to completely change my eating habits - I switched to wholesome foods (mostly eating fresh fruit, vegetables, limited grains and as much protein as possible). I also tried to cut out sugar as much as possible. This made a significant impact on me and my body. I look and feel better. I have lost 12 kg in the last 3 months and I feel healthier than I have ever been. I do however believe that if you have no control over your situation and your food choices (such as the party I was at on the weekend), then you make the best choices you can and don't beat yourself up about it. In this day and age, it is very difficult to completely avoid "junk" food, but when I can control my choices, I have an obligation to my future self to eat the right foods to ensure a happy healthy life for me and my family.

The truth is, yes, I can eat what I want and still lose weight as long as I stay under a certain amount of calories or burn off whatever excess I eat, but it doesn't work like that for me.

I eat what I want, then I crave more of it. Certain things seem to trigger more hunger, too. I don't mean entirely head hunger, either, I mean stomach growling hunger. So I'm trying to avoid those foods now.

I'd prefer to be able to eat a couple bites of icecream, a small piece of chocolate, and even a soda once or twice a week, but that wasn't working out for me. I was having too many bad days. So now I'm going to see if low carb works for me. If that doesn't do the trick in the long run, I honestly don't know what I'm going to try. Diet pills, maybe.

I'm not saying others can't eat what they want in moderation, because many can and do and still lose weight. It just wasn't working for me.

i eat what i want but in moderation, i dont want my weight loss journey to be torture by depriving myself of the food i love, even junk food.

I suppose the OP is right but I don't think it's a safe or healthy thing to advocate.

There are so many people here on MFP who are just looking for an excuse to not make life changes. There are so many folks here looking for the easy way out. The reality is that for the average person on here, they are looking for any excuse NOT to change their behavior so telling folks "Oh sure, you can eat like crap and still lose weight" is just the excuse they are looking for.

I also don't think the "eat crap, just eat less of it" approach is sustainable. It doesn't make logical sense that if you ate like crap and got fat, that you can sustain eating like crap and stay thin. Sustainable weight loss comes with behavioral changes, and that usually means changing how you fuel yourself.

Also, telling folks that the quality of food they put in their body for long term health doesn't matter seems irresponsible.

I guess the saying goes, "We always want what we can't have". I really thought I was starting to eat right and cutting back but when I started on MFP today I realized I needed to cut back even more by 500 calories. I think I am going to starve...

Totally true, you can lose weight with any type of food as long as you have a caloric deficit. But, weight is not the only aspect of health.

Right ... in the end junk is real bad for you, so why even entertain it?

Totally true, you can lose weight with any type of food as long as you have a caloric deficit. But, weight is not the only aspect of health.

Right ... in the end junk is real bad for you, so why even entertain it?

It's a matter of dosage and context. Junk food is not "real bad for you" under all circumstances. If you can eat "some" junk food without any ill effects, why wouldn't you?

Every morning I wake up and I smoke a cigarette. And for breakfast I eat five strips of bacon. And for lunch a bacon sandwich. And for a mid day snack...BACON. A WHOLE DAMN PLATE. and I usually drink my dinner. Now according to all those flat belly experts, I shoulda took a dirt nap 30 years ago! Just goes to show ya.

hahahahahaha Grumpy Old Men Love it!!!

I've read countless amounts of crap from people on this forum that just doesn't make sense, for example in order to lose weight you need to eat wholesome foods and NO junk food, to lose weight. But the truth is, you can eat what you want and lose weight - no, it's not ideal, you obviously need X amount of vitamins, protein etc, however anyone can lose weight eating what they want, as long as it's within their calorie allowance.

There is an interesting read on the link below, a scientist eats nothing but Twinkies and junk food for two months and, would you believe it, lost weight. He took tablets for his vitamins and what not, but it just goes to show that these "only eat wholesome to lose weight" preachers are people who fell off a bandwagon somewhere along the way.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

Moral of the story? You CAN eat junk food (although it should be in moderation IMO) and lose weight - please do not listen to these ney sayers who claim eating junk food will result in not losing weight.

MaverickUK2K,

While it may be true that you can eat whatever you want as long as you are expending more calories that you are taking in, you will never have a fit, healthy, good looking body if you do that. And I think you're chastising without realizing the reality of these forums and the people on them.

Most people equate losing weight with getting the body they want. They equate losing with getting healthy and getting fit and trim. You're upset because you think in literal terms only and you don't see what most people see.

The FACT is that HEALTHY, SUSTAINABLE WEIGHT LOSS can only be done eating healthy, wholesome foods. And even your twinkie-eating scientist has to admit to that one.

Oh btw, if all I ate was twinkies...even if it was only 1200 calories...I would blow up like a balloon. So perhaps they should have used a wide range of people for their little scientific test so it would be a real test and not a total, non-scientific, absolute fail. What that scientist did proved only that HE could lose weight eating that way. It proved NOTHING about the majority of the population.

This!!

I have to agree with some of the other posters. When I want to be a piggy, I crave real food (like extra chicken or pancakes) not junk.