Can I eat anything as long as I in a calorie deficit and lose weight?

[Willthiswork78]

Within reason! Generally I eat very healthily and calorie count but I limit myself so much I then end up getting fed and eating "bad" food.

Today I've had breakfast - fruit and yoghurt
Lunch - poached eggs on wholemeal toast
Dinner - cod with cous cous, peas, broccoli and courgetti.

A very good day really, came in at 1100 calories.

I've now just had a cornetto which was 150 calories so I'm still well within my 1600 limit and it's a balanced day.

I know there's no such thing as bad food, good food really but I need something that will work for me. Because what I've tried for years doesn't work. I always feel I have to be all or nothing and I'm wondering if this might be a more sustainable way of shifting the weight without having massive binges.

I quite like things like sweet snak a jaks, but are these OK to have? I always worry about sweeteners.

I have 18lb to lose and I'm 45, also peri menopausal.

I think UPF's are bad but a diet shouldn't really be a diet but a lifestyle change and most people will want a packet of crisps or a biscuit or pizza now and again so it is probably better to fit that into your new lifestyle as opposed to making them forbidden in the short term as for many people that sets them up to binge and for thinking that one bad food means the diet is ruined and they may as well over eat crap.

I personally eat mostly home cooked wholefoods but I sometimes have something like ice cream or chocolate.

Yes, absolutely. Most days I'm healthy, some days I eat junk and toast. As long as I'm within my calories, I continue to lose weight.

Worked for me and I lost weight. Some days I just really wanted a slice of cake and chocolate bar for dinner so I did as long as it was within my calorie allowance.

Yep. You can eat anything and lose weight in a calorie deficit. It just doesn't necessarily mean you'll be healthy.
What you are doing sounds fine though.

80% good for the body, 20% good for the soul! That's how someone described it on another forum I'm on, and it makes sense to me.
(If only I could stick to it)

I always say that you need to find a diet that works for you. The key is to be in a calorie defecit and how you go about eating in a way that you can maintain for a long period of time is the key to success.

Some people swear by intermittent fasting, whereas it makes other people binge eat when they do eat, or makes them miserable. Some do low carb, some do calorie counting and only eat clean, others miss a nightly bar of chocolate treat and can't eat clean, there'shundreds of diets out there to chose from...

Find what works for you and do that!
Your diet sounds great and it's generally how I eat. 3 balanced meals containing carbs, fat and protein with lots of veg, an apple or a cappuccino as an afternoon snack, then always a bar of chocolate, ice cream, hot chocolate, bag of popcorn or crisps, etc in the evening as a treat that I look forwards to. I've used this method to successfully, steadily lose weight and keep it off.

I'm breastfeeding at the minute, so am not concentrating on losing weight and just enjoying bigger portions, but as soon as I'm done, I'll rein it in and I know that I'll steadily and slowly drop the weight without feeling deprived.

Good luck!

For me anyway I'm better of eating something I really like once a day rather than having 3 healthy meals a day. I find if I start with breakfast it makes me hungry for the rest of the day . So yes sometimes my food for the day is McDonalds or a chippie. Not good I know.

Sorry it was a typo - shaking your cream cake did make me laugh! No idea where the word vibrating came from 🤔

I don't have treats everyday I just pick two days a week, say Wednesday and Saturday but still try to stay in my calories, also if I am going to have a treat say crisps I would choose quavers and they're lower calories than normal crisps, if I was having a lolly I'd choose a solero as it's only 97 calories.
I also make sure I have plenty of fruit in the house like strawberries to snack on as you can have quite a few for minimal calories.

no, because sugar and artificial sweeteners cause massive insulin spikes which interfere with your metabolism. HPF and vegetable oil have massive massive omega6 to omega 3 rations which cause metabolism to slow down, and weight gain

Read "Whys we eat too much" be Andrew Jenkinson

Also I've just started doing water aerobics and am really enjoying it and finding it's helping the weight come off easier. X

If you are going to have a treat, keep it as 'pure' as possible IE a scoop of expensive/homemade ice cream with fewer ingredients would be a better option than a Cornetto. A square of dark chocolate rather than lots of milk chocolate. Plain, sliced potato crisps rather than pringles etc.
The more processed a food, the worse it is for you overall basically.
Drink lots of water.
Remember it's often harder to loose weight when menopausal.

I found that once I knew the awfulness of UPF food I stopped thinking of them as "treats" and thought of them as revolting items that just happened to be edible. As this thread has explained, it's not just calories in/calories out, it's a little more complex than that

Spinach has different nutrition to a cornetto, but thats all you can say

Spinach contains no carbs at all and no fat. The body needs carbs and fat in some form, to some degree and a cornette supplies both of those.

A cornetto has little fibre ( a little in the cone), spinach has fibre. Spinach has folic acid, Im not sure about how much is in a cornetto.

Spinach has very low calories which is fine if thats what you need, if your objective is to have a couple of hundred calories, the cornetto would deliver this.

I understand that UPF is low in nutritional value and that whole foods are better for you in terms of health, but a cornetto will not make you fat if your are eating it within a calorie defecit.

There are "junkorexics" - anorexics who can only eat ultra processed junk food as it's the only thing that they feel safe eating. These individuals are severely underweight, some have been for years, and can lose weight eating like this. Granted, their health is in tatters and they are malnourished but they are proof that you can eat a bar of chocolate or packet of crisps and not get fat, even in the long term.

There have also been many studies to show that it's calories in v calories out which is the determining factor in weight loss. Some have put participants on UPF diets, but in a defecit v others who eat "clean" in the same defecit and both groups lost weight.

Yes, if you eat veg the fibre isn't digested, so not all calories are digested, same with things like nuts. Protein takes marginally more calories to digest than if you ate carbs or fat.

If your goal is health, then yes, eat whole foods. But IMO excluding everything can make you miserable and more likely to fall off the diet. So if a cornetto is going to help you stay on track, by all means enjoy it! Just keep tracking your calories and keep in a defecit.

Thank you Pitstop, totally agree.
I hardly ever drink alcohol, don't smoke, generally I'm very healthy. But if I restrict myself too much I end up rifling through cupboards mid afternoon looking for sugar. There is also the risk of once starting on sweet things I can't stop but yesterday I did ok

Chocolate rice cakes amd dark chocolate are good.
I know on the one hand I'm eating processed food (chocolate rice cakes) and on the other hand the "good" sweet stuff like dark chocolate but if it works.
Also by allowing myself sweet treats they massively lose their appeal anyway.

As a reformed binge eater who eats my feelings this is extremely helpful.

Yes I do this and I have lost just over 5 stone in about 14 months. Not the fastest weight loss but I wanted it to fit in with my life and be a bit more sustainable than diets I have done in the past.

I eat out and have been on numerous holidays and nights out. I try to choose better options but sometimes I don't.

I log everything into nutracheck.
One thing I do is concentrate on is protein and fibre and try not to choose high fat. Too many carbs don't suit me so I try to choose better types.

I don't eat everything I want because that's what got me 5 stone too heavy in the first place but if I want something I have it I just log it and carry on.
I noticed quickly that eating better meant I could eat way more than eating rubbish because my calories were being used up super fast.

I definitely think treats are important, or the whole thing becomes joyless and you are more likely to abandon it.

Ah shoot! Too bad, I think with if you could just vibrate your food and eat what you like and still lose weight you'd be a millionaire!

The issue with UPF is that they are “condensed”. So a lot of calories for a small volume.

so you feel like you’re eating less for more calories.

i actually find a upf diet easier for losing weight. Easier to control portions, and easier to count calories.

home cooked is very much a gamble as to calories, it’s an estimate based on ingredients. Then portions aren’t exact either. Whereas I can have a lasagne ready meal and know I’ve had a 400g portion for 400 calories.

i tend to do things like have ready made curry sauce, which I know is 300 calories. Then I’ll stir fry a load of peppers, onions, other veg and have with to bulk it up.

Some will say yes. Some will say no.
Personally I think there are very definitely good snd bad foods and it very much does matter what you eat (even day I say it, more than number of calories)

I am a bit of a low UPF convert. I have stopped counting calories and cut down drastically ultra processed foods. I am feeling healthier and I am losing weight.
Calorie counting doesn't do me favours as I would avoid too many healthy foods to save for junk.

I believe eating healthy burns more calories due to generally better body health and higher energy.

That said, nothing wrong with the odd treat
Just not eating 2000kcal on junk.

If I ate 400 calories of cookies for breakfast I would feel awful, my blood sugars would crash later, I wouldn't feel like exercising and my mood would be pretty rubbish as a result.

If I ate 400 calories for breakfast made from an omelette with some avocado and some berries I would feel great and full of energy, more inclined to exercise, more inclined to keep the momentum and continue eating well for the rest of the day.

For me, what I eat is very closely linked to how I feel and act. I feel rubbish if I eat rubbish. My exercise suffers if I don't put the right fuel in. My hormonal balance suffers. Everything.

I do treat myself but in a way that keeps my energy levels steady. E.g. if I want some chocolate I might melt a few squares and mix it with a handful of nuts, and that way it is more volume and keeps me full, plus I get protein / fibre and healthy fats. Whereas if I just ate chocolate by itself I'd feel rubbish afterwards and it wouldn't satisfy me.

I try and focus on keeping my blood sugar levels steady and having lots of energy for exercise, rather than calorie counting.

I home cook everything and measuring and weighing and calculating is a complete ball ache. I do it because Im a fuss pot, not because Im one of these people going on about UPFs. Very occassionally if I get a ready meal and then divide it up or something, I think, wow that was easy, calories, fat and protein/carbs already calculated

I batch cook a lot of things so save them into portion sizes, but its hard work.

This way of losing weight works well for me, and it helps knowing you can have the occasional treat without feeling guilty.

I always make sure I eat meals that are satisfying and so I'm less likely to feel hungry between times so you are less tempted to snack.

Logging everything is really working for me.
Had some dark chocolate mid afternoon, two pieces then another two which could have sent me into a "sod it" binge. But I logged them and total calories for the day came to 1250.

Breakfast - rice cakes and cottage cheese
Lunch - huge three egg omelette with spinach, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, few green olives and cheese. Was delicious!
Dinner - veggie and tofu curry with small amount of rice
Snack- 4 squares dark chocolate
Also a protein shake.

There is growing research to show that what we eat is more important than we first thought and it isn’t really just as simple as calories in vs calories out. The calories on a pack aren’t necessarily the calories that you will absorb. Different people could absorb a different number of calories from exactly the same food. You say you generally eat very healthily so I don’t think you need to worry - everyone needs a treat occasionally!
Why We Eat (Too Much) is an very interesting book!