Can you eat what you like if you work out a lot?

[PermerlerErndersern]

If you work out 4 or 5 times a week or more, do you find you can eat or fdrink what you like without gaining weight? I’m not talking takeaways and wine every night, but weekly perhaps. And a lasagne another night, a macaroni cheese another etc..

No, I would pile on weight if I ate like that, and it wouldn’t matter what my activity levels were

It sucks!

You can eat what you like if you like small portions of healthy food.

How about replacing most of the pasta with broccoli or cauliflower and having a small portion alongside some fish or chicken?

Yes, but I was running 30-40 miles a week, which isn’t massively sustainable

Chicken and broccoli is not a ‘simple weight conscious swap’ for Mac and cheese 😂

Not for me. IMO weight management is 80% what you eat and portion size and 20% exercise.

Well you can eat your mac and cheese, as long as the portion is small. But generally no, only time I lost weight exercising and not dieting was when I was exercising on average 2-3 hours per day. For most people, that's not sustainable.
And extra calorie burn from having more muscle mass is minimal.

I teach fitness classes- 15 per week at the moment and sometimes more. I do eat what I want really and my weight doesn’t change. I don’t eat massive portions of anything really though as I’m quite small and it doesn’t take much food for me to feel full up so that’s probably a factor.

And although my weight doesn’t change, my energy levels and moods change according to what I’m eating. When I eat ‘cleaner’, I feel better. Also, although my actual weight and size doesn’t change, my body composition does, so when I’m eating badly, I’ll gain fat and lose muscle.

I’m 47 and peri menopausal for context.

I never said it was but it reduces the carbs and calories, increases the protein and still has some cheesy saucy pasta so might help the OP enjoy something that's less likely to cause weight gain.

The only time I managed to eat whatever I wanted with no impact was when I was training for a half marathon, running at least 30-40 km a week. I was always hungry no matter what I ate and still lost weight. The downside is that 30-40 km a week is quite a lot (at least I thought it was!), I would never be able to keep that up all the time.

I depends what ‘you like’ to eat and how much of it 😂 but probably not. Most people can’t burn enough calories for even a small splurge, it’s just too easy to consume calories. I used to do a lot of cycling and took some time off work and was cycling for hours a day. Obviously I was really fit by the end of it and could burn thousands of calories a day, but it takes a lot to get there.

You can't outrun a bad diet. And by god, have I tried. To be fair, if I didn't do a lot of exercise, I'd be bigger than I am, but I'm not even nearly as slim as my exercise profile suggests I should be!

I've run lots of ultra marathons,

51 miles only burnt 4000 calories

I could without putting on weight but it still wouldn't be healthy.

No. It was one of the most depressing things when I got a PT and she said she has to watch what she eats too. 🙈

No, I would say I exercise quite a lot and it makes very little difference to my weight. It’s good for me in other ways and makes me feel stronger but I can only control my weight through diet.

I think you can eat what you like if you don't eat tonnes of it. Genetics also play a part. I'm 40 and only weight half a stone more than I did at 18 and I think part of that is from gaining muscle since joining the gym. I've always been slim and eaten what I wanted but I watched a documentary a while ago about why slim people are slim and a lot if it rang true with me. I never eat breakfast mainly because I've always worked shifts that mean getting up early so I can't face it. I recognise when I'm full and won't eat if I'm not hungry. I also think my portions are quite small. Having said that I can sometimes sit and eat a big bar of dairy milk. I keep seeing things online about being in a calorie deficit and I think that it's true it doesn't really matter what your eating as long as you are in a calorie deficit if you want to loose weight or have found the right amount of calories to maintain the weight you are at.

No you can't out exercise a bad diet sadly

I work out twice a week and eat whatever I like whenever I like and not put on weight. It might be the dna though!

Nope
i think the body just adapts quickly to more exercise so any initial weight loss rapidly ceases

You can outrun a bad diet…but it has to be really extreme. I once spent six weeks cycling 12 hours a day, on a loaded bike along a mountain range. I ate more or less as much as my digestive system would take, probably 5k calories a day, and still lost a kg every week. So it’s possible.

But good luck fitting that into every day life! If you’re like most of us and exercise means squeezing in an hour or two a day, then no, you can’t outrun a bad diet and you still need to watch what you eat. Unfortunately.

Sadly not OP! I run 20 miles a week and have only started to finally shift a couple of lbs the last few weeks as I’ve been tracking my calories in MFP and sticking to 1500 90% of the time. And that is slow going, I’m talking half a pound to a pound weight loss per week. I also average at least 10k steps per day!

If fitness was your job and you worked out every single day, including a lot of running and weight training, then perhaps, but you’re asking about 4-5 workouts a week - no chance!

I could when I was running 50-70 miles a week. But now I have two small children.

Age is also a factor. Younger people can get away with some poorer diet it seems but as many of us know you change with age and your diet has to change. Exercise, a sensible balanced diet, portion control all play their part