It’s true! You CAN eat pizza and lose weight. You CAN eat Big Mac’s and lose weight!
This is something that I see ads for, marketing for, and friends sharing posts about all the time. I myself even share the occasional “I eat ____ as part of my healthy diet”.
The disconnect is this – most people who eat this way don’t show, or talk about the other 90% of their diet. Because that wouldn’t appeal to the average person that wants a quick fix, minimal effort, life-changing plan.
There are some in the industry who do this very responsibly, and are very balanced about it and are very transparent about it. These people are my friends – I don’t associate with the other type – so if you are reading this I’m probably not talking about you 🙂
Then there are those who have an unhealthy relationship with food. They post about eating 2 pizzas and still having abs, but they then go on to skip their next 4 meals and chug away on the treadmill for 2 hours.
They preach about “eat what you love, get results” – but this isn’t true – because all YOU see is the “bad food” that they indulge in.
Be wary of these people. Be wary of someone who tells you that you can eat WHATEVER you want and still lose weight. The next question you should ask should be, “what quantity of whatever can I eat 🙂 “?
Look, it all comes down to creating a calorie deficit if the goal is to lose weight. We get it.
I could lose weight eating nothing but Ben and Jerry’s for 2 weeks.
Americone Dream (1 pint) – 1140 cals – 64 fat, 123 carbs, 17 protein
I could lose weight eating 2.5 pints of this per day. But that’s ALL I would get to eat.
How realistic is that?
I would give myself maybe 2 days before I –
- A) crapped my pants so bad,
- B) went insane and/or
- C) Ate my own arm off.
Yes, you COULD do this and lose weight. But it’s not realistic, AND you would become so deficient in many vitamins, minerals, and protein that your weight would be the least of your worries.
Again – you CAN eat whatever you want, but likely not how much you want, and still lose weight.
This is called balance, moderation, or managing – whatever adult term we want to use.
There are many ways to do this, eyeballing things and making general assumptions to literally measuring everything out and tracking macros to a T.
So how can you REALLY eat WHATEVER (not HOW MUCH) you want, and still get results and NOT end up deficient in nutrients or malnourished?
The Most Accurate Way – TRACKING LIKE A BOSS. Become “scale guy” or “scale girl”.
This works for some people – and I am super happy for them. But I also know many people who won’t do this, even though it damn near guarantees results.
After figuring out your goal intake, if you can hit 80% of your calories from nutrient-rich, balanced foods, you would be just fine hitting the other 20% from foods that you like to indulge in…but you probably can’t indulge in them.
Let’s say your calorie goal to lose weight is 1800 calories. 20% = 360 calories from “junk”. Well, you get a little over a half cup of Ben and Jerry’s. If you are like me, a half cup of ice cream is one spoonful.
But this is how it is done.
You make “adult decisions” earlier in the day if you plan on indulging later in the day. It’s really simple. You eat lower calorie, high protein, high nutrient-rich foods, then indulge later in the day on calorie-dense goodies. But everything is measured out perfectly.
The Eyeball Method
This might be less accurate, but it also still involves making responsible adult decisions.
If you KNOW you will be eating pizza and cake later, how can you “offset” those foods earlier?
Well, pizza and cake is mostly fat (cheese, pepperoni, butter) and carbs (the crust, sugar, flour) so maybe breakfast would be egg whites and veggies (high protein, low fat, low carb), snack 1 would be a protein shake, lunch would be a big ass salad with chicken, and snack two would be a Greek Yogurt and fruit.
It’s not as perfect as measuring and weighing, but it’s still making a conscientious decision to make changes earlier in the day, to enjoy later.
But here is where that approach can backfire…
Let’s say you eat 3 pieces of Little Cesar’s Cheese Pizza and 1 slice of Oreo Ice Cream Cake (1/12th of the cake…LOL, who only eats 1/12th of a cake!)
Well that little meal was 960 calories (122 carbs, 38 fat, 38 Protein)
So unless you offset by that much earlier in the day, you could STILL be in a calorie surplus aka weight gain zone.
This just shows how calorie-dense foods like pizza and ice cream cake and add up super fast! SUPER FAST!
These are usually cases where most people THINK they are “barely eating” and not losing weight.
I’m sorry to break it to you – but if if you don’t track something in your food journal or track it accurately – your body still will.
Whether you want to learn to use a food scale or just start eyeballing things, making a change for the positive is the right way to go.
The last bit of tough love for the day is this: people who say that diets void of treats, sweets, grease, and drinks every day are deprivation diets are full of you know what. How many years, decades, and centuries did people live just fine and healthy lives without junk food?
True moderation of these foods is much less than most people think.
True moderation is once a week, once a month, or “here and there” – not once per day, or even 3-4 times per week (depending on the food/drink).
While macros and calories matter, your quality of nutrition matters as well. It goes beyond the number on the scale. It is about internal health, blood health, gut health, heart health, skin health, and the true sustainability of a diet.
So yes, you can eat a little bit of what you want, and still lose weight, and feel batter – just probably not to the extent of what you might think.
Would you like more help on taking back your life, learning to love health and food again, figuring out how to find true balance, or just crush some goals and get the body of your dreams? IF so —> CHECK OUT ONLINE COACHING***
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Stay healthy my friends,