[modifyeddoll87]

the way i see it is i can either eat the junky foods im used to in smaller portions and lose weight

or i can start eatting better foods at lower calorie amounts so i can eat massive amounts

but i cant help but wonder is that okay to have a mindset like that ? is it okay to eat healthier with the sole purpose of simply eatting more ? does that feed into binge eatting?

[berryblondeboys]

your body wants to feel satisfied - satiated.

And it's a wonderful thing that healthier foods can be satiating! You get a healthy wallop of vitamins and minerals and feel full at the same time.

What is wrong with that? Maybe in your head you are like, "I'm only eating this so I can eat more and be less hungry", but it's the better way to eat to maintain your body's health.

And I find that what leads to binge eating are two things: trying to eat too little and your body feeling like it's starving so that eventually you go crazy and binge. OR, you eat so much sugar/starchy crap that your body keeps going on these sugary highs. When your blood sugar crashes, you might binge to up the sugar levels again (it's akin to being an alcoholic).

I have yet to year anyone saying that eating healthy foods leads to binging - even eating them in large amounts.

Of course, you need to be careful with things like nuts and avocados. Those are healthy, but they are also high calorie!

[bethFromDayton]

In The Beck Diet Solution--How to Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person, the author (Judith Beck, PhD) talks about feelings of fullness and says that many overweight people don't recognize when they are comfortable fully and tend to eat past that point. She says that learning to recognize comfortable fullness--still being able to take a brisk walk after eating--is one of the keys to successful weight loss.

Since "free foods" on most diets are not always going to be in plentiful supply, it's important to learn to recognize 'full enough' and make that the new normal.

This is something I'm working on.

She also suggests that many overweight people just plain like to eat, (DUH), and so need to learn to enjoy the food they are eating so that they are satisfied with it, instead of continuing to eat when they are no longer hungry.

(I love this book--I truly do). (It's not a diet food plan, it's a way of thinking about food, eating, and dieting.) (I recommend it to anyone who has disordered thinking about eating and food--which describes many of us)

The other thing that I find is that I can't just eat a "little" junk food--I spiral out of control way too quickly, so I need to eat healthier and control portion size.

Even after just 2 weeks (this time), I'm finding it much easier than I ever have before.

If you need, at this point in your journey, though, to eat larger portions, I'd work on food choices first, and then when food choices are more under control for you, work on portion sizes.

A lot depends, too, on what diet plan you're following--calorie counting, WW, carb restriction, JC, etc.--each one has their guidelines.

You're taking important steps--you can do this!

[betsy2013]

Berryblondeboys has hit the nail on the head. Portion control diets can work and allow for some junk food. The key word there is some. I tried a portion control diet once. I managed to gain 15 pounds by eating small portions of food way too many times per day. Obviously, portions are used even when eating a very healthy diet, but there's a big difference between an ounce of potato chips and a pound of green beans (and you'd still have 15 calories left over after the green beans) in terms of feeling full and in terms of eating what's good for your body.

[April Snow]

well, you shouldn't set out to eat "massive amounts" of anything. But there is nothing wrong with eating until you are satisfied and making healthy choices allows for more volume, which is what some people find very satisfying. And certainly, eating a lot of healthier foods is better for you overall, you aren't going to get all those same nutrients in junky food, no matter how much of it you eat.

But the thing about diets is that they only work when you can stay on them. And for some people, that means keeping their not optimally healthy foods in moderate quantities while for others, it means choosing different foods but being able to eat those foods until they are full. It really comes down to what is going to keep YOU on track, whatever that it. But I doubt too many people will say chosing the latter, and eating a lot of veggies plus other healthy foods so you do not get hungry is a bad approach.

[Devoncroix]

Eating healthier also helps to fuel your body and keeps you feeling full longer. Remember that cravings usually come from a lack of nutrients within the body. By eating junk food the signals get jammed/confused and instead of understanding what the body needs (carbs, proteins, hydration, vitamins, etc) we grab things that are salty or sweet to try to sate the cravings. The cravings continue because we have failed to provide the proper nutrients. We continue trying to sate them, which leads to binge eating, which as you can see is just a cycle of poor food choices. A good example is how a 1600 calorie fast food meal results in a person feeling super hungry only an hour after eating.

After eating healthy for a few years you will start to be able to sort through the noise a little better and understand what your body is asking for. Eventually the cravings will stop all together because you will be keeping your body in a constant state of health and satisfaction.

I could be wrong but I don't think anyone ever became obese by binging on carrots, broccoli and spinach.

[sassyangies]

I've always said that I'm a quantity person. So yes for me i would definetelly choose the healthy rate. Like they said you can not get obese eating a huge portion of veggies. and I find that even just a little junk food I can go off plan and it ruins it for me. I am just not ready for that yet. Plus once your eating healthy for awhile your body becomes used to the foods and your portions go down a little (at least with me). Now somedays I'm trying to add more variety with a little higher calories to fill the calories in because I'm not eating all my calories because I'm satisfied. Hope that makes sense. Good luck to you.. WE can do this!!

[CherryPie99]

I have lost 227 pounds eating "massive amounts" of vegetables. And I'm serious about this - I eat like 4-5 serving sizes of veggies at my night meal almost every night. I USED to eat my carbs like this - now I have a reasonable portion of carbs at night and instead stock up on the veggies and protein.

[synger]

Originally Posted by modifyeddoll87

the way i see it is i can either eat the junky foods im used to in smaller portions and lose weight

or i can start eatting better foods at lower calorie amounts so i can eat massive amounts

but i cant help but wonder is that okay to have a mindset like that ? is it okay to eat healthier with the sole purpose of simply eatting more ? does that feed into binge eatting?

I remember someone on here who very deliberately built her plan around volume... within her calorie limit, she chose foods that would fill her up over things that would not. She ate a lot of veggies, and she was very seldom hungry. Since hunger and habit are two of the main issues we have to overcome, I think it's a perfectly good plan of attack.

Originally Posted by bethFromDayton

In The Beck Diet Solution--How to Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person, the author (Judith Beck, PhD) talks about feelings of fullness and says that many overweight people don't recognize when they are comfortable fully and tend to eat past that point. She says that learning to recognize comfortable fullness--still being able to take a brisk walk after eating--is one of the keys to successful weight loss.

This is something that I found invaluable from my times doing intermittent fasting. Learning about what hunger really was, and acknowledging that I could, indeed, survive (and thrive!) eating only 500-600 calories one day, so long as I was eating 1500 the next, has "retrained" me so that I'm much more able to assess my hunger accurately, and to withstand "the munchies" that used to lead me to mindless eating.

Originally Posted by sassyangies

I've always said that I'm a quantity person. So yes for me i would definetelly choose the healthy rate. Like they said you can not get obese eating a huge portion of veggies. and I find that even just a little junk food I can go off plan and it ruins it for me. I am just not ready for that yet. Plus once your eating healthy for awhile your body becomes used to the foods and your portions go down a little (at least with me). Now somedays I'm trying to add more variety with a little higher calories to fill the calories in because I'm not eating all my calories because I'm satisfied. Hope that makes sense. Good luck to you.. WE can do this!!

I agree. There are days when I just don't bother adding the calories from a cup of steamed broccoli, or two cups of salad greens, to my food diary. THAT's not how I became obese! It's the dressing, and nuts, and cheese and such that did it. And that's the stuff I'm very careful to track.

Originally Posted by CherryPie99

I have lost 227 pounds eating "massive amounts" of vegetables. And I'm serious about this - I eat like 4-5 serving sizes of veggies at my night meal almost every night. I USED to eat my carbs like this - now I have a reasonable portion of carbs at night and instead stock up on the veggies and protein.

That sounds like a great plan for you. Volume and bulk really do help you feel full. Way to go!!

[linJber]

i seriously doubt you will get anywhere near the necessary nutrients eating your daily allowance of calories as junk food. You will lose weight, but it won't be healthy. I'd go for larger volume of healthy stuff almost all the time, and allow a junk food day if your schedule needs it once in a blue moon. I bet you find it's just easier to eat larger amounts of healthy foods, though.

Lin

[eliza422]

I have found I need to leave some wiggle room for the not so healthy choices. I do Jenny Craig, which also incorporates the Volumetrics concept, which is exactly what you are saying...you enhance your basic meals (in this case, the JC meals) with lots of vegetables.

On the other hand, I can *not* say "never again" to any food. It only makes me want it more, and none of the tricks people talk about work for me.

However, I have been at this long enough that it's not a very frequent occurrence anymore - but damn it, if I *crave* a Big Mac, then I will go have one.
I log it - and I move on. I'm not a binger or anything like that...but sometimes I just have to have that one thing.

I don't even use words like "junk" to describe fast food or candy or whatever...because that leads to judgement on what I'm eating which leads down a dark path.

[BeachBreeze2010]

I'm in the large volume, healthy food camp. When I eat even a little junk food, it makes me feel really icky - tired, depressed, upset stomach - which usually means I don't exercise that day (double whammy!). So, I cut it out except in very rare instances.

I've found that it's a lot easier to let go of the junk when I like the healthy food I eat. If I don't like it, I don't eat it. Thankfully, I LOVE a lot of fruits and veggies and beans. Fresh pineapple strawberry juice? Yum! Black beans, corn, jalapenos, cilantro, lime juice and wild rice? Yum! Experimenting with fresh foods is something I enjoy and it keeps the "junk food goblins" at bay. And then there's always - which do you want more? The junk food or to get to your goals? At some point, we have to be able to decide which we want more and be okay with the outcome of our choice.

A common quote around here: "Being fat is hard. Losing weight is hard. Maintenance is hard. Pick your hard." They all come with pros and cons. I've lived through the first one and it's not fun. For me, the junk isn't worth any of those things that I NEVER want to go back to!! And yes, losing and maintenance is hard too, but junk food doesn't hold a candle to the good things in my life because I said no.

Sorry if I got a little preachy, but I picked up on your reluctance to give up the junk and hope you'll think about why it is you're so attached to it? What is it doing for you?

[Goddess Jessica]

I caution anyone against the all-or-nothing mindset. I don't think you have to cut out junk food entirely and I think there's a lot of people who think they DO have to give up everything that is unhealthy in order to succeed. I think the problem is what happens when you stumble? And it happens. Do you just chuck it all and say, "Well, I guess it's back to junk food for me!" The all-or-nothing mindset can trick you into failure.

If you want junk food, I agree that you should examine they why but also, I don't deny that there are foods that comfort (that sometimes become needless habit). I love a cup of tea and when I am having a rough day, I love a cup of tea at night (decaf). But I assure you that when that habit was first set, it was a cup of tea with a package of cookies. For me, it was changing the ritual slightly to meet my needs, not getting rid of it entirely.