You could certainly have cereal for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch everyday, and a burger once in a while, as the basis of a healthy way of eating. But if it's Frosted Flakes and a high fat sandwich, you'll find that portions have to be very small, you aren't getting good nutrition out of your calories, and you may have health consequences from the sugar and saturated fat.

You definitely want to also pay attention to you sugar and fat intake. Even if you're good on your calories, having burgers and fries isn't going to do you any good what so ever. If you want cereal, pick a nutrient-dense fiber packed cereal, don't have Lucky Charms or any of that garbage.

Once I started counting, I stopped eating a lot of things I used to have a regular basis. I realized eating certain things definitely wasn't worth the calorie intake.

Count calories and make healthier choices. Save burgers for your "cheat" day.

It does make a difference if you want to maintain a weight loss and be healthy. They way you eat now didn't keep the pounds off so just eating less isn't going to do a lot either. You body needs certain nutrients that come from what you eat. I'd have a burger OR fries, once a month, not both at the same time. I eat oatmeal or Fiber One for cereal but I always make sure to have a bit of protein at every meal and snack. Protein is what keeps you satisfied.

For weight loss, it may not matter. For health, it could. But, "how healthy, do you have to be," is a question you have to ask yourself. You could choose to go organic, whole foods, no chemical additives of any kind, etc... or you might decide on a more moderate approach, or you could choose to eat mostly junk.

Personally, I think most people do best (or maybe just me) starting at what they "normally" eat, and strive for improving that over time. It can be hard to know what an optimally healthy diet looks like, but it's alot easier to see ways to improve what you're currently eating (for example deciding to eat more fruits and vegetables, or choosing a higher fiber cereal than you're currently eating). Making changes over time, also has the advantages of not having to get used to a drastically different diet overnight.

Not an easy answer, but it's not an easy question (at least not one, with a black and white answer). There are people who will tell you that you HAVE to give up beef to be healthy. There are other people who will tell you that you have to eliminate ALL processed carbohydrates to be healthy. And there are alot of other opinions out there too.

A good basic nutrition book can help a great deal (though many people will disagree with the advice in any book).

Confused yet? It's really not that bad, as long as you focus on progress or improvement rather than perfection. I have NO idea what perfect looks like, but I DO know what better looks like, so I strive for that.

I count calories which has worked for me a lot. Counting fat and carbs if important in my opinion b/c you can eat healthier and make sure the weight stays off. I think it is important what calories you eat. As far as other foods such as the burger, fries, cereals etc. Its all about moderation, you can have burgers as long as you find a recipe that cuts out on the amount of calories and fat grams, you can substitute baked fries rather than the french fries. etc, etc.

Bottom line is you can still have some of the same foods with a healthier recipe for it and still enjoy some of the same foods.

Obvious health benefits aside...
What I eat is very important to me because it dictates how much I can eat. I hate blowing my 'budget' on junk and prefer to load up on a ton of veggies, lean proteins and a full stomach.
Satiation, not the feeling of starvation has been what's kept me going 100% on plan.

I agree with earlier posters. I feel that quality foods within my calorie allotment is what works best for me. I would much rather have a nice plate full of lean protein, veggies and salad and feel satisfied and happy for hours, than a tiny portion of a muffin or something and be starving a short time later.

I save my "junk" foods for cheat days or meals. I am not into "nutrition perfection" and I don't believe in depriving myself of any food group, altogether. But I do try to make smart choices and keep the majority of my diet in the healthy range.

Did that make any sense, at all?

It certainly does, and that's one of the BEST reasons to me, as well. "Junk" only makes me hungrier for more junk. For me, even some healthy foods, trigger cravings and hunger. So I'm pragmatic about my food choices. I want to balance eating what I want and enjoy, with what is good for my body, and with what what makes this journey as easy on me as possible.

There are foods that are "win-win-win..." choices (nutritionally sound, low-calorie, quick and easy to prepare, inexpensive, filling and great tasting). Many others have a win/lose profile that's a bit more complicated. Picking the best choices I can, in terms of everything I'm looking for, sometimes is a bit more complicated. Oddly though, the more practice I get at this, the less complicated it becomes.

Basically what everyone else said. I find myself thinking things like, I don't want that, it's too 'expensive'. I swear, since I started counting calories, I'm eating healthier, but I'mn also eating more and things that taste better than ever before. Plus, once I started looking at how many calories are in certain things it freaked me out.

while i don't count calories on my plan I am aware of them. and what you eat counts for health but also look at it this way:


breakfast
cottage cheese
veggies

snack
fruit
low fat string cheese

lunch
salad
lean turkey
low fat cheese
dressing

snack
carrots
hummus

dinner
lean protein
salad
green veggie
sweet potato

snack
low fat popcorn


vs:

breakfast
1 fast food breakfast

snack
none used all my calories at breakfast

lunch
chips
burger on a bun

snack
none ate too many calories at lunch


dinner
pizza


snack
none no calories left


the better quality of food you eat the more you get to eat.

I think you can once in a while eat what you want if within your calories. Kind of like saving up.

I eat a 3 pack of reeses most nights as a snack, as long as I've saved room for it. Some nights one cup of ice cream.

I don't think its what you eat, as long as your fat levels are within a good range 25% to 35%.

Cause you know, if you want it and *can't* have it - the diet is going out the window sooner or later.

So--as you can see, BuuBuu, the answer is, yes! And it has to do with getting enough of the three main food groups: protein, carbohydrate, and fat--and also getting enough micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, and so on).

It would be really easy to eat 1200 cals of ice cream, but where would that leave you, nutritionally? Well, among other things, it would leave you hungry if that was all you could eat that day.

Once you start looking up how many calories are really in "junk food," you'll begin to see that it's not worth eating them when you're trying to lose weight. In fact, it's not worth eating them anyway, in my book! I mean, a small order of fries from McD's is 230 cals... Say WHAT??? 100 of those calories are fat calories.

And so on...

Jay

The choice of foods you eat does matter, for a lot of reasons, many of which have already been outlined by other posters. It is possible to lose weight by eating fewer calories, even if those calories are not healthy choices. But you could undermine your health and significantly reduce your chances of success -- both in the short and long term.

1) When you are restricting calories, it is harder to get the nutrients your body needs in fewer calories. By focusing on healthy foods, you can actually get better nutrition while losing weight. In my case, I have recently noticed my memory improving(!). I think it may be in part due to my currently healthy diet (the other part being increased exercise).

2) A "volumetrics" approach (focus on low calorie density foods) can help make hunger less of an issue during calorie restriction, particularly the transition period. Foods high in water (soup, veggies) or fiber (bran cereal) leave you fuller on fewer calories. Luckily, I love cabbage soup and veggies of all sorts, and I still rely on them to provide a lot of bulk.

3) Avoiding highly refined carbs (white sugar, flour) and/or paying attention to the glycemic index of foods (as well as incorporating more fiber) can help keep your blood sugar from crashing between meals. If my blood sugar crashes, I feel irritable, deprived, ravenous, unenergetic, and generally lousy. I am much less likely to exercise and I am in danger of binging.

4) Lots of people have a few "trigger foods" (or trigger situations) that cause them to go off-plan when they eat them. If you have trigger foods, it's a good idea to have a strategy for dealing with them. One option is total avoidance (adopting the attitude of "I choose not to eat that food; it doesn't work for me"). Another option is working it into your eating plan on a regular basis, accounting for the calories. There are other options that can work (only at holidays, only at Mom's house, etc) but I think it is important to find the strategy that works for you for those foods, and eliminating them might be the right answer.

5) What do you want to look like a year from now? Five years? Ten years? What you want to be able to tell your doctor about your diet whenever you get a physical? Think about the food choices that make sense for long term goals. If you eat healthy, you actually start to crave healthy foods. Getting your taste buds to crave healthy foods now will help you reach those long term goals.

Good luck, whatever path you take!

I agree with just about everything that's been posted.

Since I started counting calories and looking at labels, I am much choosier in what I eat. I try to pick foods that are low in calories per serving, so I get to eat more food when I stick with the healthier option.

For me it's been a matter of altering my food choices, and not really about forbidding myself anything. I regularly eat cereal, tacos, burgers, fries, pizza and lots of things like that. However, they are now much healthier versions of the "real" thing, so they are lower in calories and fat.

This means I get to eat more food at a meal, which fills me up and keeps me going.