I was talking with an acquaintance last night at a ball game and she told me she could pretty much eat anything she wanted and she never gains weight. Well, we've talked about this before here at 3FC and it seems that many people who claim to eat all they want really don't WANT that much.

This kind of got me thinking about the "dream" diets out there. The"Eat all you want and still lose weight" plans always sound so appealing. But what if you REALLY could eat all you want and still lose weight/not gain weight? Do you think you would go back to your old ways of stuffing down everything? I have to wonder if the pay off was just more trips to the bathroom and I never saw an excess pound from grazing from sun-up to sun down, would food have the same hold on me? Would I just eat non-stop, or would food lose it's appeal? Guess I'll never know.

Well....truthfully. If I ate good clean healthy food as much as satisfied me and not stuffed me, I would eat 2200-2700 calories a day. That is where my body LIKES to be.

Unfortunately my AMR is closer to 1600 and there in lies the problem.

So if I could eat all the clean whole foods I wanted without gaining I would be very very happy. Maybe it would be easier to avoid the butter binges if I could smear avocado on everything.

I have a friend who can "eat all she wants", is not very active, but has never been overweight.

She is the same friend who will look at her watch at midnight and realize that she hasn't eaten all day. Food is not important to her, she hates to cook, she hates to grocery shop, it's not her priority.



So I agree, those who claim to be able to eat all they want without gaining weight are the same people who really don't obsess about food the way some of us fat chicks do.

Different hard-wiring, I guess...

Oh I'd definitely eat a lot more nuts and avocado

I can never see myself going back to where I was and not only because I no longer eat a lot of that stuff in any amount but because it just wasn't healthy for me mentally or physically.

I actually enjoy food now more than I ever did at my highest weight. Of course I'm still working on the portions thing to get my weight down some more.

i'm gonna be real with ya'll, i would eat pizza everyday. and bacon.

I wouldn't completely go back to the way I used to eat, because some of those foods hold little appeal for me now (like, little debbie snack cakes, cocoa puffs). I would continue to cook my same cooking light recipes, because they are tasty and easy to prepare and all of the unhealthy recipes in Martha Stewart, Gourmet, etc. are way too time-consuming. But if I could eat all I wanted and not gain weight, I would probably eat more for dinner than I do now and I would eat at least one dessert every day. Probably more than one. Even more on the weekend.

Yeah, I gain when I eat all I want...because I get so hungry. I have to eat very specific things to fill myself up on a certain daily calorie limit...and the only thing I can eat a lot of is veggies.

However, I must admit that processed foods and things like coffee shop goodies aren't nearly as appealing anymore...they're always a taste disappointment. My homemade creamcheese icing or apple cake, 'nother story.

I would likely eat the same foods I do now, just more of them.

For me, the novelty would wear off.

And being able to eat even more still wouldn't solve the problems that I couldn't solve before by eating a lot.

It would make going out to dinner more pleasurable, though. I don't mean because I'd shovel it in, in greater quantities. I mean because I could indulge in your traditional French fine dining that is heavier on the cream & butter. (Oh, yeah. You know what I'm thinking of, too: Really good cheese.) Heck, I live right near Manhattan & there is this whole culture of decadent dining that would open up to me. Particularly if I magically also got as much money as I wanted to spend whenever I wanted it without going broke. Which is about as probable as being able to eat whatever I wanted all the time.

Yeah, and let me ask for immortality while I'm at it, too. ;-)

I have too much respect for whole food to go back to what I ate before (processed, sugary, fatty, fast food and junk). But I would definitely include a daily glass of wine with dinner, eat more healthy fats (cashews are quite high on my favorite foods list, but so calorie-dense that they don't make it into my diet often), and include more whole grains than fit into my current calorie allowance. I'd have more calorie-dense snacks (trail mixes of nuts and dried fruit, for example, or a piece of whole grain toast with natural peanut butter). I'd increase my protein portions to 6-7 ounces, since I always seem to wait more once my moderate 4-oz portion is done.

I'd feel better about going out to eat at fine restaurants that cook with whole ingredients, but run toward the "butter/olive oil/cream" side of things associated with really good French and Italian cooking.

So I wouldn't go anywhere near my "old ways", but I wouldn't eat the way I do now, either.

Right this very second I'd be in the break room, devouring the entire made from scratch dark chocolate with chocolate icing bundt cake I made last night for a co-worker's birthday. I haven't had so much as a taste of the icing, but I'm told it's lovely...

I've discovered that my weight is the least of my food-related problems. The more I restrict carbohydrates, the better I feel. Right now I've got my autoimmune disease in an apparent remission (it's possible that I've just slowed the progression, but I'll take slow progression over raging degeneration any day). Whenever I overindulge in carbs, especially grains and sugars, I experience a reoccurrence of symptoms.

Autoimmune disease, once extremely rare, is becoming more and more common. The rate of increase is alarming. There's a good deal of research that suggests that grains and excessive carbohydrate intake are associated with autoimmune disease. Whether they cause or just aggravate AI may be a little less clear. Regardless, I suspect that many thin people are destroying their health by eating "whatever they want."

I think optimal (not just adequate) nutrition is a field of study that is grossly understudied (as is most preventive medicine).

I would not eat as healthy. Today we took a coworker out for lunch and I had a pretty bland salad (not much of a choice) while the four normal weight co-workers with me devoured BLT's, Burgers, Pulled BBQ pork, tater-tots and fries.

I sat there wishing I could have a burger with everything and fries - clean my plate like them and still look fabulous. But I know my body can't do that.

I like the way Mandalinn put it. It's a catch 22 for me. Right now, I am pretty much eating whatever I want and am losing weight. But what I want now is different than what I craved before.

With the cravings at play, I "want" very, very differently, and that's what put me up at 235 pounds.

So this is very complicated for me to answer. If I gave in to total wants, I'd be right back where I was. But I kept the sugary wants at bay, I'd be basically where I am now.