I am curious to hear from people who have been met their goal or have been successful in losing significant amounts of weight...

Do you all even use all the low fat/ fat free mayo, butter, salad dressing etc. ?

Or do you use the real stuff only use sparingly or all just together stop using all the dozens of sauces and condiments we use that seems to me to cover up the true flavor of what you are eating?

There seems to be a low fat/ low cal alternative to just about everything now a days but none really taste like what it is supposed to replace.

I have yet to find anything even remotely close to replacing salt in my diet that's low sodium.

Good question, thanks for thinking of it. I am curious what others are doing too.
Alot of the low fat condiments are not available to me, as I don't tolerate corn (maize) very well, and they are usually stretched with cornstarch.
I use regular mayo on sandwiches, find it is easier to spread thinly than butter. I use a tiny amount of butter when frying eggs etc. cause I want the flavour, but use cooking spray for the pan.
I use sea salt, but only after cooking and have never been a big salt eater.
Only use non-fat yoghurt, use 1% or skim milk, and am enjoying the breyers low fat ice cream sandwiches and little ice cream cups from time to time.
For ketchup, I use blue menu sugar free ketchup. I love pickles so they are fine.
I don't use low cal dressing, but use good olive oil and vinegar dressing sparingly so I get healthy fat.

I have to say that for the most part I eat the full fat stuff and just a little less of it. Things like yogurt and milk i eat reduced fat. No fat free for me. BLECH. Its about moderation. Some people enjoy the reduced fat but things like cheese, mayo, butter, some dressings i eat the real stuff. Plus most of the reduced fat and fat free stuff has way more additives.

ETA: I cant help much with the salt. I dont watch my sodium really. Im on a high sodium diet (dr's orders) for low blood pressure. But i have tried pink sea salt and thats not too bad and you use a lot less of it than regular salt.

I use some low-fat foods but no fat-free foods. I usually skipped the mayonnaise during weight loss, but if I decided to fit some in, I would use the regular mayonnaise and measure it carefully. A tablespoon goes a long way! Also, I like dijonnaise, which is a creamy mustard-type condiment that's naturally low-cal and good on sandwiches.

As for other condiments--I don't know whether salad dressing is considered a condiment by everyone, but for those I usually use light dressings like Newman's Balsamic Light. I also use the salad spritzers because they are lower in calories than a full dressing--for example, Wishbone ranch spritzer. Sometimes I'll plan for a full-fat olive oil and vinegar dressing.

If I'm going to use butter, I'll plan for it. I don't eat margarine generally--there is really not much calorie savings--the only reason to use something like "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" would be to lessen the amount of saturated fat. Again, I measure.

Anything containing oil really needs careful measuring--that's the key.

As a salt substitute, I like AlsoSalt. If you don't have any problems with kidney function and haven't been told to avoid potassium, it's good--but not for sprinkling on popcorn. It tastes best in a food where you can get it mixed in a bit. (I don't need to limit sodium--I use it to keep my potassium level correct.)

Jay

I recently bought a two tub pack of of fat free butter and BLECCHH! It looked like butter and had the same texture as butter but it sure didn't taste like butter! I couldn't even give it away no one wanted it.

I am just wondering if most people who really lost a lot of weigh even bother with all that fat free/low fat/ low cal stuff.

Unfortunately I have been so conditioned that I cannot eat a sandwich without some sort of condiment on it and I don't care for mustard that much.

I can eat low fat mayo but I can't stomach the fat free mayo! It is like the fat free butter ... it looks like mayo, spreads like mayo but it sure don't taste like mayo.

I am thinking if you force yourself to eat that stuff instead of the high fat stuff you eventually get used to it maybe?

I have a friend who drinks Diet Coke like crazy, he used to be fat but lost weight and he said that after a while the Diet Coke tastes like regular Coke to him.

Before I force myself to be accustomed to all the fat free mayo and stuff I am just wondering if the successful people even use that stuff!

The answer to this question will be as varied as the different people answering it. It's all a matter of taste.

I don't use butter. I use mayo very, very rarely. When I have tuna, I usually put it in my salad, sans mayo. The rare times I do use mayo, I use the low fat version. Definitely not the NO fat version.

I usually dress my leafy salads with balsamic vinegar. Unless I'm having it with grilled chicken or something like that. Then I don't use any dressing. But there's good tasty stuff in there, no need to dress it. Roasted peppers, red onions, the chicken - all keep it moist - and tasty.

Some other salads that I eat I use lemon. Or a combo of lemon juice, fresh garlic, spices and dijon mustard.

I like to make my own sauces for stir fries and fish. Soy sauce, ginger, garlic. I also use chicken broth to flavor & moisten and cook things.

As you can tell, I don't like spending my calories on dressings.

flatiron, we posted at the same time.

Give yourself a chance for your tastes to change. Trust me, they will. Experiment with different things til you find foods that you LOVE. That has been a major key to success for me. I love the food that I'm eating. If I didn't, there is no way on earth I would have stuck with this so long. Though I definitely abused food and used it for the wrong reasons, along the way to morbid obesity - I did grow to LOVE food. No two ways about it. When I made the decision to lose the weight, I knew giving up delicious food was not an option. BUT - my idea of what delicious food is changed. I now love and adore fresh raspberries. An apple used to be big joke for me. Now I look forward to them like crazy. They taste super sweet to me. Strawberries. Blueberries. Grilled chicken, instead of fried. Roasted veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts, carrots,etc.), butternut & acorns squash all taste better to me now then the rice and pasta I was eating before I lost the weight.

I had a serious problem with butter and mayonnaise and dressings before. I have completely replaced my butter with 5 calorie Smart Squeeze. My mayo. I have replaced with fat-free Miracle Whip. My dressing I use only red vinegar--no oil.

I place a huge emphasis on WHOLE FOODS and their power in my body and the role they play in my weight loss. While these replacements were important as I was first beginning my journey, I find them diminishing in value to me now. It's true my replacements aren't as tasty but I am getting my tastiness from other things these days.

For those interested, fat free Miracle Whip can take you a long way. You can dilute it with water and wasabi powder to top baked or grilled fish. The 5calorie butter is great on top of veggies to give you the butter taste--it isn't great for toast however because of the high concentration of water in it.

I hope this helps someone.

I posted at the same time, flatiron and rockinrobin.

Jay

I've never been a big butter or mayonnaise person. I can't remember the last time I used either - losing weight or not.

Salad dressings? It depends. My most fav in the world, Annie's Goddess dressing is 130 calories per 2 TBS, I use a half serving because I'm not into gloopy salads. Other times I just use balsamic vinegar, no oil. Whatever I'm in the mood for.

Milk has always been skim, cheese always full fat (with the exception of feta).

Nothing is too caloric for me when I follow portion control. In addition, the heavy calorie food items I might eat are merely flavors/dressings for the lighter foods that are my mainstay (chicken, fish, veggies, ect).

Hello!
Someone mentioned that they -need- a condiment on sandwiches... and I understand! A lot of times I'll skip the mayo and instead use a home-made hummous or other home-made bean dip. If I make it with lemon juice it adds some tang which is nice, and it also gives that 'wet' or 'goopy' or 'soft' mouthfeel that mayo helps add.

Well, I'm no pro to this whole diet/weightloss thing. But I've lost 16 lbs using the regular stuff sparingly.

Interestingly (at least it is something I'm still getting used to), I find myself choosing fat over sugar or refined carbs. I'm finding that more fat keeps me more full. I think my diet is probably a little high in fat right now, but I am still shifting my diet around and haven't balanced it all out yet.

I'm vegetarian, and I don't have a ton of dairy, so I don't think my level of dietary fat is really a big issue. I really wish there were more studies about percentage of dietary fat amongst vegetarians and vegans. I don't think you can study meat-eaters and then apply the same results across the board.

I don't drink cow milk, but I use regular soy milk (not reduced fat).

I use full fat cheeses. I used to like ridiculous quantities of cheese on things, and I expected I would really miss that, but somehow I don't.

Not that they come in low-fat versions, but I'm not afraid of having nuts and avocado, and cooking with oil. I do however use less oil than is usually called for in a recipe, but not skimpy either.

I use 2% Greek yogurt. The nonfat was chalky. I'd like to just use the whole version, but haven't been able to bring myself to do that yet!

I was never much for slathering on the mayo, and I can't stand yucky mayo or fake mayo, so I just use the real thing. I just naturally use it infrequently and lightly (always have).

I've recently been having butter again. I haven't figured out what my balance there will be yet

Salad dressings I try to use homemade, and substitute a little broth or water for some of the oil, but it's still not low-fat by any means. I don't think I've ever met a supermarket low-fat dressing that I can stand to put in my mouth. I would seriously usually rather eat my salad dry, and this was true long before I worried about what I was eating. There's some gross stuff out there.

Salt can be hard. Your taste for it does go down as you use it less. But some people have great success with that and others don't. I really think different people have different taste bud genetics. I think if you don't have problems with high blood pressure (and even some who do have high blood pressure are not sensitive to salt) or swelling or other heart / kidney problems, salt probably doesn't need to be the first thing you tackle.

I use non-fat milk and non or low fat other dairy products. Other than that, I do not use low fat items. I try to AVOID things that are low fat because they are typically higher in sugar which I am more concerned with than fat. I also use hummus in place of mayonnaise sometimes but I do use mayonnaise if I want it. I have never used a lot though and fortunately I have always loved mustard. I use natural peanut butter with no salt added. I have never really like using much salt though so I probably won't be help there. For salad dressings I reduce the quantity when I am out of the house At home I usually make my own. I try different recipes to keep it interesting but one of my favorites has pureed avocado, EVOO, herbs, and lime juice.


HTH

Overall, I use very little light substitutes. Most of them have chemicals to replace taste and texture, and I really hate that! I guess I'm super sensitive to artificial tastes, so most light salad dressings taste like plastic to me, with the exception of Newman's light balsamic dressing.

For salad dressings, I use Earth and Vine dressings. The Earth and Vine Honey Pear Vinaigrette is the bomb! All of their dressings are fairly light, completely natural, and a little goes a long way. Also, depending on what's in the salad, we like straight aged balsamic vinegar drizzled over the salad. At least an 8 year (15 is heavenly!), it gets sweeter and thicker and oil isn't even missed.

I really hate light mayo. I use a little of the real stuff if needed, or replace with hummus or mustard. Try more than just plain yellow mustard. I've got some cuban mojo mustard and beer mustard that are great, and very little calories compared to mayo.

I skip cheese wherever possible, but when I do use it I go for the strongest flavor I can find, and use less of it. I like pepperjack, very aged gouda, aged swiss, goat cheese, and shaved parmesan.

I use plain yogurt in place of sour cream. I had to get used to it, but now I prefer it.