Eating junk and getting away with it

Dirk_Diggler

I presume I'm not alone on this one. For years I had a terrible diet. No veg until recently, very little fruit, never ate meat for sambos until the last few years...all that stuff. Then I had a sudden change of mind and began taking the whole fitness lark a little bit more seriously and went on a totally strict diet consisting of a **** load of salads and very few cheat meals. That didn't last too long as it was far too hard to keep it going for more than a few months.

Gradually I started letting some junk food back in but my diet is 80-90% excellent I would say. But I can easily eat large tubs of Ben and Jerrys, bars, bags of M&Ms etc all in one sitting and still seemingly get away with it. I've been doing this for a while and I've still got a low bf%. Got bloods checked too and they're all good.

Question is: Am I just a bollox?

EileenG

Trying to be totally perfect all the time is recipe for failure. Imagine you are standing over your best friend's shoulder as he attempts to clean up his diet. I'm betting you'd tell him what sort of choices to make but wouldn't beat him up over the odd fast food meal, unless he makes a habit of it.

Khannie

Dirk_Diggler wrote: »

Question is: Am I just a bollox?

Yes.

No but seriously, I think we all eat crap from time to time. I don't think you'll sustain healthy eating without at least some crap unless you're superman/woman. Even when I'm making weight for a fight and trying to produce a large calorie deficit I treat myself to a biscuit with my coffee. Maintains sanity IMO.

For lunch today I had some home made meat sauce and a plate load of brocolli and green beans. Delicious? Hell yes. Do I still want something sweet with my coffee? Hell yes.

the drifter

nop....once again...maryland cookies are dangerous :P

MagicMarker

I'm currently in the process of losing fat but I still allow myself 1 take away per week. I try to stay clean 85% of the time, so during the week I might allow myself a breakfast roll or a subway. Although this week I've been 100% clean! But I'm already looking forward to my kebab and chips on Sunday.

Treats are good things, so long as they stay treats.

Dirk_Diggler

Yep.

But I can eat 2000kcals+ in one sitting

MagicMarker

Dirk_Diggler wrote: »

Yep.

But I can eat 2000kcals+ in one sitting

pfft... childsplay my friend.

I just can't get away with it is all.

Dirk_Diggler

So I am a bollox, haha.

I can get away with it but I ain't sure for how long

Davei141

Dirk_Diggler wrote: »

Yep.

But I can eat 2000kcals+ in one sitting

Doing it a few times a day though is the problem. I have a friend who can eat loads of junk and hes quite slim, but that junk would probably be the only thing in the day he would eat for 8 hours or maybe even the whole day

Dirk_Diggler

I'd do that once a week I'd say, maybe once every two weeks. The rest of my diet is good though. Porridge/granola for brekkie, nuts/whey shakes for breaks, chicken/bap/pepper/sesame oil for lunch/homemade bars for a snack, wholegrain rice, then for dinner would be a stir fry with a load of veg and chicken/fish/steak. Milk before bed usually with some whey.

rubadub

Dirk_Diggler wrote: »

But I can eat 2000kcals+ in one sitting

So can I, then I have to stand up, loosen the belt and then polish off the other 5000kcal.

I save my sweets for PWO time when they at least go to some use.

RadioGaGa

Davei141 wrote: »

Doing it a few times a day though is the problem. I have a friend who can eat loads of junk and hes quite slim, but that junk would probably be the only thing in the day he would eat for 8 hours or maybe even the whole day

I'm like your friend I eat a lot of junk food yet still remain skinny, I was just wondering why this is?
OP it sounds like you're grand having a bit of junk food but mostly a healthy diet. No you are not a bollox.

Davei141

Dirk_Diggler wrote: »

I'd do that once a week I'd say, maybe once every two weeks. The rest of my diet is good though. Porridge/granola for brekkie, nuts/whey shakes for breaks, chicken/bap/pepper/sesame oil for lunch/homemade bars for a snack, wholegrain rice, then for dinner would be a stir fry with a load of veg and chicken/fish/steak. Milk before bed usually with some whey.

Ah your grand then once a week is fine

RadioGaGa wrote: »

I'm like your friend I eat a lot of junk food yet still remain skinny, I was just wondering why this is?
OP it sounds like you're grand having a bit of junk food but mostly a healthy diet. No you are not a bollox.

Probably because you don't eat a lot else besides the junk

O.P.H

Well I'm doing the whole fitness thing, training hard and eating well but I've been told that it is better for your body to have the cheat meals or cheat days once a week because your body works better when it has to deal with that crap food the odd time. I dunno, might just be old wifes tales. I prefer to think that it keeps you sane. I find that whenever I try to be perfect with diet etc, I go a few weeks and then on a random night I'll just say **** it and I go friggin crazy and eat all the worst food I can find. My God though, I do enjoy those nights

Vegeta

Sure externally some folk get away with eating a less than perfect diet (I'm not judging anyone, mine is sh1t lately. I just had lots of cake and half a snickers with a protein shake) But there's more to your health than how shredded your abs are

Dirk_Diggler

How the hell can someone only eat half a bar?

I know what you mean Vegeta but I had my bloods done recently just to see how everything was doing.

MissHoneyBun

I live on junk food (literally) and weigh just 7st 10lbs. It kind of worries me a little as I'm not sure it's normal to eat several takeaways a week, a couple of bars of chocolate every day, crisps and sweets most days and lots of fizzy drinks plus monstrous portions of pasta and spuds.

I know it's very unhealthy but I'm thinking that if I didn't eat such high calorie foods then I'd have to eat massive quantities of healthy replacements to maintain my weight (already get enough comments about it without drawing more)

I dunno, maybe I should just enjoy it while it lasts but it does worry me sometimes.

O.P.H

MissHoneyBun wrote: »

I live on junk food (literally) and weigh just 7st 10lbs. It kind of worries me a little as I'm not sure it's normal to eat several takeaways a week, a couple of bars of chocolate every day, crisps and sweets most days and lots of fizzy drinks plus monstrous portions of pasta and spuds.

I know it's very unhealthy but I'm thinking that if I didn't eat such high calorie foods then I'd have to eat massive quantities of healthy replacements to maintain my weight (already get enough comments about it without drawing more)

I dunno, maybe I should just enjoy it while it lasts but it does worry me sometimes.

Ya God forbid you would'nt be able to maintain your weight of 7 stone :rolleyes:

My God woman, no offence or anythin but wake up! What goes around comes around. You dont respect your gift of a healthy functioning body, well it will come back to bite ya in the ass, just the way life works hun

MissHoneyBun

O.P.H wrote: »

Ya God forbid you would'nt be able to maintain your weight of 7 stone :rolleyes:

Can I ask what you mean by this?

O.P.H

Well 7 stone is very very light imo and your sayin you'd have to eat alot of healty food in place of the junk to maintain this weight. Girl, unless your 4 foot nothin you would have no problem maintaining this weight, you're probably underweight. One things for sure, you aint healthy even if you feel ok. Just goin by your comments anyway.

MissHoneyBun

Firstly, if you read my post O.P.H you'll see that I'm 7st 10, which is closer to 8 stone, not 7. Secondly, I have a skyhigh metabolism and tend to lose weight very easily, hence I'm reticent to eat lower calorie foods. Thirdly, apart from slightly high blood pressure (from consuming too much salt) I am in full health. So perhaps you were a bit quick off the mark with the rash judgements.

If anyone else could recommend a healthier way to consume lots of calories without eating ten of everything I'd be interested to know, thanks.

pwd

@OPH:
7stone 10lb, not 7 stone.
Using BMI, she would be underweight if she was over 5'4. Plenty of girls are 5'4 or less.

Stop jumping to conclusions based on a few lines of text which you haven't read properly.

Because you know, when you assume something, you make an ass out of u and me.
Always remember this.

[I know BMI is at best a rule of the thumb, but assume she's not a powerlifter etc and it should be a reasonable enough gauge]

O.P.H

pwd wrote: »

@OPH:
7stone 10lb, not 7 stone.
Using BMI, she would be underweight if she was over 5'4. Plenty of girls are 5'4 or less.

Stop jumping to conclusions based on a few lines of text which you haven't read properly.

Because you know, when you assume something, you make an ass out of u and me.
Always remember this.

[I know BMI is at best a rule of the thumb, but assume she's not a powerlifter etc and it should be a reasonable enough gauge]

7 stone or 7 stone 10, pish posh, huge difference there. My overal point was for her to cop on and start treating her body right.

I love it when people use famous phrases in completely incorrect moments, classic. Oh ya, sorry for makin an ass out of ya by the way, wasent intentional or anythin

MagicMarker

MissHoneyBun wrote: »

Thirdly, apart from slightly high blood pressure (from consuming too much salt) I am in full health.

Keep eating like you do and eventually it will catch up with you.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the few bars a day you eat, the fizzy drinks you drink and the several takeaways you order are pretty much the only things you consume? As in you probably don't eat much throughout the course of a normal day?

You don't need to eat ten of everything to maintain your weight, so don't use that as a (lame) excuse for just eating crap.

Hanley

O.P.H wrote: »

7 stone or 7 stone 10, pish posh, huge difference there.

Ummm yes... it is. Circa 10% of her bodyweight.

EDIT: And lol at "perfect health" 'cept for high blood pressure.... I'd love to see how many calories she ACTUALLY eats in a day.

If you've one take away, a couple of cans of coke and 2 bars it's not exactly Michael Phelps calorie levels. And should be easily replicable with "clean" food.

Khannie

MissHoneyBun wrote: »

I live on junk food (literally) and weigh just 7st 10lbs. It kind of worries me a little as I'm not sure it's normal to eat several takeaways a week, a couple of bars of chocolate every day, crisps and sweets most days and lots of fizzy drinks plus monstrous portions of pasta and spuds.

I know it's very unhealthy but I'm thinking that if I didn't eat such high calorie foods then I'd have to eat massive quantities of healthy replacements to maintain my weight (already get enough comments about it without drawing more)

I dunno, maybe I should just enjoy it while it lasts but it does worry me sometimes.

Jesus....you're eating your way to diabetes, and I think you know it. Eating well doesn't have to involve you losing any weight. As a starting point I'd suggest the following:

Museli with full fat milk for breakfast. You can easily get in 400+ calories without even vaguely pigging out.

Nuts. Nuts are a great snack. Keep you going and are calorie dense.

Full fat milk. If you're concerned about the calorie content of healthy foods, add a glass of milk to the meal. Presto an extra 200 calories.

Roper

Most people I deal with who thinks they eat massive amounts because they eat pizzas in one sitting, chocolate by the truckload, take aways etc. etc and still manage to stay in shape are by and large
1) 19 and training hard 4 times a week
2) Are actually undereating and making up for it in ****e

I eat about 4-5,000 kcals a day and people often accuse me of being one of those freaks, even though I'm not ripped I am in good shape all the time But I train 6-8 times per week and I have a generally active lifestyle. I cycle to my gym, walk pretty much everywhere I don't have to be in a hurry and have an active job. By the same token, my friend is rapidly expanding having been an athlete most of his life up to now. We would have had eating contests before, usually preceded by drinking contests. We laugh about it now but Thursday night used to be a sparring night in our old club. You'd do 90 minutes of really hards sparring, pop in the shower and then we'd have 6 pints or so and then on to the chipper to eat your weight in food. All the time we were in great shape and competing regularly.

Now the reason we could do this was because we were between 18 and 22, had really active lifestyles but most importantly, we were living at home with our mammies and we were getting 3 square healthy meals a day, which meant that we were just gorging occasionally and that take away grub wasn't filling a hole in our diet.

ragg

Cheat meals are good - I would't go as far as too have a takeaway a week.

But Cheating every now and again is good for the mind, body & soul

MissHoneyBun

Hanley wrote: »

EDIT: And lol at "perfect health" 'cept for high blood pressure.... I'd love to see how many calories she ACTUALLY eats in a day.

Hanley we could all easily laugh at people by making up what they said. I never said ''perfect health'' I said ''full health'' which is the case, apart from a slightly raised blood pressure. I have spoken to different doctors about it and neither are overly concerned. I don't understand what you find so funny.

Magic Marker, nope it's not all I eat. I eat a lot of homemade stuff as well (spag bol, roast dinners, caesar salad, fajitas, stir-fry's, homemade smoothies etc) but the main thing for me is that I have really started to crave sugar and salt so badly that I figure it's time to do something about it.

As Khannie said, it's a surefire way to cause Type 2 diabetes which is something I really worry about. By the way thanks for your post Khannie, some helpful tips there which I'll take on board. I guess it's really snack foods that I'm looking to replace, a healthy alternative to chocolate or crisps with a cup of tea/coffee.

MagicMarker

MissHoneyBun wrote: »

I know it's very unhealthy but I'm thinking that if I didn't eat such high calorie foods then I'd have to eat massive quantities of healthy replacements to maintain my weight

MissHoneyBun wrote: »

I guess it's really snack foods that I'm looking to replace, a healthy alternative to chocolate or crisps with a cup of tea/coffee.

Contrasting statements don't you think?

metamorphosis

MissHoneyBun wrote: »

Hanley we could all easily laugh at people by making up what they said. I never said ''perfect health'' I said ''full health'' which is the case, apart from a slightly raised blood pressure. I have spoken to different doctors about it and neither are overly concerned. I don't understand what you find so funny.

Magic Marker, nope it's not all I eat. I eat a lot of homemade stuff as well (spag bol, roast dinners, caesar salad, fajitas, stir-fry's, homemade smoothies etc) but the main thing for me is that I have really started to crave sugar and salt so badly that I figure it's time to do something about it.

As Khannie said, it's a surefire way to cause Type 2 diabetes which is something I really worry about. By the way thanks for your post Khannie, some helpful tips there which I'll take on board. I guess it's really snack foods that I'm looking to replace, a healthy alternative to chocolate or crisps with a cup of tea/coffee.

Hey - i know you might think that you cant fill a calorie void but you can

like for loike comparison would be 2 mars bars that have close to 600 calories and is high is sugar and saturated fat. you could replace that ****e with meridan peanut butter. i could easily have 100gms of that on 3 ryvitas. 100gms of that is 579 calories with over 29gms of protein and full of healthy UNsaturated fats and some fiber to boot. add in 3 ryvita which is close to 90 calories and mash a banana on it and you have an estimated 750+ calories that is much healthier than 2 mars bars and just as easy to consume.

It can be very easy to roar past any calorie goal with healthy food.
as khannie said nuts. again easily eat 100gms of brazils which is over 600 calories. or what about almonds, pecans or walnuts.

hell what about milk. 100mls of full fat milk has around 65 calories. put this with in cereal, drink some on its own, put it in coffee. you could easily get hundreds of calories this way too and protein to boot. win win.

you say you have salad sometimes - throw in an avacado or two to boot and you have a calorie ridden albeit healthy fats in there.

Not hard at all. No excuse to eat the junk just for calories when you can just as easily do it healthier and not put yourself at risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems.

MissHoneyBun

MagicMarker wrote: »

Contrasting statements don't you think?

Um no Magic Marker, I'm fully aware of what healthier substitutes are available to me for main meals however I would like to know what options there are for snacks.

Khannie

MissHoneyBun wrote: »

As Khannie said, it's a surefire way to cause Type 2 diabetes which is something I really worry about. By the way thanks for your post Khannie, some helpful tips there which I'll take on board. I guess it's really snack foods that I'm looking to replace, a healthy alternative to chocolate or crisps with a cup of tea/coffee.

I have a biccy with my coffee. I'm on my way downstairs to have one right now. Fruit and nuts are where it's at for snacks. Home made flapjacks are great for with your tea or coffee. You can easily cook a weeks worth in one go and they're easy as pie to make (easier than pie in fact ).

Interested to hear how you get on with the changes. Let us know if you wouldn't mind.

MissHoneyBun

Flapjacks sound great, definitely going to give those a go. Thanks Khannie, I'll let you know how it goes when I get the first batch made (and consumed)

metamorphosis

Khannie wrote: »

I have a biccy with my coffee. I'm on my way downstairs to have one right now. Fruit and nuts are where it's at for snacks. Home made flapjacks are great for with your tea or coffee. You can easily cook a weeks worth in one go and they're easy as pie to make (easier than pie in fact ).

Interested to hear how you get on with the changes. Let us know if you wouldn't mind.

Hey Khannie, do you have a special recipe for those flapjacks?

Khannie

ULstudent wrote: »

Hey Khannie, do you have a special recipe for those flapjacks?

I've been varying it a bit, depending on my needs at the time (higher protein intake, etc. ). As a starting point, have a look at this one. If you don't have the whey, just make them without (maybe up the butter / oil and brown sugar amounts or even a beaten egg at the point of adding the whey in the instructions to help with binding if you don't have the whey). Delicious.

More recently I've cut out the sugar completely and replaced it with chocolate whey and some sweetener (I still dump the oats into hot oil though, to get the crispness). I've also lowered the oat content and upped the nut content (the extra whey allows me to bind these a bit better). These aren't as delicious but they are entirely guilt free.

Flapjacks are great for experimenting with though.

edit: A word of warning though. Flapjacks are calorie dense. Just watch out for that.

pwd

Khannie wrote: »

I've been varying it a bit, depending on my needs at the time (higher protein intake, etc. ). As a starting point, have a look at this one. If you don't have the whey, just make them without (maybe up the butter / oil and brown sugar amounts or even a beaten egg at the point of adding the whey in the instructions to help with binding if you don't have the whey). Delicious.

More recently I've cut out the sugar completely and replaced it with chocolate whey and some sweetener (I still dump the oats into hot oil though, to get the crispness). I've also lowered the oat content and upped the nut content (the extra whey allows me to bind these a bit better). These aren't as delicious but they are entirely guilt free.

Flapjacks are great for experimenting with though.

edit: A word of warning though. Flapjacks are calorie dense. Just watch out for that.

I re-read that link 3 times, and it *still* looks like you said you make pancakes with cottage cheese..

Khannie

pwd wrote: »

I re-read that link 3 times, and it *still* looks like you said you make pancakes with cottage cheese..

Haha. They're actually nicer with the cottage cheese than without believe it or not. Even my youngfella says so. You blend it all up, so there isn't a hint of the actual cheese left. It takes the dryness out of them (not that they're very dry without the cottage cheese, just that they're nice and moist with it).