Can You Eat Junk Food and Still Lose Weight
Discover How You Can You Eat Junk Food and Still Lose Weight…
The title of this article ‘Can You Eat Junk Food and Still Lose Weight’ may have many people salivating.
Is it really possible to lose weight while on a junk food diet?
In theory, yes. It’s not so simple… but yes. You can lose weight even while eating fast food, processed food, and junk food… whatever they may call it. You know what these foods are.
To understand how this is possible, you must understand the simple concepts of weight loss. Bear in mind that simple doesn’t rhyme with easy. These are simple to understand but will need a certain degree of discipline to execute.
You need to find out what your daily calorie maintenance need is. This can be easily done at http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
Maintenance level means that if you consume calories at this level, you’ll neither gain nor lose weight. However, since most people’s metabolism decreases with age, even eating this same amount of calories will lead to weight gain as you age.
If you eat more calories than your maintenance level, you will gain weight. The excess calories will be converted and stored as fat.
If you eat fewer calories than your maintenance level, you will lose weight.
Therefore, theoretically speaking, even if you were on a junk food diet the entire day but you were consuming about 500 calories less than your maintenance level, you will lose weight.
It would help if you engaged in an exercise regimen to lose the weight faster.
Many overweight or obese people, almost always have a very poor diet. It is extremely difficult for them to switch from a diet that is so high in processed/junk food to one that is clean and wholesome.
Expecting to switch your diets overnight is just setting yourself up for failure. You absolutely must do this slowly and progressively. Therefore, your best course of action will be to carry on eating the way you have, but aim for a caloric deficit.
That essentially means that you’ll be consuming less junk food than you were used to. This in itself will help you lose weight.
What are the 7 Biggest Lies about Nutrition?However, since the goal is to lose weight and get healthy, your end goal should be to eliminate junk food from your diet and eat clean.
Every week, make one small positive change to your diet. If you usually have 2 cheeseburgers for lunch followed by a soda, you may replace that with a crunchy tuna wrap and a glass of cold coconut water.
Psychologically, this is easier. It’s just one meal. Keep at it till this becomes a habit and you slowly but surely, replace all the junk meals with wholesome yet tasty meals.
Healthy meals can be delicious too. You are not sacrificing taste or pleasure by eating healthily. It’s just a matter of getting your taste buds and body to enjoy eating healthy foods. Over time this can be achieved.
In the meantime, you may eat junk foods and still lose weight while on a caloric deficit.
You should also note that junk foods are nutrient deficient. That means, you could be eating junk food and after a short while still feel hungry. That’s because your body hasn’t got all the nutrients it needs. This is one reason why if your diet is poor, you always feel hungry no matter what you eat.
Also note that, there are certain processes within the body that will prevent you from losing weight beyond a certain point. The body is a highly complex organism. It will lose weight for a while since you are on a caloric deficit. However, with time, you will find it increasingly difficult to do so.
It’s not merely a mathematical equation where calories in must be less than calories out. There are other factors such as the quality of the calories consumed, the thermogenic effect of the food eaten, etc.
So, ideally, you may consume junk food at a caloric deficit and over a period of a month or two, slowly wean yourself off these unhealthy foods and get on a healthy diet. Of course, you may indulge in junk food once in a while.