Is this okay

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2/22/13 10:04 A

You could likely eat up to close to 2000 cals in a day and not gain an ounce. That is most women's maintenance needs. It takes a calorie surplus above your maintenance needs to gain weight.

1200 cals is the ***minimum* a woman should eat while losing weight. Going below this number puts you at risk for malnutrition. I only do 1200 cals for short stretches (2 weeks) to wake up my metabolism when weight loss haults. Then I go back up to 1400-1500 cals a day. Consistently taking in too little calories often leads to your metabolism simply adapting to that low of an intake and weight loss plateauing.

No food is off limits to me. I just eat healthy 80-90% of the time and fit "life" into the rest. ie: enjoying treats, special occassions/holidays, restaurant dates etc.

Edited by: JENNILACEY at: 2/22/2013 (10:05)

current weight: 111.8

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2/21/13 3:17 P

I agree with OP, I try to have the mindset that NOTHING is off limits. If I want something, I may have it BUT with the knowledge that I am going to have to change up my eating for the rest of the day.

Posts: 195
2/21/13 1:23 P

I found myself having to get lunch at McDonald's the other day. I'm not a huge cheeseburger fan, but I did get their smallest burger and ate half a medium fries. I choose to take half of the bun off (ate an open faced burger). Altogether my meal was 418 calories. Not bad if you have to eat fast food.

Of course, salads or chili might have been a more nutritious option. And I know that. But when you're eating with other people who aren't making nutritious choices, that's hard.

If you like Wendy's cheeseburgers, it's very unlikely you will go the rest of your life without eating one. Remember you're changing your lifestyle, so you have to be able to make your changes fit into your life.

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2/21/13 1:17 P

A single cheeseburger shouldn't be that bad. Check the nutrition count and factor that into your calorie budget. By the way, 1200 is the MINIMUM you should be eating on a daily basis.

current weight: 126.0

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2/21/13 1:15 P

Firstly, it's not a 1200 calorie diet. You have a 1200-1550 range on Spark, that is the minimum range. So 1200 is the absolute minimum you should eat every single day. It is not the goal. The goal is somewhere in the middle. So try to think, if you work better with one number, of 1400 (midrange) as the daily goal, not 1200.

Eating cheeseburgers is always a poor nutritional choice, but boy, don't they taste good?! :)

You will have times where you make healthy choices and times where you make poor choices. Your success at weight loss will come from making healthy ones at least 80-90% of the time. That means there's absolutely room for some poor nutrition choices. We aren't perfect, and we shouldn't expect ourselves to be!

Just make sure it's 10-20% of your eating that's poor choices, not every day.

And please make sure you eat enough at your other meals today. If that was lunch, for example, do NOT skip dinner because "that would put me over 1200 calories". First off you've got that whole range, so you have 1,000 other calories you can eat today. And second when we make poor nutrition choices we may have to accept that that choice made us higher than range today. It's far worse to follow one poor nutrition choice (junk food) with another one (skipping meals) than to just have a light but filling evening meal anyway and end up over the calories.

Besides, if you end up, say, at 1700 calories, that is only 150 over. If you eat 1500 for the next three days that balances out and over the four days you were "in range".

Posts: 915
2/21/13 1:00 P

Well... it's 590 calories, so you easily could fit it in your daily calorie range. Even if you went over your range for the day, it is definitely not the end of the world. Just go back to your normal calorie range tomorrow. There's only so much damage that can be done by one cheeseburger - so there's no need to dwell on it!

Of course it's OK to eat a cheeseburger once in awhile! I would suggest that next time you plan-ahead for it (approach the day knowing you are having a cheeseburger for lunch, and eat lighter the rest of the day accordingly) - that way you will get your cheeseburger fix without feeling that you "broke down."

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2/21/13 12:54 P

Hi MARIATHOMAS2

There's' nothing off limits.
Go the Wendy's website and get the nutritional information of what you ate.

Are you using the nutritional tracker here at Spark?
If not, you should start and keep track off all you eat in a day. This will help you stay in your ranges for weight loss. If that means you have a Wendy's hamburger, that's fine. As long as you plan for it and count it.

Just make the best choices you can. It's not about being perfect it's about making progress.
This is a process, but more importanly it's your process. You'll learn as you go and in time gain the knowledge you need.

Edited by: STDWYNWEN at: 2/21/2013 (12:56)

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2/21/13 12:42 P

I broke down and ate a single cheeseburger from wendy's,,will that harm my 1200 calorie count diet?