4 ms·

I just think there is no "free dessert" when it comes to sweetened foods. You are either consuming a bunch of empty calories (sugar/honey/agave), dealing with u

I just think there is no "free dessert" when it comes to sweetened foods. You are either consuming a bunch of empty calories (sugar/honey/agave), dealing with unpleasant GI or psychological side effects (sucralose/aspartame), experiencing an undesirable aftertaste (saccharin), risking a cardiovascular event (erythritol, apparently), burning your salary (allulose), or making weird recipe adjustments (stevia). The best solution is to kick the sugar habit. No soda, no cookies, no cake, no candy. Honestly, what purpose do these foods serve? Pleasing your palate? 30 grams of lightly salted almonds is just as pleasing to my palate as a piece of cake, contains the same amount of calories, and keeps me satiated for hours. About the only downside to skipping sweets is social acceptance. But that's not that hard to deal with. Co-worker: "hey, my wife made some cookies! Here, take one!". Me, "okay sure! They look great! I'll have that after my lunch." (said cookie then hits the trash can as soon as he gets out of sight).

mrguyorama 4y ago
A healthy diet can easily include occasional sweet foods and drinks. When I was counting calories, I could still include ice cream or cookies as long as I planned for it and did it in moderation. You can easily make a few hundred calories worth of wiggle room for snacks. Unless you are a tiny woman, in which case it seems really really difficult to restrict calories enough to lose weight but still eat a healthy minimum of calories per day.
- anthomtb 4y ago
  > A healthy diet can easily include occasional sweet foods and drinks. When I was counting calories I actually agree with this. From a pure calorie-counting and weight loss standpoint, you can almost always make room for sweets and still achieve your goals. A caloric intake is like any other budget. Sure, I can come up with money for a Burberry hoodie but it means delaying that GPU upgrade for another year (needless to say my clothes do not come from couture houses). I just find it hard to put sugar calories in my body when those calories could be going to protein for building muscle or fats and low-gi carbs for sustained energy. About the only time I can consume very sugary foods these days is on long and intense cycling workouts, and even then I have to force myself to do it. > Unless you are a tiny woman, in which case it seems really really difficult to restrict calories enough to lose weight but still eat a healthy minimum of calories per day Really really difficult is spot on. My SO is a tiny female and managed to drop from 53kg to 45kg. It required an extremely well controlled diet, 600-700kcal workouts 6 days a week, and took around 9 months. Restaurants were all but off the table since you never know where they sneak in calories and even sharing a plate with me might be too much. She sustains at around 46-47kg right now, which does allow some wiggle room in the diet, but the weight loss part itself was definitely beyond what most people are willing to do.

mrguyorama 4y ago

A healthy diet can easily include occasional sweet foods and drinks. When I was counting calories, I could still include ice cream or cookies as long as I planned for it and did it in moderation. You can easily make a few hundred calories worth of wiggle room for snacks. Unless you are a tiny woman, in which case it seems really really difficult to restrict calories enough to lose weight but still eat a healthy minimum of calories per day.

anthomtb 4y ago
> A healthy diet can easily include occasional sweet foods and drinks. When I was counting calories I actually agree with this. From a pure calorie-counting and weight loss standpoint, you can almost always make room for sweets and still achieve your goals. A caloric intake is like any other budget. Sure, I can come up with money for a Burberry hoodie but it means delaying that GPU upgrade for another year (needless to say my clothes do not come from couture houses). I just find it hard to put sugar calories in my body when those calories could be going to protein for building muscle or fats and low-gi carbs for sustained energy. About the only time I can consume very sugary foods these days is on long and intense cycling workouts, and even then I have to force myself to do it. > Unless you are a tiny woman, in which case it seems really really difficult to restrict calories enough to lose weight but still eat a healthy minimum of calories per day Really really difficult is spot on. My SO is a tiny female and managed to drop from 53kg to 45kg. It required an extremely well controlled diet, 600-700kcal workouts 6 days a week, and took around 9 months. Restaurants were all but off the table since you never know where they sneak in calories and even sharing a plate with me might be too much. She sustains at around 46-47kg right now, which does allow some wiggle room in the diet, but the weight loss part itself was definitely beyond what most people are willing to do.