Do you believe you can lose weight eating ANYTHING?!?

No, I think you have to eat somewhat healthy as well as be under your calorie count in order to lose.

No. Unless you have a significant amount of weight to lose. Very obese people can pretty much do anything and lose weight. 

The closer you get to your goal, the more difficult it is to lose weight, and the more you have to tweak your diet and exercise regime. 

I would have thought so. I mean calories are calories, I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that our body doesn't actually distinguish different calories. But if you want to become healthier then you would have to look beyond calories at all the other nutritional information.

Yes, but I think it's more difficult and less sustainable than a calorie controlled diet based around healthier options, assuming the same number of overall calories. For a start, those sweet foods take up a big chunk of calories and tend to be less filling so you're more likely to experience hunger. Also, it doesn't do as much to change the lifestyle that led to needing to lose weight as concentrating on more nutritious foods.

I don't "believe" it, I "know" it. Yes. 

Calories in vs calories out. Of course, theres some ways to make the weight loss more effective, but thats what it comes down to.

No. Calories in vs calories out will only take you so far. I believe that if your body is nutrient starved it will react as if it were under famine conditions and thus slow your metabolism and store what it can.

i have lost 45lbs so far doing pretty much that i eat the same foods as before but less of them. ive come down from a bmi of 30 to a bmi of 26ish and heading for 24 all on normal foods subway sandwiches and salads have been my saviours tbh.

Depends.  How fast is your metabolism?  ;)

That being said, I still indulge in sweets, such as Oreos and fudge, but Calorie Count has made me more aware of how much I'm putting in, so I either eat less of them, or indulge only on exercise days...and I still manage to lose 1/2 a pound a week.

Yes, I've done it to some extent.

BUT.

You can't just simply eat your daily allotment Oreos, soda, and chips. And no, taking a multivitamin won't justify it. You must have a well rounded diet, making sure your quota in nutrients. I've eaten chinese (only to later regret it, puffed like a balloon and haven't eaten it since), ate cake, pizza, and ice cream at birthdays, on occasion. If I feel like I want some chocolate, I'm going to have it, I just make sure its dark. Though I do have to say, one thing I haven't eaten/sworn off of is Fast Food and anything Fried. Haven't eaten it in a year and a half. 

Although, when you stop eating the "bad stuff" you don't really "want" it anymore, or at least that's what happened to me. I don't want to stuff my face full of garbage anymore. Now I'm not to say cravings don't happen. I do get them once in awhile, but I'd rather have something that is better for me, fills me up more, have a bigger serving of it for the same amount of calories. For example, I would rather have a cup of plain greek yogurt with some chopped fresh fruit instead of one of those 100 calorie packs. 

Another reason you wouldn't want to eat your calories in cookies and such is you could wind up loosing muscle along with loosing some fat. If you do not get in enough protein while loosing weight, you body can steal it from your muscles.  - http://www.livestrong.com/article/512022-what -are-the-effects-of-someone-not-consuming-eno ugh-protein/

For the average person, I say moderation is key. 

Technically, yes, if your intake is low enough. However, for healthy weight loss, read Carmen's post again.

It's not about believing it or not... you absolutely can lose weight eating anything. It's the caloric deficit that matters.

youtube the video about that professor who lost weight on the twinkie diet.

I'm sure you can, but I doubt you'd feel terribly satiated, and you wouldn't be doing much for your overall health.  Personally for myself, health and longevity are more important than what the number on the scale says.

Can you lose weight by eating anything? Yes. Can you do it healthfully? It depends.

There's nothing wrong with indulging every now and then as long as you count the calories for it. However, certain foods can help with weight loss better than others. If you eat a diet consisting entirely of Snickers, then you're not going to lose weight as quickly as you would eating a balanced diet. Add in the risk of diabetes, and it's not really an ideal way to eat at all.

Generally, as long as your caloric intake consists of nearly equal amounts of carbs, fats, and protiens, you can still eat whatever you want within reason. Someone whose diet consists of predominantly only one type of nutrient is going to have problems. With sweets, the main problem is that much of the caloric composition is empty, or not very high in nutrients. If you eat nothing but empty calories, that means you're getting less energy and will be hungrier than you would otherwise, meaning that you're more likely to binge on even more sweets.

Sure...However there was this one dude who only ate M&Ms for a couple of months, and had part of his small intestine removed. 

I eat pretty healthfully regularly, with nutrition grades of A's and B's always.  BUT, I went on a raw foods cleanse and ate exactly the same amount of calories... but lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks.  I ate tons of nuts and avocados and coconut oils... I even made raw almond butter cups.... and still lost tons of weight.  I didn't even start the cleanse to lose weight... but that was the result.

So, for me, it's pretty safe to say that they type of food that I ate escalated my weight loss and made a very big difference.  

Yes, you can lose weight eating low calorie crap. You can also lose weight due to chemotherapy, becoming a crack addict, or via various forms of malnutrition.

In more regular terms, healthier diets allow you to perform better than less heathy diets of the same caloric content. Within that same caloric range, your food choice can also affect how hungry that you feel.

OGR