Lost 10lbs in 1 month eating fast food every day

I ate mostly grilled chicken burgers without mayonaise, but on some days I would eat hamburgers (without mayonaise or cheese). I also only drank diet soda. I always ate french fries. I basically just counted my calories and exercised every day for 30 minutes. I would have two meals like this every day and tried to reach about 1500 calories a day. I found out I was overdoing it by eating salads (from a fast rood restaurant) for my second meal and that was only giving me a total of 1200-1300 calories a day. My weight stopped coming off because my body slowed its BMR down. After raising my calories to 1500-1800 a day it started coming off again. I hope to lose 50lbs doing this. I guess for the most part it does not matter what you eat, as long as you caulculate your BMR, count calories and do moderate exercise.

You can lose weight eating anything if you count the calories - even if all of your intake came from chocolate.  The other thing you should think about (and this is the more important aspect) is nutrition.  How does your cholesterol level look?  Eating fast food once in awhile is fine but having a daily habit is probably not very healthy.

(by the way - congrats on your weight loss!   )

I guess you could lose weight technically by counting the cals, but have you considered what you're doing to your body by eating fast food every day??? my god, you're basically sending yourself to an early grave. i mean just because you're weight is going down doesnt mean you're healthy...i think you should adjust your diet and be more health conscious on what you eat. the exercise is great and its good you're losing weight, but i really don't think this is the way to go about it...

I agree with the others. You may be losing weight but what is your diet doing to your insides? (cholesterol...heart health). Fast food is notorious for trans fat which will raise your LDL (bad cholesterol) and your triglycerides. It's OK to eat every so often, but 2 meals a day is too much. If you give your body the balanced nutrition it needs it will thrive and you will still lose weight, but FEEL so much better. Your body will thank you for it - trust me!

You could lose weight eating nothing but cake, but that doesn't mean you will be healthy after. You'll have lots of flab from all that extra fat in all your foods. You won't get alot of energy like you would get from healthier foods. Your heart, blood pressure and cholesterol won't be as happy with you after. Etc etc...

That said, cake is still delicious.

I'm agreeing with everyone else. A lot of us on here are losing weight AND learning to eat healthy, so reading things like this causes a universal cringe. 

I can't eat fast food anymore because of the sodium and I want to eat a lot of food, frequently, so I opt for lower calorie raw foods because I know I can eat a lot of them (I eat and eat and eat), add some good vitamins and nutrients to my diet and lose weight. A snap pea is a triple threat.

Sorry for the mini-lecture and congratulations on your weight loss to date. If you start feeling sludgy, irritable, hungry or bloated, try eating more fresh foods lower in trans fat, sodium, added sugar and cholesterol. 

MEAT IS MUDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know in general it is unhealthy food, but the grilled chicken sandwich is probably OK to eat. It contains no transfat. The french fries are another story, however. Either way I'm not really getting a large amount of transfats in every day, but I can't really tell what my cholesterol would be. If you're on a sodium reduced diet, then eating fast food is just impossible. It's easy to reach 3000mg just with two meals. If you don't cook your own food, controlling sodium is hard. It was really more of an experiment for myself. I never tried to lose weight seriously before and I wanted to really see if I could lose weight by just counting calories. I will try my best to avoid fast food, but I am just a single 20s male who sucks at cooking :). Jazz, I would be completely lost on a vegetarian diet and I'd probably eat candy bars all day.

No calcium, whole grains, vitamin C, D or A, etc, no healthy fats (omega fatty acids), iron- the list goes on and on!  Fast food is a treat, not a way to sustain a beautiful, healthy body!  Best of luck with your weight loss- we're all there with you!

Original Post by hatecalories:

 I am just a single 20s male who sucks at cooking :). Jazz, I would be completely lost on a vegetarian diet and I'd probably eat candy bars all day.

I am a 40s male that does the cooking and although it may seem like a big task there are some things that are easy, healthy (at least compared to fast food) that will also impress a date. It's best to start easy and work your way up. The more you cook, the better it gets. You may find that you like your dishes more than meals cooked by someone else.

Here are some easy meals:

Bird's eye has frozen veggies that you simply toss in the microwave to steam. Those are great to start off with. They even have whole meals that have lots of veggies with a sauce and some meat.

In the produce department grab some pre-cooked italian turkey meatballs.. some Classico Tomato and Basil sauce.. some sliced black olives and mushrooms.. and a wheat pasta and that is a feast.. and yes the sauce is mostly veggie. (I add some diced tomato as well).

Get some skinless chicken breasts and add some pepper and a little salt after brushing with butter or olive oil and bake for 20 mins at 350.. cook Uncle Bens Original wild rice (25 min version) following instructions and add some steamed veggies and you are set.

My favorite.. they sell frozen stir fry veggies.. add in some chicken using above baking instructions.. fry at med high in a non-stick pan with 1 table spoon of olive oil for 8 mins or until veggies are tender.. add a little teriyaki sauce for 2 mins and steam up some brown rice for a great meal.

All of these meals will give you some veggies, some fiber, some protein and will make you feel much better than what the BK lounge will.  [All a little high in sodium but that shouldn't be a problem for a 20s male.. and should be lower that what you get at McDonalds]

Add an apple and/or banana to the mix daily and you are on your way. Congrats on the weight loss and good luck! When you meet that special someone and you offer to cook a meal it will go a long way. Hope this helps. 

I can understand that one of the appeals to eating the fast food is not just the convenience of someone cooking for you, but the fact that the foods are also pre-portioned for you as well, so you know what you're getting. (But their portions aren't always exact, either.)

Don't throw out the salads, because that has veggies. There's veggies and fiber available for you if you eat at Subway, too, as well as soups, some of which can be a very filling low-cal option (of course they're still high in sodium, but I personally will never go low-sodium unless it's about to kill me!)

There are plenty of other pre-portioned alternatives, too, if you don't mind TV Dinners - check the back of them, you might be surprised that they don't have to be "Lean Cuisine" to be low on calories - but you still want to keep in mind  that a 10 oz meal also isn't very filling all by itself.

Skycross had some good suggestions, too, way to go!

Also: remember, doing something is better than doing nothing. If you were eating fast food twice a day before, and now you're still doing it but counting calories in the process, then you have taken a first step. Don't give up that first step because you get overwhelmed. Just build on that until you attain a lifestyle of good habits you can share with your future children, etc.