[solarmist]

Breakfast (560 - 640 Cal)

* Two servings of frosted mini-wheats (120g - 400 Cal)

* 1 or 1 1/2 cups (240/360 ml - 160/240 Cal) of whole milk

To fill out a day when I was eating super carefully my lunches (1/2 each) would be 1 cups of steamed broccoli and 1/2 a Turkey sandwich.

Lunchs Total (566 Cal) - 1/2 per lunch

* Broccoli (200g - 72 Cal)

* 2 Slices Oroweat whole wheat bread (200 Cal)

* 4 oz deli Black Pepper Turkey (164 Cal)

* 2 Tsp whole grain mustard (30 Cal)

* 1 Tbsp Miracle Whip (25 Cal) / 1 Tbsp Mayonnaise (100 Cal)

Pair that with a dinner of Marie Callender's Chicken Pot Pie (600 - 930 Cal)

* 10 Oz Chicken Pot Pie (600 Cal) / 15 Oz (930 Cal)

So without any snacks or beverages that puts me at 1,726 Cal - 2,136 Calories.

If I had a glass of milk with lunch and dinner and some Almonds for a snack (1 oz 175 Cal) that would add another (495 - 655 Calories).

Total of 2,221 Cal - 2,791 Cal.

And this is me watching what I eat, but just getting a little sloppy around snacks and beverages. I could easily blow past that by having a Red Bull or soda. Maybe some dessert at some point in the day. It could be easy to add another 1,000 Cal.

[nmfisher]

I don’t mean to sound rude, but frosted cereal, miracle whip and pot pie are not indicators of a good diet.

Once you start eating whole foods (mostly meat, vegetables, nuts and eggs), you’ll realize how easy it is to lose weight (particularly once you start exercising). I think the trouble is that most people have conditioned their tastebuds to respond to highly processed food, so they think they can’t eat “normally”.

[solarmist]

Bullshit. It was honestly one of the hardest things I've ever done. I would spend a few hours a week planning meals and shopping. And then cooking for another 2 hours each day. (Yes, I realize this is pretty standard, but I'm not interested.) I don't enjoy cooking for myself (I don't mind doing it for friends and whatnot though). I did it for three years consistently to lose my last 30 lbs (and got under 10% BF @ 160 lbs.), but I hated having to think about food all the time.

Finding, shopping, choosing and cooking whole foods was the biggest pain in the ass I had when I was single. I don't mind eating healthy, but I hate the work that goes into it. And given the choice I'm going to throw butter, honey, mayo, avocado, etc onto whatever I'm eating to make it tastier.

Is my diet unhealthy? Yup and I know exactly how unhealthy it is. But I love sweet things. That's just something I've come to accept.

Did my tastebuds adjust when I ate healthier? Also, yup, but and I was fine with it at the time. When I met my wife my eating habits slowly got worse until I didn't think about my food choices at all and just when with whatever sounded good at the moment and that was also fine.

But I've learned over the last 10 years that thinking about food constantly (in order to consistently eat healthy) multiply that by two with because my wife's food preferences are vastly different than my own and it's a burden I don't want.

All that is what lead me to alternate day fasting. This is a much easier choice than watching what I eat (I'm being a bit hyperbolic for effect, I'm adjusting my diet too, but not drastically like in the past). I eat enough every other day to sustain myself at a nice 170 lbs, so that's just what I'm going to do. I actually don't find it a burden at all to not eat for a day.

[Edit: Also, food choices were pretty random off the top of my head, but still you picked on the miracle whip, but not the mayo?]

[nmfisher]

I'm not saying you can't keep your weight in check on that diet if you do ADF. I'm saying that your diet is far from normal or healthy - which you yourself admit. Sugar-frosted cereal in particular is just downright terrible. No-one should think of that as "normal".