counting calories and eating healthy in general

alright so this is one thing that I see people on this site make too much a fuzz over, and that is being extremely anal in regards to counting calories, heck i used to be like that and i found out life is much better without doing so.

what people need to start focusing is not on counting calories, but on eating healthy in general, make it a lifelong habit, listen to your body, when you are full you are full, and if you are hungry, then eat more till you are satisfied.

heck i personally have found better results when i stopped fuzzing over calories and just started listening to my body, my body fat is nearing the single digits and ive gained 11 pounds of muscle, and life is more enjoyable.

now im not saying give up counting calories all together, its a good skill to have, but its better when you have a basic idea of how many calories something has and just make a quick estimate, so who cares if ur on or off by a few? as long you are constantly active your body will use extra calories to repair muscle tissues and whatsonot.

Since I just started doing that today (but only for a short term), I shall see if I have the same good fortune you did.

I honestly respect your point of view, because I know you are suggesting a course of action that is effective for you; but I would like to add my opinions.  I read way too many posts on several of the CC threads where the posters, because they don't need to count calories and because they have had success in not counting calories in losing weight or maintaining, seem to feel that everybody should follow that policy.

That's wrong-minded thinking in my opinion.  I can understand why people with ED's (and it seems to be often women in their teens and early 20's), should not be obsessed with weighing every day, since they can get immediately alarmed at a small weight gain, and act improperly by cutting back on calorie consumption.  But, in some cases, I think it is irresponsible to suggest that these people recovering from ED's should not have a general knowledge of how many calories they are taking.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with logging calories, if the purpose is not to lose weight, but to gain it.  If a person who is coming off an ED needs to be consuming 2400 calories daily or whatever, it would be good if that person knows, indeed, that he/she is taking in enough calories.  Just to tell someone eat as much as you want and don't worry about calories is not necessarily sound advice.  I will leave it up to a health professional who is working with someone recovering from an ED to make that call.  But if it were my daughter or wife, for example, I would be darn certain that I knew that person was consuming enough calories, and I would not leave it willy-nilly for someone who has a history of not eating enough to just eat as he/she sees fit without knowing if it is, indeed, enough.

But there is also another facet about counting calories.  In the case of obese people, and this includes teens, calorie-counting can be a life-saver.  Again, if a person is working with a health-professional and the professional says not to count calories, I agree with that 100%.  However, I have read posts on CC where people tell teens not to count calories and to just eat and enjoy it.  For obese teens, I find that to be possibly harmful advice.  If a teen is 50-100 pounds overweight, for example, he/she needs to count calories, in my opinion.  He/she also needs to find out healthy foods to eat and some sort of exercise program, however modest, to undergo.  Just to tell teens, or any obese person, to eat cart blanch but watch what you eat--and not count calories--is questionable advice, in my opinion. 

I disagree completely from a general point of view that counting calories is necessarily bad for all people losing weight or maintaining weight.  Yes, for those people who can lose weight in a healthy manner or who can maintain, absolutely, don't count calories.  But there are many people, and they are not uniformly obsessive-compulsive-controlling--paranoid people as the non-calorie counters would like to have us believe, who live a healthy and enjoyable life-style because they do count calories. 

You calorie-counters, before you give up counting calories for good, you might do what I am doing--trying a two week experiment to see if you can maintain your weight and not count calories or, in my case, not weigh-in every day.  But if you do count calories and are living a healthy life-style, don't feel you have to apologize for being one who counts and maybe even records daily calorie consumption.

oh my bad, i did forget to mention that in order to make what works for me is too exercise with everything you got everyday. cuz Im still at a caloric deficit, I just dont feel it.

Exercise is a big part of the equation, a lot of time for people who diet counting calories means also cutting them, and I am strongly againts cutting calories, i believe that if people must workout for 20 or so more minutes, and sweat a bit more, then they should do it, its only healthy. deficit through exercise is wayy more effective than deficit through cutting calories, and it prevents catabolism since it gives your body a reason to hang onto the precious fat burning lean mass

thats why i dont count, cuz i eat healthy and I know that on the days i exercise i require about 3000 calories to eat maintain, and im only eating about 2500 on average of healthy food. but it doesnt feel like a diet since im not dieting, im eating well above my normal maintenance (about 2100) and im still leaving room for a deficit.

OP, you gonna start dictating my politics and religious beliefs too? Actually, given your forum name, maybe you would. There is more than one way to skin a cat. That is all.

my conclusion is basically, create a tiny deficit and exercise more, sure it requires more work but its worth it.

It_jesus:  Yes, I agree with you about the execising, too. 

jturnerx:  I think your comment "There is more than one way to skin a cat" is a summation of what I wish all CC posters would understand when it comes to counting or not counting calories, weighing-in a lot or not weighing-in at all, logging exercise time or not logging exercise time--there is not one perfect way for every dieter or to use another cliche--different strokes for different folks.

And something that some CC posters sort of ignore is that although they say not to count calories, they also say a person should practice portion-control.  Well, I am all for that.  "Portion-control" can mean that a person trying to lose weight, for example, eats from a list of foods and in certain amounts.  Now, the calories are not logged or even counted, but the amount of food consumed is--which is just another way of counting calories, just not as rigid.  If, for example, someone choose such and such from a fruit category, a vegetable category, a meat category, etc--that is a looser form of calorie counting.

I'm not sure about the numbers you gave in the last paragraph, but I envy your ability to intuitively know about what you are burning and consuming.  I am definitely wondering if I can find that same intuitive ability the next two weeks.  Kudos to you for your ability to maintain.

Best of luck, all you maintainers.

You make it sound so easy, but it's not, for a lot of people.  It's like saying "Well, to lose weight, all you have to do is eat less calories than you burn".  If it was that easy, there wouldn't be so many forum posts asking for help and assistance.

Basically, what works for you might not work for someone else.  And suggesting that your way is the right way and is better than what other people are doing is a good way to rub people the wrong way.

But hey, that's great that you've got a method that works for you!

Clint

it just comes down to self dicipline and getting to know your body, cause i frankly find it unrealistic to count calories everyday for the rest of my life just to maintain. that my friends only seems to lead to deprivation and to the temporal "diet" mindset.

i simply dont see whats so hard about eating less than u burn, or preferably burning more than you eat, it just takes extra work but it has greater benefits.

Original Post by lt_jesus:

i simply dont see whats so hard about eating less than u burn, or preferably burning more than you eat, it just takes extra work but it has greater benefits.

Really?  1st) If one is burning more than he/she eats, then that person should be in the Weight Loss" category and not in Maintaining.

2nd)  How in the heck someone intuitively knows that he/she is eating just the right amount of food is a mystery to me.  Yes, if one stays home or takes the same basic meal to work or does some continual, regimented meal plan like that, I could understand it to a degree.  However, since most of us have many situations where we eat out, go to buffets, reunions, pot-luck's, parties, holiday celebrations, etc., etc. the intuitive part would surely undergo severe testing.

I agree both that it takes extra work and that it has greater benefits.  And I would add--it won't work for everyone.

anything can be made to work if carefully planned.

It doesn't just come down to self discipline, and now you're being even more insulting, in my opinion.  If it was that easy, everyone would do it.  Why not just tell the people with eating disorders to eat more, and tell the people who binge to stop binging...  Man, I should write a book!  I could solve everyone's problems just by telling them to stop doing bad things, and start doing good! 

Or as my cousin says, "Turn down the suck, and turn up the good".

Sorry for the sarcasm, but it's just not that easy.  It's great that it's easy for you, but it's not that way for many.  This is coming from someone who's stopped counting calories for now (about 3 weeks), even though I still track my weight.  So far, I'm maintaining ok without the counting, but I have no doubt that it's much more difficult for others.  It's like when I was losing weight... I lost without a problem, had a pretty continuous loss of 2 to 2.5 pounds per week.  But for me to say that every should be able to do that would be insensitive and wrong.

Again, this is just my personal opinion.

Clint

Original Post by lt_jesus:

anything can be made to work if carefully planned.

So how can we plan to burn more calories than we take in, if we don't how much we are taking in? 

Many people on here don't plan on counting every single calorie for the rest of their lives.  I think most of them are trying to get a good handle on what they are taking in, and on controlling portion sizes. 

Once they have gotten the weight down they probably plan to only count occasionally to help them stay on track. 

It's all part of the learning process. 

whomeve said it was easy for me too? frig man i remember when I started to count my first calorie and to eat healthy, i had it all the wrong way. i lost a lot of weight and muscle mass and i was eating healthy because I "had to" not because I wanted to, it set a total destructive mindset because everything felt just so... off limits, restrictive, and thats what a lot of people on diets do, they restrict themselves too much.

I eat healthy now cuz I choose to, and because i know its something I can do for the rest of my life, as well as staying active, and because of that I know that I can afford to eat junky once in a while if I ever feel the need, which I dont.

the mindset is that no food is offlimits, food is food, its just energy, nothing more. and yes a lot of it comes to self dicipline and determination, people get cravings which they shouldnt have to begin with if they didnt label things off limits, because its true we want that which we cant have

Original Post by lt_jesus:

the mindset is that no food is offlimits, food is food, its just energy, nothing more. and yes a lot of it comes to self dicipline and determination, people get cravings which they shouldnt have to begin with if they didnt label things off limits, because its true we want that which we cant have

I am not quite following this one.  How do we connect the dots between "no food is offlimits" to "cravings which they shouldn't have to begin with" to "it's true we want that which we can't have."

1. If no food is offlimits, then it follows that
2. there is no such thing as cravings which we shouldn't have to begin with; thus
3. we CAN have that which we want.

you're equating counting calories with "dieting" and "restricting" and that's why this communication is failing. just because you eat what you want, good and bad, doesn't mean that you can't count your calories and be aware of what you're taking in. i think you should rethink how you perceive of calorie counters and calorie counting in general. i don't feel like i'm on a "diet" or that ANY food is off limits, but i count my calories, plan, and have ice cream EVERY DAY!! awareness is much better in my opinion, but whatever works for the INDIVIDUAL is what they should do. No one strategy works for everyone or is optimal.

oh...and i'd like to add...how would you know how much you're bruning? do you believe that measuring your activity is also not a good habit?

oh i get an estimate with heart rate monitors. I just know it has to be around 3000 because if i estimate my intake its about 2500 of clean foods and if so happen to reduce body fat (pound or so a week) and manage to maintain my lean mass then thats my rationale seeing as I dont believe I have that quick a metabolism

I'm stepping into the pool- guess I'm bored.  Your attitude suggests that you base weight loss and health on the ability to pump iron and exercise heartily.  For me,  pumping iron etc. would land me in the hospital or the physical therapists.  Tis saner for me to look hard at the calories I take in as well as how healthy the food is.  I am not sitting on my butt; I walk and get in some gardening BUT for sure am not jumping rope or working gym machines.  Yes, I am losing weight very slowly but that is the way it is- not all of us should be out torquing our bods to a lather.

no my base for "FATLOSS" (not weightloss) is pumping iron, cardio, and EATING RIGHT. and im sorry to hear that you think of exercise as torquing to a lather, because its not. in fact the human body is the only machine that breaks down if not used enough, and I will continue to advocate exercise as the SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE and EASIEST way to burn fat, rather than to starve it.

Calorie counting has helped me a great deal and I have been very successful in my weight loss because of it, but on the other hand I feel like it has become an unhealthy obsession for me.  Weighing and counting the calories in everything I eat feels too much like a "diet" to me and not like a "lifestyle change" like it should be.  I also have had the problem recently that whenever I go significantly over my calorie limit for the day, I feel guilty and tend to cut back the next day.  This leads to me feeling deprived, and then right back to overeating.  Now that my goal is maintaining I want to stop counting calories and go back to living a normal life.  I think starting next week I'm going to try not counting anything to see how it goes for me.

For the record, I don't count calories and still find OP misled.

The best plan is the one you can stick to. I know that I can not count calories daily, it is not a sustainable behavior for me. So when I started counting I made it a point to put together calorie consistent meals (I know 10 different breakfast food combinations that equal about 400 calories), to practice eyeballing portions, etc. I am not an organized person, I know this, and construct my diet accordingly. My best friend is one of those people that makes to do lists for fun, she counts her calories, and it doesn't stress her out the way it does me. We're both losing weight. Neither of us is more wrong or right, we both do what works for us. I don't eat out often, I don't eat much processed food, and I eat the same foods a lot, so in many ways my preferred foods and personality lend to my ability to lose weight without counting.

Now, I roll my eyes when people freak out because something has 10 more calories than they thought, but I have a lot of respect for calorie counters. I've met people here that have lost weight and maintained that loss for years by continuing to count calories.

The real question: why are you posting on calorie count that people shouldn't count calories?