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.

Original Post by kurichan:
  I think starting next week I'm going to try not counting anything to see how it goes for me.

I started today--best of luck to both of us.  I wish you the best in your endeavor.

Original Post by kurichan:

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.

On October 9th, my weigh-in day for the last week I counted calories, I went up 1 kg, despite being under my maintenance level for that week.  One week later, on my first weigh-in since I stopped counting, I maintained, even though I pigged out 4 days in a row and drank about two bottles of wine on one night, and I'm sure I must have went over maintenance for the week.  My body baffles me.

I don't count calories but heck, I think there are a lot of situations where calorie counting is a useful tool. Calorie counting can be a problem when it becomes obsessive and dogmatic, but plenty of people seem able to take a reasonably healthy and relaxed approach to counting calories, so why not?

I used to count calories and then switched to eating intuitively. Eating intuitively is difficult for people who expect a rulebook, but it can be learned. You do need to become much more aware of hunger and fullness, and eat what you really want to eat - the idea being that after a while you begin to want to eat a balanced diet as sweets and treats become less appealing.

With that said, nobody likes to be told what to do so OP, if it works for you, fine, but don't expect people to take kindly to being instructed to follow suit.

P.S. I can't help it - it's "fuss", not "fuzz".

I am staying with my decision of not deliberately counting calories (and will do so throughout October), although obviously some of my meals I eat regularly I already know how many calories are in them.  Out East, I spent 8 days gorging myself on lobster, pizza, stouts, desserts, pasta, Chinese foods, etc., so I obviously gained a lot of weight.  Now, I am at home and limiting myself to things like apples, cabbage, "light"  whole wheat wraps and toast, low-fat cheese, egg whites, and canned tuna packed in water.  Once November 1st comes, I am going back to carefully logging weights, calories, and exercising.  That is the only way I can stay within my weight-maintenance window.