counting calories for life?

i was just wondering how many of you plan on at some point stopping counting your calories at some point? i think it's a pretty hard way to live as it is hard not to become obsessive when you are counting. are most of you just counting while you are on some sort of diet or do you see yourself counting your calories forever?

 

just wondering. im young and don't know if i want to always count but am not sure how i would stop!

I'm not sure.  I think I will probably try to count calories for a good few months after I've reached my target weight, but I may wean myself off it if I get a good enough sense of how many calories various things have.  I dunno.  I could easily see myself making counting calories a long-term part of my life.  I definitely want to keep eating healthy.  It's so tasty and it makes me feel so good about myself!

Define "stopping."

There are some days when I can't get to the computer to log my stuff. But I know the calories and stats of the foods I eat (sad, but true). So I can stop literally counting, but I don't think that the subconcious counting will ever end.

.. Haa, I just imagined myself as an old lady logging my prune juice and old people food on here. Dag nabbit!

Well, I would LIKE to stop, but I just don't see it happening.  I know the amount of calories in everything I eat and it's just automatic for me to add things up.  The days where I've tried not counting haven't gone well.  I end up just going crazy that night and trying to remember what I ate all day so I can check my cals. 

I would like to eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full, but by knowing calorie information as well as I do I kinda screwed that up for myself.  I'm trying to think of ways to stop, like things I could do to monitor my intake in other ways, but I haven't come up with anything yet =\

I would like to get where I could go day to day without counting, and only count on days where I may need to save cals or days where I might be prone to eat way too much of the wrong things (like birthdays or when I go out to eat).

The goal for me is to develop healthy eating habits. Counting calories is a good way to start so I can be aware of what I'm eating and it's obviously more important now since i am trying to lose weight. But my goal is to get used to eating small, healthy meals and snacks, so after I reach my goal weight I don't have to think about the calories but just eat in a sensible way. I know many older women, including my mom, who eat in the way, and that's my goal for the future. I hope it's not too optimistic to think I can eat well without having to think about it constantly!

Personally, I see calorie-counting as a spot-check only.  I had to control calories for a time to reduce my size from obese to normal.  But along the way it was possible to see that if the food is good food (fruit & veg etc.) rather than junk and if the portions aren't massive then you are on target.  Today I measure portions (either by eye or on a kitchen scale) rather than calorie count.... it's much easier to look at a serving of pasta and think 'that looks about right' rather than wondering if it's 156 calories or 223.  

Weighing myself and counting calories now becomes an occasional spot-check rather than some restrictive daily ritual.  And then you can get on and enjoy life... Which is the whole point, isn't it?

ive been writing down every calorie I eat for over six years now.  There have been periods when I try and stop but they resulted in binging and weight gain so now I just dont see it happening.  Its impossible when you know the amounts of everything yourself.

I think I will be a "lifer" as well!  I just feel more comfortable counting.  I am no where near my goal weight, but I know that everytime I have stopped counting I have gained weight like mad.  I am not good at estimating portion size or guessing calorie contents so I always ended up WAY overeating.  Thus, I conclude that I will be counting calories for ever... and I am pretty happy about that!

I stopped counting (every single calorie anyways)

But for every meal I still have a 'guess-timate' for the # of calories. and at the end of the day i might take a calculator and add up the hundreds.

I'm like you, muttlover, in that I know the calories in almost everything I eat (and sadly, have a tough time getting myself to eat things I don't know) so actually stopping isn't really a possibility. I no longer log my food or calories, because it led to obsessive behavior for me, but I don't think there will ever be a time when I'm not at least aware of calories. It's a good way to keep myself in check, I've found, so I do keep track mentally. 

I hate It, It ruined my Life.  It's annoying It's a block that doesn't move away.  It's a BIG waste of time In my Opinion.  But if you truly WANT to you'll easily be able to have control. 

I have a general idea of how many calories I've eaten, but I haven't been very good lately about logging my calories.  I've regained about 5 pounds in the last few months which isn't great, but isn't awful.

Since I do want to lose another 10-15 lbs I'm going to have to go back to logging both exercise and activity for a while.  My plan overall, is to not log except occasionally just to get a good idea but to be much more aware of what my body needs and if my clothes get tight then I'll start logging and watching again.