I don't calorie count...

....but I am losing weight. I didn't actually know it was a good idea until I came to the forum, and notice a lot of people count every single calorie they eat.

To me, it feels like that way, food is controlling you more than ever.

I just eat healthy and it seems to be working for me.

My question is - should I be obsessively calorie counting - or just keep doing what I'm doing?

Will I get better results if I calorie count? I go to the gym ALOT and my recommended calorie intake per day is 1384 and I have no idea if I am going below or over that.

Is this enough information to base an opinion?

I routinely catalogue things at the end of the day to get a ballpark idea of what's going on and track my habits. For the most part, I'm like you and eat healthily, exercise, and go with it, but I like being able to see what the composition of the foods I'm eating is as well. The analysis function is one of those things I rather like-- it breaks down what percentage of your calories comes from fat, what percentage from protein and what percentage from carbs.

I also log things ahead of time if I know I'm going out to eat so that I can "budget" accordingly. The site has lots of dishes from restaurant chains so I don't have to guess about the nutritional content of what I'm eating.

I am a little baffled by your numbers. I'm a 5'2" female, and at sedentary mode I burn 1500 calories just sitting around. So, is the "recommended calorie intake" you cited above what the site suggested you eat in order to lose x amount of weight by a certain date, or is it the number you get for maintenance when you put in your birthday, weight and activity level?

I think that the question, "Should I be obesessively calorie counting" is a bit offbase - It doesn't have to be one or the other...

I think it is important to undertand the caloric content and nutritional balances of food, but I don't think it is important to log every single calorie if you don't want to. 

If you're losing weight at a steady, safe pace (1-2 lbs a week) then you're probably on a good meal plan and wouldn't "need" to track your calories.  I would caution that many of the people, including myself, who weren't counting calories and dieting discovered that they weren't eating enough calories in a day and hit the dreaded plateau. 

Counting calories keeps me honest and provides a sense of comfort.  I know that that added pound is water weight because I know that I didn't have extra calories, etc.

yes my apologies kellywood, I should have worded "obsessively calorie counting" a little better. I just had a thread fresh in my mind of someone listing everything they ate saying they have 300 more to eat and what they should eat etc. Just seems a little full on to me?

At first I was averaging 1.5kgs a week (3.3lbs) but that has slowed down to 0.5kg (1.1lbs) a week.

I check the back of everything I eat for kj's a calories so I don't think I am ever really exceeding the 1300 mark.

bevvbevv: The recommended calorie intake I got was if I want to get to my goal wait by December 15 2006. That is not taking into account I go to the gym and do intense cardio 4 times a week for an hour and a half - plus tennis or a run in the weekend.

I guess I am after a good formula to work with so I know how much I should eat per day, taking into account my exercise.

I am quite confused when people start mentioning deficits etc.

I think that some people really need to know exactly what they are eating to be able to accurately guage their rate of weight loss.  It also helps psychologically to know that you're on the right track and your efforts will be rewarded.

Obsessive would be someone freaking out over eating one too many baby carrots and then doing ten sit-ups to burn the 5 calories they just ate.

I didn't count my calories for a month and ended up staying at 150lbs because I was assuming that I was eating under my maintenance.  For me, counting is a necessary evil.

You can also track what you're eating to make sure you have a balanced diet with the apropriate levels of fat, carbs, and protein.

Calorie counting isn't for everyone. It is a very specific way to diet. It lets us eat brownies and lose weight. I also lost weight just by restricting fast food, desert, and soda to one day of the week.  Your body does lose weight only by consuming less calories than burned, and most of us like to see exact numbers. If what you're doing works for you, then keep on doing it.

Ok - the more I am learning the more I am liking the sound of it.

How do you guys go about it? Do you write out a list of what you will eat and calculate the calories?

I just get overwhelmed, ie; am I getting enough carbs? protein? good fats? am I getting all the vitamins I need? etc.
When I do something, I need to ensure I am doing it 100% right.

This is a normal eating day for me:

Breakfast: Muesli and yoghurt (low fat)

Morning tea: 2 x rice wafers with cottage cheese, and an apple

Lunch: 1 sandwich (mostly salad, little bit of meat, tiny amount of low fat cheese) and a low fat yoghurt.

Afternoon tea: 2 x rice wafers with cottage cheese, and a banana.

Dinner: 2 x piece of fish (extremely low fat) with rice and vegetables.



I have no idea how many calories all that adds up to. It could be far too much. Now that I write it out - it does seem like an awful lot of food. Some days I dont have my afternoon tea though because I am not feeling hungry.

I guess I should work it out by adding it all up?

Alright, I'll start calorie counting. Is there a tool on this website that allows you to record what you ate in a day?

hey sparkles555 - can I add you as a friend? I just read your profile and we are the same age and started off roughly at the same size, and are roughly the same size now! :)

Alrighty! I hope what I'm about to say is followable....

To input your food for the day and see how it all adds up, look at the main option bar that runs horizontally across the top of this page where it says "home account tools community library recipes." Click on "account." If you've put in your weight, it will show a graph of your current state. Beneath the graph will be "total calories consumed" which, if you haven't logged any exercise, will tell you how many calories your body has used that day. You can come up with your deficit, the difference between calories burned and calories eaten, by subtracting the quantity eaten. To come up with quantity eaten, go to the subcategory under "account" that says food log and click. This will bring you to a page that allows you to find food or put in the proper calorie amount if you know it already. I usually go with the "find" option because it also includes, in many cases, all of the nutritional information about a given food (vitamins, breakdown of fats and carbs, etc).

Next to the food log tab under "account" is the activity log. There you can put in your exercise to see how much you've burned.

Just for ease, I have added up your food for the day. Since I don't know exact quantities, I've added them along. They're in American measurements... sorry about that!

Muesli, 3/4 cup: 230; low-fat yogurt, 6 oz, 90;2 rice wafers, 70; lowfat cottage cheese, 1 cup, 90, sandwich: veg (15), meat (2 thin slices turkey breast, 40), lowfat cheese (1 slice cheddar 48) 103; lowfat yogurt, 6 oz, 90; rice wafers and cottage cheese 160; banana, medium, 116; fish (trout) 3 oz 162; rice (brown), 1 cup, 215 (and fyi, 1 cup of rice is a fairly large scoop to my eyes), veggies, 30.

This brings your daily total to 1256, and I'm guessing that your servings of cottage cheese, rice and muesli are all smaller than that which I counted. That seems awfully low to me, especially if you are exercising.

As far as checking out what percentage of fats, carbs, etc, once you've entered your food, there is a little tab (again, under account) that will check out the percentages of your calories that come from each group. Hope this helps!

wow bevvevv - thank you so much for your help! I'm about to print off this page so I can go and have a look at the features and tools and figure it all out.

yes it does sound like I am not really eating enough - but I am never hungry.

I will play with the tools and modify my diet and see what I come up with :)

Last week I fell off the wagon completely, I had just recovered from a stomach virus, and it was my birthday. So it was a case of "oh yay I can eat again, I'm going to eat whatever I want!" Lucky I did not put on weight.. but I slipped back into that overeating depression.

All it takes is reading a few pages of this forum - and my motivation comes right back.

Thank god for this website and all the lovely people on it!!!

Honestly, food has controlled my entire life.  Whether I'm eating too much of it, or dilligently counting every calorie I put in my mouth.  I see it as one or the other, and it will always be that way.  However, I like myself a lot more when I'm counting what I eat and taking care not to OVEReat, than when I don't care and just eat what I want.  I can live without counting (and when I'm maintaining, I don't really count), but when I'm trying to lose weight, I do it.

Retro,

I agree that calorie counting is not for everybody.  Personally, though, it is very empowering.  Before calorie counting, I was simply depriving myself of everything!  Now, I am in control of what I eat, and have discovered that I can still incorporate many of my favourite foods into my diet. 

Calorie counting works with the laws of physics - if you eat less than you burn, you will lose!  I like to count every single calorie (more or less) so that I know exactly how much I can eat.  I don't feel guilty about eating, because I am accountable for it!

Hope that was somewhat enlightening...

Here's an example of why calorie counting can be helpful.  I had a mystery shop tonight at a pretzel place at the mall.  So I bought my husband a cinnamon pretzel.  Well, I had to taste it.  Then it was really good, so I ate half.  I had a lot of calories left from this super healthy dinner I made.  Well, I got home and looked it up and that whole pretzel has 450 calories!  I couldn't believe it.  300 I'd have guessed.  Luckily I only ate half and didn't blow my diet.  So now I know to avoid those for a treat and get something with fewer calories but still good.

hey,

i would say sitck to what you are doing no doubt about it,if you are losing number one its showing you that you arent eating too much right.then there is the fact that ist not like you are eating rubbish becuase you no that you are eating healthily coz you siad it yourslef.

its amazing if you can do it without counting because it gets into a cycle and then you end up going up and down with meal plans and all that and it doesnt work.we all no if we are eating too much and i am usre you would notice if you were.

enjoy what you eat dont let it control you its not what was inteneded of food right?

Well, here's the deal in my experience:

You can do what you're doing, and you'll lose weight, but the closer you get to your goal weight, the harder it will be to continue losing weight. When you get to the last 5-10lbs, you're going to have to be hyper-vigilant to get your body to actually lose that weight. You're body feels as if it is not in it's best interest to lose weight in general, much less when you're close to your goal.

At that point in time, you're going to have to start fine-tuning, and you're going to have to start taking your body off-guard. In this stage, you're going to have to know your numbers so you have the best edge; you can't go by how it 'feels' anymore, because what 'feels' right are maintnance calories; but you don't want to short yourself too much, either, so you don't want to aim for the 'hungry feeling' as your guide.

So yeah, when you need to start fine-tuning is when I'd reccomend you do this. And by the way, you're at a website called www.calorie-count.com...the whole point of this place is to aide you in counting calories...so yes, there's a tool, it's your food log, that's like the site's main feature.

Knowledge is power, especially where weight loss is concerned. You don't want to keep yourself in the dark.

Just basically agreeing with everyone else here. If you're happy not counting calories, don't feel like you have to. But, you might be pleasantly surprised if you enter in a couple of days to see where you're at. When I started out at this site I descovered I wasn't eating enough calories, and more importantly I was eating only about 15g of fat a day -- I'm supposed to get in 50g a day! I was doing some serious damage to myself and not even realizing it.  This site has helped me gat a better idea of how much I am allowed to eat and how much I *need* to eat. And, it's great when you can plan out a trip to Cold Stone! I rollerblade on Sundays, and because of that, I can eat fairly normally all day -- a little on the light side -- and then eat 1200 calories worth of ice cream! It's awesome!

I hope you benefit from this site. But whatever you do, always keep in mind that your health is the most important thing. So, be healthy! =)

I'm not sure how tall you are and what your recommended cals are a day, but I would suggest logging your cals for just one day to see if you are hitting your target. I say this because, you say that you exercise 4 times a week - intense cardio for more than an hour. Now, if you burn about 500 cals or more in that sessions, you have to remember that you are adding that 500 cals to your deficit. What I mean is, you may be eating the recommended 1300 cals a day, but once you subtract that 500 cals you burnt off - you technically only ate 800 cals that day! Now, not only is that under the recommended 1200 cals a day for a woman, but if you keep going at this rate - your weight loss might stall.

The best way to explain calories and what kind of deficit you should have, in the simplest of terms, is figuring out what your Basal Metabolic Rate is (BMR - what you burn when you do not move a muscle), and then going from there. I gave a proper explanation here - see post #6.

You simply HAVE to compensate for the amount of calories you burn during exercise. You can't eat 1300 cals and then burn off 500 cals and expect your body to be okay with it!



PS: I calorie counted pretty religiously for the first month or so, just so that i could figure out roughly what i could eat a day without going under/over my calorie allowance. I didn't eat ENOUGH calories for the first few weeks! So I had to eat even MORE to get my weight loss going. But now, I don't count at all. I always check labels, and I know what I can eat in a meal and how much i should eat a day. But it doesn't even make a dent in my lifestyle - it's so easy.

Do what works for you.  I didn't count calories when I first started on my life style change.  I picked bad habits and changed them, and in doing so, lost the first 5 pounds easily.  Then I found calorie count and began logging my food.  It helped me identify high calorie areas and correct them.  When it really helped was when I hit that 20 pound plateau.

I think for someone like you, it would help to log your meals to see if you're getting the right amount of nutrients, since you seem to be doing well and losing weight on your own.

Making sure you have enough protein to fuel those muscles during your workouts will help you do your best at the gym.

Thank you everyone for all your help and advice!

But OK - one little thing I am confused about.

I, (apparently) burn 2400 calories a day at my resting rate.

SO - I eat roughly 1300 cals a day, and burn roughly 400-500 a day doing exercise. Does this mean I am -1500 (approx) and completely depriving myself????

well, to lose weight you have to have a negative number at the end of the day. However your number is much too high.

if you burn 2400 calories a day, you should aim to eat from 1400-1900 calories a day, then if you are exercising and burning another 500 calories on top of that, you should eat an extra 500ish calories.