Do your friends and family know?

Do your friends and family know that you count calories? If so, what do they think of it?

Just curious. :)

yup, they are very supportive....now only if I can convince DBF to cook a tad healthier so I can more of his yummy creations :D

 My mom has done weight watchers for years which is essentially calorie counting, only the company assigns poinst to make it easier, and it turns out my best friend counts to maintain and I didn't even know!

I introduced my mother to cc and now she's an active member and has lost much more weight than I have.

My friends and co-workers listen to me babble on about my calorie limit and exercising (and being sore from exercising...) all the time.  Sometimes they tease me (good-naturedly) and other times, they ask questions or listen.  One of my co-workers has told me at least a few times, when I've explained something about how the body works to hold fat or lose fat, etc., that she 'didn't know that,' and seemed pretty interested by the new information.

I'm not the kind of person who hides personal things, so most people I talk to for more than a few minutes know I count calories or watch what I eat or am trying to get more fit or something similar.  Sometimes I get the, "Oh, but you don't need to!  You're already small/fit/tiny!" and I sometimes say back, "How do you think I got this way?" or "Yeah, but if I don't keep track of myself, I won't be forever!" but I'm pretty patient with people, so I don't mind repeating myself or explaining things.  Sometimes I'll bother trying to explain that, actually, I have a few pounds of fat left to lose, but then I usually get looked at strangely.  And sometimes, if I'm feeling particularly cheeky, I'll say, "Hey, you might think I look good in these clothes, but if you saw me naked, you'd understand!"  heh  That usually breaks the tension.  ;)

My one co-worker used to say, when I turned down something sweet because it would mess up my calorie count for the day, or when I (finally!) lost another pound and was excited about it, "What, do you want to weigh nothing?"  LOL  I'd always laugh and say no, but that I knew I had a little bit more improvement to do.  She's stopped saying that. 

Oh, and I also found out that two other people I see occasionally were/are counting calories and I didn't know about it until I mentioned what I was doing. 

My family knows, but do not support me.  They do not talk about it, though, but I know they're wondering if my weight loss is healty or not.  My mother has been counting calories via weight watchers for years, but, somehow, counting calories on CC looks '' wrong '' to her. 

Well, I do eat less when counting calories than counting WWpoints.  But it does not mean I am starving :p.  Far from it!!  I've lost 21 lbs, but I doubt any of my family members is happy for me, they all think I'm on the verge of anorexia because I skip the '' sunday 1/4 cake dessert '' or do not eat the '' mayonnaise/relish mix that goes on the fish '' ;p.

I've got full support from by boyfriend though, he knows I'm counting calories, and supports me, even asks questions about it :). 

As for my friends...tried to tell it once to my best friend, and got a 30 minutes talk on '' how it is important not to look at what you are eating when in your early 20s (well 22 years old to be more precise) '', and I do not want to go through such a conversation ever again.  So no, my friends do not know I am counting calories.

When asked, I simply say I am paying close attention to what I eat, and how much exercise I do in a week.  And if they insist, I tell them the doctor suggested it to me (which isn't true XD).  It's lying...but it makes them accept the fact I'm counting calories.  And deep down inside I know that
1. I am not starving myself
2. I am enjoying myself
3. I now have healty eating habits
4. I feel happier, healtier, and better than ever before
5. Other's opinions -do- matter, but others can not decide what is best for me or not.

:) Tadam!

My family knows I am eating healthy, but they don't know I 'count calories'. (My mother probably guesses it, though.) My brother gave me the weirdest looks (and comments) when I brought my food scale home with me for thanksgiving break.

They just don't get it. So I'm not keeping it a secret, but I'd rather avoid an in-depth convo on it. 

Everyone knows I'm counting calories and losing weight, but only those online know how much I really weigh.  ;]

My family and friends don't know.

I mean, my mom prolly does 'cause I'll tell her how many Calories in a dinner she makes (total), and try to help her lower it (we're trying to make our family healthy. Men in my family tend to get overweight and I don't want my brother to have any health issues later in life, so yeah).

They know I'm trying to be healthier, but I don't think they know that I log all my food and stuff.

I think I'd feel odd if they did.

Plus, my mom eats like  a bird and thinks she's fat(she's not), so I'd rather not give her any ideas.
Same with my sister.
Brother and dad wouldn't care.

My friends would prolly be a little upset 'cause they keep telling me I'm skinny (I'm average), and one friend had a bad experience with counting Calories (got obsessed), so I'd rather them not know.

my mom and my sister do...and whenever people ask me how i lost so much weight, i say calorie-counting. i don't hide it.

my mom knows and she's probably told my dad, but I don't really tell people that I count calories. It seems to get some weird looks. I just say that I watch what I eat.

My family knows and at first I got a lot of teasing from modifying what they would eat to fit into my new life style. I would eat spaghetti squash instead of noodles, and so on. My mom was worried at first about my weight loss because she didn't think i needed to lose any in the first place but it is just a fact of life now. Both of my parents actually started to buy me the food i wanted to eat when i was living with them. They support me.

My partner keeps saying "You don't need to lose any weight". And he's right, I'm right in the middle of my healthy weight range (22.5 BMI), but don't feel comfortable. I've not changed my clothes since I gained some weight, which is probably why I feel this way!

 

I must say that the "normal" range seems massive to me. I know it is to cover variations in build and gender, but the difference I feel between 22.5 BMI and 21.5 BMI (the BMI I had, and want to get to again) is immense. It is not psychological, it is definitely  physical.

So I don't have much support, but I don't need to lose much. 

No. My mum probably has some idea because I don't really hide it and sometimes get a little annoyed by her attempts to loose weight and reveal my calorie-counting side to her by mistake ;-). My dad would think I was crazy, so I suppose to some extent I do actively hide it when I go and visit him. Other people around me don't know at all ... and I don't know what their reactions would be.

I think that unless you're very overweight people just assume that you have an eating disorder if you mention anything to do with dieting or calories. This woman at work once saw me reading a label and putting the item back and after that just seemed to get the idea that I "never eat anything" which was annoying ... especially as I was looking at the ingredients not the nutritional info! LOL.

If I want to avoid eating something high calorie I just say that I'm trying to eat more healthily. Which is true! So that's all good! If the thing is healthy and high-calorie (you do look a bit of a killjoy turning down a few dried dates!) then I just say that I'm trying not to snack between meals so much. Also true ... I guess I just skirt around calories, really!

Yes friends and family know that I count calories. They are supportive and no one says anything bad about it. My mom had not seen me since I started losing weight until about 2 weeks ago. She commented on how great I looked and she could tell I lost quite a bit of weight. Of course I told her how I was able to lose it all and was really ok with it.

I think the ones who give bad reactions to calorie counting just don't understand it. They probably think that people who count calories are getting very little food and thats why they act strange about it. If they understood it people would not get flack for it. But if you told them you were following one of the on tv plans (jenny criag or nutrisystem etc) they would not have any issue. But even those plans on a basic level are calorie counting. But they are sending pre-packaged food and everything is pretty much figured out for you so you just have to eat. 

 

Only my brother knows and i dont want anyone else to know considering his reaction. He thinks what i"m doing is irrational. Not one single member of my family has ever been on a diet, and they wouldnt understand that I'm just trying to maintain my weight and that I like knowing that I eat what I should be eating everyday.

Hell no! My mum used to know I was 'eating healthily' (ie dieting) and was pretty supportive, but ever since my weight dropped below hers, into the normal range (her BMI is 26, but she looks normal weight) she has been incredibly unsupportive, always trying to make me eat chocolate, or telling me how apple pie is healthy 'because it has fruit in it'. Pfft. You keep telling yourself that, I'll be in the corner with a smoothie. 

So, I pretend to eat normally around her, which is not difficult because I cook for me and my brother anyway, and my brother wont spill about the healthiness of my meals as long as I make a second larger serving and some meat for him. I only really see her for an hour or two a week because of her work, so I am quite happy to eat a square or of chocolate in those hours if it will keep her off my back for the rest of the week.

my family knows. i think i've gotten my obsessiveness from my mum. the women in my family have a history of weight problems... and it looks like i'm the first one to have never been significantly overweight. however, this makes me stand out - i weigh less and i'm shorter/smaller in general than all of them and when i don't eat the bread or the desserts there's *always* a discussion about it. my mum supports it. the rest of my family doesn't think it's healthy.

i don't talk about it with my friends. sometimes people make comments and i find it hard to deal and respond to them. funnily enough, as a twenty yr-old female university student, the majority of my circle of friends don't even mention wanting to lose a few. the eat muffins and ice cream and chips and salsa and pizza and their youthful metabolisms just take it all in. i'm 120lbs and when i turn down the pizza and they look at me like i have a problem. i turn it down because i used to be 30lbs heavier and eating like that is what made me that way. 

i do feel very isolated, though. 

i come from a family of health nuts-- my sister is going to go to college to be a dietician, my mom teaches nutrition classes at a middle school... so i've been brought up to very loosely count calories-- as in not eating any super high-calorie foods like anything fried, etc... only turkey bacon in my house! however, i've found it easier to use this site to more accurately count and watch my calories while im away at school.

I never even thought about hiding it, glad i haven't gotten negative reactions.  Most people in my life just want me to be happy and i doubt they would jump in unless they saw me as underweight.

But as far as my family goes i try to get them to try this website, my dad went on Atkins so he has no room to judge my calorie counting, and after seeing someone on a more extreme diet I'd laugh at anyone that gave me the stink eye for counting calories.

Well, nobody really knows that I count my calories, but my family and friends know that I watch what I eat carefully and they know that I want to lose weight. However, none of them is supportive at all.. :-( They all think I shouldn't be losing any weight in the first place and my mom always gives me "the look" whenever I ask her how much oil she's put in this or that..

Family-yes.  I talked to my mom about it a lot because she's overweight.  She of course, told me I wasn't fat and I had nothing to worry about, but now that she's seen my sucess, she's super supportive and happy for me. 

Friends- yes.  Mainly because they've seen my weight loss but also because I talk about calorie content A LOT.  Probably borderline obsessive.

Co-workers- yes.  They now know the exact calorie count in a krispy kreme donut and just how evil everything at starbucks is.  My boss actually stopped getting the "low fat" options at Starbucks because the nutritional info in nearly identical to the regular stuff haha...   Oh yeah, and beyond just counting, I keep them all apprised of my work out routines and I try and get my secretary to do lunges with me haha