Are we obsessing?

I have only een doing this for 3 days now but already I feel all I can think about is calories!

Does anyone else feel like this?

When does this obsession become dangerous?

xxx

Yes - I completely feel this way. But I will say that it's gotten better since I first started CC. At first - I was completely obsessed with it but I think it was because I just couldn't believe how many calories I was unknowingling eating! I could be wrong but I think it  could be a problem when you're in maintenance and you still obsess over every calorie - by that point it's just about learning how to live with it.  Good luck!

I think the first month I would have probably been considered obsessed, BUT for me, at 260 lbs. that isn't really a bad thing.  I needed to really kick myself in to gear and the tools here, counting etc. was exactly what I needed.  There for a bit I probably started to annoy friends/family with it, but it has tapered off  a lot.  I am still seriously fanatical about counting, logging etc., but now I keep it more to myself vs. sharing it with anyone that stands still for 2 seconds.  Also, I think the beginning I seemed obsessed because I was really learning soooo much, and I am all about learning new things and sharing what I have learned with others.  I know there are some here who have had problems "breaking" free of the counting and have had to taper off the site or drop out completely, but to me that is probably just part of an "addictive" personality & most of us here with HUGE amounts to lose obviousley have that addictive thing going on with food.  I think you will find after a week or two and actually getting in to the groove the obsession feeling will taper off a lot it will just become normal "habit".

Heather

I kind of miss not knowing how many calories are in everythings. I have an ED and I have EVERYTHING memorized. It's someting I'll probably be stuck with my entire life. It's hard to forget.

Yes I feel like I am obsessed...I know from past experience that it is the only way I can be and be successful...last year I was using Calorie Count for almost 8 months and lost 30 pounds....since Nov. due to the holidays and the doc putting me on steroids for my neck I have gained all but 5 pounds back.  I started back this week since I am finishing my my PT and I have to be obsessed with it to get myself back on track....so far so good, I've worked out every day this week and have watched what I've eaten and I've lost 3 pounds since Sun.  I know some of it must be water but it is sooo nice to see the scale start going in the opposite direction for a change.    I have also come to the realization that it is no quick fix...I will have to do this the rest of my life (eating healthier and exercising) in order to maintain when I get there. 

As for it becoming dangerous.....for me I don't think I will have that problem but I think it would become dangerous when it totally absorbs you as in when you are at your goal weight but can't stop obsessing about losing and do whatever is necessary to lose weight even when you don't need to.  Those are just my thoughts on it though. 

yea i think in the beginning it's really on your mind because i at least was so shocked at how many calories i was eating and what a serving really was as opposed to what i was eating in what i thought was a serving.  i think after a while you can sort of judge something on your own without having to measure out every calorie.  i think it's obsessive when you freak out for having 20 extra calories or start refusing all foods you enjoy or are still measuring out each item after a year or something.... dunno. i think it's good for now.

I'm new and also obsessing hehe. I log everything, even water! I take snapshots of the foods I've eaten that day and send them to my Hubby hehe. I was either under eating, or waaay over eating. It's so nice to be confident that I am getting what my body needs :)

I am obsessed too but in a good way (if it's possible). The firts couple of days, I could barely work since they were so many new things for me here, but after a month, i'm less compulsive about it. I always find though that with me, I have to be a bit obsessed so it could work, otherwise, I'm not motivated enough, it's either all or nothing! unfortunately that's the way I am, I'm trying to get better but you don't change yourself in a day! Good luck!

i agree with everyone else in the sense that at first u will be obssessed because thats the only you will control what you're eating. With time it gets easier though, u soon get used to the calories in most of the things u eat.  Eventually u will be able to eat all day without counting calories but still know roughly how many u ate cos u'll be educated enough to be able to look at a plate of food and guess the calories. All in good time!

I wouldn't call myself obsessed now, but way back (in Mar 2007) when I started, yes, I was a little obsessed. After a while I found it tapered off and then I could focus more on my life and less on my calorie counts. One of the reasons is that I know the calorie count of most of the stuff I eat (at least ballpark) and if I'm going to a new restaurant, I'll either do some research beforehand or make sure I order something not too destructive (e.g. grilled salmon, small grilled sirloin, grilled chicken breast...) and ask for dressings, dips etc. on the side.

yea, I never used to obsess until I got serious about losing weight. Just like any obsession, it should go away because it is too much stress to handle thinking about calories ALL DAY LONG!!! I am still obsessing after a week having this website to help, but it has done some good obsessing. For example,

Before I went to Macaroni grill today,  I looked up the calories for most things I would eat and almost all were over 1,000 CALORIES!!! Is that INSANE!?! If I didnt look it up, I would have eaten the whole damn thing! But my obsession told me to just eat half, which is still alot of calories, but its ok to indulge every once and a while!

so yea, the obsession should go away. It may take some time, but during that time, you can accomplish alot by being conscientious of what you are eating. sorry for the long message!!:)

Yeah...I have gotten obsessed before with calorie counting and Weight Watchers point counting. I promised myself that this time I wasn't going to obsess about food...because isn't obsessing about food how I got fat in the first place? I want healthy eating to become natural not an obsession because i have always been obsessed with food. It's really hard to not think about it all the time. I just try not to worry if I go over my calorie limit a little.

I think we're all obsessed... it's cool thought because we're obsessed about something healthy :)  I get on here everyday, and I log everyday and I love it! 

Starting weight:    250 - 11/5/07

CC starting date/weight:     239 - 12/7/07

total lost today - 43lbs

Thank you CC, for the help in shedding 32lbs.... I have 62 to go!!!

Hi!

I kind of agree with everyone but I also think that the beginning obsession has a lot to do with having to search for every single thing you eat, having to bring nutrition labels with you for everything to enter things that aren't already in the CC database, or searching online for stuff hoping nutritional values will be available.  I was really obsessed with weightwatchers when I started that a few months ago, but as time went on, I became well acquainted with a lot of the values for many of the things I eat regularly. I'd also entered things into the database, or could go back through other days to find them more quickly.

Once youre not scrambling around to figure out every single thing you eat, and instead the logging takes only a few minutes, you'll find you dont need to obsess or feel like youre obsessing because it won't be loads of new information anymore. 

I found after a while with the weightwatchers that I was training myself to be able to have enough knowledge about what I was eating that I could go for a week without calculating things and find out later that I'd improvised pretty impressively.  I've joined up with CC because I wanted to take it all a step further and actually fully understand the nutritional aspect; to be healthy instead of just losing weight. 

Thats the whole point of all of this, right?  To learn enough that we dont NEED to spend the rest of our lives logging things into a computer every two seconds in order to keep it under control?  Not that I see myself ever giving the logging up entirely, I mean... I kind of like seeing my life as a bit of a spreadsheet but I think thats just my OCD.... ;)

Hope everyone had a good day!