Tips to stop calorie counting

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  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
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    AusteenaHayes wrote: »
    I want to stop counting and start eating normally.
    Normal: I'm think you mean, just eat rather than constantly counting the calories.
    For some people 'normal' means, "now that I've lost all this weight I can eat the way I used to eat now. Yipee!". The consequences of that mindset is putting the weight back on. Finding a new normal plays a huge role with losing weight and maintenance.

    Whether or not counting calories is part of your new normal is up to you. Elisa summed it up well:
    elisa123gal wrote: »
    some look at counting calories as training wheels…others do not. It is a personal choice.
    AusteenaHayes wrote: »
    I need tips to lead myself to stop calorie counting.
    I simply stopped counting as a way to test myself. Set a timeframe (ex; 3 months) and stop counting. Continue to track your weight to monitor your progress. If you continue to maintain without counting for a couple of months you're good to go. If you put on some weight you may need to reevaluate. You'll never know until you give it a shot.

    Remember that stopping counting doesn't mean stopping mindful eating. You've learned about portion sizes and calorie dense foods. Continue to be mindful and you'll do fine.
  • AusteenaHayes
    AusteenaHayes Posts: 91
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    BigGuy47 wrote: »
    AusteenaHayes wrote: »
    I want to stop counting and start eating normally.
    Normal: I'm think you mean, just eat rather than constantly counting the calories.
    For some people 'normal' means, "now that I've lost all this weight I can eat the way I used to eat now. Yipee!". The consequences of that mindset is putting the weight back on. Finding a new normal plays a huge role with losing weight and maintenance.

    Whether or not counting calories is part of your new normal is up to you. Elisa summed it up well:
    elisa123gal wrote: »
    some look at counting calories as training wheels…others do not. It is a personal choice.
    AusteenaHayes wrote: »
    I need tips to lead myself to stop calorie counting.
    I simply stopped counting as a way to test myself. Set a timeframe (ex; 3 months) and stop counting. Continue to track your weight to monitor your progress. If you continue to maintain without counting for a couple of months you're good to go. If you put on some weight you may need to reevaluate. You'll never know until you give it a shot.

    Remember that stopping counting doesn't mean stopping mindful eating. You've learned about portion sizes and calorie dense foods. Continue to be mindful and you'll do fine.

    I eat healthy 98% of the time.
  • Spiderkeys
    Spiderkeys Posts: 338 Member
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    If I was to stop logging and decided to eat "normally", Ill be in big trouble, eating normally got me so big in the first place, but really I been loggin to over 15 months, now, I just log everything at the end of the day, if go over, no problem, I just eat less the next day, I just think it as a loan, and if I ated too little then I get to enjoy the next day by eating a bit more, loggin a full-day only takes 1 or 2 minutes, no different from brushing your teeth everyday.
  • SingingSingleTracker
    SingingSingleTracker Posts: 1,866 Member
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    SherryTeach wrote: »
    I've been in maintenance for two years now and I continue to log. It takes only a few minute a day and it keeps me accountable. For me at least, it helps me stay on track, especially in the evening when I have an accurate number to plan that last snack of the day. I don't consider my calorie counting a bad habit any more than keep track of my bank balance.

    ^^THIS!^^
  • gmallan
    gmallan Posts: 2,099 Member
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    If you've been counting for a while you should have a pretty good idea what your energy needs are and how to eyeball portions sizes etc. You can stop tracking and maintain but you need to keep an eye things to make sure you don't slide too far backwards. Most people maintain within a range. Sometimes you'll be at the lower end and other times the higher end. Have some sort of mechanism in place that can act as a warning indicator for when you're reaching your upper limit (not necessarily the scale) - for me when certain pants/dresses start to get a little tight I know it's time to reign things in a bit. You can always come back for a brief stint of calorie counting again to get you back on track. The key is to catch yourself before it's too late.
  • fabidevo
    fabidevo Posts: 11
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    HappyCampr1 wrote: »
    I've been in maintenance for three months and I'm still logging. This week, I decided that I was spending waaay too much time looking at my calories, macros, and micronutrients figuring out exactly what snacks/food I could have which would make all my numbers match. I really work hard to make EVERYTHING match up. I'm jealous when I read people who are saying they spend 5 minutes logging at the end of the day, no big deal. I must spend at least an hour a day, planning and analyzing every micronutrient. I totally understand the desire to not log anymore. Yesterday, I started something new. I'm not yet ready to stop logging, but I need to stop depending on the app to tell me what I can eat. So I'm experimenting with just eating as best I can, weighing what I can, but not entering it. I'm just writing it down. After I'm done for the day, I'm going to enter everything and see how badly I did. I think that's the only way I'm going to learn how to do this on my own. A new start every day...try my best...enter everything and see where I went wrong. Maybe someday, I'll learn enough to stop logging completely. If not, and this works, at least I won't be spending hours looking at my diary. Yesterday went better than I had expected for a first day.
    I'm not sure if something like this would help you transition better than just quitting, but it's my current plan for easing off.

    but you are doing the same thing counting calories just not tracking them on this website called myfitnesspal. which isn't any more right or wrong than counting them yourself. at the end of the day though if its what you like and if it works for you then do it.
  • fabidevo
    fabidevo Posts: 11
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    AusteenaHayes wrote: »
    BigGuy47 wrote: »
    AusteenaHayes wrote: »
    I want to stop counting and start eating normally.
    Normal: I'm think you mean, just eat rather than constantly counting the calories.
    For some people 'normal' means, "now that I've lost all this weight I can eat the way I used to eat now. Yipee!". The consequences of that mindset is putting the weight back on. Finding a new normal plays a huge role with losing weight and maintenance.

    Whether or not counting calories is part of your new normal is up to you. Elisa summed it up well:
    elisa123gal wrote: »
    some look at counting calories as training wheels…others do not. It is a personal choice.
    AusteenaHayes wrote: »
    I need tips to lead myself to stop calorie counting.
    I simply stopped counting as a way to test myself. Set a timeframe (ex; 3 months) and stop counting. Continue to track your weight to monitor your progress. If you continue to maintain without counting for a couple of months you're good to go. If you put on some weight you may need to reevaluate. You'll never know until you give it a shot.

    Remember that stopping counting doesn't mean stopping mindful eating. You've learned about portion sizes and calorie dense foods. Continue to be mindful and you'll do fine.

    I eat healthy 98% of the time.


    did you know 98% or percents are made up? lol jk anyway just say the majority of your diet is whole foods and vegetables with the balanced and planned out foods. aka IIFYM
  • Patttience
    Patttience Posts: 975 Member
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    This is easy. First just keep a food diary. Do that for as long as you feel comfortable and weigh your self and record that as often as you normally do too.

    After a while you will get sick of the food diary and you will feel confident of leaving that off too. That's what i've done.

    The only thing i'm still recording is my weight. I weigh every day. I will probably stop recording that at some point in the future too but for now, i need to do record it because i am not sure how stable my eating patterns are yet.

    I would add that most of weightloss diet has been only about food logging without counting calories. I started counting calories when i did a stint of low carbing and needed to be able to watch my macros.

    Food diarising in itself is an excellent way to monitor yourself to lose weight providing you know your macros are in good order.
  • hastingsmassage
    hastingsmassage Posts: 162 Member
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    Why stop counting? If it made you who you are today...I do have a days when I am not logging in but there is always pen and notebook next to me in my kitchen..to have some idea of how I am doing...I think its good habit.
  • mrsmuckster
    mrsmuckster Posts: 444 Member
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    Not having got to my goal weight yet, I guess I really don't know how I will feel about continuing to count, though right now I can't imagine not tracking. For me tracking has become a good habit, kind of like brushing my teeth. Just because the dentist said I have no cavities - I continue to brush. Again, I might feel different by the time I get to goal. Congrats on getting to your goal.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    AusteenaHayes wrote: »
    I am finally at the weight I want to be at. But I feel calorie counting is a bad habit and I want to stop counting and start eating normally. I do eat 98% healthy. And I run and workout six times a week. I need tips to lead myself to stop calorie counting.

    why is calorie counting a bad habit? I fail to understand how something that helped you lose weight and get to maintenance is a bad habit...
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
    edited November 2014
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    Have you looked into the tenants of intuitive eating and/or intermittent fasting to help maintain your weight without counting?

    I don't count. Previously I counted carbs only, which helped to a point. Now I use intermittent fasting to lose and maintain, with no counting at all.

    I think counting tends to be a much more necessary tool if you're consuming a diet that's dependent on more heavily processed food, a more standard western diet. I know if I followed that daily I likely would need to calorie count. It's very easy to have calorie creep if you've got a diet heavy in foods that provide higher calorie content without much volume to fill you up.

    I think those who lose, and maintain, without calorie counting tend to either have diets that are far more heavily plant based, more dependent on whole foods, which just make it easier to eat more intuitively (the popular UK slimming world program is based on this notion as are the "free" Weight Watchers foods in their point system), or they might be doing some form of IFing (even if they don't call it that).
  • sarafischbach9
    sarafischbach9 Posts: 466 Member
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    I think calorie counting can be very useful when maintaining weight. I have maintained the best when counting calories and keeping track of my exercises. BUT, I have also found that I get obsessive and I have gone to bed hungry just because I felt like I couldn't have anymore calories.

    I'm thinking when you say you want to eat "normally," that you just want to eat when you are hungry and stop when you're full and not worry so much about the numbers.

    If you want to do it that way, then try it. See how it goes. Weigh in once a week and see what the scale is saying. If you're seeing an upwards trend over the course of a month, then you might want to count calories again.

    Right now I am not counting, but I'm keeping track of my weight once a week just to keep an eye on it. I did gain a little bit when I first stopped counting ( but I was also underweight ), but my weight finally stabilized. If I start seeing an upwards trend again, then I will begin counting.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    If you think it's a "bad habit", you probably shouldn't have made a MFP account to begin with. Just saying. I have no tips, because I don't think there's anything wrong with counting. I plan to continue for the rest of my life. An easy, quick, simple, FREE way of guaranteeing a healthy and attractive weight for the rest of forever?? Um, yes please!
  • tulips_and_tea
    tulips_and_tea Posts: 5,712 Member
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    Different methods work for different people. If the OP feels that continually counting calories could have a negative mental effect for her, then she obviously knows best.

    OP, instead of counting calories, are you ok with just writing down (or keeping word document) food log? I do this sometimes. I just write down what I eat for the day. Sometimes if I feel differently or sluggish or whatever I look back and see what could be the cause. That way the numbers don't jumble up the actual results: how I feel and look with my current diet.

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