Tips to stop calorie counting

ndj1979

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

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

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

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

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.