Does counting calories really work?

countrylove12

I come from the weight watcher world. Where points are used daily and fruits and vegetables are "free" because they have technically already been calculated into the amount of points you get per day. Also where they teach us that a cookie that is 90 calories is very different from an apple that is 90 calories (which I know). Things that are higher in fat or protein are more points because they are fat or because protein can keep you fuller longer, where things that are lower in those things are lower in points.
But, in the calorie world...a calorie is a calorie and you could eat cookies all day (although not healthy) and stay within your calorie budget and lose weight. So, my question is...does it really work? I like MFP .... currently WW is going through transition. Their website does not work, their app is "old" and people are complaining and leaving left and right. I pay for their online subscription and they're rolling out a new plan the week of December 6th. However, my monthly payment doesn't go through until the 11th...basically I'm wondering if this really does work, and then maybe I can cancel my WW subscription before the 11th and not count points for my whole life!
Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

motivccess

no...but not eating too many does... cheers

MommyL2015

Weight watchers is just a different way of counting calories, when you get right down to it. Instead of calories, you get points but it all comes down to a caloric deficit, however you do it.

bri170lb

It's been working for me so far. I've lost 111 pounds, I have 38 left to my goal and I am confident I can keep the weight off because I am living a whole different lifestyle now.

justrollme

Yes, counting calories really does work, as long as you count them accurately in order to create a healthy deficit and use accurate calculators to determine your individual needs. Personally, I find it much simpler than WW's "points" system. I would definitely suggest using MFP rather than WW.

ETA: By "counting accurately," I mean using a digital kitchen scale that measures in grams. Weigh and log everything you eat, which sounds a lot harder and more involved than it is, really. (It takes me just seconds to do this, once I was used to it.) There are a lot of people who also use MFP without using a kitchen scale, too. Some people are great at estimating what they eat, I'm just personally terrible at it.

Machka9

countrylove12 wrote: »

But, in the calorie world...a calorie is a calorie and you could eat cookies all day (although not healthy) and stay within your calorie budget and lose weight. So, my question is...does it really work?

I have been weighing my food, logging my calories, and eating fewer calories than I burn since mid-Feb 2015. CI<CO ... Calories in < Calories out. In that time, I have eaten a wide variety of foods, but only foods I like.

I have lost 25 kg (55 lbs) since mid-Feb 2015.

So yes ... it works.

Living360

Why do you think counting points is so different from counting calories? When I attended WW a point was worth about forty calories. So any way you slice it you are still counting calories. Vegetables have a low calorie count so you can more or less eat all that you want. As a lifetime member who is overweight I recommend putting your weekly fee in a piggy bank and use MFP. At the end of the year buy yourself something special with the money. If you stay engaged, log every day and follow a healthy lifestyle you will be successful.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

lovematthewchristopher

Yes, it does work. I have been doing this since November 2014, and have lost 82 pounds.

motivccess

lovematthewchristopher wrote: »

Yes, it does work. I have been doing this since November 2014, and have lost 82 pounds.

awesome job! keep up the good work ( : ps: sorry for the sarcasm up there.

motivccess

motivccess wrote: »

no...but not eating too many does... cheers

countrylove, i'm sure you're doing gr8!

countrylove12

@motivccess it's fine... laughed at your first post!

@GuitarJerry I've been looking at food that way because that's what WW has always essentially taught us. At least being an online member I've gotten that. However, I've always wondered why, natural unmessed around with peanut butter would be more points than low fat natural peanut butter that has been messed around with because some fat has been taken out. Things like that have made me want to try to come to counting calories.

riffraff2112

yup it works. As has been stated, all diets have at their core, a calorie deficit. Cannot beat the price. I find it less restrictive, than many diets, and as long as you are honest...it really is a can't fail way of life.

tennileb

I wish calorie counting was a myth, but sadly it's just good ole science, there is more to health than just the calories....but a hundred calories is a hundred calories doesn't matter if it's an apple or an apple pie, but the nutrients and negative components differ. If I pay attention to my calories in and don't over estimate my calories burnt...I loose weight.

brdnw

i lost 85lbs counting calories.

earlnabby

Yup, it works (and better than WW because you have total control over how many calories you eat)

Tblackdogs

Counting calories definitely works. The reason I think MFP is so helpful (as opposed to WW I guess) is that it allows you to eat what you want, when you want but gives you the tools to "learn" how to do it successfully. That might mean gaining weight for some people, maintaining weight for some and losing weight for most of us. I think the point system muddles things. In the real world (for the rest of your life) you will eat food that has calories. You will need a certain amount of calories to live and MFP teaches you how to do that easily.

MsJulesRenee

WW doesn't teach you how to count calories, you pay them to do it for you. Not a good plan for long term maintenance. My Fitness Pal app does have a lot of bugs in it, like WW app, but to know exactly how to count calories on a deeper understanding is why I will always stick with MFP. Plus it's free! Even if the site shuts down one day I will always know how to keep track of my food with just a sheet of paper and pen.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

And yes, it 100% works if you are honest with your food intake and using a food scale.

kj26boys

Here's my 2 cents on weight watchers. I have joined that program more than 18 times. The 2nd time I joined it in 2001 I lost 90lbs. I thought I could do it on my own after relocating it and ended up gaining back the weight. For the next 10 years I had played the game of joining and then not going after gaining weight. I know it was because I made friends at the meetings and was afraid to face them and the scale and my leader when I didn't hit my weight goal. I'm an all or nothing person. It made me insane. In 2013 I joined MFP. I was on weight watchers at the time. I left work early one day and was in tears because my weight was going no where. I ate within my points and couldn't get any results. Over the next 2 weeks I was shocked. I lost more weight in the first 2 weeks logging with MFP and counting calories than I did using my ww. I immediately cancelled weight watchers and have never looked back. After thinking long and hard about it, I realized a couple of things. First, weight watchers has changed their program almost yearly since 2000. They've even changed how they count what a point is. Secondly, everything I eat, or purchase already has calories on it. Why was I paying someone to tell me how to convert a food into "points" when I don't have to do that? Next, the same weekly fee pays for someone to read to me the # on the scale. Really? And the last most important thing, they are in the business of making a profit. Do you really think they will be coming up with a plan so that you can achieve lifetime to weigh in once a month for free? No. MFP works. In fact, none of those vegetables or fruits are free either. When I started counting points and the only time I was successful at losing weight, I counted all the food I ate. I will not continue to pay some CEO to capitalize on my fatness. I still struggle and am learning more about my emotions/mental journey as I go, but the only thing I lost with weight watchers was huge chunk of money.

GaleHawkins

Sure counting calories works like a speedometer/tachometer on a vehicle. We have to know what we are eating. As a measurement unit sure a calorie is a calorie. At this point in life I try to keep my blood glucose reads under 100 so I mainly eat calories that give next to no blip in glucose levels which are fats.

I agree on groups that say they have your best interest when they only have their best interest which is selling us products of questionable value at a very high mark up. Glad you learned how to weigh yourself.

igniscordis

Yes. It works. Atleast it did for me. Lost what I wanted to lose and a little bit extra. ^^;

BurnWithBarn2015

yes it works

allaboutthefood

yes it works. You are just paying WW to do it for you, you can save money and do it yourself. Best of luck

ElvenToad

21 months ago I was super morbidly obese at 268lbs. I was so desperate to lose weight that I actually considered paying for WW not knowing what I was doing or anything about nutrition at all. Being the ultra cheapskate that I am, I googled "calorie counting" and found myfitnesspal. For nothing but the cost of a food scale $15, and a Fitbit zip $50 in that time I have lost 120lbs just by counting calories every single day. Weighing and accurately logging my food has been literally a lifesaver for me. I eat whatever foods I want that fit into my calorie goal, and do my best to hit my macros. I now weigh 148lbs. So yes, it works and I am living proof of that.

Psychgrrl

Yep! I lost over 85 pounds counting calories. I say over 85 because I stopped weighing myself as I was so disgusted.

LadyLots2Lose

I'm also a former WW member and left in 2014 for similar reasons to @kj26boys. I was sick of spending AU$35.00 a month to do the online program and while it did work for me initially I found that it didn't match my goals in the end. The WW goal that was set works on BMI rather than body composition so, my goal with WW was 65kg. I had a body composition scan done in September 2014 that indicated that my lean muscle mass was 55kg so the WW goal was way too low if my aim was to get to a healthy body fat percentage for a female. Even if I could get to the WW goal I'd be struggling to stay there and that's when I realised that was exactly what keeps the money rolling in for WW and many other weight loss programs. They have a vested interest in keeping you from reaching your goal.

I initially joined MFP because the app (and website) gave me a breakdown on where I was spending my calories (a feature that WW didn't have at the time). One of the big adjustments I had to make in my post WW journey was changing my mindset on fruit and vegetables. I was so used to padding out my meals with 'free' foods that I had lost sight of how many calories I was actually consuming.

I agree with @GuitarJerry "a calorie is a calorie" and as a system of measurement it is absolute rather than subjective. The balance of those calories is what is important in this journey though. In an absolute (calorie in < calorie out) world you could live on cake and lose weight if you exercised enough but, this journey rarely works that way in reality because how our bodies are fuelled matters.

Apart from the MFP app and site being free the big bonus is that you've got more control over your journey. There's no one weighing in on what your goal should be or how you get there. There's no hidden agendas and no sliding scale on success. Sure, there was support, great advice from other members and good tips but, you can get that from their magazine and the message boards here. I'm definitely in the 'save your money' camp on this one.

GaleHawkins

ElvenToad wrote: »

21 months ago I was super morbidly obese at 268lbs. I was so desperate to lose weight that I actually considered paying for WW not knowing what I was doing or anything about nutrition at all. Being the ultra cheapskate that I am, I googled "calorie counting" and found myfitnesspal. For nothing but the cost of a food scale $15, and a Fitbit zip $50 in that time I have lost 120lbs just by counting calories every single day. Weighing and accurately logging my food has been literally a lifesaver for me. I eat whatever foods I want that fit into my calorie goal, and do my best to hit my macros. I now weigh 148lbs. So yes, it works and I am living proof of that.

Awesome success story and you lost at a very safe rate it seems. Best of continued success in 2016.

ElvenToad

Thank you Gale! To you as well

cindytw

I tried a brief stint at WW and quit very quickly! I was starving all the time, could not stay in points and realized by double-logging there and here on MFP that it was allowing me a frighteningly low calorie range! It says that you can eat what you want but really that isn't true if you don't eat low fat high fiber. The points per calorie vary by what you eat. One day it gave me 900 calories because of my choices! That's insane! So here I am on MFP, and when I do log and I do the right things it does work!

PinkPixiexox

It really, really works

Soopatt

It works. There are so many negative things said about calorie counting by charlatans that many people get put off as they are told by the scammers that weighing and tracking your food is a ridiculous amount of hard work. I used to think that too, before joining this site. Controlling my intake has never been as easy as it is now and knowing that there are no surprises gives me enormous peace of mind.

It takes me seconds to weigh and log a meal as I dish it up (put plate on scale, add items one at a time and weigh and log as you go, using the *tare* function - or zero it before each item) and the recipe builder is really easy to use for combination meals.

No more guessing.

Eat to your deficit and eat back half your exercise calories. You can't go wrong!

The forums are great for the support and help you would have got in person at WW.