Calorie counting vs. Intuitive eating.

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  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited March 2017
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    JustDoIt987 wrote: »
    I know that many of us are here because intuitive eating does not work for us ( eating whatever you want when hungry and stopping when full ) and I agree , calorie counting is great and I lost weight easily , BUT do you guys really do it for the rest of your lives ? Checking out restaurants menus, thinking about calories etc? I am maintaining now and I literally spend 85% of my day thinking about calories / food. I get nervous when I cant find calories of a particular restaurant online and make a big deal out of it. I am thinking about switching to intuitive eating
    What works for you guys ? Intuitive eating or calorie counting ?


    How long have you been in maintenance for?

    When I first transitioned I was the same way, but as time has gone on I've gotten more comfortable with things. Yes, I do still check restaurant menus and I frequently think about calories. But, I just keep a running tally on a piece of paper in my kitchen/do mental math most days. I also eat pretty repetitive during the week, so that simplifies things. I also no longer weigh everything out, though there are things I know I'm not good about eyeballing so those I still weigh (nuts, cereal, rice, oats etc). I also have other checks n' balances in place like daily weigh-ins, IF etc.

    I'm in this for the long term-the women in my family tend to live to their mid 80s, in poor health, and I have a goal to live to my 90s, in good health :D So I'm looking at 50+ years of maintenance ahead of me yet. I realize this is my life now, and being mindful of my calorie intake is a small price to pay for all the benefits I get from being at a healthy weight.

    As for intuitive eating goes-tried that last summer for a few months and gained around 7lbs. Not going to try that again lol.
  • alondrakayy
    alondrakayy Posts: 304 Member
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    I tried intuitive eating for a few months and I was able to maintain my weight. There were only a few times I bindged and I was able to bounce back quickly. The only issues is that if I tried to get down to a certain size or cut, it was impossible (for me) to do so! I say calorie/macro counting is great when it's time to get super serious and intuitive eating when you are ready to take a break and you're at a healthy weight. Maybe around the same time you want to bulk? Idk. I'm no expert. Just find what works best for you.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
    edited March 2017
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    JustDoIt987 wrote: »
    I know that many of us are here because intuitive eating does not work for us ( eating whatever you want when hungry and stopping when full ) and I agree , calorie counting is great and I lost weight easily , BUT do you guys really do it for the rest of your lives ? Checking out restaurants menus, thinking about calories etc? I am maintaining now and I literally spend 85% of my day thinking about calories / food. I get nervous when I cant find calories of a particular restaurant online and make a big deal out of it. I am thinking about switching to intuitive eating
    What works for you guys ? Intuitive eating or calorie counting ?

    I've been doing it for 12 years. I know that I will always have to do it because I just love food. So I need a visual of my calories to keep me honest. When I stop, I end up gaining and that is why I am here trying to lose this weight I recently gained.
  • jroy1999
    jroy1999 Posts: 27 Member
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    I am not at my ugw yet, but once I am I plan on doing a little of both. Pregnancy always screws up my hunger/ satiety, so I consider dieting time to retrain it. By the time I had lost the weight from my other pregnancies, I was able to do intuitive most of the time and if I went up more than about 5 lbs, I went back to constant logging/ calorie reduction
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    JustDoIt987 wrote: »
    I know that many of us are here because intuitive eating does not work for us ( eating whatever you want when hungry and stopping when full ) and I agree , calorie counting is great and I lost weight easily , BUT do you guys really do it for the rest of your lives ? Checking out restaurants menus, thinking about calories etc? I am maintaining now and I literally spend 85% of my day thinking about calories / food. I get nervous when I cant find calories of a particular restaurant online and make a big deal out of it. I am thinking about switching to intuitive eating
    What works for you guys ? Intuitive eating or calorie counting ?

    I've been in maintenance going on four years and haven't logged in that time...logging was just a tool to teach me how to eat properly...I just took what I learned while losing into maintenance and stopped logging.

    I don't know that I'd call it intuitive eating though...I knew early on that I was going to have to change the way I was living and would have to adopt a new "normal"...my diet now is pretty unrecognizable to the diet I had when I started 4.5 years ago and exercise of some kind is as much a daily activity as going to work is.
  • andrea4736
    andrea4736 Posts: 211 Member
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    I'm pretty sure I won't have much of a choice but to log for the rest of my life. I lost weight and maintained for over 2 years with logging. Once I stopped, I packed on over 30 lbs in less than 6 months. Needless to say, my intuitive eating skills are lacking.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    I'm resigned to having to count forever, but am going to experiment this summer. If all goes to plan, I will be at my first goal weight by summer. Still overweight, but a weight I plan to maintain for a bit before going back to losing. So I'm thinking of not logging for July and August to see what happens. But I will be weighing daily, so I will know if the weight creeps back up. In Sept I will either start lifting seriously or go back to weight loss mode. Either way I will be back to counting in Sept.

    I'll see how it goes. To be honest, I'm not that hopeful and am prepared to give up not counting if it isn't working for me.
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,136 Member
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    On maintenance for more than 6 years with not more than +/- 2 lbs. variation and practicing intuitive eating here and there. I still weight and log my food most of the time (because of the macros) but I am not hard core about it anymore. I don't plan or log meals in advance (I never did), but I have an idea of how much to eat to keep my daily calories in check. I do weigh myself few times a week to make sure that my fluctuations are normal, and if I see an upward trend or if my pants feel too tight, then I tighten the logging for a couple of weeks.

    I always find something in a restaurant that fits my needs and I have no problem bringing food back home if the portions are too big. I check the menus on line, if possible, but I don't reject invitations from friends and I don't worry about the calories in the menus. I can always eat less the rest of the week.

    I don't log on vacation unless I prepare the meals myself, or if the restaurant has the nutritional information on line. I don't log or try to estimate when eating out.

    I never binged, nor I have a sweet tooth so that helps me to keep calories and weight under control. As long as my thyroid keeps behaving and responding to the meds., I am/will be OK. I am much older now and very small so I don't need a lot of food to maintain.

  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
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    Muscleflex79 wrote: »
    if thinking about and counting calories is taking up 85% of your day you are doing something wrong

    I agree. OP, you need to work on that, there seems to be a lot of unhappy obsession there.

    Having said that, I spend a significant portion of my day thinking about food. I always have done. Another reason I'm not sure about intuitive eating in my case...
  • JustDoIt987
    JustDoIt987 Posts: 120 Member
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    xchocolategirl wrote: »
    I don't calorie count I realized when I did in the past I was bit obsessive. I also used to limit myself to 1200 calories, and I would binge sometime as well. I don't calorie count now, and I just eat a well balanced meal for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. I also workout as well, but if I'm hungry I'll eat food. I don't restrict myself, and if I want a cake I'll eat it as well. I'm no longer binging, and I'm a lot happier as well overall. I've lost 30 pounds so far just following this. I'm not trying to lose 2 pounds a week that's not my goal if I lose 0.2 pounds one week I'm happy with it. The rate of loss isn't important. For me slow and steady wins the race, and I'm okay with it. But alas the same thing doesn't work for everyone.

    Awesome ! This is definetly what I would love to do
  • everher
    everher Posts: 909 Member
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    I think the problem is for some people intuitive eating means "let me just eat whatever I want". I think it's possible to do, but you have to be mindful of what you are eating and how much of it you're eating.

    If you're someone who eats a lot of different foods day to day it probably wouldn't be as easy versus someone who eats mostly the same meals and knows off hand what a serving of it looks like and how many calories are in said serving.

    I'm not in maintenance yet, but eventually, in maintenance I plan to stop calorie counting. I've lost and maintained weight loss before. My problem comes with me slipping into old overeating habits, which calorie counting would stop, but I'm going to try just being mindful of what I'm eating and how much.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I'm not at my goal yet. I have been tracking calories for 2 years and it isn't a big deal to me to do so. I kind of enjoy it. I don't really feel nervous if I can't log everything exactly. Hard to say how long I will do this. Intuitive eating did not work for me to lose weight in the past. I kind of know the calories and portion sizes of what I typically eat now so I could probably be okay for awhile.


    Give it a try. Monitor your weight. If you start gaining you can go back to tracking.
  • cblack8
    cblack8 Posts: 42 Member
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    I stop counting calories when I'm at a weight I'm happy with and just weigh myself every so often to make sure I'm staying on track. If I go above a certain weight I hop back on here and watch what I eat until it comes off.
  • endlessfall16
    endlessfall16 Posts: 932 Member
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    I wouldn't spare 10 minutes of my day to do something if I could do without. Heck the time before getting up to go to work always seems so precious.

    OP, I agree with you that the counting can get obsessive, especially for obsessive people, which I think you and I are.

    More than just the time and the overthinking -- heck, the mind is always preoccupied with weight, if not the number it's going to the weight concern community!!! -- it's also the derailment of my appetite and some of my social norms. I couldn't readily agree with my friends to go to pizza places and once there I couldn't see the pizza without thinking numbers and getting hesitation.


    After 3 months I concluded that my time and effort would be better spent in disciplining myself with (relative) fasting. Go eat at a pho restaurant, a pizza place with a couple beer, or order a regular Carl Jr meal and not a second meal, and then eat light in other meals. Weigh yourself on the bathroom scale regularly and make some adjustment.



  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
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    I got heavy because I didn't care and didn't count. I'd rather at least keep my eye on it going forward (I got a ways to go) rather than creep back up the scales again. May just pay attention to how my clothes feel.
  • emilyrtanner
    emilyrtanner Posts: 22 Member
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    I think that if you are becoming obsessive to the point where it is all you can think about, that might be a little red flag. You do not have an eating disorder from what I understand, but you are experiencing disordered eating thoughts and patterns. For me, this meant I was putting all my energy into weight loss because I wanted to avoid other nonsense in my life. Weight loss remains a priority for me, but I have to work really really hard to make sure it is not an obsession and that NO MATTER WHAT I take care of my mental health first and foremost. It is not a bad thing to consider speaking briefly with a therapist about it - it can be super helpful!

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