Counting calories..Or not
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I pretty religious weighed and accurately tracked my calories for about one year. Now, I do endeavor to track as close to 100% as possible during the week (Mon-Fri), but I no longer track on weekends. A year of weighing and tracking food has given me a much better idea of how to gauge what I'm eating, make good choices, and portion appropriately. So, even though I don't track on the weekends, my weekend eating also has yet to throw me off of my weight loss trend. It's a lot more manageable for me to not have to track every single day, 24/7, but I do realize it's important to track the majority of the time.1
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lemurcat12 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »Ironandwine69 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It's not true that it's time consuming, though, and I hate it when people try to make it sound like this big horrible burden or something people would only do if they were overly neurotic.
But sure, whatever.
It IS true that it's time consuming( for me). Unless you eat everything out of a box. I cook most of my meals from scratch. It's easy to scan a box, not so easy to count and measure everything you are putting in your meal for a family.
I eat almost nothing out of a box, and like I said, disagree that it's time consuming.
I weigh things when cooking -- it adds nothing to the time that chopping takes to put it on the scale and note it down and then log it during a break in cooking or after dinner, depending.
how many are you cooking for?
2, most often. (Well, for dinner. For breakfast and lunch, just me.)
I agree that cooking for more can make it more difficult depending on how you happen to cook (I cook for more sometimes). If you cook with things that need recipes it doesn't add to the time, but making recipes does, and I normally don't do a lot of recipe based cooking unless I'm cooking ahead where I have time (stew or some such).
With some things I weigh when cooked or else have specific portions or eat half or a third or a quarter of whatever it is. Sometimes I eyeball that, and sometimes I weigh it.
We have set things that we cook - chicken, fish, pork, steak, etc - but we are not really following a recipe.
A typical dinner will be chopped vegetables, some olive oil, onion, chicken (grilled/baked) and then some rice (I do weigh the rice). If I was going to log that all I would have to weight it and then divide by three and then log that number, which would still be an approximation.
However, four years of religiously weighing and logging helped me id portion size, so I usually know when I am having a lot more a little...1 -
I will add that I rely heavily on my Sunday afternoon meal prep time and I eat a relatively boring breakfast/lunch during the week that I assemble each Sunday. Everything is pre-weighed to set portions, so logging two meals M-F is already baked in. I also cook and pack lunches for my family of 3, so I do their lunch prep on Sundays as well. Dinners are just meals that I plan that I know fit my calories each day. Because I eat generally the same thing, dinner for me I know has to be between 500-600 calories.
Getting this system down has been hard work and some trial and error, but now that I have it down, it actually takes a lot of the excuses I was making for myself go away. I'm not saying that you are making excuses, but I know that I did and Sunday prep and planning is how I overcame that barrier in my life.
Where I struggle is time for exercise. I know some people who spend crazy time working out or at the gym each day, and that's just not me. I'm sure if I worked at it, I could fit it in (just like I eventually fit in meal prep time), I just don't. Partly due to weather because I hate exercising outdoors in the cold...but that excuse is going away soon now that it's warming. I hope to get back to my lunch hour walks.4 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »Ironandwine69 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It's not true that it's time consuming, though, and I hate it when people try to make it sound like this big horrible burden or something people would only do if they were overly neurotic.
But sure, whatever.
It IS true that it's time consuming( for me). Unless you eat everything out of a box. I cook most of my meals from scratch. It's easy to scan a box, not so easy to count and measure everything you are putting in your meal for a family.
I eat almost nothing out of a box, and like I said, disagree that it's time consuming.
I weigh things when cooking -- it adds nothing to the time that chopping takes to put it on the scale and note it down and then log it during a break in cooking or after dinner, depending.
how many are you cooking for?
2, most often. (Well, for dinner. For breakfast and lunch, just me.)
I agree that cooking for more can make it more difficult depending on how you happen to cook (I cook for more sometimes). If you cook with things that need recipes it doesn't add to the time, but making recipes does, and I normally don't do a lot of recipe based cooking unless I'm cooking ahead where I have time (stew or some such).
With some things I weigh when cooked or else have specific portions or eat half or a third or a quarter of whatever it is. Sometimes I eyeball that, and sometimes I weigh it.
We have set things that we cook - chicken, fish, pork, steak, etc - but we are not really following a recipe.
A typical dinner will be chopped vegetables, some olive oil, onion, chicken (grilled/baked) and then some rice (I do weigh the rice). If I was going to log that all I would have to weight it and then divide by three and then log that number, which would still be an approximation.
However, four years of religiously weighing and logging helped me id portion size, so I usually know when I am having a lot more a little...
Yeah, like I said I don't log at maintenance so don't see the need, but for me dividing and using the portion (especially for things like veg which are low cal) or weighing when cooked (which I do with chicken anyway, since I cook it on the bone) would be fine.0 -
fitoverfortymom wrote: »I will add that I rely heavily on my Sunday afternoon meal prep time and I eat a relatively boring breakfast/lunch during the week that I assemble each Sunday. Everything is pre-weighed to set portions, so logging two meals M-F is already baked in. I also cook and pack lunches for my family of 3, so I do their lunch prep on Sundays as well. Dinners are just meals that I plan that I know fit my calories each day. Because I eat generally the same thing, dinner for me I know has to be between 500-600 calories.
Getting this system down has been hard work and some trial and error, but now that I have it down, it actually takes a lot of the excuses I was making for myself go away. I'm not saying that you are making excuses, but I know that I did and Sunday prep and planning is how I overcame that barrier in my life.
I agree about meal planning. I found too that it saves me a lot of time when I do this.1 -
Ironandwine69 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It's not true that it's time consuming, though, and I hate it when people try to make it sound like this big horrible burden or something people would only do if they were overly neurotic.
But sure, whatever.
It IS true that it's time consuming( for me). Unless you eat everything out of a box. I cook most of my meals from scratch. It's easy to scan a box, not so easy to count and measure everything you are putting in your meal for a family.
This is news to me.
And I cook separate meals for omnivores and vegetarians in my family quite frequently, all from scratch. Have never scanned a single product. The only convenience products I use are things like tinned tomatoes and pasta.
Looking up and cross checking the data base for fresh ingredients doesn't take a great amount of time. Neither does weighing out a whole recipe and using a calculator to get a portion of it.
But again, whatever.
ETA: My biggest issue here is your assertion that this can't be done quickly unless you're using boxed products. It's fine if it doesn't work for you or doesn't fit into your timetable and you can manage your calories without using a scale. Lots of people do. I, like lemurcat, just have an issue with the whole "it takes too much time" argument. I'd much rather hear an "it doesn't suit my personality/preferences" position. I think that's more getting to the root of things, tbh.4 -
Ironandwine69 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It's not true that it's time consuming, though, and I hate it when people try to make it sound like this big horrible burden or something people would only do if they were overly neurotic.
But sure, whatever.
It IS true that it's time consuming( for me). Unless you eat everything out of a box. I cook most of my meals from scratch. It's easy to scan a box, not so easy to count and measure everything you are putting in your meal for a family.
I cook at home 99% of the time. Once I have a recipe saved in my database, I generally dont have to recalculate it. I have a rotation of several favourite meals, so counting calories is literally a matter of seconds for me, by finding it in my database and logging it.
I dont have the skill to guesstimate with any degree of accuracy or confidence. If I have to count calories and weigh and log for the rest of my life, so be it, because it has allowed me to be the most successful ever with my weight goals.5 -
I'm a pretty consistent eater, so once I got my eating pattern established, I quit logging. I lost 125 of my 150 pounds without daily logging. I do log a few times a year to check on my calories and macros, but I'm always on point. This is an exception and it doesn't work for most people. I am a big advocate of logging for most people. I totally believe in it and if I hadn't continued losing, I would have resumed logging. Now, if I go more than 1-2 pounds above my maintenance range, I will start logging again to get back on track. So far I haven't had to.5
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GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »It's certainly not the only way at all. I'm a confirmed counter because I like the nerdery of it and it fits my personality, but that's me...
Precisely! (And it's not JUST you...)
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I did a little experiment and one single day I did measure and wrote it down, but I didn't use the app, just to see if I sorta of knew my way around it, I was left within 10 grams of my macro nutrients and with 200 calories left, so I think that went pretty well!
Still, it's bothersome to try and guess,so I continue to log and measure cos then I know what is exactly going on
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Ironandwine69 wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »You're on a calorie counting website...
I thought this site was called "My fitness pal", not "counting calories.com"
Obviously the main tool here is logging your food, thereby, counting calories.1 -
I've lost weight in the past without counting calories but it's been hit and miss. Counting calories takes out the guesswork and I can lose more consistently each week.3
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It's pretty simple... If you have a goal of gaining, losing or maintaining weight, you need to eat more, less, or the same as you burn. That's how it works, but you can achieve the goal however you want. People have varying skill levels when it comes to estimating calories, but at the end of the day your success is determined by your ability to do so. Some people on here recommend weighing packaged foods, I don't worry about that. I'll go crazy and throw a little cheese on a salad and not weight every last ounce. But I like to have some idea where I'm at for accountability and accuracy.
It's the same reason all cars have a speedometer. Can you imagine trying to drive and just guess your speed? Have you ever looked down and found you're going faster/slower than you thought? Some people would be really good at just knowing how fast they're going, others have to pay close attention to the dash or they have no idea.3 -
DrifterBear wrote: »It's pretty simple... If you have a goal of gaining, losing or maintaining weight, you need to eat more, less, or the same as you burn. That's how it works, but you can achieve the goal however you want. People have varying skill levels when it comes to estimating calories, but at the end of the day your success is determined by your ability to do so. Some people on here recommend weighing packaged foods, I don't worry about that. I'll go crazy and throw a little cheese on a salad and not weight every last ounce. But I like to have some idea where I'm at for accountability and accuracy.
It's the same reason all cars have a speedometer. Can you imagine trying to drive and just guess your speed? Have you ever looked down and found you're going faster/slower than you thought? Some people would be really good at just knowing how fast they're going, others have to pay close attention to the dash or they have no idea.
Just curious, are you planning on counting calories for the rest of your life?0 -
Ironandwine69 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It's not true that it's time consuming, though, and I hate it when people try to make it sound like this big horrible burden or something people would only do if they were overly neurotic.
But sure, whatever.
It IS true that it's time consuming( for me). Unless you eat everything out of a box. I cook most of my meals from scratch. It's easy to scan a box, not so easy to count and measure everything you are putting in your meal for a family.
Well, that is true but also not true.
I cook for my family of 3 daily and don't find entering food time consuming after doing it awhile. It was more time consuming starting out to enter recipes all the time but I only occasionally enter new recipes now. The more you enter and use the food diary the less time it takes as you have recipes/meals saved and lots of frequent or recent foods listed.
I do better logging and counting calories so a little time out of my day doing that is not bothersome.
Not trying to convince OP to count calories but putting this out there for others.
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GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Ironandwine69 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It's not true that it's time consuming, though, and I hate it when people try to make it sound like this big horrible burden or something people would only do if they were overly neurotic.
But sure, whatever.
It IS true that it's time consuming( for me). Unless you eat everything out of a box. I cook most of my meals from scratch. It's easy to scan a box, not so easy to count and measure everything you are putting in your meal for a family.
This is news to me.
And I cook separate meals for omnivores and vegetarians in my family quite frequently, all from scratch. Have never scanned a single product. The only convenience products I use are things like tinned tomatoes and pasta.
Looking up and cross checking the data base for fresh ingredients doesn't take a great amount of time. Neither does weighing out a whole recipe and using a calculator to get a portion of it.
But again, whatever.
ETA: My biggest issue here is your assertion that this can't be done quickly unless you're using boxed products. It's fine if it doesn't work for you or doesn't fit into your timetable and you can manage your calories without using a scale. Lots of people do. I, like lemurcat, just have an issue with the whole "it takes too much time" argument. I'd much rather hear an "it doesn't suit my personality/preferences" position. I think that's more getting to the root of things, tbh.
I said "time consuming for me". That means I don't think the difference in results is worth the time spent.. Again, to me.
I think, unless you are new at it or have a very challenging goal, counting calories is not necessary.
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It's pretty easy to stay at a healthy weight in your thirties. I never counted a calorie till I was in my fifties.
I was fine until menopause. Then ish got real.6 -
Last year I took a break from counting calories and basically maintained just spending a week or two counting when my weight was getting to close to the max weight I set myself. On the whole I can probably maintain without logging but losing without logging I find impossible but everyone is different.
To be honest though I don't find logging too much effort, having been at it for a few years all the food I eat is in my history or in the recipe builder, most of the time it only takes typing in a few letters for a food to appear. I prelog my whole day the night before (it takes minutes) and tweak weights while prepping but usually I'm not far off what I logged the day before. I suppose the initial effort of finding the individual foods did take a bit longer but that's so long ago it's no longer an issue.
If you have found your way of sustainable weightloss without logging then great keep at it.1 -
That's setting oneself up for failure. There is no right way to do a wrong thing. You have to manage your intake as a whole; the individual portions of individual foods can be adjusted to your preference and should add up to meet your needs.You could use your hands to measure your food portions. I saw pin on pinterest that showed how to do it correctly.
It will be if you tell yourself it is.Counting constantly calories is tiring
That's exactly what it's all about - not eating too much. Not about counting calories, but eating appropriately for your own needs. Some people find counting calories helpful for that. Others don't need it, and doing something redundant is not helpful.Ironandwine69 wrote: »That's great you can. I know I can't. Most people here can't this is why we are here. I know I gained weight by eating what I wanted at the portions I wanted. So I am eating better by tracking and losing weight.
Oh, I gain weight if I eat anything, whenever I want. I've actually gained ten pounds by doing exactly that the past year. But I knew I was overeating.
I think counting calories is great, but also very time consuming ( for me). I think it's great to do for a while, until you learn what you need, but I can't imagine spending my life measuring food and counting calories.0
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