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"No calorie-counting needed, just "eat intuitively" folks!"

Hungry_Shopgirl
Hungry_Shopgirl Posts: 329 Member
edited April 2018 in Debate Club
Disclaimer: I love Fitness Blender for their free workout videos. I've been doing them for over two years and still going strong. Their fun, fast strength training workouts have been a huge help in reshaping my body as I get leaner.

However....

The anti-calorie-counting is strong with them. In their latest article (https://fitnessblender.com/articles/not-seeing-results-5-common-weight-loss-methods-that-might-be-sabotaging-your-progress) this is what they say about it as one of the "methods that might be sabotaging your progress":

1) Counting calories or using a meal tracking app
Embrace a plant based diet, and fill up on unlimited plants. Remove processed foods from your diet and focus on fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and lean meats (or vegetarian/vegan equivalent). Eat mindfully. When you’re hungry, eat, and learn to recognize your body’s signals of feeling full; stop before you feel discomfort. Drink lots of water. Don’t waste time looking for shortcuts; eat for good health. Once you know what a healthy diet looks like, funnel your effort and energy towards making the right choices, not necessarily towards tracking them. A helpful read: How to stop dieting and learn to eat intuitively


And later (again in regards to calorie counting):

(...) focus on eating for good health, for energy and to feel good. If you are making smart food choices and listening to your body’s hunger and full signals, it’s typically not necessary to count or restrict calories, track every macro every day, eliminate entire food groups, or follow any other generally strict diet that has a lot of rigid "rules".

And...

(...) the end goal of any diet or exercise program should be something that empowers you to move through your life healthily and naturally, not indefinitely tethering you to tedious habits and inflexible rules.

Edit to add my opinion: In my view, "eating a healthy diet" might not be enough for maintaining my weight-loss. I know that if I don't log and track what I eat I very easily wind up eating too much of good things. I also get in this mindset where I feel guilty about every snack or treat, whereas if I'm tracking I know I can "afford" it so there's no guilt. However, I am attracted to the idea that one day I might be able to just wing it and not have to track....

What's your take?
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Replies

  • laura9503
    laura9503 Posts: 43 Member
    I try to track everything, but sometimes I don't track something I ate that day at the end of the day, but I do add it in my mind. So if I workout late in the evening and I eat something after that, I can't be bothered to log it as I know how much it will add to my daily total by heart. Also, I'm still a bit confused sometimes about the calories MFP calculates based on my information. It says I should eat 2160 a day, but a dietician once told me I should eat between 2500/2700 kcal a day (which to me was very VERY high). I already posted a blog on this topic and people told me that 2300 would not be ridiculously high for me. So if I already went over 2160 but I eat a small snack, it's okay for me not to log.
    So: it would not work for me to not count, as I'm also always hungry, but not always sure whether it's 'real hunger' or 'boredom hunger'. By counting, I can see whether I'm still within reasonable limits. I eat quite healthy anyways and I do not track micro's or anything, I just use it for calories.