When to stop counting calories?

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  • goldninja
    goldninja Posts: 28 Member
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    I weight most of my food and log everything that I eat. Even if it's 10 servings of fudge cake and I'm over my goals by 2000 calories. I still log it. It keeps me accountable and when I look over it each month and see where I have gone (up or down) I adjust it to a new mindset. I have my really bad days where I do the above and then once a season, I take a full week off of here and just live. Most of the time, I have an overall gain or loss of two pounds. I try my hardest to keep my weight within a five pound range.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I don't count calories. I just count grams of carbohydrates. why would you count calories? their kind of irrelevant.

    not sure if serious.
    What the difference?
    Because this person believes that the number of carbohydrate grams is important, but the number of calories is irrelevant which is ridiculous.
    Lots of folks have lost weight counting carbs and ignoring calories.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
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    I promise you, if you stop, you'll gain it all back
    Wow, that was very unhelpful. Maybe you could elaborate on what seems to be a rather negative comment?
    I imagine a clap of thunder and a "muah ha ha ha" accompanying that post .
    I think the negative poster (and probably most negative posters) was projecting his/her own inability to control weight without logging every calorie. I don't log every day and I plan for logging to become less frequent and possibly stop altogether at some point. I kept a healthy weight for decades without logging. When I gained, it was from unhealthy habits I can pretty readily identify. I can understand that it could be very difficult for people who never had healthy eating habits to succeed without logging, but this absolute statement is wrong.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
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    I don't count calories. I just count grams of carbohydrates. why would you count calories? their kind of irrelevant.

    not sure if serious.
    What the difference?
    Because this person believes that the number of carbohydrate grams is important, but the number of calories is irrelevant which is ridiculous.
    Lots of folks have lost weight counting carbs and ignoring calories.
    Because they are eating a number of calories that you could compute with reasonable accuracy based on their carbs, because of whatever diet they are on. So by counting carbs exactly, they are counting calories roughly but with enough accuracy to stay in deficit.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I don't count calories. I just count grams of carbohydrates. why would you count calories? their kind of irrelevant.

    not sure if serious.
    What the difference?
    Because this person believes that the number of carbohydrate grams is important, but the number of calories is irrelevant which is ridiculous.
    Lots of folks have lost weight counting carbs and ignoring calories.
    Because they are eating a number of calories that you could compute with reasonable accuracy based on their carbs, because of whatever diet they are on. So by counting carbs exactly, they are counting calories roughly but with enough accuracy to stay in deficit.
    And if they choose to do it with carbs, so be it.
    I was in maintenance for 10 years without counting anything, just stuck to some principles I adopted. Works for me! (and now I'm tweaking for menopause, but have still only gained 5LBs of my original weight loss.) just not sure why the other poster is questioning his seriousness.
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
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    I don't count calories. I just count grams of carbohydrates. why would you count calories? their kind of irrelevant.

    not sure if serious.
    What the difference?
    Because this person believes that the number of carbohydrate grams is important, but the number of calories is irrelevant which is ridiculous.
    Lots of folks have lost weight counting carbs and ignoring calories.

    Because they're eating at a deficit. To say the calories are irrelevant is ridiculous. If I ate 2500 calories in steak and asparagus or 2500 in bread and pizza I'd gain weight. There is no way around that. You may think your success can be attributed to a reduction in carbs, but by restricting them you are just creating a deficit. You know, that thing you need to be in to lose weight.

    Edited to remove rude comments about the OP intelligence.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I don't count calories. I just count grams of carbohydrates. why would you count calories? their kind of irrelevant.

    not sure if serious.
    What the difference?
    Because this person believes that the number of carbohydrate grams is important, but the number of calories is irrelevant which is ridiculous.
    Lots of folks have lost weight counting carbs and ignoring calories.

    Because they're eating at a deficit. To say the calories are irrelevant is ridiculous. If I ate 2500 calories in steak and asparagus or 2500 in bread and pizza I'd gain weight. There is no way around that. You may think your success can be attributed to a reduction in carbs, but by restricting them you are just creating a deficit. You know, that thing you need to be in to lose weight.
    Yep.It's all a diet. Folks just conceptualize it differently, and if it helps him maintain after, I dont see what the big deal is.
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
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    I don't count calories. I just count grams of carbohydrates. why would you count calories? their kind of irrelevant.

    not sure if serious.
    What the difference?
    Because this person believes that the number of carbohydrate grams is important, but the number of calories is irrelevant which is ridiculous.
    Lots of folks have lost weight counting carbs and ignoring calories.

    Because they're eating at a deficit. To say the calories are irrelevant is ridiculous. If I ate 2500 calories in steak and asparagus or 2500 in bread and pizza I'd gain weight. There is no way around that. You may think your success can be attributed to a reduction in carbs, but by restricting them you are just creating a deficit. You know, that thing you need to be in to lose weight.
    Yep.It's all a diet. Folks just conceptualize it differently, and if it helps him maintain after, I dont see what the big deal is.

    Because he's describing counting carbs as if the success can be attributed to a particular number of carb grams, when in reality calories are very relevant. Just because the poster fails to realize it, doesn't make it not so. Saying calories is irrelevant is incorrect.
  • fleetzz
    fleetzz Posts: 962 Member
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    Maintaining the weight loss is the hard part...hence I never plan to stop!

    Alright, so for the past two days I have eaten whatever junk food has come my way. I work in a cafe so that means frappucino's, scones, panini's, cookies, brownies, definitely not low cal stuff. However I'm actually under my goal weight and realized I need to gain back a few pounds. I know this is not the healthiest way to do it, it's just what happened this past weekend. I let myself be free with food for the first time in the past year since losing all the weight.

    But now, as I've finished this binge and feel fulfilled in a sense, I realize I don't want to keep counting.

    I want to live.

    The problem is, I don't know if I really know how. I know how to gain weight, obviously. I know how to lose weight. But maintaining is a foreign concept to me. Even as I've tried to maintain using this website, it doesn't really work. Because I keep having that mindset when I look at the number I feel like it needs to be lower. I realize that's not a happy mindset and I want to change that. My basic question is, how did the people who lost all the weight successfully maintain after?

    I gotta believe there's enough will out there to be able to do it without counting for the rest of your life. Because while this is an extremely effective tool, I don't want to see myself relying on it forever.
  • Goldglintedwater
    Goldglintedwater Posts: 10
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    OMW I do too. Like I love MFP but it literally does not have to power to help you log food that you have eaten for example at a theme park or a zoo! Or certain foods like reeces candy bar not cups. I had allowed 2 squares per day so it worked for me sorry for getting off track a little but I could live without mfp. JJust saying I have gone down to 135-140 pounds from 155-160 without it!!! I am still willing to record it and there are days I had to play ketchup but its worth it because it keeps you active in your awareness of how much food your consuming:)
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
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    If someone is nearsighted they wear glasses or contacts for life to correct their imperfect vision. Counting calories is a way to correct an inability to intuitively eat the right amount for your body.
  • MrsFowler1069
    MrsFowler1069 Posts: 657 Member
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    I don't think mfp turns us into those effortless, carefree people, but rather lets us hide among them.

    Yes. lol I'll take it, though....it's still a better alternative than some others. : )
  • TheRealParisLove
    TheRealParisLove Posts: 1,907 Member
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    When do you stop watching your money? If you feel like you can handle life without watching how much you spend and on what, you may also be able to live life at maintenance by the same kind of methods.

    For me, I've had to closely watch my money and I've had to closely watch my calories. I can't seem to just get a "feel" for how either should be used without a written statement of both. Some of us, just have no idea how to budget calories or money without being ever watchful over both.

    I plan to count calories and dollars for the rest of my life.
  • 1longroad
    1longroad Posts: 642 Member
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    I've dieted in the past, regained my weight and then some. I don't even know how many calories my body needs to maintain at the weight I want to reach, so yes, I will be logging. I see that as part of my future, without as much time and thought, but as a tool to gage my daily intake.
  • taliar93
    taliar93 Posts: 111 Member
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    Congratulations on getting down first off,

    I think the first thing I noticed with your post was "I want to live" I used to have this thinking, and that's what kept me overweight for so long, I get that counting calories can sometimes get stagnant and denying yourself downright sucks somedays. But your post sounds like a yo-yo dieter in the making, so here's this, you can eat whatever you want, however much you want, for however long you want.

    But be prepared for your future and accept now that if you do this, if you let go, you're gonna be back in the same boat you were in at the start of your journey, maybe even bigger, and gonna have to do this again, I saw your ticker, 30lbs is no small feat, are you really willing to have to shed 30, 40, 50+ Lbs every other year for the rest of your life?
  • srm1960
    srm1960 Posts: 281 Member
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    ????Bump
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    I've been on maintenance for nine months now. My weight doesn't vary more than 2.5 pounds. My BMI is 19 and I feel wonderfully fit and strong. Why would I quit using a tool, a free and effective tool, mind you and try yo go it alone? I get important nutrition that was. I thought maintence would would be boring but it's nice. It's a routine like brushing your teach. I aren't hadvtogive up much time To log keeps me honesr. Now that I have more calories to play, how straight will my kine be.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    If someone is nearsighted they wear glasses or contacts for life to correct their imperfect vision. Counting calories is a way to correct an inability to intuitively eat the right amount for your body.
    What this is saying is "since you can't correct your eye sight, it applies to anything else". You do realise that your brain is pretty different from more "static" organs? Your whole life you keep processing crazy amounts of information, you learn new things, your brain stores vasts amounts of information.

    You're also saying that what you have learned during your lifestyle change does count for nothing, which leads me to my question; haven't you paid attention at all to what you have been weighing, measuring in other ways, logging? Not analysed in the least the nutritional values of your foods over the course of months or years even?

    "A way to correct an inability to intuitively eat the right amount for your body" has no basis in science, it's just your own perception - and you most certainly aren't crediting your brain what it deserves througout your whole statement.

    Edit: typo and this: Some people go to the eye doctor for laser surgery. I wouldn't do that to my own eyes, but we have lots of opinions.
  • annakow
    annakow Posts: 385 Member
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    Diet is forever, if you want to keep your goal, keep your eye on your calories. Or you will get back to where you started. I know I need my MFP forever :) Just accept it as a new way of life.
  • Seesawboomerang
    Seesawboomerang Posts: 296 Member
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    To me, MFP is not the lifestyle, it's just the tool.

    Sometimes I like to use different tools to get the job done.

    Sure, some may consider it the best tool for the job under any circumstances.

    I don't. Occasionally I need a kick up the behind so it's good for that. More often though, I really don't want to be calculating allowances and giving myself guilt trips about empty calories.

    To the PP who said eyeballing instead of weighing is what got us here in the first place - not true for me. I got here by knowingly being greedy and lazy. With a full understanding of the facts.

    We're all individuals and make our lives as complicated or as simple as we see the need for.

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