Calorie Counting Difficulties.

JanetReyna

Hey Yall! I have began to start counting my calories since I am trying to lose weight and I am in a deficit right now, I saw a very educational nutrionist that helped me out so much but I forgot a lot of information she told me. I DO NOT usually weigh my food, I mostly use the barcode or measuring cups. I know this will be complicated, but I am getting so frustrated over counting every single thing I eat. There are days I get out of work and I am so hungry I make the food and just eat, there are days I eat out, there are days my dad cooks outside it is hard measuring every single food, how do you all do it? Are there easier steps for this? I get really frustrated honestly I don't know why losing weight has to be so difficult. My cousin does not count her calories and she is losing the weight fast, 8 lbs in 2 weeks I feel I will be forever fat tbh.

Chef_Barbell

Don't let perfection be the enemy of good. Consistancy over time is much better than worrying about perfection. For things I don't weigh, I estimate something out the database, usually on the higher side. It all works out in the long run.

deannalfisher

on days you eat out etc - best to estimate what you eat - but that being said - weighing food with a) provide you the most accurate view of what you are eating and b) allow you to be more accurate when you do have to estimate

its not hard, but it can be tedious - the more you do it, the easier it gets

Teabythesea_

If time is an issue then you can try meal prepping, or at least prepping the food you eat after work. The fact that you cant always accurately track your food is even more of a reason to weigh what you can. What I mean by this is that by weighing you'll get a pretty good idea of what a 4oz cut of meat looks like, a 200g potato, and so on and so forth, and you can make accurate estimations in the absence of a scale. While this wont be an exact science, having that knowledge and applying it over the long term is beneficial.

TavistockToad

You don't HAVE to weigh your food to lose weight, you just need to eat in a deficit.

How you do that is up to you.

lin_be

I plan.

Most evenings, I usually write down what I am going to eat the next day. For example, I typically eat oatmeal, blueberries, light brown sugar and a banana for a snack. So in the evening I'd write down 45g of oats, 35g of blueberries, etc. Then when the time comes to eat, I already have allotted my calories and meals and there's no guess work. I measure out exactly 45g of oats, 35 g of berries, etc. I've become so consistent that I don't have to look at the app to see what I allotted myself, it's second nature now that I eat 45g of oats.

When I am going out to eat w/ friends, I usually look at the menus of the places where we are going ahead of time and get an idea of what I am going to eat and log that, using estimates. Every now and then there are surprises like a birthday or in my case my husband wants to me try some bread he baked. No big deal, I adjust it in my day. I think planning is a very good tool and eliminates a lot of the "I don't know what to eat."

You're not using a food scale, which is fine if you have a lot of fat to lose. It just gets harder when you have less fat because you have to be more precise. You can still plan ahead though.

TonyB0588

I estimate a lot, and occasionally check the weight of one of my regular foods. That way I find out if my guess was nearly accurate, or otherwise get a surprise at how far off I was. Then make adjustments for future entries.

cmriverside

If logging food is stressing you out, don't do it.

I find it liberating, honestly. When I was trying to lose weight on my own I just went back and forth between binge eating and starving. Logging food gives me a goal and a reasonable amount of food I can stick to on a consistent basis. Most importantly it gives me nourishment instead of the lackadaisical way I used to eat.

It takes me about five minutes total to log my food. If I'm out I can take a picture or write down what I ate and log it later.

What else have you tried?

wilson10102018

There are a lot of diets. One of them is counting calories. If you don't count them you aren't on this diet. Its ok. Like you said, you have a cousin who is doing something different and its working for her. But, if you want to count calories you have to get a scale and weigh what you eat.

For my part, I like weighing and measuring.

springlering62

It really will get easier. You’ll find you repeat the same foods a lot, and the app will start suggesting frequent foods or combos to you. And for my favorite foods, I took the ten or fifteen minutes to enter the actual recipes. Once done you don’t have to do it again, for example, for homemade pizza, I just select my own recipe and number of servings and that meal is done. Plus gives me the opportunity to tinker with the recipe. “What if I cut back on cheese? Use part skim cheese versus whole milk cheese? What if I use this topping instead of that one or use less pepperoni?” Logging is well worth the effort. It will make you a lot more conscious of what’s going in your mouth if you’re honest and consistent with it.

JanetReyna

wilson10102018 wrote: »

There are a lot of diets. One of them is counting calories. If you don't count them you aren't on this diet. Its ok. Like you said, you have a cousin who is doing something different and its working for her. But, if you want to count calories you have to get a scale and weigh what you eat.

For my part, I like weighing and measuring.

I know but it’s said everywhere in order to lose weight you need to track mostly everything.

TavistockToad

JanetReyna wrote: »

wilson10102018 wrote: »

There are a lot of diets. One of them is counting calories. If you don't count them you aren't on this diet. Its ok. Like you said, you have a cousin who is doing something different and its working for her. But, if you want to count calories you have to get a scale and weigh what you eat.

For my part, I like weighing and measuring.

I know but it’s said everywhere in order to lose weight you need to track mostly everything.

No, in order to lose weight you just eat in a deficit.

One way to ensure a deficit is to count calories

SmithsonianEmpress

^^^this. counting is a means that leads to an ends—weight loss.