NO MORE CALORIE COUNTING

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Replies

  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    I like counting. Fun to compare a lot of pointless crap I used to fill up on with stuff I really like.
  • 307114882
    307114882 Posts: 45 Member
    yeah, maybe you are right, be yourself and have a healthy and happy life.
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
    glassyo wrote: »
    estherdragonbat wrote: »
    sweetangelkitten wrote: »
    Panini911 wrote: »
    Best of luck in finding what works best for you.

    unfortunately for me, eating "healthy" without calorie counting is why i was obese most of my life. even after loosing 100lbs twice. I'm a victim of my own portion creep. even in maintenance this time around i should do check ins with the scale and diary every few weeks even if i don't do so daily.
    sweetangelkitten wrote: »
    spinnerdell wrote: »
    Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.

    Why does this lead so many people to weight gain? We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<

    a couple of hundred years ago our access to food and what foods as well as our actiivty level was VASTLY different. you can't really compare the two.

    Easy, don't eat the processed food

    You mean cooked/dried/smoked/pickled/fermented/jellied? Because we've been processing food ever since someone got the idea of putting a piece of raw meat (or an apple, for all we know) into the fire and noticing how much better it tasted that way.

    Now I'm imagining roasting a slice of apple on a coat hanger/stick over a camp fire.

    Delicious, I assure you.
  • jakea1963
    jakea1963 Posts: 23 Member
    I have lost 30+ lbs this year. Have only counted calories in the last two weeks out of shear curiosity. However I have counted for years prior. So I have a very good idea of what I am taking in. I do think people starting out they should and they need a food scale.
  • zeejane4
    zeejane4 Posts: 230 Member
    2baninja wrote: »
    sweetangelkitten wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    Not me. I gained a lot of weight eating wholesome foods and eating when I was hungry.

    There are others who are basically doing what you are doing so you are not alone.

    Whatever your goals are I wish you the best of luck.

    Thank you! I can't seem to find anyone on here who isn't counting calories sadly...

    Not to be snippy, but to me this is a calorie counting site, I wouldn't be on here if I didn't need to count calories....

    MFP isn't just a calorie counting site though. There's lots of us who use the site for the forums, for the fitness aspect of it, to track macros etc. I don't track calories on MFP but I've been using the forums on and off for years now, most of those while in maintenance.
  • zeejane4
    zeejane4 Posts: 230 Member
    edited May 2019
    I recently switched to a lower carb way of eating/not tracking or counting calories, and in the process eliminated a lot of the higher calorie foods I was eating before, (and the foods that I had a hard time practicing good portion control with).

    I'm now losing too much weight and I'm getting a bit too close to the low end of the healthy BMI range for my comfort level. I'm now trying to eat more food and if that doesn't stop the weight loss then I will have to start tracking my calories again, in order to make sure my calorie intake is appropriate.

    [edited by MFP mods]
  • zeejane4
    zeejane4 Posts: 230 Member
    edited May 2019
    tinkerbellang83 wrote: »
    Curious as to how OP is getting on, on her eating all of the wholesome foods mission, no sign of her since.

    She logged yesterday, so maybe she's changed her mind about some things? It would be interesting to have an update from her :)
  • vanityy99
    vanityy99 Posts: 2,583 Member
    sweetangelkitten wrote: »
    vanityy99 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    The freedom from the need to count I find personally empowering.

    I often don't count, but find the idea that that's "empowerment" to be odd. But YMMV and all that.

    I can see why someone may find it empowering and it’s not odd at all. Imagine finally learning what works for you in order to lose weight and maintaining without having to micromanage or depending on anything but just being mindful after years of bad habits and not really knowing what you’re doing. I think empowering is a good word for that.

    It does feel good to not count, I get very upset about calories and find it difficult to deal with

    Yeah that’s ok! You’re not the only one who feels it’s too much. Just do what works for you.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited June 2019
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Annie_01 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    sweetangelkitten wrote: »
    Panini911 wrote: »
    Best of luck in finding what works best for you.

    unfortunately for me, eating "healthy" without calorie counting is why i was obese most of my life. even after loosing 100lbs twice. I'm a victim of my own portion creep. even in maintenance this time around i should do check ins with the scale and diary every few weeks even if i don't do so daily.
    sweetangelkitten wrote: »
    spinnerdell wrote: »
    Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.

    Why does this lead so many people to weight gain? We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<

    a couple of hundred years ago our access to food and what foods as well as our actiivty level was VASTLY different. you can't really compare the two.

    Easy, don't eat the processed food

    Not easy. What’s your definition of processed food? That’s such a vague and general term - virtually everything we eat is “processed” in some way.

    Eating processed food doesn’t cause weight gain, eating too many calories does. There have been countless examples in this thread alone of people who became overweight eating a Whole Foods diet, because they ate too many calories. There are also countless examples of people who have eaten a diet of all things in moderation, including Whole Foods, processed foods and convenience foods as part of an overall balanced and nutrient dense diet yet have done so at a calorie appropriate level and thus have achieved weight loss goals.

    This is fairly much what my definition of processed food is...

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441809/

    Food processing is defined as any procedure that alters food from its natural state, such as freezing, drying, milling, canning, mixing, or adding salt, sugar, fat, or additives (1, 2). Thus, the US government’s definition of “processed food”—any food other than a raw agricultural commodity—includes a diverse array of foods ranging from frozen vegetables, dried fruit, and canned beans to whole-wheat bread, breakfast cereals, prepared meals, candy, and soda (1, 2). Because of this heterogeneity, classification systems were developed to subdivide processed foods into refined categories based on the complexity of processing, the physical and chemical changes in food as a result of processing, and the purpose of processing; foods are classified into levels along a spectrum, ranging from minimally processed to highly processed (3–6). Here, we define highly processed foods as multi-ingredient industrially formulated mixtures (7).

    It wasn't until I joined MFP that I even had a clue that people struggled with defining "processed". I never encountered this debate in the real world. Are there degrees of processing...of course there are. I eat some processed food but over time I am eating less and less of the "highly" processed foods. Not eating some foods that are considered processed will not work for me in my life. When I need tomato products I will always turn to "processed". I do however try to buy those that have no salt added and/or with as few of ingredients as possible.

    Anyway...the above definition of "processed" has always been my thinking...just in not so technical of terms.

    I don't see people struggling with a definition of processed food here. Every new poster who uses it as a negative seems to be using the Brazilian definition of ultra processed food. That is also my experience off the site. http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/dietary_guidelines_brazilian_population.pdf page 39

    I'll say again that I went through a phase where I convinced myself that it was bad to eat processed foods and better to exclude them as much as possible. My definition was most certainly NOT "ultra processed," as I never ate much of that, but "processed" in a broader definition. I tried to eat exclusively from whole foods and was rather neurotic about the fact I could not (I did eat in restaurants some, although it wasn't a huge percentage of my calories, but generally more of the kind where you know the food was mostly cooked from whole foods).

    I would find it disingenuous to claim I wasn't eating "processed" foods and yet use the many kinds of lightly processed foods I do use (like cottage cheese and dried beans and dried pasta and olive oil and so on), and so I find it really weird when people claim processed foods can be generalized about (or claim to be avoiding them when what they really mean is something else).

    I think it makes communication harder.

    I also agree with janejellyroll that it's not all that useful to focus on the amount of processing vs. the actual contribution of the food to the diet. It's easy to get hung up on whether something fits the ultra processed definition or not (I don't think it's really that clear, and I think even that one is broader than many people realize). I eat mostly from whole foods because that's how I like to eat, and I focus on nutrients that foods have and tend to limit those that aren't particularly nutrient dense (while still including a variety in my diet like, again, olive oil, cheese, just because they make other foods more enjoyable), but I don't think it makes sense to exclude something nutrient dense and providing nutrition needed in favor of something else just because the something else is less processed (maybe because it's more appealing to you, of course).

    When I was hung up on processing, I'd often make it much much harder on myself to eat healthfully (although I generally did) and created more stress for myself by my insistence on my particular rules about making everything from whole ingredients. (And I still couldn't avoid everything that is technically processed.)

    From a weight management POV, I'm much better off weighing out a serving of tortilla chips (what most people would agree is a ultra processed food) and having that instead of eating homemade whole grain bread dipped in extra virgin olive oil or dairy butter (two foods most people would agree are minimally processed, but also hyper-palatable to many of us).

    Eating the bread and olive oil until I'm satisfied could easily be hundreds more calories than the serving of tortilla chips.

    Now it's not like the tortilla chips are the only alternative to eating bread and olive oil, but this is just to highlight that eliminating ultra processed foods isn't going to do anything for one's weight unless it is also creating a calorie deficit. So for me personally, I just skip the middle man and create the deficit, making sure to include plenty of nutrient-rich foods so I don't have to worry about the days when I'm craving tortilla chips and decide to have some.

    Oh my goodness, I can certainly relate to this - I don't even want to know how many calories of bread and butter I was eating in a sitting back when I was baking bread regularly :lol:

    I left that bread mixer behind when I moved.

    I make fresh bread much less often these days. I don't moderate it well. I can, however, moderate tortilla chips.
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  • CarleyMarie83
    CarleyMarie83 Posts: 44 Member
    When I get to my goal weight I shall join you :)
  • mk123456001
    mk123456001 Posts: 10 Member
    doesn't work for me. i've tried. lose 20lbs, feel good, stop calorie counting, slowly creep back up to unhealthy weight. i need the accountability of calorie counting and being rewarded when i stay below a certain amount. nothing wrong with constantly calorie counting and tracking it. seeing how i'm on a computer/mobile for work, the 5 minutes it takes to update my calorie intake per day is nothing.
  • JohnPaulEightyOne
    JohnPaulEightyOne Posts: 127 Member
    Not quite yet, but I'm getting closer
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,009 Member
    ceiswyn wrote: »
    J72FIT wrote: »
    sweetangelkitten wrote: »
    spinnerdell wrote: »
    Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.

    Why does this lead so many people to weight gain? We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<

    We also did not have grocery stores open 24-7 where you can get anything and everything you want whenever you want. We also did not have food delivery, and takeout. We had to actually work (expend energy) to procure food.

    I'm sure, hundreds of years ago, some were hungry, they just had nothing to eat.

    As a species, IMO, we have never had to exercise so much willpower. Times change, so we need to adapt as well...

    A hundred years ago, if you wanted a cake, you had to make it yourself. Chocolate was a rare and expensive treat, not something you were presented with a wall of when you walked into a shop.

    Never before has food been so cheap, so abundant, or so hyper-palatable. We've never had to evolve mechanisms to not want it.

    Seems so obvious....
  • sunfastrose
    sunfastrose Posts: 543 Member
    paperpudding wrote: »
    sweetangelkitten wrote: »
    spinnerdell wrote: »
    Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.

    We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<

    100 years ago, sure, nobody was calorie counting - but their bodies still gained or lost weight according to CICO, they just didn't have a method of counting and measuring that.

    But like 100 years ago, nobody had fitbits - but they still took steps and had a heart rate and whatever else those things measure - they just didnt have a way of measuring them.

    Or 1000 years ago they didn't have clocks - but time still passed, it just wasn't measured.

    Calorie counting is only a tool to measure and control something that is happening naturally.


    First commercial diet was developed in 1863, so they might not have been counting calories but they were dieting.
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Banting
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