How does eating healthy look compared to just counting calories?

neffyworld
neffyworld Posts: 89 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm at loggerheads with my family whom want me to do keto/fasting and cut out carbs and processed foods forever. I'm happy with counting calories, but I have trouble sticking with it.

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,627 Member
    neffyworld wrote: »
    @AnnPT77 I struggle with checking food labels, weighing food, looking it up in the system, then confirming the amount I have. Multiple times a day, forever and ever. I think I would be better off with a list of meals and snacks to have during the day that I eat as I desire, that have the right protein/calorie amount. I feel like I have to do a lot of exercise, which I hate. I don't want to look flabby, and I like the idea that if I exercise, I can eat more.

    I am okay with the idea of fasting.

    I am wondering if my family struggles with the reality or idea of orthorexia. They have harrassed me for a long time for calorie counting, despite seeing the results. They don't believe in treating yourself or eating food you enjoy if it is unhealthy on a daily/weekly basis, you pretty much have to be perfect all the time. Out of the 4 people harrassing me, 3 of them are overweight! Unfortunately I live with my parents, and I don't have the resources to make moving out worthwhile at this point in time.

    After a while, unless you eat wildly differently every day, you should find that most of your often-eaten foods are in your recent/frequent foods, and will come up first when you search, so you don't need to verify them each and every time. If you save things eaten together routinely as meals, or as recipes (whichever is the best tool for how you use them), that also saves time. I'm not going to tell you that you won't find even that too tedious, because that's an individual, subjective thing. But, objectively speaking, there's a learning/skills process, and after a learning period logging will take less time.

    If you prefer to have a predefined plan, this is one possible source:

    https://www.eatthismuch.com/

    You pick out an eating style and a calorie level, and it generates meal plans, with recipes. There's some customization of details available, some free features and I think some premium. I've played with it a little, but I don't personally use it. That's waaaayyy too structured for my tastes.
  • neffyworld
    neffyworld Posts: 89 Member
    The main person with the suggestion for keto and fasting has backed down. I am willing to do fasting. I am also thinking of seeing a dietician to help me come up with a meal plan for the week so I don't have to stress too much. As I've said previously, I have high blood sugar and need a few months to get the reading down, but have had trouble sticking with anything.

    I'm kind of just wondering, what in general do people consider healthy eating, like what kind of rules do you follow outside of calorie counting to get good nutrition?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,627 Member
    neffyworld wrote: »
    The main person with the suggestion for keto and fasting has backed down. I am willing to do fasting. I am also thinking of seeing a dietician to help me come up with a meal plan for the week so I don't have to stress too much. As I've said previously, I have high blood sugar and need a few months to get the reading down, but have had trouble sticking with anything.

    I'm kind of just wondering, what in general do people consider healthy eating, like what kind of rules do you follow outside of calorie counting to get good nutrition?

    Me personally, daily I aim for:
    * 0.6-0.8g protein per pound of goal weight, minimum
    * 0.35-0.45g fat per pound, minimum, with priority on mono/polyunsaturated fats, and Omega 3s
    * 5 minimum 80g servings of varied, colorful veggies/fruits, ideally 10 or more servings
    * Meeting a sensible calorie goal, on average

  • neffyworld
    neffyworld Posts: 89 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    neffyworld wrote: »
    The main person with the suggestion for keto and fasting has backed down. I am willing to do fasting. I am also thinking of seeing a dietician to help me come up with a meal plan for the week so I don't have to stress too much. As I've said previously, I have high blood sugar and need a few months to get the reading down, but have had trouble sticking with anything.

    I'm kind of just wondering, what in general do people consider healthy eating, like what kind of rules do you follow outside of calorie counting to get good nutrition?

    Me personally, daily I aim for:
    * 0.6-0.8g protein per pound of goal weight, minimum
    * 0.35-0.45g fat per pound, minimum, with priority on mono/polyunsaturated fats, and Omega 3s
    * 5 minimum 80g servings of varied, colorful veggies/fruits, ideally 10 or more servings
    * Meeting a sensible calorie goal, on average

    That sounds good. Do you reduce how many carbs you have?
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,030 Member
    In reality, portion control is the main factor for people staying at a more normal weight. You see it in countries where people eat carbs regularly (Asian countries for instance). Go to a penitentiary and the inmates don't have an obesity problem there because they too are on a portion controlled eating regimen and in many cases more fit than the average American even with all the LOW QUALITY food. You'd think that if this food was so unhealthy, that they'd have shorter lifespans in prison...................but don't due to food intake.
    Get in your RDA of macro/micronutrients however you see fit, and if there's leftover calories eat what you want. You don't get extra credit for eating "healthier" once you get RDA in.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    Are you sure you don't work for Nestle? Just kidding, haha
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    In reality, portion control is the main factor for people staying at a more normal weight. You see it in countries where people eat carbs regularly (Asian countries for instance). Go to a penitentiary and the inmates don't have an obesity problem there because they too are on a portion controlled eating regimen and in many cases more fit than the average American even with all the LOW QUALITY food. You'd think that if this food was so unhealthy, that they'd have shorter lifespans in prison...................but don't due to food intake.
    Get in your RDA of macro/micronutrients however you see fit, and if there's leftover calories eat what you want. You don't get extra credit for eating "healthier" once you get RDA in.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    For me there’s not a divide between the two. I find it easier to stay within my calorie limit when I avoid quick carbs and processed foods. I’m not religious about it, although I do limit carbs to about 150 g daily because of my diabetes, but it’s much easier to eat a satisfying 500 calorie meal of fresh vegetables, fruit, fiber-rich starches and lean meat or fish, than it would be to eat the same calories of fried food, cheese, oily dressing or sauce, fluffy white bread with so much added sugar it might as well be cake, and fatty processed meats.

    @neffyworld I don’t necessarily recommend this, but my approach to overweight people who lecture me for not doing it right is to be rude. “That’s nice, I prefer to do something that works instead of what you do.” This shut my mom, who has been obese her whole life while pretending to do one or another restrictive diet, right up. The problem with people like this is that they have been taught that they should act guilty and be punished for being fat, so they have to act as if they are trying to lose weight in public, but they don’t really care to and aren’t motivated to actually do it. Tell them to do something simple - eat an appropriate amount of calories for your activity level and actually keep track of what you eat - and you wouldn’t believe the amount of whining and insisting that logging is impossible! To which I say, “Huh, for some reason it’s not impossible for me. I’ve done it with no problems for four years. I must be special.”
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    If one wants to know what someone else wants, what they really really want, one only has to look at what they have because well functioning people get exactly what they want over time.

    When you want to lose the weight, not just say you do, or want to please others, you now know how to do it.

    Of course, one has to work through the shortcuts to convince oneself that at the bottom of all weight loss there is nothing that matters other than CICO, but that is a relatively painless process. Fasting, Keto, frozen WW meals, dates and olive oil. It will be nothing worse than a time waster. For me it came pretty fast because the medical people were going to make me miserable unless my numbers improved, right away. Which they did.

    Good luck.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    In reality, portion control is the main factor for people staying at a more normal weight. You see it in countries where people eat carbs regularly (Asian countries for instance). Go to a penitentiary and the inmates don't have an obesity problem there because they too are on a portion controlled eating regimen and in many cases more fit than the average American even with all the LOW QUALITY food. You'd think that if this food was so unhealthy, that they'd have shorter lifespans in prison...................but don't due to food intake.
    Get in your RDA of macro/micronutrients however you see fit, and if there's leftover calories eat what you want. You don't get extra credit for eating "healthier" once you get RDA in.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    Yes, without trying AT ALL my ex lost 30-40 pounds during the 3 years he lived in Thailand, no doubt due to smaller portions. Or maybe rice has magical weight loss properties!

    When I'm using recipes from my Thai cookbook I often double most things. When it says 4 servings, it is not referring to American servings.
  • CierraEstelle
    CierraEstelle Posts: 30 Member
    Not sure if OP is male or female... but I wanted to add, there is some evidence to suggest that fasting can negatively impact women's hormones and throw them out of balance. If you're female, somehing to Google and consider.

    Healthy eating to me, is eating a diet high in whole grains and vegetables. Along with that, I like to eat healthy fats, lean proteins like beans, soy, seitan (I'm vegetarian). I base things on how the diet makes me feel overall (digestion/bloating, energy and vitality, skin condition, sleep quality, etc)
  • neffyworld
    neffyworld Posts: 89 Member
    @CierraEstelle I'm a lady
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 989 Member
    My version of healthy eating, and how I reduced my blood sugar number, was to reduce my carb intake to under 130g a day. I've mostly done it by making substitutions - cauliflower rice instead of rice (or half and half), fewer potatoes but more veg, courgetti instead of pasta (or half and half). If I do a stirfry, I pile loads of veg into the wok and don't bother with rice or noodles at all. In all cases, the volume of veg makes me feel that I've had a bigger meal but the carb intake (and calorie count) is lower than would have been on my plate a few years ago.

    My current favourite is sauted cabbage - ~200g finely sliced white cabbage, 7-10g lighter butter and 7.5-10ml olive oil, sauted for about 20 mins. I sometimes add a 5ml splash of apple cyder vinegar. Aside from finding it very tasty, it's only 9g of carbs and also gives me 9g of fibre, so I use that instead of rice or potatoes with multiple dishes.

    If you don't fancy counting calories, the only suggestion I can offer is to look at your typical meals and look at how many calories /carbs they contain - and either predominantly eat the lower cal / carb meals or come up with lower cal / carb alternatives and substitute them as much as possible. I used to add all sorts of fruit to my morning yoghurt and use different veg in cooking. I then made a list and looked up the nutritional info, per 100g, for all the things I ate regularly. After discovering that raspberries are lower carb than blueberries, I now only buy raspberries to add to my yoghurt. I now buy green beans and cauliflower more than I buy broccoli and carrots; I rarely eat peas or petit pois at home now. I like all of them but I may as well focus on eating the options that are lower carb. I rarely eat bread anyway, but I did a similar exercise to compare all the different bread options available to me at my local supermarket and now only have the lowest-carb option in my freezer.
  • Speakeasy76
    Speakeasy76 Posts: 961 Member
    When I decided to get serious again about losing weight, I viewed weight loss as part of an overarching goal to get healthier overall by choosing more good-for-you foods, foods that make me feel better overall ,while still having treats. That also means I now view exercise I actually like and makes me feel better afterwards and not just to burn calories/see how many calories I can burn. To get more serious about actually losing weight and admittedly, get to my "vanity" weight, that meant I had to be more mindful of actually how much I was eating by tracking. This also helps me see how much protein and fiber I"m getting and *kind of* keep an eye on added sugars.

    I don't view healthy eating as cutting out or demonizing foods, let alone entire food groups. That's not sustainable for me, and therefore by my definition, not healthy if not sustainable. I pay attention to how certain foods make me feel and how eating too much makes me feel. I'm paying even closer attention to this, and realize most of the time I'd rather forgo something if I know I'm going to feel yucky afterwards. By 'yucky" I don't mean feel guilty, but physically not great.
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,272 Member
    Pick appropriate calorie and macros targets. Eat to them // MFP logging helps in this regard. Eat a good variety of nutrient-dense, healthful, fresh stuff. I highly recommend you do much of your own cooking, rather than eating out or taking in, except for occasions. I also bake - easy "no knead" methods - most of the family bread products, including rolls for summer grill sandwiches (much healthier than commercial bread). Get lots of colors on your plate (veggies, fruit). Don't go wild or constant with known "bad" stuff - deep fryer, highly-processed, highly-salted, high-sugar, etc. stuff - and don't fret too much if you indulge once in a while, we're all human. Don't drive yourself crazy or do big fad stuff. It takes time. As one doc told me, " ... it took all your life to get where you are, it's going to take a while to get someplace else."

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