Do you guys really count calories?

jenilla1

I weigh and measure - my food scale is one of my favorite tools.

Aniretukato

Not really ... I only measure my oats and eyeball everything else. I just make sure i eat 80% raw vegetables for meals and not eat protein and Starnes together. And make small plates of food so i eat as much as i want without over eating. Eat fruits vegetables or nuts for snacks when im actually hungry during not meal times.

url=http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker][/url]
Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

bmr8008

i weigh / measure EVERYTHING, i log EVERYTHING...

EVERY SINGLE CALORIE that goes into my mouth gets counted!

ive been known to log 1 skittle... what??? sometimes i just need a taste!

^^^^^^^
Word!

pkw58

Yes, I do. At home I weigh and measure, at restaurants I do my best .

baybeejulia

I weigh and log EVERYTHING, even spinach and veggies. It's the only way, otherwise you're just guessing and that's just dangerous.

If I can't weigh/count it, I don't eat it. Simple.

neandermagnon

i'm not currently counting calories but I have done in the past, and will do again if I go on a cut. (currently bulking)

I know it can seem like a huge amount of work, but if you get yourself into a routine it actually doesn't take much time or effort, especially with MFP... without MFP it'll be difficult and time consuming. Also, the first couple of weeks of using MFP it'll take a lot more effort, but after a short time it becomes much easier as all your regular foods are right there in your diary (as my foods and my meals), you just click and log, it's much quicker.

What I do when tracking my calories, I have a kitchen scale and a pad of post-it notes in the kitchen. I put my plate on the scale, zero it, then add one kind of food, write down how many grams, zero it, add another food, write down the grams, etc until all the food's on my plate. I eat it. I make sure I don't lose my post-it note. Later (usually before my last meal of the day), I log all the food off my post-its onto MFP and then plan a meal based on my calories/macros I have left over. Having done this for a while, I'm quite good at planning my last meal like this. For days when I want to eat junk or other special occasions, I plan my earlier meals to be high protein, low carb, low fat, so I have room for a high fat, high carb meal later on.

It seems like a lot of work and effort but when you get in the swing of it, especially with all your regular and favourite foods in your my foods and my meals section, it really gets easier.

Spartans55

Yes. For one, I had no idea how many calories I was eating. It was a big wake up call. And two, it makes me feel guilty if I go over my calorie goal so it has helped me fight cravings many times.

AntWrig

In my life I could probably count the times I've actually kept track of my calories for a day on one hand. But I know a lot of people here do it. So how do you do it? Do you actually weigh everything out and keep a list of everything you eat throughout the day? The two times I did it on MFP I kind of just guessed at the amounts I ate.

I'm asking because I'll soon be at my normal weight. I'm just starting to weightlift (which I LOVE btw). I want to burn more fat but retain the muscle I have. So...do I need to count calories and how many should I eat? I'm 5'8 soon to be 145 lbs and 28% body fat. Would like to set a first goal of 24% body fat. I do weightlifting 3 times per week for about 45 minutes each session.

Help is appreciated!

If you're not competing, I don't see the need to be 100% anal about tracking everything. For the average person, having a grey area is perfectly acceptable. You have to remember that the whole point is to make dieting as easy possible. Tracking everything, every single day is not enjoyable (at least for me), especially when faced with a situation in which you can't track.

There are many kinds of eating disorders and we should be mindful of them all.

Yes, I track everything (during contest prep), however in my off season, I have days in which I loosely track.

Myhaloslipped

After you've been counting calories for a while, it becomes like second nature. I weigh or measure when I'm cooking at home, but sometimes I estimate when I'm out because I don't want to be the jerk that sends a server off on a hunt to find out how many calories are in my food. Sometimes I'll see someone eating a huge plate of pasta or something and think, "If they only knew how many calories were in that food, they wouldn't be able to sleep at night." lol. I used to just assume that certain things were low in calories, and now I realize that I was often WAY off.

NoAdditives

I don't generally weigh or measure things, but I know from all my baking/cooking experience (and from weighing/measuring in the past) that my estimations are pretty accurate. I do log everything, which is a hassle at first, but it's an easy habit to get into.

amyelnash

I dont get why you wouldnt?
Its all down to chemicals and math...

you wouldnt build a concoction of chemicals with a splash of this and a splash of that, youd measure them out.

the same as making a shepards pie, you would grab a bit of potato and some mince and expect a pie to form.

you should measure and calculate everything. takes about 2 minutes to log each meal, and manual scales are about £3.

you get a sense of joy from knowing what youve logged has been weighed and the numbers are as accurate as you could get them. its a mental cleanse as well as a physical one.

mazdauk

i weigh / measure EVERYTHING, i log EVERYTHING...

EVERY SINGLE CALORIE that goes into my mouth gets counted!

ive been known to log 1 skittle... what??? sometimes i just need a taste!

^^^^^THIS! (although I eat a whole mini-pack of skittles :blushing: )

If I didn't log, for example, all my cups of tea, I would be over 100 calories over my goal. Or if I ate one 2-finger KitKat. And as for guessing, try this:

1. guess 75g dry pasta and put it in a bowl.
2. Weigh the pasta.
3. Now put the extra 75g you "guessed" back in the packet

I've been following this regme since New Year, and I STILL look at 75g dry pasta and think "Are my scales wrong? that is surely not enough!!!" And don't get me wrong, i could easily eat more than 75g. But that's how I ended up here in the first place!:ohwell:

I pre-log my food for the day (often when I get to work) so i can see how much extra exercise I might need. Once I reach my new goal and switch to maintennce I'll continue to log exercsie and calories. Why? because on holiday I switched to maintenance (having reached my goal of 147lb), then upped it a bit (because I was on holida) and some days went over 9because we ate out and/or didn't do much walking). When I came back the scales were almost 5lb UP.

So yes, i count calories and will continue to do so til they find a way for excess calories to evaporate on the application of wine!:laugh:

ETA because I do a lot of cooking, I'm pretty accurate at guessing things like cheese and butter, for example. But "loose" stuff like pasta, cereal, flour etc. are really difficult to guess.

You can get a digital scale for way less then a month's gym membership!

Amy8n

I have to log every single calorie that I eat. When I stop logging, that's when I get off track & the weight goes back on. I find the logging a real motivator!

Camera_BagintheUK

Do you actually weigh everything out and keep a list of everything you eat throughout the day?

Yes.

It's not hard once you get into the routine of it. I'll carry on weighing things when I've finished.

Logging on the MFP diary makes it easier - I'd never have lost 2 stone if I had to log by writing it down and adding up!

carmenmiranda1

I measure and log 85-90% of what I eat. In other words, I do it fairly religiously.

However, once you've been doing it for a while, and you know that you have, say, 400 calories left for the day, and you're out at a restaurant, you can kind of guess about how much that steak weighs, and that sort of thing. When I am being conscious of my caloric intake, I usually eat plain foods at restaurants--in other words, it's much easier to look at a slab of meat and know how much there is than to try to guess what went into a pasta sauce.

If you're looking at maintaining, it's a good idea to log religiously for a few weeks to find out at what number you maintain. Then you have that for reference, and if you wanted to ignore logging until you see a gain or a loss, you know what number to add to or subtract from in order to get back to your goal. If you really are at maintenance, then you don't necessarily need to log unless your weight has changed.

That being said, one of the key the benefits of logging is that you really get a good idea of what you're putting into your mouth, as other people have mentioned here. If you've never logged calories, you DON'T actually think, "that cup of coffee has milk and sugar in it, which have calories." Or you don't realise just what three pieces of pizza mean, to use the examples listed earlier.

Experience with logging can help you make good decisions. For example, I know the difference in calories between a skinless chicken breast fillet and one that is deep fried from KFC. So if I am really craving that one from KFC, I can allow myself to have it if I work it in. On the other hand, if my goal is to lose, and I'm just feeling hungry, I know that I can have twice as much of that fillet.

ailbheoconnell

if you are looking to gain muscle without as much effort as you would think, go to leangains.com and read the bio and the leangains guide. If it interests you there is a website called rippedbody.jp i think, that has a more simple explanation. I was a bit knocked back with the technical jargon on the first one, but it is the original site. hope that helps

55in13

Looks like I am one of the few who rarely logs. But I have a common set of a few workday breakfasts and lunches I usually eat (and have logged them in the past) and don't snack on the job, so I am really only ball parking the night time and weekend food. Mostly what I did while losing 55 pounds and what I am doing now to maintain is mix days that I am sure are under goal with days that are around or over and keep an eye on the scale and the belt. I adjust the mix of days as needed. The good news is that lately it has been needing more days that aren't below.

KANGOOJUMPS

nope, we are here to drink,

KatieBee8

I never measure and I never log on here. But I do count my calories on some days. I eat a very similar diet the majority of the time so I tend to know my general calorie intake without bothering to count.

papillon71

I count everything, I log every single thing that goes in my mouth and also double check that the entries in MFP are correct as per labelling (as a lot are not especially sodium contents), I have a small set of digital kitchen scales and weigh everything including lettuce leaves LOL. For me it has worked as "guestimating" how much something weighed was having me go nowhere, I was way out most times I learned. So it's log and weigh for me, been on the journey since January 2013, 43lb gone and stuck to 1200 cals a day.