Do I HAVE to count calories?

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  • ksheeler13
    ksheeler13 Posts: 14 Member
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    I think for me it helps because I tend to eat more then I think. I love having a scale so I know I am eating the rt amount of oz in my protein. I also measure out my food by cups. it really helps if you are like me and always eat more then you think you are eating.
    :smile:
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,370 Member
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    Most of us got fat assuming we ate a lot fewer calories than we do. Logging them gets around that and helps you lose faster. It also prevents under-eating by too large a margin too. Logging gets a lot easier over time as your recent and frequent lists become populated with your regular go to foods.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    I'm just beginning to try to lose weight, and I think that counting calories might just be more effort/more destructive or discouraging...thoughts?

    No, of course not. Many people lose weight without counting. It's just a tool. If it doesn't work for you, then try something else.
  • aqualeo1
    aqualeo1 Posts: 331 Member
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    Please explain what is 'food' and what is not.

    Food nourishes the body and maintains it. Non-food tastes good and is heavily advertised.
    Non foods include anything with: sugar, flour, white rice, refined oil.

    C'mon dude seriously?
  • PaleoPath4Lyfe
    PaleoPath4Lyfe Posts: 3,161 Member
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    Count macros, not calories :) Yes, it's even more work than counting mere calories, but the results are worth it :) There's no lying to your body, if you eat crap you'll look crap. If you're lazy to work for it, you'll never get it.

    I think counting Macros is easier than counting calories.................for me anyway.

    But, I had been doing low carb, high fat off and on for years and can eyeball serving sizes and such with great accuracy.
  • PaleoPath4Lyfe
    PaleoPath4Lyfe Posts: 3,161 Member
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    If you eat real food which gives your body what it needs, it cannot harm you because your body will tell you when it has had enough. When you eat substances with no nourishment, your body constantly cries for food because it is not getting what it needs. WHAT YOU EAT is more important than HOW MUCH YOU EAT.

    I must be missing something because I can see very little "real food" in this poster's diary.
    [/quote]

    I agree. QUALITY over QUANTITY.
  • sullus
    sullus Posts: 2,839 Member
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    And what's your beef with Doritos anyway? Did you have a bad experience with them or something?

    The beef I have with Doritos is that they destroy people who eat them instead of eating food.

    Whole grain corn isn't food? Interesting.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    I'm just beginning to try to lose weight, and I think that counting calories might just be more effort/more destructive or discouraging...thoughts?

    how can something that helps you lose weight/be healthier be "destructive"

    LOL…troll much..?

    Why must it be a troll? I've stopped tracking because I found it too time consuming and I have a tendancy to obesess over numbers. I was losing steadily until I joing MFP, then I started gaining trying to make all those number come out even.

    Since I've stopped tracking, I'm losing again. It's okay if everyone is not exactly like you.
  • sullus
    sullus Posts: 2,839 Member
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    Please explain what is 'food' and what is not.

    Food nourishes the body and maintains it. Non-food tastes good and is heavily advertised.
    Non foods include anything with: sugar, flour, white rice, refined oil.

    Props for trying, but the troll attempt isn't really panning out for you.
  • mommyvo23
    mommyvo23 Posts: 22 Member
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    bump
  • NOMORECARS
    NOMORECARS Posts: 156
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    Whole grain corn isn't food? Interesting.
    [/quote]

    GMO ROUND UP READY CORN engineered by the Monsanto Corporation IS NOT FOOD
  • csuhar
    csuhar Posts: 779 Member
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    I'm just beginning to try to lose weight, and I think that counting calories might just be more effort/more destructive or discouraging...thoughts?

    Does it take effort? Yes. But it's effort that, in the majority of cases, is worth making. It takes effort to look at the fuel gauge in your car, but it's still a good idea to do that rather than wait until your engine starts sputtering.

    I don't know about how it could be destructive unless you begin to have an unhealthy obsession, just as it can be dangerous if you're staring at that fuel gauge more than you're looking at the road in front of you, but that's for another discussion.

    Can it be discouraging? It depends on how you take the news. Yes, it's a bummer when I'd REALLY like a treat but I've already reached my calorie goal, or I'm so close that treat will put me well over it.

    But that's life. Life involves hearing "no", accepting it, and learning ways to get to "yes". By counting calories, I was able to develop a better sense of how much I was eating. With that knowledge, I developed a better ability to get a fair idea of whether or not I have the calories available for a treat as I'm going through the store. I still need to log it when I get back to make sure, but I'm better equipped to go through the lunch line and estimate what will fit my caloric goal for the day and what won't.

    And, every now and then, I get to the end of the day and, thanks to counting my calories, discover I can have a treat that I hadn't planned on.
  • NOMORECARS
    NOMORECARS Posts: 156
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    I must be missing something because I can see very little "real food" in this poster's diary.
    [/quote]

    You really are missing something when attacking the messenger's credibility is more important than the message.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    I'm just beginning to try to lose weight, and I think that counting calories might just be more effort/more destructive or discouraging...thoughts?

    Takes 5 minutes (if that per day)....

    Seriously?!? What do you eat? It takes me more than 5 min to enter one recipe. I realize the problems MFP experiences with keeping a clean database, especially on a free site, but all the differing entries in the database do make entering meals very time consuming.

    Every item must be looked up, then verified, to see which of the dozen or so entries is correct. And if one cooks most meal from scratch, this much be done for every ingredient. And for produce and other foods that come without a nutrition label, that means going to another web site for that verification.

    I suppose if one eats the same foods often, or eats a lot of prepared foods that have the information on a label it would be faster, but not everyone eats that way.
  • LH85DC
    LH85DC Posts: 231 Member
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    Whole grain corn isn't food? Interesting.

    GMO ROUND UP READY CORN engineered by the Monsanto Corporation IS NOT FOOD

    What?? I don't even know what's happening here. Corn isn't a food anymore? I mean, I've heard debates over what food group it should be classified as, but... Anyway, I'm in, because this is entertaining and I'm pretty sure this guy is a troll.

    OP- You don't have to count calories to lose weight. But most people are more successful at losing weight when they have some way of quantifying what/how much they are eating- it's surprisingly easy to under/over-estimate.

    And just for the record- I absolutely think that you can lose weight while eating 'junk food,' although I hate to refer to it that way. If you're consistently meeting your goals (calories/macros), chances are that you have to eat primarily 'whole, healthy' foods to get there. But that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with treats that fit your goals. Go for it! Personally, I've already had six servings of veggies (not even dinnertime yet), and I can't wait for my ice cream tonight :)
  • pammypurple
    pammypurple Posts: 27 Member
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    You were extremely sarcastic to the OP who was asking a serious question. You are repeatedly advocating eating real food, healthy food, and lots of it. I hardly see pointing out that your public diary is not only lacking in all of those things but is also showing a lot of "junk" and artificial food is an attack. It's an observation. I feel that if someone is going to give advice to people who are struggling with their weight then it might be a good thing to be following that advice.
  • sloth3toes
    sloth3toes Posts: 2,212 Member
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    Please explain what is 'food' and what is not.

    Food nourishes the body and maintains it. Non-food tastes good and is heavily advertised.
    Non foods include anything with: sugar, flour, white rice, refined oil.

    C'mon dude seriously?

    62815,1298796954,cat-tinfoil-hat.jpg
  • lmanasero
    lmanasero Posts: 19 Member
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    Very well said :)
  • csuhar
    csuhar Posts: 779 Member
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    I'm just beginning to try to lose weight, and I think that counting calories might just be more effort/more destructive or discouraging...thoughts?

    Takes 5 minutes (if that per day)....

    Seriously?!? What do you eat? It takes me more than 5 min to enter one recipe. I realize the problems MFP experiences with keeping a clean database, especially on a free site, but all the differing entries in the database do make entering meals very time consuming.

    Every item must be looked up, then verified, to see which of the dozen or so entries is correct. And if one cooks most meal from scratch, this much be done for every ingredient. And for produce and other foods that come without a nutrition label, that means going to another web site for that verification.

    I suppose if one eats the same foods often, or eats a lot of prepared foods that have the information on a label it would be faster, but not everyone eats that way.

    That can be a challenge, and I must admit that I do benefit from making one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner meal on Sunday and spreading them out over the week.

    Something that I found helpful is that I evaluate every new recipie I try. If it's something that I will do again, I'll save it in my recipes. If not, then I just enter it on Monday and copy it through the rest of the week (again, my aforementioned menu habits help with that).

    Other times, I just trust that whoever input the food item (especially things like produce and meat that don't have nutrition labels on them) has done so in good faith and with as much accuracy as possible. I would hope that, if someone is going to input it into the MFP database, they're going to check those other sites, first, rather than just take a wild guess. Yes, it does mean there's a risk for being off, but it's worked out fairly well for me so far.
  • sloth3toes
    sloth3toes Posts: 2,212 Member
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    I must be missing something because I can see very little "real food" in this poster's diary.

    You really are missing something when attacking the messenger's credibility is more important than the message.

    Uhmmmm, really man ? You're trying to tell me that my granny's apple pie isn't 'food' 'cause it's made with sugar... but you're drinking Coke?
    from the sage's diary
    Coca Cola - Fountain Style, 12 oz.

    If you aren't an intentional troll.... you're just as much a troll, anyways.

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