Calorie counting

Harrisonsauntie2005

Hi, I posted in the main forums about not wanting to count calories as it fustrates me.

SS commented on there being other methods.

Could you give me some advice on these other methods and your general thoughts on not calorie counting?
Thanks

SideSteel

Tagging this, will reply soon.

Sarauk2sf

What he said

SideSteel

The following is my current opinion but this may not be of direct use to you since this isn't necessarily a formulaic approach as much as it's random thoughts around non tracking methods.

First, I think tracking for most people is a good idea. Some people can do it long term and have great results as some of the success stories on MFP would validate that. But even short term intake tracking can help someone get somewhat aligned to estimating energy intake of various foods and it may also help them with learning about portion sizes and these things can carry over to non tracking methods.

However, I very firmly believe that it's not the solution for everyone and there are just some people who aren't going to do well with a tracking approach. You'll not get much agreement on MFP with respect to this because MFP is a site dedicated to tracking. As with most things, people (even really smart ones) tend to get black and white about things and refuse to be open to the idea that there's a grey area, even with respect to calorie tracking. Context still matters, even here.


Next, I'll make a general reminder to anyone reading this, that creating a calorie deficit is a requirement to weight loss regardless of whether or not you are tracking those calories. Claims are made in defense of calorie counting to the extent of "how can you be in a deficit if you're not keeping track" but other dietary approaches such as paleo, low carb, and probably other methods may be able to cause someone to eat in a deficit by either creating satiety through food selection or by removing enough energy dense foods through restrictions, or a combination of both.

This isn't a statement about whether those methods are good or bad, it's just a statement about how they work, in my opinion.

So as for some ideas or strategies I'm going to list somewhat haphazardly, considerations to make. You may not necessarily combine all of these ideas but these are things that I think have merit:

- Restricting carbohydrates and increasing protein can create satiety and drive caloric intake down by reducing hunger.

- Greatly reducing or *gasp* eliminating energy dense, highly palatable, heavily processed foods can potentially reduce food-reward and cause you to eat fewer calories.

- Eat larger servings of fibrous vegetables.

- Using a meal plan type of system where you include a lean source of protein, vegetables, possibly fruit may cause you to eat fewer calories and stay within a reasonable range of total calorie intake if you set it up properly. This isn't inherently counting but it has the potential to regulate your intake within a range of calories by selecting proper portion sizes and by there not being massive swings in energy intake by switching out 1 protein for another or 1 vegetable for another/etc. (In other words if you have green beans and a chicken breast one day and the next day you have broccoli and tilapia you're likely to stay within a reasonable range of calories).

- Making energy dense foods less available to you in your lifestyle may cause you to eat them less frequently. For example if you normally have a bowl of MnM's on your desk at work, or on your kitchen counter, moving them to an enclosed area or simply removing them for your environment will cause you to eat them less frequently. One example that Stephen Guyenet uses that I find excellent, would be to compare having a tray of chocolate brownies at your work, sitting in the open on a table that is near your desk. Take that same tray of brownies and move it across the street in a coffee shop and put a $6 price tag on them and you are FAR less likely to consume them.

- If you tend to graze between meals, you could attempt to remove snacking from your plan and instead eat ~3 meals per day to increase satiety and remove the calories spent on "grazing".

- In addition to reducing consumption of heavily refined and energy dense foods, you can also attempt to make your food slightly less palatable. What this generally means conceptually is that you use fewer seasonings (even calorie free ones) in order to make your food a bit more bland. This will have an effect on hunger in that you will eat less of it. I mention this as a strategy and I believe that it works, but on a personal note I struggle with the concept in that I question how far this should be taken for psychological reasons. I have no basis for that statement other than hunch, just to be clear.

So these are just some strategies and I'm sure I'm probably forgetting some big ones. I may add to this reply as this is something I've been reading a lot about. Given that I'm doing some coaching online for clients, my exploring this area is going to help me because there are inevitably going to be people for whom calorie counting isn't the right method.

littlebutlean

Hi Harrisonsaunt!

I just wanted to add something to this thread and my experience. Counting calories has also been a frustrating process for me as it's relatively time consuming and can really cause break up to the day if you're logging in real-time. You didn't really specify what part of the counting was frustrating you but if it's simply due to inconvenience I had a tip!

Something that has been very helpful to me is creating set meals and then just cooking on Saturday or Sunday. For example I'll cook as many chicken breasts as I can fit on the broiler pan, a giant pot of potatoes and a decent sized pot of rice. When all is done cooking I get out the plastic Ziploc containers I picked up from Walmart. I'd weigh 150g of cooked rice or mashed potatoes on the scale, reset it, then toss in weighed 4oz of chicken breast in the container, and then finally just a half (or full) cup of mixed frozen veggies from the bag (serving size) and put on the lid. I'd do as many meals as rice/potato/chicken and they go in the deep freeze. I'd usually make 15-20 of these Ziploc containers. Right away now I know exactly what that meal has in it for the full macro and caloric count. You can then create a meal in MFP (in Food -> My Meals) and use it to pre-log for the day or even full week if your lifestyle allows for it. That meal will usually be a lunch that I can just grab, put in my lunch bag and take to work or one to toss in the microwave for dinner on the go!

Just a tip I thought I'd share as pre-creating set meals drastically improved the inconvenience of calorie counting for me. :happy:

FitterBody

In to see what other alternatives may be suggested as when out and about weighing is impossible, and at home, although currently now a habit can be a chore sometimes, alternatives for the longer term, at least for use the majority of the time once in maintenance, would be nice.