Have you ever just wanted to quit and...

KM0692

And how old are you, Miss Original Poster?

Hmmm, not sure how to take this? That sounded a little sarcastic. And what does age have to with it?

From the tone of your post, I thought you might be under age for the forum (<18) and suspected you'd get defensive about the question if you were. Hopefully I'm wrong on both counts but if I'm not, trust me, it's relevant

I'm well over 18. And how is it relevant?

torichantel2005

try and do this yourself, by cutting back on portion sizes, cutting out the junk and NOT counting calories??? I get really depressed when I think about having to do this for the rest of my life. My mom always said "if you want to drop a few pounds, just cut out the junk food and go for a daily walk." I only have 10 lbs. to lose to get back to my ideal weight, but I am so tired of counting calories, tracking, thinking about food...."how many calories is this?" "do I have enough calories left today for this?" etc, etc

I just want to be one of those "normal" people that doesn't count calories....they just eat reasonable portions and stop when they're no longer hungry. If they want a cookie, they have one (not three) and are happy. I don't want the thought of food consuming me anymore!!!

I could have written this. I actually got on here today TO write something like this and ask the same question. I am not at all happy with the responses you received. Everyone at work keeps telling me the same thing your mom has always said. It's just not that easy for me. I am in a definitely slump. It has been extremely difficult for me lately to count calories and eat the right things. Part of the problem is that I'm trying to save money so Hubs and I have been "scrounging" whatever we have in the house.

I'm also fed up with the feeling that I constantly need to exercise.

I'm bordering right now between trying to do this on my own without counting calories in/out and being absolutely obsessed with it to the point where it's almost scary, even to myself. I try to go a day without counting, and I can't. I have never been "FAT," but at 150 pounds, I definitely did not look, nor feel, my best. I'm now wavering between 122 and 125 pounds. I feel better, I look better, I feel fairly comfortable in a bathing suit, I can run a mile (something I have NEVER done in my life before this month), I can probably fit into some size 0 pants (vanity sizing, probably, but still) and it's worth it... But it's so frustrating at the same time.

I get it. It's a hard thing, to sit there and think that you'll have to have the damn MyFitnessPal app for the rest of your life. If I could just be content with lean meat and veggies, that would help, but I have a serious bread/sweets obsession. I limit those things now, but I definitely still make plenty of room to fit them in when I really want them, otherwise I think I'd go absolutely nuts.

I also don't really have anyone that is going through this with me. Everyone thinks I've just gone totally off the wall, that I'm "too skinny," that I shouldn't lose any more weight, or they are thin and just don't get it. My Hubs is SUPER supportive, but he is naturally thin and has a high metabolism, so while he needs to eat more than he really wants to most of the time, I can't eat nearly as much as I would choose to. So sometimes he forgets and says we should eat, when I just can't because I don't have enough calories left to have a snack or an extra meal. He doesn't do it on purpose, but he just forgets, because he doesn't have to do it.

What I'm trying to say is that I understand!

torichantel2005

AMEN!! Its only been 9 days and I already feel like doing this is gonna give me an eating disorder

Agreed. It's easy to obsess.

MelodyandBarbells

And how old are you, Miss Original Poster?

Hmmm, not sure how to take this? That sounded a little sarcastic. And what does age have to with it?

From the tone of your post, I thought you might be under age for the forum (<18) and suspected you'd get defensive about the question if you were. Hopefully I'm wrong on both counts but if I'm not, trust me, it's relevant

I'm well over 18. And how is it relevant?

You're asking just out of idle curiosity, then? I might have recommended that you put the forum down, and a deep breath and worry about other more important things. I can usually find out age when I click into the profile but you chose to keep yours private... Either way it seems like you're getting great advice. Sorry to bother.

Iwishyouwell

try and do this yourself, by cutting back on portion sizes, cutting out the junk and NOT counting calories??? I get really depressed when I think about having to do this for the rest of my life.

Yes. And I did quit, years ago.

Calorie counting for the rest of my life was not an option. I hated having that relationship with food, so I found other avenues to get a deficit in that were doable for me. I've now lost over a 100 lbs...without counting a single calorie.

KM0692

try and do this yourself, by cutting back on portion sizes, cutting out the junk and NOT counting calories??? I get really depressed when I think about having to do this for the rest of my life.

Yes. And I did quit, years ago.

Calorie counting for the rest of my life was not an option. I hated having that relationship with food, so I found other avenues to get a deficit in that were doable for me. I've now lost over a 100 lbs...without counting a single calorie.

Congratulations on your success!! Can you share with us how you did it? Of course like many others I'm sure, my dream is to lose weight and not have to count calories!

DebTavares

try and do this yourself, by cutting back on portion sizes, cutting out the junk and NOT counting calories??? I get really depressed when I think about having to do this for the rest of my life.

Yes. And I did quit, years ago.

Calorie counting for the rest of my life was not an option. I hated having that relationship with food, so I found other avenues to get a deficit in that were doable for me. I've now lost over a 100 lbs...without counting a single calorie.

I posted a lengthy response about this in another thread so I'll be brief here. I also do not count calories but to lose weight I still have to create a deficit. I do this by creating rules for myself, mostly around portion control. For instance, instead of half an entire pizza I have 1 or 2 slices, instead of 2 beef patties I have 1. I think the rule that has been most effective for me is to eat only 3 times per day, 4-5 hours apart with one snack in between of fruit. Without this rule I would be eating all day since like most overweight people my hunger-fullness cues are broken. I also try to balance things out by eating a balance of carbs and protein at each meal. I've been able to keep 13 pounds off for 5 months with these rules. I want to lose another 30 pounds so I created new rules, one of which is to exercise whenever I can as long as my body feels good. If I only get 4 hours of sleep, I take the day off from the gym. Similarly, if my body is too sore I take it easy. A lot of this involves really learning to listen to your body and takes a lot of honesty. You have to really be honest with yourself and also in general try to make this as easy as possible.

Congratulations on your success!! Can you share with us how you did it? Of course like many others I'm sure, my dream is to lose weight and not have to count calories!

torichantel2005

Yes. And I did quit, years ago.

Calorie counting for the rest of my life was not an option. I hated having that relationship with food, so I found other avenues to get a deficit in that were doable for me. I've now lost over a 100 lbs...without counting a single calorie.

You rock! You are an inspiration. Can you advise what some of the avenues were?

stealthq

For those of you who think no one else is counting calories. The people out there who we perceive as slim, most of them are doing something to maintain their weight even if they do a good job pretending otherwise. They might be eating only one meal a day (the meal you see them eating) or they have days where they hardly eat anything but it does not happen by magic. I realize everyone is different and we can all give examples of people who eat alot and don't gain weight. But most people out there who are not weight challenged are doing something to keep their weight down even if they hide that they are doing it.

This is at least true for me. I've never really been overweight, just recently decided to get thinner for vanity purposes. The reason I was never overweight is because even when I didn't have weightloss in mind, I was aware of what I was eating, estimating how many calories were in it, ordering healthy items at restaurants, etc.

Not me. I've never been clinically overweight either. In retrospect, when left to my own devices, I tended to go in cycles where I would undereat for weeks by a decent margin - not on purpose, I just wasn't all that hungry - and then follow that up with a couple of days where eating treat foods multiple times a day seemed like a good idea. I guess the calories basically equaled out because my weight was stable.

But now I'm eating with friends and family frequently. And when NOT left to my own devices, I'll eat treat foods at every meal unless I have a reason - like knowing that they won't fit in my calories for the day. Prior to MFP, that's how my weight crept up to just under overweight.

Besides, if I stop MFP, how will I eat as much as I am able without going over? I don't want to guess and miss out (my tendency is to overestimate calories in foods)!

ge105

I also lost ~30lbs not counting calories because I couldn't do this for long without going nuts several years ago. I just ate food that was more filling for the calories- to me that's protein and veggies. Its a lot like paleo but I hesitate to call it that because people get the wrong idea. The idea is you want to eat food that is filling for the least amount of calories for the bulk of your diet. That is how it works- it fills you up on fewer calories. You don't have to cut out stuff like oatmeal that is filling for fewer calories if you like it and it agrees with you. I just cut out anything that made me want to eat more or is easy to overeat like potato chips or even cheese and nut butters. I would have denser stuff from time to time but I would treat them like treats. Basically, I ate meat and veggies, and anything that wasn't meat and veggies was a treat and I would have a small portion no more than once a day.

After losing the weight, maintaining was a lot easier. I just ate what I wanted (except for some food issues I discovered) but stopped when I was satisfied but BEFORE I was full. Like 10-15 minutes later you will feel full. Stuff like candy is still a treat though- and I count sodas and potato chips/ fries as treats.

I find this way easier than counting calories in general but calorie counting allows for more treats because you know how many calories you ate so you can have two smaller treats, for instance, when before I would have had one and said that was my treat for the day. There are pluses and minuses.

Iwishyouwell

Thanks for asking guys. I just went ahead and made a thread on what I do to lose weight, since a few people have asked me this:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1355194-losing-weight-without-counting-calories