Losing Weight Without Counting Calories

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  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
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    I used to eat a gallon of ice cream a week just to try to keep from losing weight back when I played sports.

    What's funny though is that a "gallon" of ice cream is roughly 7-8 cups, depending on the manufacturer. Now lets say you polished that off in one or two days. That sounds like a ton of ice cream to most people.

    Yet I see lots of IIFYM/everything in moderation eaters around here who have a cup of ice cream every night. They're eating about a standard gallon of ice cream per week, but it seems far more "healthy" because they're eating it across seven days.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
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    This thread starts depressing me since page 3...

    I don't know how much I have suffered pointlessly since I started trying to lose weight...I stopped eating all this stuff but still no weight loss. Life isn't fair.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    I don't mean to belittle your frustration but I think most of us look at your avatar pics and think you got a pretty fair shake in the genetics department. It's troubling that you are so thin and are tearing your hair out over your perceived fatness. :ohwell: But I also know how you feel. I'm 10 lbs. above healthy BMI now and I occasionally also feel like 'it's not fair' because I don't get to indulge in much these days, except in small portions and/or very infrequently. I try to remind myself I'm healthy and happy and mostly human-shaped and am in a good place physically, despite some bulges. You will very likely see that about yourself someday.
  • LumberJacck
    LumberJacck Posts: 559 Member
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    I have a serious question about this topic. Why do you use MFP if this is your chosen method of weight loss and/or maintenance? I was under the impression that MFP is a self-described calorie tracking app.


    This.

    It's great you lost a bunch of weight and all, but why are you here, on a site that is specifically meant to assist in counting calories...if you don't like counting calories? :huh:

    MFP is the biggest weight loss website there is, that's why I am here. I don't count or exercise.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
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    I don't mean to belittle your frustration but I think most of us look at your avatar pics and think you got a pretty fair shake in the genetics department. It's troubling that you are so thin and are tearing your hair out over your perceived fatness. :ohwell: But I also know how you feel. I'm 10 lbs. above healthy BMI now and I occasionally also feel like 'it's not fair' because I don't get to indulge in much these days, except in small portions and/or very infrequently. I try to remind myself I'm healthy and happy and mostly human-shaped and am in a good place physically, despite some bulges. You will very likely see that about yourself someday.

    thank you. I truely believe you really care hence every time you spend time and write to me with your heart. Maybe someday I will but it's a long process I know. I will keep trying. :flowerforyou:
  • TutuMom41
    TutuMom41 Posts: 278 Member
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    This thread starts depressing me since page 3...

    I don't know how much I have suffered pointlessly since I started trying to lose weight...I stopped eating all this stuff but still no weight loss. Life isn't fair.

    your profile pic seems very thin and fit. You could be having problems because you do not need to loose any weight?
    what is your goal weight?
  • teenie_71
    teenie_71 Posts: 44
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    I have a serious question about this topic. Why do you use MFP if this is your chosen method of weight loss and/or maintenance? I was under the impression that MFP is a self-described calorie tracking app.


    This.

    It's great you lost a bunch of weight and all, but why are you here, on a site that is specifically meant to assist in counting calories...if you don't like counting calories? :huh:

    WHY do people keep saying this??? This is not just a "calorie counting site". I dont count either but i come here for the blogs, the forums, for recipe ideas...and the list goes on.
  • TutuMom41
    TutuMom41 Posts: 278 Member
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    I have a serious question about this topic. Why do you use MFP if this is your chosen method of weight loss and/or maintenance? I was under the impression that MFP is a self-described calorie tracking app.


    This.

    It's great you lost a bunch of weight and all, but why are you here, on a site that is specifically meant to assist in counting calories...if you don't like counting calories? :huh:

    WHY do people keep saying this??? This is not just a "calorie counting site". I dont count either but i come here for the blogs, the forums, for recipe ideas...and the list goes on.

    I have wondered this also. There are people on here trying to gain weight, People like myself who are trying not to loose any more weight and some people who enjoy the site.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
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    I have a serious question about this topic. Why do you use MFP if this is your chosen method of weight loss and/or maintenance? I was under the impression that MFP is a self-described calorie tracking app.


    This.

    It's great you lost a bunch of weight and all, but why are you here, on a site that is specifically meant to assist in counting calories...if you don't like counting calories? :huh:

    WHY do people keep saying this??? This is not just a "calorie counting site". I dont count either but i come here for the blogs, the forums, for recipe ideas...and the list goes on.

    Just some folks being incredibly narrow and myopic. It's pretty common around here the "why are you here if you're not doing it my way/the majority way" mentality.

    Let it give you a chuckle and keep right on moving.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
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    I could go pull the Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate out of the freezer right now and eat four cups of it -- 1280 calories -- without any problem at all and while feeling just fine. Well, physically, anyway. I'd be pretty stuffed if I ate close to a pound of chicken breast to get the same 1280 calories.
    But do you believe that in time with a lot of practice you could learn to choose what your body is lacking and also sometimes eat the ice cream in small portions? I don't think our bodies ask for 4 cups of ice cream. I think our mouths do and we purposely ignore the other 'voices'.


    This has definitely been my experience. I can crave 4 cups, or MORE, of ice cream pretty easily. But I definitely know there's a difference between hunger and that craving. Once you get that distinction it goes a long way toward helping your lose, or maintain, weight without the counting.

    But it does require you to step out quite a bit and trust yourself to abide by those cues the majority of the time.
  • MadriverDell
    MadriverDell Posts: 14 Member
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    I've lost weight in the past without counting calories by doing the following: 3 meals a day, no snacks, no sweets, no seconds (No-S Diet) combined with the MyPlate recommendations (1/2 plate must be veg/fruit/salad, 1/4 plate complex carb, 1/4 plate protein -- no heaping/stacking portions) paying careful attention to food quality, nutritional value, etc. etc.

    I still follow those guidelines but now I keep a running calorie count on MFP since it's so easy. Eating this way I'm satisfied and the weight comes off as long as I keep myself active. I use a Fitbit to keep me on track with that.

    Best thing I ever did for myself was give up snacking. Snacking just stoked my appetite.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
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    This thread starts depressing me since page 3...

    I don't know how much I have suffered pointlessly since I started trying to lose weight...I stopped eating all this stuff but still no weight loss. Life isn't fair.

    your profile pic seems very thin and fit. You could be having problems because you do not need to loose any weight?
    what is your goal weight?

    thank you. believe me I am not fishing for compliment here...but from what I read on this site, there's no such thing "you have nothing to lose". I was constantly told that I am eating too much or I should be losing no matter what weight I am at". Anyway, I think I really need to give it a shot to see what happens.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
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    Best thing I ever did for myself was give up snacking. Snacking just stoked my appetite.

    Yep, I'm not a snacker. Haven't been one in a very, very long time. I naturally gravitate now toward full meals the majority of the time. A good, full meal will keep me satisfied for a long time. I imagine eating more intuitively would become more of a challenge with constant snacking.
  • cardinalsfootball
    cardinalsfootball Posts: 167 Member
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    Why not do both. Follow your diet/fast and also track calories. Problem solved.
  • CoffeeNBooze
    CoffeeNBooze Posts: 966 Member
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    I eat exactly the way you do too! It has definitely been the reason I don't have any binge issues. I hate calorie counting. I did it for awhile to lose the initial 20 lbs but now that I'm at a healthy weight and what I'm losing is for vanity, I would rather focus on changing what kinds of foods I eat. I can't imagine those people that say they are never full and also never hungry... their internal clock is seriously broken. I find eating mostly meat, veggies, fruit, some dairy, and dark chocolate gives me enough nutrition to where I feel completely satisfied and stay in a small deficit. This is just me though... not saying it's right for everyone. Edited to say I don't do IF, though.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I have a serious question about this topic. Why do you use MFP if this is your chosen method of weight loss and/or maintenance? I was under the impression that MFP is a self-described calorie tracking app.


    This.

    It's great you lost a bunch of weight and all, but why are you here, on a site that is specifically meant to assist in counting calories...if you don't like counting calories? :huh:

    WHY do people keep saying this??? This is not just a "calorie counting site". I dont count either but i come here for the blogs, the forums, for recipe ideas...and the list goes on.
    I've never quite understood this too. It's such an unwelcoming comment. I've gotten it a few times.
    MyFITNESSpal is used by many folks, for many things. Not just calorie counting.
  • oxers
    oxers Posts: 259 Member
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    Okay, but my issue with this is that you're touting your method as a better relationship with food. Not getting obsessive over counting is important and can be difficult in people prone to disordered eating, yeah, but IF is no better. I'm recovering from an ED ten years past, and I know DAMN well that keeping myself in deficit by not eating two or three days a week would be a complete nightmare. It's taken years to learn that food is fuel, and my body deserves to be fueled. It's too easy to use hunger as a punishment for a "bad day" or to see hunger as a solution to a problem. It's not really sustainable in the long-term, and if your aim is a healthy relationship with food, IF is just not the way to go.
  • oxers
    oxers Posts: 259 Member
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    Sounds to me like your "issue" is self identifying as being "disordered". Sounds to me like the OP has things in order pretty well.

    If OP has it under control, power to them, but implying that IF results in a healthier relationship with food and health than keeping tabs on your daily intake is kind of a messed up statement that won't work for most people. I'm not saying it's not working for the OP, as I am clearly not the OP and I have no idea, and I'm not saying it can't work for other folks, but I am saying the assertion that it's somehow a healthier, happier relationship IS fallacious at best.
  • XLMACX
    XLMACX Posts: 346 Member
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    So glad you wrote this post I have been thinking the same for a while how I would LOVE not to count calories I know how to eat well I know portion control carb control what's healthy what's not I work out 4Xa week but yet the thought of not counting calories scares me I would love to just listen to my own body hunger as I believe I would eat less then what I do now hitting my calories goal. I REALLy would love to do 5.2 and not count the other 5 days but I just find it very nerve racking as I like to only weigh monthly due to a OCD with diets and one full month is a long time if things are not going right.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
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    newmeadow wrote: »

    I have a few questions about exercise. Do you exercise and if you do, how do you schedule an exercise day? Maybe you exercise on days that you don't fast? Also, if you exercise, would you classify it as strenuous or moderate? Maybe a combination of the two? Perhaps you use the intuitive model for exercise as well. I'd be interested in knowing more about that if you do.

    I remember you! I'm sorry, I stopped posting on MFP for awhile not long after I made this thread and had no idea you'd finally dropped in.

    If you're still around here, to answer your question, I exercise intuitively as well. I work out when I like. I'm an avid speed/race long distance walker and I do calisthenics. The walking is usually between 8-10 miles, very fast, faster than a lot of people are able to maintain, but it's enjoyable and I burn off an incredible amount of calories doing it.

    However when I get closer to goal, which is now lower than I originally planned, I'm planning on shifting my work out to a more structured approach, including adding sprinting and weights (I use to lift), as my body goals shift.

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