I hate counting Calories- any other methods?

Monna2

Hello guys

I have tried counting calories for ages, but I hated it. It makes me constantly think of food.

Have you tried any other methods of losing weight?

JenniDaisy

This is a calorie counting website...

EmmaOnTrack

I'm not sure you'll be inundated with responses on a website dedicated to calorie tracking, but Happy Tuesday anyway.

Monna2

I know that MFP is primarily about counting and keeping track of what you eat.

But I'm posting this here in the success stories forum just in case anyone has made it without taking the trouble of counting calories.

logg1e

But they're unlikely to be a calorie-counting website, aren't they?

Janautical

Well, if you're okay with doing a low carb diet, ketogenic diets mainly focus on the carb limit and not the calories. Eventually, when you can get the 5/30/65 macros for meals down by memory, you don't really track your food intake at all. Still, it requires careful thinking about what you're eating.

dakotababy

I mean, you probably should think about food more often. So often we eat mindlessly out of emotions, habit. The proportion sizes are also insane.

If anything, not thinking about your food choices will likely not help you.

seantoomey

If you haven't already, try sticking to set meal plans. Sure it takes a bit of time to input it all into MFP but its will be worth it for the rest of the week as all you need to do is measure out your food and you're away.

I personally follow a diet called If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM.com). I eat what ever I want as long as I don't under or over eat on my set Carbohydrates, Fat & Protein.

If none of the above makes sense, perhaps look into an online personal trainer who can work out a great plan for you. Don't give up!

Best of luck.

sijomial

Have you tried any other methods of losing weight?

I followed a very restrictive diet plan in the 80's. Lost a load of weight, ended up skinny, weak, unhappy and with a dislike of broccoli and boiled eggs. Regained all the weight lost (and more).

I tried to tip the calorie balance with long duration, high intensity exercise. Got fitter, stronger and stayed the same weight as I ate more to compensate.

Tried to increase daily activity to tip the balance by swapping a train journey to work with a long walk. Worked for a while and then I ate more to compensate.

Tried intuitive eating. Weight rocketed upwards to my highest ever weight.

Calorie counting plus 5:2 way of eating worked for me though. Lost weight slowly and steadily, retained/gained lean mass, got fitter/stronger and now maintaining comfortably.

You could try 5:2 in the way people not on a calorie counting site do it perhaps? i.e. only counting calories on the two fasting days and "eating normally" on the other five days a week. Maybe that would reduce the feeling of daily food obsession?

catcalledjinx

Hello guys

I have tried counting calories for ages, but I hated it. It makes me constantly think of food.

Have you tried any other methods of losing weight?

Well, yes, over the last 20 years I have tried losing weight without counting caloires.......none of them worked. I know lots of people who have tried other systems with varied success however none of them ever kept the weight off longterm and when they put it back they put on even more.

I would say that I have had 2 long term success stories with weight loss and both times I did it by counting all those darned little calories. If I ever hit a 'plateau', it is always because I stopped counting and started guessing.

Good luck

catcalledjinx

Calorie counting plus 5:2 way of eating worked for me though. Lost weight slowly and steadily, retained/gained lean mass, got fitter/stronger and now maintaining comfortably.

You could try 5:2 in the way people not on a calorie counting site do it perhaps? i.e. only counting calories on the two fasting days and "eating normally" on the other five days a week. Maybe that would reduce the feeling of daily food obsession?

And this ^^

beautifulwarrior18

Try weight watchers, but that will probably just make you skinny, not healthy. Unless you do it correctly which weight watchers doesn't necessarily promote as far as I can tell. But MFP is free. WW is not.

Monna2

Thank you guys

AthenaErr

Not sure when mfp became specifically a calorie counting site.
You could try low carbing, 5:2 to get you around daily cal counts. The meal plans thing sounds like a good short cut too. Cal counting is something mfp gives you a nice free easy to use tool to do. But mfp also provides help advice and inspiration as well as a way of logging weight and measurements.
Cal counting is tried and tested but if it doesnt suit you by all means experiment - you may well end up realising cal counting is the only way. Or you could find something else works for you.

AthenaErr

Im low carbing rather well at the moment after spending months just not really managing to log and finding logging counter productive. Not sure how this will turn out long term, Im guessing a slow tack back to logging once Im at a weight I like. But its my fitness pal not my calorie counting pal actually

Cati321

Yes I lose weight without counting every single thing and it's so much easier than all of this. Basically, you need to know for a starting point how much you should eat to lose weight (so use MFP for that), then decide you're going to have 3 meals and 2 snacks a day or whatever, and figure out how you're going to allot calories to them. Then just live and make healthy choices based on a pattern, rather than worrying about minutiae. So then don't log every day, try maybe once a week to see if you're on track. I also hate counting calories, it's such a waste of time and mental energy to be thinking about food like that all the time, I feel you! Good luck!

_Zardoz_

No matter what diet you choose it still comes down to you need to be in a Calorie deficit. The thing is if most of us on this site were able to do that without counting calories we wouldn't have got fat. Even something like weight watchers is just another way of counting calories

mamadon

Counting calories (while using this site) is the only thing that has ever worked for me, and believe me I tried everything else.

k1ttyk1tty

There was this really good diet that I heard about, where you have to eat three pounds of carrots first thing in the morning, then you eat whatever else you want. It didn't really work out for Garfield, but I'm sure you could give it a go.
Seriously, just get over it, calorie counting sucks for the first few weeks but then it's a habit and a good one at that.

Maitria

You could try MyPlate.gov

They have portion guidelines for each meal, and you can get specific amounts for your goals and stats.

I think calorie counting is the best way overall, but the best way for you is one you'll stick to. Good luck!

lisalsd1

One option would be doing a crap ton of cardio and burning a LOT of calories. I did this. I used to aim to burn 500+ cals a day by running. It worked for awhile. If I had been at least estimating calories, I would have lost weight faster.

Another option is coming up with a routine for food. Determine how many calories you need...and eat the same few meal options every single day. I've done this too. Well, just for breakfast. I ate oatmeal every morning for a year and a half. Needless to say, I stopped eating oatmeal for awhile after that.

It took me awhile to lose weight, b/c I wasn't strict with the calories. Now that I have lost the weight...I started strength-training, and that has made a huge difference for me and not having to micromanage my calories.

SideSteel

Yes there are other legitimate methods for losing weight. Calorie counting is great for some people and not great for others.

To be clear, a calorie deficit is non negotiable. Whether or not you choose to count those calories is an entirely different topic.

I have some thoughts on this -- will reply a bit later.

Jacwhite22

Hello guys

I have tried counting calories for ages, but I hated it. It makes me constantly think of food.

Have you tried any other methods of losing weight?

JSF. Good luck

LivingtheLeanDream

My success came from calorie counting - it helped me be aware of portion sizes and knowing how much I was eating.
Now I've been tracking my calories for 2 yrs I currently no longer log and that is working for me, (2 months into not logging and maintaining and even losing at times) I log the odd day to make sure I'm still doing things right, check how much protein/fibre I'm getting etc :-D

If you want to lose weight badly enough you do whatever it takes.

earlnabby

Try weight watchers, but that will probably just make you skinny, not healthy. Unless you do it correctly which weight watchers doesn't necessarily promote as far as I can tell. But MFP is free. WW is not.

Weight Watchers is still a calorie counting program. They just assign points based on the number of calories in food.

To answer the OP's original question: no, there is no effective weight loss program that does not involve counting calories by some means or another.

drosebud

You could try 5:2 in the way people not on a calorie counting site do it perhaps? i.e. only counting calories on the two fasting days and "eating normally" on the other five days a week. Maybe that would reduce the feeling of daily food obsession?

My friend has lost weight this way, over a year. I do a "fast" day every now and again when I feel like it, but primarily calorie count, as it's working well for me.

There is a 5:2 forum on here somewhere, if you do a search.

Rays_Wife

How is this a "Success Story"? Quit cluttering it up with nonsense!!! You dont like calorie counting go somewhere else. Simple

amusedmonkey

A workaround that may help you:
Create meals you like, fit them into a fixed calorie goal, say 400 calories per meal. Do the same for snacks, say a 100 calorie per snack.

From there you can mix and match everyday from these predetermined meals and get the calories right whiteout actually counting them. Drawback is that you would still have to count and create new meals if you happen to eat something you don't usually do. It's not flexible but it may help you keep counting to the minimum.

keefmac

I've lost over a stone by limiting alcohol, eating 3 meals a day and 2 snacks (apples).

I just eat a bit less per portion than before and have a steady weight loss over 3 months.

Snacking and beer were my 2 main problems..

MegE_N

Constantly thinking of food helps me, personally. Once I found my stride, found foods that kept me full, I'd be on this website several times a day just staring at my plan for the day and being proud of how good I'll do if I can just stick to that plan.

Docbanana2002

Sometimes when I need a break from calorie tracking, I simply track meal calories or count portions. Meal tracking for a 1500 calorie diet might involve allowing yourself 400 calories for breakfast, 400 for lunch, 400 for dinner, plus 3 100 calorie snacks. Or whatever pattern you wish to use. Instead of logging or tallying for the whole day, just construct a reasonably nutritious meal that fits the meal guidelines and then eat! No writing down or counting, beyond just tallying that meal before you eat it. If you stay on track per meal, it should all add up correctly. I follow this method on vacation or other situations when my daily schedule is busy and I want to stay reasonably on track without actually tracking. The downside is that you can be way off on protein if you have a tendency to choose all carbs for your 400 calories (or vice versa) or consistently skip a food group like veggies.

I count portions of food groups most days, which helps me control the nutritional balance more. For example I might eat 2 portions of fruit, x number of carbs, x of proteins (figure out your number of servings per day based on your macros and total calorie intake.). A serving equals 100 calories, give or take 20. Non starchy veggies are unlimited, with a minimum of 4 25 calorie servings. I don't binge eat veggies so making them unlimited has never been a problem! It is basically like following a meal plan, but the plan consists of general categories of food instead of specific foods. I keep track of it on a spreadsheet but you could also use a paper tracker, basically deleting/crossing out the category once it is eaten for the day. For example, if I ate a 100ish calorie bowl of cereal with a cup of skim milk and a banana for breakfast, I would cross a serving of dairy, grain, and fruit off my list. I learned this method from Nutrisystem and have lost most of my weight this way. I also use myfitnesspal to track some days too. It is more work to track here and I can get a bit obsessive about getting perfect numbers on all my nutrients. But I do like the richer set of data I get about protein, vitamins, etc. So I am mostly following this "portion count" method for my weight loss but doing detailed tracking on occasion to spot check my plan (esp if I make changes to it) to make sure the number/types of portions are adding up to my desired macros/calories/vitamins in a typical week.