Can counting your calories be bad for you?

SKME2013

You could look into ADF (alternate day fasting), one day you have to stay under 500 calories and the next you can eat as much as you like. Alternatively, if you are at goal weight, 5:2 or 6:1 can work very well. Same as above but 2 days fasting and 5 days not fasting.
I am much more relaxed about my numbers these days. Last week for example I was away camping and not paying attention to what I ate. This week I catch up by paying very close attention to my food intake. So in a nutshell I alternate between being easy on myself and not counting and then again being rigorous.
Best of luck
Stef.

acpgee

If counting makes you obsessive, try another way of building in a deficit such as 5:2 intermittent fasting. That's where you eat normally (within reason) for 5 days of week and very low (500 calories) for two non consecutive days. It means you only need to count two days of the week, and you will be obsessive those anyways from the physical hunger. There are a couple of 5:2 forum groups and plenty of information online if you google.

It's a good protocol for people who deal with occasional extreme deprivation better than constant low level deprivation. I lost weight successfuly with this, but discovered it wasn't for me long term. I didn't like being preoccupied with food those two days of the week.

baleighcakes

Thanks, everyone! I'll look into the fasting thing some more.

njmark72

Sounds to me like you are looking for any reason under the sun not to change your eating habits. If you don't want to count calories don't. But, the purpose of this site and the way it works (and has worked for me) is based around counting calories. Would you prefer to count points like on weight watchers? Go for it...

Good luck...

Mark

StaciMarie1974

This will be different for each person.

Personally it doesn't bother me. I feel like I'm in full control over my choices, and feel like its perfectly fine to some days choose to eat higher. Maybe its rationalization, but I figure the long run is what's important. Assume an extreme situation where I eat over maintenance in a weekend by 3500 calories. It just offsets the deficit I've run for the prior 2 weeks. Its not a catastrophe.

My official goal these days is a 250 deficit but I typically like to have another 50-150 calories between Fitbit calories burned & what I consume. I figure this makes up for the estimation errors that are bound to happen. And this works for me. I can be OCD about trying to be accurate - but I know it won't always be 100% right. And I'm ok with that.

CoolDad67

The only way I can see where counting calories would be bad for you is if you were counting too high. :laugh:

ldrosophila

research intuitive eating if it's not working for you

geebusuk

I get depressed because I can't eat all the food I want to.
But I'm happier because I'm not particularly fat these days - turns out 'all the food' is actually too much - even when I'm on 3000-4000 calories a day!

However, yes, for some people it may well have an overall negative result.

sullus

I think what I'm trying to get at is: calorie counting is the most accurate thing you can do...but maybe it's not right for everyone? I've been educating myself on weight loss stuff for years now. I sound like a nutritionist when I offer advice to anyone. I know all the logistics. But the psyche behind it is something else entirely.

I know it's potentially problematic for me because my feelings are very close to fear sometimes...my mother-in-law could cook me the healthiest meal in the world, but unless I myself scrutinize every ingredient and break down the recipe into calories - I can't eat it. I can't. Estimating would gnaw at me. I could give a good guess and eat it, but then I'd feel scared/guilty and compensate by eating less calories than planned for the day JUST IN CASE. You know?

I was just wondering if anyone was going through the same thing and how they have maybe conquered it. Can you honestly lose weight by eying portions, eating good foods, and listening to your body? That's what I want to do, but I'm not sure where to start.

Even though psychology is obviously related to this, I'm not necessarily looking for advice strictly in that area. I've already got that degree. I'd appreciate any personal stories.

Would it comfort you to know that the nutrition information on food packaging can have a 10-15% margin of errors.

All you've ever done is estimate. And that's good enough.

cwolfman13

Hey everyone,


I've already posted something like this on another thread, but it got swallowed up. So I thought I would post it as its own topic.

I've been on and off MyFitnessPal for a few years with ups and downs in weight loss success (naturally). I'm really starting to notice how depressed I get when I count calories eaten/burned. When I use MyFitnessPal and Fitbit, I obsess over numbers. I always think about what I'm going to eat, when I'm going to eat it, what I need to do for exercise, and how much exercise I need to do. I can't go to local restaurants and I can't eat my mother-in-law's cooking because there's no available calorie information for me to enter into the app. I'm always doing math and looking up multiple sources of calorie information. I'm glued to my phone all the time. How many calories are in this? How many ounces is that? Is this the right serving size? Can I trust this unofficial source of restaurant calorie info? What's my TDEE? Should I go lower? Should I go higher? So many numbers...I just can't think about anything else. So when I get so overwhelmed and quit, I of course get depressed again because I quit and I haven't lost any weight. Then the emotional eating begins again.

I know this has to do with a lot of different things, but I just can't do this anymore. Is strict calorie counting absolutely necessary? I feel like it is. But it ruins me. There's got to be a better way for people with this way of thinking. And I know that "changing your attitude" is super necessary, but that's way easier said than done and it's different for everyone.

Help?

After awhile I pretty much had a good general idea of the calories in most things and what a serving size of most things that I eat I simply used this tool to become more aware...it doesn't need to be, nor should it really be an obsession. I found it to be a tremendously useful tool for identifying problem areas in my diet as well as helping me to establish good and healthful habits that result in an outstanding nutritional profile and optimal health markers.

I have taken what I learned over the course of about 9 months of logging into maintenance and have easily maintained my weight for 16 + months without logging. I just make good decisions the vast majority of the time with the understanding that, for example, if I eat some cake it isn't going to negate the 8 servings of vegetables I had during the day. I maintain an optimal nutritional profile and I rock my fitness...I'm most certainly not obsessed, but I am mindful of what I'm eating and what I'm doing. I could easily cut right now without logging by simply eliminating a part of my afternoon snack...I don't need to obsess about every little calorie.

SideSteel

In my opinion, pretty much any method of dieting for weight loss will:

a) Require you to eat in an energy deficit
and
b) Have characteristics that can be seen as pros/cons depending on the person.

And for some people, counting calories just isn't a good fit.

bwogilvie

I know it's potentially problematic for me because my feelings are very close to fear sometimes...my mother-in-law could cook me the healthiest meal in the world, but unless I myself scrutinize every ingredient and break down the recipe into calories - I can't eat it. I can't. Estimating would gnaw at me. I could give a good guess and eat it, but then I'd feel scared/guilty and compensate by eating less calories than planned for the day JUST IN CASE. You know?

That doesn't bother me. What I do when I eat at a friend's house or a restaurant is the following: I do my best to guesstimate calories, based on portion size, whether it's tastes rich, how full I feel afterwards, etc. I also eat slowly and try to avoid taking more food simply because it tastes good (though I'm not too strict - you have to indulge yourself from time to time!).

Here's the thing: I could retroactively figure out how accurate my guesstimates have been by comparing my weight loss with the calories I logged (presuming I'm fairly accurate with food I make myself). If I eat out 5 times in 4 weeks, and my goal is to lose 0.5 lb./week, but I really only lost 1.75 lb. over those 4 weeks, then I have missed about 175 calories in each of those meals (on average). If the average meal out was logged at 800 calories, but was really 975, then I need to increase my guesstimates by about 20%. For this to work, you need to use an exponentially smoothed weighted average for your weight, to filter out daily fluctuations.

However, I really don't do this, because the difference between 1.75 lb. and 2 lb. over 4 weeks, when I'm this close to my goal, isn't worth it. But if my goal were 1.5 lb./week, and I was losing only 0.5 lb./week, it's what I would do: figure out the "fudge factor" for my guesstimated calories, apply it, and go on my merry way.

I'm just a few pounds from maintenance. Once I get there, I'm going to try ditching the calorie counting. But if I find myself slowly gaining again, like I did from 1998 to 2008, I'm going to return to calorie counting before I regain all the weight I have lost.

1peanutandapumpkin

Another thing you could try to see if it works for you is to just log the food itself. No numbers, just food, for a week or so. If the scale moves in either direction you could look at what you've been eating and probably figure out the changes you need. I hate counting calories too. It seems like I think I'm doing well, but not really. For me it's a simple addition of exercise I think to keep things going.

StaciMarie1974

I did something similar last month when I switched from 500/day to 250/day deficit. Had a week of not using the digital food scale. More to prove to myself I could be less OCD about it. The world didn't fall apart.

Another thing you could try to see if it works for you is to just log the food itself. No numbers, just food, for a week or so. If the scale moves in either direction you could look at what you've been eating and probably figure out the changes you need. I hate counting calories too. It seems like I think I'm doing well, but not really. For me it's a simple addition of exercise I think to keep things going.

bidimus

Try turning it into a game. Learn to eyeball calorie counts. Take a guess before you log the food so you can start to put things into perspective. See if you're estimating high or low. I wouldn't be surprised if you could come withing about 100 calories pretty regularly. It sounds like you've been doing this for a while.

Once you feel confident with estimating set a date to go eat in an environment where you won't be able to count the calories and log your estimates instead. I suspect they'll be close enough that your scale won't notice the discrepancy.

If you're logging regularly it's ok to occasionally estimate for a meal if needed. It's more important to live life. After all, isn't that why we're all doing this? Each in our own way?

Iwishyouwell

Hey everyone,


I've already posted something like this on another thread, but it got swallowed up. So I thought I would post it as its own topic.

I've been on and off MyFitnessPal for a few years with ups and downs in weight loss success (naturally). I'm really starting to notice how depressed I get when I count calories eaten/burned. When I use MyFitnessPal and Fitbit, I obsess over numbers. I always think about what I'm going to eat, when I'm going to eat it, what I need to do for exercise, and how much exercise I need to do. I can't go to local restaurants and I can't eat my mother-in-law's cooking because there's no available calorie information for me to enter into the app. I'm always doing math and looking up multiple sources of calorie information. I'm glued to my phone all the time. How many calories are in this? How many ounces is that? Is this the right serving size? Can I trust this unofficial source of restaurant calorie info? What's my TDEE? Should I go lower? Should I go higher? So many numbers...I just can't think about anything else. So when I get so overwhelmed and quit, I of course get depressed again because I quit and I haven't lost any weight. Then the emotional eating begins again.

I know this has to do with a lot of different things, but I just can't do this anymore. Is strict calorie counting absolutely necessary? I feel like it is. But it ruins me. There's got to be a better way for people with this way of thinking. And I know that "changing your attitude" is super necessary, but that's way easier said than done and it's different for everyone.

Help?

Yep, this is exactly why I don't calorie count. Can't stand having this kind of relationship with food. That's why I gave up calorie counting ages ago.

Keep in mind that human beings have been losing weight without knowing what a calorie is for the vast majority of our existence.

There are other ways to find a deficit. Have you looked into intermittent fasting? Intuitive eating? Taking a more natural, whole food approach to the majority of your diet works for some. Low carbing works for others. Vegan? Paleo?

Just throwing out some options that others have used to lose without counting. I personally use a combo of IFing and intuitive eating to lose.

SunofaBeach14

Hey everyone,


I've already posted something like this on another thread, but it got swallowed up. So I thought I would post it as its own topic.

I've been on and off MyFitnessPal for a few years with ups and downs in weight loss success (naturally). I'm really starting to notice how depressed I get when I count calories eaten/burned. When I use MyFitnessPal and Fitbit, I obsess over numbers. I always think about what I'm going to eat, when I'm going to eat it, what I need to do for exercise, and how much exercise I need to do. I can't go to local restaurants and I can't eat my mother-in-law's cooking because there's no available calorie information for me to enter into the app. I'm always doing math and looking up multiple sources of calorie information. I'm glued to my phone all the time. How many calories are in this? How many ounces is that? Is this the right serving size? Can I trust this unofficial source of restaurant calorie info? What's my TDEE? Should I go lower? Should I go higher? So many numbers...I just can't think about anything else. So when I get so overwhelmed and quit, I of course get depressed again because I quit and I haven't lost any weight. Then the emotional eating begins again.

I know this has to do with a lot of different things, but I just can't do this anymore. Is strict calorie counting absolutely necessary? I feel like it is. But it ruins me. There's got to be a better way for people with this way of thinking. And I know that "changing your attitude" is super necessary, but that's way easier said than done and it's different for everyone.

Help?

On the one hand, it can trigger people with ED. On the other hand, it allows you a certain precision that means you don't need to worry about an overly restrictive diet, and if you follow it for a year or so you may find it becomes very easy and that you intuitively eat differently than you do now. That said, it's not for everyone and you can create a calorie deficit in other ways. They are just generally more restrictive in terms of your diet and less precise in terms of consumption. This is one of those areas where I'd say find something that works for you.

baleighcakes

Sounds to me like you are looking for any reason under the sun not to change your eating habits. If you don't want to count calories don't. But, the purpose of this site and the way it works (and has worked for me) is based around counting calories. Would you prefer to count points like on weight watchers? Go for it...

Good luck...

Mark

I understand that counting calories is the purpose of this site. I've just been reading about the dangers of it (in certain people) and I'm starting to realize that I just might be on that road to disordered eating. I'm glad it works for many people, but I'm really starting to think it's not for everyone.

baleighcakes

Thank you to all of you who have mentioned intuitive eating. That's where I want to be, I think. I really want to stop obsessing over the numbers but I'm super worried about gaining. I know doing the opposite of strict calorie counting and eating whatever whenever is the worst, especially with emotional eating. However, I also don't want to make myself explode by counting calories if that's not a good road for me. For me, I'm in this thing where it's like: either personally self-destruct over obsessing about numbers and have a bad relationship with food in terms of mental health OR not worry about it and have a bad relationship with food in terms of physical health.

I understand that people here will probably take offense to what I'm saying, but I really don't mean for that to happen. I'm so glad counting calories has worked so well for so many people. I admire you guys a lot. I just don't want to be someone who sacrifices mental well-being over it because that's the kind of person I am. Does that make sense? Some can do this totally fine and have a great life. While others (like me, I'm starting to think) can do this and absolutely hate life and maybe end up developing disordered eating or worse.

Call me a quitter or tell me I'm just making up excuses, that's fine. But I think we should all do what's best for us personally. I'll definitely look into intuitive eating more. I'm just scared, which is a problem, and that's why I posted this topic in the first place. I miss living life.