Can counting your calories be bad for you?

aylajane

One idea I used for awhile - get a bunch of thin rubber type or metal bracelets... If your daily calorie goal is, say 1600, get 16 of them. Put them all on your left arm. Whenever you eat during the day, "guess" how many calories you think you ate, as a multiple of 100, always rounding up if you know it is under a 100 mark. Then move the appropriate bands to your right arm. At the end of the day, you should have all the bands on the other arm. Since you are just basically rounding up most of the time, the times you are "off" and underestimated tend to balance out. No pesky numbers to deal with - just a quick guess - "is this snack 100 or 200 calories? Is this dinner 500 or 600?" look it up but dont stress over it - just overestimate when in doubt.

It similar to WW points, but more visual and easier to keep up during the day. No one looking at you weighing your food or anything, but you can still keep an eye on total calorie count and keep up with your goal until you figure out what else might work for you.

klaff411

I can't offer any advice. I've lost 106 lbs in 310 days here on MFP, logging every single day. I just find it's not that difficult of a thing to and it certainly hasn't been "bad" for me.

There's also a great phone app.

rosebette

I think for some people counting calories can trigger some OCD or even ED. I notice from your ticker that you want to get to around 110 lb. and that you weigh in the 140s? How tall are you? How much weight do you really need to lose? Could making minor more intuitive changes to your diet help you more than calorie counting? I know people who have lost weight just by cutting out soda or reducing portions slightly. I use MFP myself, but one major change I made was the amount of carbs I ate for breakfast. I used to eat toast and cereal; now it's cereal with fruit, or eating 1/2 cup of rice instead of a whole one with my dinner, or if I have corn on the cob and rice or potatoes at a meal, eating only one starch.

My daughter, who is around 5'10" and in the 170 range got down to around 150 following a program called the "I" diet at her workplace, which is about instinctive eating. It gives a meal plan with 3 meals and 2 healthy snacks. The foods are nutrient dense but lower calorie and incorporate "Treats" such as melting a small piece of dark chocolate into yogurt for a"sundae." She got the book for free, but she just follows the plans. Also, the nutritionist on staff said that if you are young, following a plan 5 days out of 7 will get good results (Those older folks like me aren't so lucky and have to stay on plan most of the time.)

You have to be able to relax and enjoy life now and then. You are young and if you are not excessively overweight, you should be spending your energies in more productive ways rather than obsessively counting if it's taking all the joy out of your life.

mysweetjenna

I understand where you are coming from completely. Kinda like trading one end of the food obsession for the other? I don't use a food scale. Why? Because is damn weird, that's why. What normal person measures out every morsel of food before they put it in their mouth? Really?

I'm a smart girl. I know what healthy eating habits look like. I know I need to get off of my butt. I'll bet you know too. I wish you the best as you take back control.

Jetta_C

I think you need to figure out why counting calories feels like a "punishment" to you. Because, whether you count them or not, the calories are there.

Are there people who maintain their weight and have no idea how many calories are in a large banana or whether their steak is 5 ounces or 7? Sure there are. But they use internal cues like "I am getting full--I will stop eating now." Most people are on this site because they have somehow become disconnected with that internal voice.

If you don't count calories, you need to ask yourself "How will I know when I've had my decided-upon limit of food for the day?" If you can come up with a plan for that which will work, then more power to you.

funchords

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 do get what you're saying.

You are experiencing anxiety. You're thinking that you must get this exactly right or it will fail. That by worrying over every last entry, you're causing the weight loss. And, classic anxiety, you're also worrying about worrying. You're worried that by worrying so much, you're going to drive yourself to failure.

Of course, you're not.

What if you asked your mother-in-law to keep your plate under 700 calories and you just logged it as 700 calories? (To do this: Quick Tools, Quick Add Calories.) Instead of visualizing it as a black hole in your food log, visualize it instead as a rare gift of letting go and allowing someone else competently watch your back for one blissful and worry-free meal.

Now, what if she was off by 700 calories? She would have to be off by five times that to affect your weight by a single pound (3500 calories is a pound). So tell yourself: not only will I be alright, I'm going to enjoy this special occasion.

Do some reading on anxiety and see if the description fits you and the tips help you.

baleighcakes

I think for some people counting calories can trigger some OCD or even ED. I notice from your ticker that you want to get to around 110 lb. and that you weigh in the 140s? How tall are you? How much weight do you really need to lose? Could making minor more intuitive changes to your diet help you more than calorie counting? I know people who have lost weight just by cutting out soda or reducing portions slightly. I use MFP myself, but one major change I made was the amount of carbs I ate for breakfast. I used to eat toast and cereal; now it's cereal with fruit, or eating 1/2 cup of rice instead of a whole one with my dinner, or if I have corn on the cob and rice or potatoes at a meal, eating only one starch.

My daughter, who is around 5'10" and in the 170 range got down to around 150 following a program called the "I" diet at her workplace, which is about instinctive eating. It gives a meal plan with 3 meals and 2 healthy snacks. The foods are nutrient dense but lower calorie and incorporate "Treats" such as melting a small piece of dark chocolate into yogurt for a"sundae." She got the book for free, but she just follows the plans. Also, the nutritionist on staff said that if you are young, following a plan 5 days out of 7 will get good results (Those older folks like me aren't so lucky and have to stay on plan most of the time.)

You have to be able to relax and enjoy life now and then. You are young and if you are not excessively overweight, you should be spending your energies in more productive ways rather than obsessively counting if it's taking all the joy out of your life.

Thanks for the response, I'm looking into the program your daughter did now. I'm 5'1" and at my heaviest I was very close to 170 lbs. My lowest was 95 lbs, but that was when I was a tiny high schooler who couldn't put on weight no matter what. I have a small frame and I feel like 110 give or take a few would be a healthy point. I ballooned pretty fast and I think it was just a combination of getting older while still eating like a teen, developing new hormone problems (PCOS), and getting on antidepressants. I've been playing with medicine and seeing my doctor at least once a month to keep me on track.

rosebette

I think for some people counting calories can trigger some OCD or even ED. I notice from your ticker that you want to get to around 110 lb. and that you weigh in the 140s? How tall are you? How much weight do you really need to lose? Could making minor more intuitive changes to your diet help you more than calorie counting? I know people who have lost weight just by cutting out soda or reducing portions slightly. I use MFP myself, but one major change I made was the amount of carbs I ate for breakfast. I used to eat toast and cereal; now it's cereal with fruit, or eating 1/2 cup of rice instead of a whole one with my dinner, or if I have corn on the cob and rice or potatoes at a meal, eating only one starch.

My daughter, who is around 5'10" and in the 170 range got down to around 150 following a program called the "I" diet at her workplace, which is about instinctive eating. It gives a meal plan with 3 meals and 2 healthy snacks. The foods are nutrient dense but lower calorie and incorporate "Treats" such as melting a small piece of dark chocolate into yogurt for a"sundae." She got the book for free, but she just follows the plans. Also, the nutritionist on staff said that if you are young, following a plan 5 days out of 7 will get good results (Those older folks like me aren't so lucky and have to stay on plan most of the time.)

You have to be able to relax and enjoy life now and then. You are young and if you are not excessively overweight, you should be spending your energies in more productive ways rather than obsessively counting if it's taking all the joy out of your life.

Thanks for the response, I'm looking into the program your daughter did now. I'm 5'1" and at my heaviest I was very close to 170 lbs. My lowest was 95 lbs, but that was when I was a tiny high schooler who couldn't put on weight no matter what. I have a small frame and I feel like 110 give or take a few would be a healthy point. I ballooned pretty fast and I think it was just a combination of getting older while still eating like a teen, developing new hormone problems (PCOS), and getting on antidepressants. I've been playing with medicine and seeing my doctor at least once a month to keep me on track.

I think there are a few threads on this site for PCOS and for specific eating programs people follow for it. You might want to do a search on it. Yes, 110-120 would be a good weight at your height. I'm around 120 myself at 5'1.5".

caracrawford1

If you find that counting calories is anxiety producing for you, then you will have to find alternative ways to monitor your portions. For some people, esp those who have suffered from an ED, counting cals and weighing food can be triggering. There are websites which describe how to eyeball portions--ie: an oz of cheese is the size of 4 dice, a serving of meat the size of a deck of cards, etc. So you could try that sort of thing, being aware that you will want to leave a little margin for error.

lemurcat12

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.

You definitely can. I'm not even all that great at listening to my body, and I lost about 60 lbs doing this and kept it off for years. (Obviously I regained, but that wasn't related to the loss strategy.) Oddly, enough, I find calorie counting more flexible (although I eat almost exactly the same--I did this for a while before counting this time and naturally started eating the same way and counted for a while before weighing), and in particular I don't worry overmuch if it's not possible to estimate perfectly (I go out to dinner at least once a week and know those are horribly inaccurate, and I don't go anywhere with calorie information either). My initial instinct is to tell you that it's that need to be obsessive and have to know that is the problem, not counting, but people are different and if it triggers something it may well be bad for you.

Anyway, how I did it was just having a basic idea of what I ate for my meals and then basically staying within those patterns. Not restrictive ones, but like having a few different breakfasts that were about the right size and macro mix, a few different lunches, same (or just bringing leftover dinner or going out to somewhere I was familiar with), and then having a dinner that was basically a serving size of meat, a smallish serving size of starchy carbs, and lots of vegetables. I also had one night a week which could be something more indulgent, though I still watched portions carefully, and if plans were disrupted I again would handle it by focusing on (a) portion size, and (b) trying to eat a lot of veggies if possible and, after that, going for fruit. Now I'd probably modify it mainly by being more focused on protein.

Not saying this is the way to do it, but that once you have a sense of what you are eating and how much measuring is less necessary. Even now, though I enjoy keeping really detailed records (it makes it more entertaining to eat healthy for me and allows me to feel comfortable eating more indulgent foods at times, since I know they fit), I am reasonably sure I could estimate my calories for the day really closely without counting, and if you just told me to stay around 1600, I'd probably eat a bit low (again, why it works better for me to count right now), but be able to be in the ballpark consistently.

baleighcakes

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I'm looking into everything that has been suggested here. I'm also considering going to a nutritionist to see if that will help.