Obsession with counting

MrXeno

As I have been trying to get into maintenance, I have noticed I am obsessed with counting now. And it bugs me.
First you should know that I have never been overweight. I weighted 51 kilos at 153cm (I know, as a male I'm extremely short). All I wanted was lose a few kilos to look lean, and then start bulking. Before I started to count calories food was not on my mind a lot. I ate when I wanted and could indulge into goodies without much guilt. Somehow, my body knew when enough was enough and I did not gain weight. A few drinks here, some sweets, a few cookies there. All was well.

Boy, that feels like such a long time ago while it has only been since May this year. I started counting calories to lose a few kilos and now I can't stop. I don't really care if I would gain a bit of weight again, but it feels like I can't trust myself anymore. The old, I know how much I need, self seems to be gone. I'm now afraid that if I stop counting, I'll eat everything in sight and start packing on pounds, and then some. I'm busy with food a lot, and have to pace myself or I'll be at 2000 calories before noon already. It seems like I'm never satiated anymore either, even when I do indulge in some snack foods. I always want more. I never used to have that.

Does anyone relate? If I had known I would become so obsessed with food, I would have never done this. I want my good old careless self back. But how do I go about doing that? Is it possible that my satiation 'button' is broken? Or that I can't use my body to cue hunger anymore? Intuitive eating just makes me feel like I would eat everything I could get my hands on right now.

StaciMarie1974

Challenge yourself to estimate portions for a week. Still log, but 'make' yourself back off by not using a scale. Or do the opposite. Keep a mental tally but don't allow yourself to actually log. Just something to take a step back if you're having an issue with the obsessiveness.

Jreeves9210

Agreed with the above. Once I (eventually) hit maintenance mode, I'm planning on trying to eat decent, but estimating and just maybe track weight weekly and maybe adjust as needed. Maintenance, the implication of the word, means that there's still work involved, but because you're starting in a more ideal location, the effort is less than if you were at one extreme or another.

girltheobscure

I know the calorie content in almost anything and I won't eat food that I don't know the calories for. I am always hungry but I love the way it feels. I understand about the calories - I don't think I could stop either.

If you really want to eat though, and not care... eat mass amounts of veggies because theyre so lo cal you don't need to count

wamydia

Another aspect of this is that restricting calories for a while can have an impact on the hormones that control hunger signaling. As you start to raise calories back to maintenance levels, it is not uncommon to actually become even hungrier for a little while. It's possible that could be part of the reason that you are afraid of losing control of yourself. It could be that you just need to find a comfortable spot in maintenance calories and continue to count for a little bit. Give it a few weeks to work through the initial hunger and let the hormones settle and you may find that you aren't as hungry any more and the ability to self-regulate is returning. Hopefully that will make it easier to slowly back away from obsessive counting.

StaciMarie1974

I also am not easily tempted by things without calorie/nutritional information provided. If its something I can reasonably estimate, I don't mind. Such as bought some pre-made deli wraps that were cut into small sections. Ingredients were wraps, roast beef, cheddar cheese. Took weight of total package, rounded up. Based on portions of what I could see assumed 40% was wrap, 40% was roast beef and 20% was cheese. I did consider taking one apart and weighing all bits but thought that was too excessive.