FORGET counting calories!
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In summary, I am making 2 points:
1) If you listen to your body and stop eating when you feel full you won't need to count calories because your body knows exactly how many calories it needs to function and your brain will produce leptin when you have eaten enough calories to fuel your body. Thus, unless your hunger hormones are completely screwed up by obesity you won't need to count calories to maintain weight.
In summary, I am making 1 point:
1) If I listen to my body, I would never stop eating. I never get full. How do you think I got overweight in the first place?0 -
Yeah, I could pretty much keep eating beyond what I would be burning off and not feel full yet. I don't think intuition works that well for some of us. You can sometimes not receive the signal to your brain that you're full for a long time, which causes you to over eat, and sometimes feel hungry when you're dehydrated.
If it causes you stress to log the calories though, then what I recommend is that you remain consistent with your eating habits more. That's what my partner does. He eats the same breakfast every day, and has foods he eats often. That way, you will know a rough idea of what those foods are in terms of calories and then you don't need to sit there and log them all in every day, you'll have a fair idea where you're at during your day and know whether or not you should eat more or whatever-it's just a tad more relaxed.0 -
In summary, I am making 2 points:
1) If you listen to your body and stop eating when you feel full you won't need to count calories because your body knows exactly how many calories it needs to function and your brain will produce leptin when you have eaten enough calories to fuel your body. Thus, unless your hunger hormones are completely screwed up by obesity you won't need to count calories to maintain weight.
In summary, I am making 1 point:
1) If I listen to my body, I would never stop eating. I never get full. How do you think I got overweight in the first place?
Exactly!! Great point! :laugh: Why would I need MFP or someone nagging me about eating unprocessed foods for that matter, if I had the innate ability to stop eating when full? That's the problem statement, goddamit, and it's been stated over and over again that you can eat too many calories even with unprocessed foods. And there's absolutely no problem with logging and still being over. That's a part of the process. Develop the logging as a skill. Log everything. Log accurately. Log when you go over, log when you go under. Stare the numbers in the face HEAD ON, and if you need help to determine how to get those numbers down, do a search or make a forum post. THAT is all part of the MFP process. Please don't discourage people who go over despite calorie counting!
And of course logging is not the only way to lose weight. Why is such a statement no matter how many times you hear it even worth a response? Being in a caloric deficit, however, is the only way to lose weight. And those of us who like or can at least tolerate math find tools like MFP to be incredibly helpful. And the damn thing is free!!0 -
The counting and deprivation is NOT doing you any good, I can tell. Quite a few of us had reached that stage after successful weight loss / increased workout....while you are already at a good weight/range, you are spending a LOT of energy (mind and body) to maintain it.
I was/am in the same boat. Here my suggestions - ease up on the cal count. Do it but don't worry about going over unless it is like 1000 cals a day consistently!
50 calories over maintenance a day is a net gain of 5 pounds a year
According to a certain formula, yes. But human bodies adjust. Unless you are 100% sure about exactly how much you are burning (24/7) and exactly how your body is taking in (to the 1 cals), those 50 +/- is really a generic guideline. If someone is stressing out over 50 calories a day (that's like 8/10 of a spartan apple), the stress-induced hormonal change can easily counteract the maths.
Ah, so if I eat 250 extra calories my body will burn them off for me too? Only when it hits the magic 1000 calories over will the weight start to add on. Got it.
Interesting how you read what I wrote. Short answer: no.0 -
No. I've done that before, and it had me about 50 lbs heavier than I am now and insulin resistant and with horrible bloodwork.In summary, I am making 2 points:
1) If you listen to your body and stop eating when you feel full you won't need to count calories because your body knows exactly how many calories it needs to function and your brain will produce leptin when you have eaten enough calories to fuel your body. Thus, unless your hunger hormones are completely screwed up by obesity you won't need to count calories to maintain weight.2) It is much harder if not impossible to overeat enough calories in unprocessed healthy foods to cause weight gain than it is when eating junk foods.
I don't WANT to eat nothing but "unprocessed healthy" foods for the rest of my life. I actually enjoy eating pizza, and ice cream, and cookies, and cake. And I can do so by counting. I find "never eating the things I like ever again as long as I live" to be a pretty radical, miserable, and frankly unimaginative and lazy "solution" to this situation, which requires a lot more effort and unpleasantness than the solution I'm using.
Your argument is just as absurd as saying that seat belts are unnatural, so everyone should just stop driving cars and walk everywhere because that's the only way to get safely from point A to point B. Why? To avoid wearing seat belts. Because it's unnatural. And you, personally, don't like seat belts. So everyone else should stop.
Yeah, no. Some of us actually like food and find counting calories to be WAY more than worth the very small effort that goes into it, and infinitely better than lifelong deprivation.
Erm arguement? I'm not argueing at all. Its great if counting calories works for you and if you want to do that for the rest of your life then great more power to you. No one is telling anyone not to log, or that logging won't work. Do whatever works for you.
I am saying it is not the only way to lose weight like so many people want to think and it doesn't work for everyone. And I never said you have to deprive yourself of all the yummy and rich foods for the rest of your life. If you do stop counting just make sure you don't overeat and have 80% healthy unprocessed foods in your diet - God it's not that hard a concept to grasp is it?. I wish people would read the posts properly before misinterpreting what is being said and putting words into other people's mouths. Sheesh!0 -
not only do I log on MFP I also have an excel table to track weekly calorie and macro averages. I generally like charts and graphs so it is even fun for me.
the "non loggers" can hate all they want but it's worked for me, so go ahead and continue to tell me I'm doing it wrong while you continue to fail LOL
If this post is aimed at me please show me where I told you you were doing it wrong and show me how I am continuing to fail?
Its great that logging has worked for you, but it doesn't work for everybody and for some people it can make them eat more than they used to and binge eat. There is more than one way of losing, gaining or maintaining weight. You want to weigh food and fiddle with excel charts for the rest of your life great. I don't and I fully intend to still enjoy eating out, drinking alcohol and eating treats in moderation without putting weight back on or logging. There are different ways and means of achieving the same result and each works so don't say I am failing because I don't do things the exact same way you do.0 -
No. I've done that before, and it had me about 50 lbs heavier than I am now and insulin resistant and with horrible bloodwork.In summary, I am making 2 points:
1) If you listen to your body and stop eating when you feel full you won't need to count calories because your body knows exactly how many calories it needs to function and your brain will produce leptin when you have eaten enough calories to fuel your body. Thus, unless your hunger hormones are completely screwed up by obesity you won't need to count calories to maintain weight.2) It is much harder if not impossible to overeat enough calories in unprocessed healthy foods to cause weight gain than it is when eating junk foods.
I don't WANT to eat nothing but "unprocessed healthy" foods for the rest of my life. I actually enjoy eating pizza, and ice cream, and cookies, and cake. And I can do so by counting. I find "never eating the things I like ever again as long as I live" to be a pretty radical, miserable, and frankly unimaginative and lazy "solution" to this situation, which requires a lot more effort and unpleasantness than the solution I'm using.
Your argument is just as absurd as saying that seat belts are unnatural, so everyone should just stop driving cars and walk everywhere because that's the only way to get safely from point A to point B. Why? To avoid wearing seat belts. Because it's unnatural. And you, personally, don't like seat belts. So everyone else should stop.
Yeah, no. Some of us actually like food and find counting calories to be WAY more than worth the very small effort that goes into it, and infinitely better than lifelong deprivation.
Erm arguement? I'm not argueing at all. Its great if counting calories works for you and if you want to do that for the rest of your life then great more power to you. No one is telling anyone not to log, or that logging won't work. Do whatever works for you.
I am saying it is not the only way to lose weight like so many people want to think and it doesn't work for everyone. And I never said you have to deprive yourself of all the yummy and rich foods for the rest of your life. If you do stop counting just make sure you don't overeat and have 80% healthy unprocessed foods in your diet - God it's not that hard a concept to grasp is it?. I wish people would read the posts properly before misinterpreting what is being said and putting words into other people's mouths. Sheesh!
how do you know you're eating 80% healthy unprocessed foods if you don't log it
Are you serious? Is it that you don't know the difference between healthy and unhealthy food or is it that you are unable to calculate percentages?0 -
not only do I log on MFP I also have an excel table to track weekly calorie and macro averages. I generally like charts and graphs so it is even fun for me.
the "non loggers" can hate all they want but it's worked for me, so go ahead and continue to tell me I'm doing it wrong while you continue to fail LOL
If this post is aimed at me please show me where I told you you were doing it wrong and show me how I am continuing to fail?
Its great that logging has worked for you, but it doesn't work for everybody and for some people it can make them eat more than they used to and binge eat. There is more than one way of losing, gaining or maintaining weight. You want to weigh food and fiddle with excel charts for the rest of your life great. I don't and I fully intend to still enjoy eating out, drinking alcohol and eating treats in moderation without putting weight back on or logging. There are different ways and means of achieving the same result and each works so don't say I am failing because I don't do things the exact same way you do.
Riiiiight. Look lady, I'm not gonna claim to have read every thread there is, so I don't know if there's a thread out there where you said hey, logging causes me to binge, can somebody help. Surely you can imagine that on a LOGGING site, you're gonna come across as a bit trollish and not being willing to put in the work if you go around claiming that it's too hard and ineffective without any real supporting details. To me that falls under the category of people who claim they can't lose weight but won't open their diaries , or that weight training makes them mannish but won't post pics when requested by the people trying to help them. But hey, honestly I had no idea what your agenda was in this topic. All I saw was someone claiming nobody could eat tons of calories of unprocessed food and actually thought it'd be an interesting conversation, hence why I got sucked in. If the purpose of the site is not for you I sorta wish I would have known that in advance. *shrugs*. :ohwell:0 -
not only do I log on MFP I also have an excel table to track weekly calorie and macro averages. I generally like charts and graphs so it is even fun for me.
the "non loggers" can hate all they want but it's worked for me, so go ahead and continue to tell me I'm doing it wrong while you continue to fail LOL
If this post is aimed at me please show me where I told you you were doing it wrong and show me how I am continuing to fail?
Its great that logging has worked for you, but it doesn't work for everybody and for some people it can make them eat more than they used to and binge eat. There is more than one way of losing, gaining or maintaining weight. You want to weigh food and fiddle with excel charts for the rest of your life great. I don't and I fully intend to still enjoy eating out, drinking alcohol and eating treats in moderation without putting weight back on or logging. There are different ways and means of achieving the same result and each works so don't say I am failing because I don't do things the exact same way you do.
Riiiiight. Look lady, I'm not gonna claim to have read every thread there is, so I don't know if there's a thread out there where you said hey, logging causes me to binge, can somebody help. Surely you can imagine that on a LOGGING site, you're gonna come across as a bit trollish and not being willing to put in the work if you go around claiming that it's too hard and ineffective without any real supporting details. To me that falls under the category of people who claim they can't lose weight but won't open their diaries , or that weight training makes them mannish but won't post pics when requested by the people trying to help them. But hey, honestly I had no idea what your agenda was in this topic. All I saw was someone claiming nobody could eat tons of calories of unprocessed food and actually thought it'd be an interesting conversation, hence why I got sucked in. If the purpose of the site is not for you I sorta wish I would have known that in advance. *shrugs*. :ohwell:
:drinker:0 -
Some salmon and sweet potato for lunch.I think that as long as you are eating the right foods, you don't need to count calories. Humans, like all animals, wont overeat, or undereat, in their natural environments. As long as you are eating the whole natural foods that humans have been eating for thousands of years, your body will count calories naturally. The only reason people need to consciously count is when they eat artificially concentrated foods not found in our natural environment.
Totally this.
Its not normal to have to count calories to lose or maintain weight and you won't put on weight if you eat a healthy balanced diet, excersise and don't overeat. Yes, it certainly does work for people who need to lose weight but many people have an unhealthy relationship with food which leads to overeating in the first place. Avoid using processed foods as a crutch and you won't need to count calories.
there are tons of unprocessed foods that will make you fat if you over eat them. Counting calories and weighing food is an extremely useful tool for many many people who can't control their eating
Fixed that for you.
Also interested in learning what these unprocessed foods you are speaking of are... I would bet it would be very difficult to eat them in the amount needed to gain weight on but happy to be proven wrong.
Peanut butter sandwich for my 2nd lunch
Top sirloin or skirt steak, potatoes, avocado, tomato, asparagus for dinner.
That's not including breakfast and the fact that I would still be starving if that's what I ate in 1 day.
But do you honestly think that diet would make you fat? I would be very suprised especially if you are working out and excersising. You might be eating a lot of calories but unless you kept eating after you were full and stopped all your excersise you will not gain weight. You don't need to count the calories to tell you this.
I work out 1-3 hours a day most days out of the week, yet I’m 100% confident that if my strategy was simply to eat salmon, raw nuts, sweet potato, avocado, tomatoes, fruit, etc. only until my “body tells me to stop”, I would be grossly overweight.0 -
not only do I log on MFP I also have an excel table to track weekly calorie and macro averages. I generally like charts and graphs so it is even fun for me.
the "non loggers" can hate all they want but it's worked for me, so go ahead and continue to tell me I'm doing it wrong while you continue to fail LOL
If this post is aimed at me please show me where I told you you were doing it wrong and show me how I am continuing to fail?
Its great that logging has worked for you, but it doesn't work for everybody and for some people it can make them eat more than they used to and binge eat. There is more than one way of losing, gaining or maintaining weight. You want to weigh food and fiddle with excel charts for the rest of your life great. I don't and I fully intend to still enjoy eating out, drinking alcohol and eating treats in moderation without putting weight back on or logging. There are different ways and means of achieving the same result and each works so don't say I am failing because I don't do things the exact same way you do.
You're in the minority here.
I'll just lay it out this way. Track if you want, don't if you don't.
While it's possibly to be "in tune" with your mental eating cues so you don't over eat, burn fat, all that jazz.... I guarantee someone who accurately tracks calories will be able to achieve more efficient results in a shorter time frame.
I see if your profile that you'd like to compete in a bikini competition. Do you intend to reach stage ready status by just simply ball parking it?
If I wanted to just simply lose weight, yes I could eat small & filling meals with absolutely no flavor content. However, people have different goals and it's not that black in white. Some people want to balance gym performance, prevent muscle loss, gain muscle, all in the most efficient manner. Accurately logging calories is a control. Ball parking, while it can possibly work is simply a shot in the dark.
Kinda like setting a budget and not tracking the cash flows. Who is more likely to pace correctly and do it most efficiently?0 -
If you excluded that salmon, and made the raw nuts an occasional thing, and kept your avocados to 1/day max, you would certainly not be grossly overweight.I work out 1-3 hours a day most days out of the week, yet I’m 100% confident that if my strategy was simply to eat salmon, raw nuts, sweet potato, avocado, tomatoes, fruit, etc. only until my “body tells me to stop”, I would be grossly overweight.0 -
:huh:0
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If calorie counting is stressful then don't do it. It's not mandatory for weight control.0
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