MFP and a new-found respect for calories

MaverickUK2K

I'm curious as to whether anyone else here now has a new-found respect for calories since joining MyFitnesspal? It has been somewhat of a revelation for me.

I never used to give calories the respect they deserved in the past, hence why I'm en-route to a healthier lifestyle that I'm now certain will be achieved. For example when I now pick up a "healthy" chicken pasta, then see an outrageous punt of calories, say 700, I think to myself "heh, hardly surprising how I ended up in this situation".

Thinking that a 500 calorie over-eat a day leads to 1lb weight gain a week is insane.

You need to respect calories before you'll ever respect yourself and your lifestyle choices.

phoenixgirl81

I completely agree. In the past, if I had eaten a 2000 kj (500 cal) chocolate bar, I would think to myself: "It's ok, because i need the energy" or "it's ok, because I'm about to walk 5 mins to my next job so I'll burn it off", without giving any thought to the fact that I had no idea how much energy I actually burned off in the activity (or lack of activity in my case) I was used to.

MFP has really given me the opportunity to take control of what I put into my body by giving me the tools, knowledge and strategies to inform myself better.