Counting Calories

Yeah I find it very tedious. I have learned not to run to the computer every time I eat something, but rather make a list and enter either all at night before bed or once in the afternoon and then finish before bed. Also, if you have an Iphone, you can download the app and just scan the food items. When I had one I was loving that!

It seems annoying but once you start you wont want to stop. You will feel out of control not knowing what's going into your body.

Counting seems like such a "bleh" task, and it's not something that I want to spend my life doing.

You don't have to. There are other strategies for losing weight.

Personally I like doing it as it makes you realise just how easy it is to over eat. Only takes a few minutes of my day to update my diary.

Yeah Having the app on your phone makes it so much easier to just scan items and keep on top of it. It also makes it stand how just how many calories are packed in some items( 7 small gummi bears is about 150 empty calories!)

I never thought I'd be a calorie counter, but in the end, the results spoke for themselves. I've lost about 40 lbs since joining MFP and it's the easiest weight I've ever lost. That is motivation enough to keep logging and counting. Being able to access your recent foods and most commonly used foods helps a lot, as do the recipe and "my meals" functions, for meals you have the same way on a regular basis. I don't have the app, but I'm sure being able to scan barcodes would really make it easier too.

As tedious as it is though, it works, and you might just have to decide if it's worth it or not. Plenty of people lose weight without calorie counting, so if you can do that, then do. If you've struggled with other ways, this might be a small sacrifice to make to achieving your goals.

I got the app on my android. Makes it easier if I try to cheat 'cause it has a bar code scanner

I find it bizarre to be converting something as multi-sensory as food into numbers and lists. It doesn't come naturally to me at all, and to be honest, I don't pay a lot of attention to the numbers - I pay more attention to my body, listening to my body and working out what it wants. If that means I go under or over my calorie limit, so be it. Healthy eating long precedes the modern convention of calorie counting!

I do log my food here, because it's interesting to have a record of what I've eaten, but I doubt I'll do it forever, because it seems so completely alien from the act of eating. However, I do also take photos of every meal I eat and post them in a Tumblr blog, and that is something I can see myself continuing to do - it captures the sensory aspect of food in a way that numbers and charts don't. I look at the MFP food chart, and it seems completely detached from the experience of eating - whereas I look at the photo of my meal and I relate it straight away to the experience of eating.

And apparently taking photos of one's meals is a more effective weightloss technique than counting calories - at least according to Tim Ferriss's The 4-Hour Body. The act of taking a photo makes you more mindful about what you eat.

If you are trying to get healthy I think it is necessary for awhile. I makes you see it numbers what you are really eating. I know it has helped me to lose 65 lbs. Before I thought I thought I was eating correctly and couldn't figure out why I couldn't drop the excess weight. You have to be honest with yourself though.

Once you figure out a pattern, it takes no time at all to enter food in. I probably spend less than 60 seconds a day actually logging anything. I'll give you a few tips:

* When you hit "Add Food" in your diary and the list and search bar come up, click the dropdown at the end of "Or, add your favorites for:" and select "All Meals." Then if you eat the same thing during different meals in a day, it will always show up toward the top.

* If you're making a sandwich or salad or something you throw together in a pretty similar way most of the time, select "Remember Meals" under "Quick Tools." That will allow you to quickly add the entire thing but still tweak ingredients (change ham to turkey one day, or change the type of salad dressing, for example). If it's something made identically every time or made in a big batch rather than one serving, input it as a recipe instead.

* There's nothing wrong with eating the same or similar things every day. The more consistent you are with what you eat, the less you have to think about it.