Quick Add Calories - Cheating?

never used it. I think its important to have a clear micro nutrient breakdown.

I used to use it all the time.....because I was not tracking (and did not care about) and of the macros. All I was focused on was my calories. I dropped a lot of weight back then. That was a few years back.

I had gastric bypass surgery 9 weeks ago. So now I am in reverse. I could care less about total calories. I can't get in more than 600 a day anyway....so it doesnt matter. What does matter is my protein, and every number other than the calories.

the defence rests.

Trying to understand why exactly you quoted me on this and what your response meant. Can you please clear that up for me. Curious to know if it is because you agreed with something I said...or because you were using me as some sort of example.

you have learnt that micronutrient balance is of vital importance over just counting calories alone.

Not at all. For ME as a post weight loss surgery patient it IS vitally important. I can no longer absorb a good percentage of what I eat....because my surgery bypassed nearly 2 feet of my intestines. So for me the micronutrients are important...and are the difference between me being healthy, or me being deathly ill in a hospital bed. The micronutrients focus for me has nothing to do with weight loss. With my surgery I will lose weight regardless. I think for the general population of people who still have normal digestive tracts counting calories alone can and does work just fine. I lost 70 pounds last time I was counting calories alone. That diet didnt fail. I failed when I stopped following it.

never used it. I think its important to have a clear micro nutrient breakdown.

I used to use it all the time.....because I was not tracking (and did not care about) and of the macros. All I was focused on was my calories. I dropped a lot of weight back then. That was a few years back.

I had gastric bypass surgery 9 weeks ago. So now I am in reverse. I could care less about total calories. I can't get in more than 600 a day anyway....so it doesnt matter. What does matter is my protein, and every number other than the calories.

the defence rests.

Trying to understand why exactly you quoted me on this and what your response meant. Can you please clear that up for me. Curious to know if it is because you agreed with something I said...or because you were using me as some sort of example.

you have learnt that micronutrient balance is of vital importance over just counting calories alone.

Not at all. For ME as a post weight loss surgery patient it IS vitally important. I can no longer absorb a good percentage of what I eat....because my surgery bypassed nearly 2 feet of my intestines. So for me the micronutrients are important...and are the difference between me being healthy, or me being deathly ill in a hospital bed. The micronutrients focus for me has nothing to do with weight loss. With my surgery I will lose weight regardless. I think for the general population of people who still have normal digestive tracts counting calories alone can and does work just fine. I lost 70 pounds last time I was counting calories alone. That diet didnt fail. I failed when I stopped following it.

you might want to read this again:

you have learnt that micronutrient balance is of vital importance over just counting calories alone.

"So for me the micronutrients are important...and are the difference between me being healthy, or me being deathly ill in a hospital bed."

so once again you have learnt that micronutrient balance is of vital importance over just counting calories alone - or else you would be "deathly ill in a hospital bed"

I guess that would make it pretty important.

the reason people benefit from understanding micronutrient balance, is thats the core of a balanced diet. once you learn about what your body needs in this way it can give you a better understanding of food as you know what it means when you read the back of a packet. there is a lot of nutritionally empty food out there and a lot of stuff that is just flat out bad for you, and understanding the micronutrient side of things really showed me that, and made it easy to cut things like chocolate or potato chips or candy out of my diet completely. if I hadn't gained that understanding, I would have struggled to stay away from those foods forever and probably gone back to my old eating habits eventually out of laziness.

in the end of the day its pretty simple, if you asked any doctor, or any nutritionist, or health professional weather its important to track your micronutrients, they would all say a resounding yes. you can guarantee that. if you asked them if you could just track calories they would probably answer "if you are eating a balanced diet" which again means keeping an eye on your micronutrients. I think you would struggle to find a doctor that would say a balanced diet is not important and infact you are proof of that as for you now, a balanced and carefully managed diet is vitally important to your health and well being, like you said.

in terms of every day life, yep, sure you can add some quick calories for whatever reason, thats not going to hurt. but ignoring it all together you will miss out on some important information and also miss out on learning about a how to have a balanced diet.

because the truth is, you have to eat every day. if you do it wrong it literally will kill you.

No. You still are choosing NOT to read the important part of what I wrote. I HAD GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY. I do NOT have a normal digestive tract anymore. I can not absorb many of my nutrients. What is dangerous for ME, is not the same thing as what is dangerous for a normal person with a normal digestive tract. Sure.....its nice if you have all your ducks in a row and your micronutrients are in order. But for someone who is morbidly obese it is FAR more important to worry about getting the calories down to the point where they can lose weight, regardless of what the micronutrients say. What is important for ME and other weight loss surgery patients are not the same things that are important to the general population.

Not everyone cares to monitor fat or carbs though.

Do you think using Quick Add calories as cheating or is it just convenient? I think it's a way to bypass adding fat and carbs. I don't know why people use these instead of taking 2 minutes to log correctly.

Whoa.....take it easy! Not everyone cares or needs to track fat and carbs as religiously as calories. I think you're assuming a whole lot about people who use QuickAdd (Lazy? Sneaky? I'm neither).

I'm mindful of the carbs & fat but the calories are what's really important to me at this stage. Some foods/portions are not in the database and cannot be easily calculated, just estimated.

So you're one of those near-perfect people who knows the nutritional value of every crumb that passes your lips--great! The rest of us may not be but we're doing just fine!

P.S. It's folks with your mindset which prevent some of us from unlocking our food diaries. Again, not all of us care about perfect "micronutrient balance". We *may* care someday when we're further along on our journeys, but perhaps not now. I'm perfectly satisfied with what I eat and my weight loss and my fitness. I don't need the self-righteous judgmental attitude from a stranger.

I'm going to assume that you're probably not a self-righteous judging person, just someone who doesn't understand where someone else is coming from--and that can be fixed.