Frustration with counting calories

stefosaurusrawrrrr
stefosaurusrawrrrr Posts: 44
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anybody find that counting calories is incredibly frustrating? I absolutely hate it, but my previous attempts to be healthy by eating intuitively and exercising however amount have always ended up in weight gain, or at least in me feeling really unhealthy.

I don't want to count calories for the rest of my life because it's not normal (additionally, I am recovered from an eating disorder, so it's kind of like a disordered behavior, even if I'm not doing it to restrict) and I find it just a pain. There's this constant pressure to stay under my allocated calories for the day, which can be REALLY annoying.

But I can't bring myself to delete my MFP because it really does help me maintain a healthy balance of exercise and eating.

Advice?

Replies

  • RosscoBoscko
    RosscoBoscko Posts: 632 Member
    Use it as a guide but don't log religiously, or just use app to check calories in some things without actually logging anything?
  • ParanSkies
    ParanSkies Posts: 59
    EDIT: Double Post
  • ParanSkies
    ParanSkies Posts: 59
    I was super frustrated with it at first as well, but it's a breeze for me these days. After I cut out a few bad food choices, pretty much everything I eat is in the database and it makes it really easy for me to keep track of what I eat. I have heard someone else say on the message boards that if a certain food isn't in the database, it's probably unhealthy. It's not necessarily true, but it is something to think about. I find that it helps to plan out what you're going to eat the night before so you don't have to worry about going over. You can give yourself some leeway and have a treat if you have any calories left over at the end of the day.

    I know I sound OCD (if I heard someone else doing this a few months ago, I would think they were crazy) but something just sort of "clicked" I guess and it's really not very hard for me anymore. In any case, I hope you are able to figure something out! :)
  • mich000
    mich000 Posts: 34 Member
    Hi.
    Well, I have used in the past the calorie counter, (now too, again) and I must say that the counter learns you a lot of information about the food you eat.

    There are lots of things about food we don't know, and what we are wrong.

    I used the calorie counter for a few mounths and then my way of eating improved.
    I haven't been using the counter for a year, and I have maintained my weight. Now I want to loss the last kg/lbs and I'm using it again.

    All the days I have the same breakfast, so, I have it in favourites meals and don't need to key it in.
    Lots of products have its bar-code uploaded to the data base, so only must read it with the app.

    Soon, you will have in "recent" virtually all your regular food.

    Its easy, sure!
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
    You only have 6 lbs to lose so don't worry about having to log if it's bothering you at all. Just eat good amounts of healthy foods and get a little exercise. That's how we are supposed to be and that's what I'm doing now too.

    Edited to say don't delete MFP, we need to check on things and learn more too. Just maybe check your calories once a fortnight?
  • stefosaurusrawrrrr
    stefosaurusrawrrrr Posts: 44
    I have tried using MFP for a week and only checking calories a few times, etc, but I find that it is really hard for me to eat "intuitively" because I've spend so long cycling through an eating disorder that I don't really know what "normal" is like for me. And even using MFP to figure it out, it's never that easy in practice because my disorder can be really ~eat all the food and then get rid of it!~ whereas with MFP I'm on track because I can see what I've eaten and how much more I've got to eat.

    Thanks for the advice, I'm definitely going to take it all into account :] eating "healthily" seems so..I don't know, I have never really eaten healthily and nobody in my family has "normal" eating habits. So I guess it's just that I WANT to be able to just have a healthy relationship with food (ie. don't count all the calories!) but I don't have anything to base/model it on.
  • cuterbee
    cuterbee Posts: 545
    Hi.
    Well, I have used in the past the calorie counter, (now too, again) and I must say that the counter learns you a lot of information about the food you eat.

    There are lots of things about food we don't know, and what we are wrong.

    I used the calorie counter for a few mounths and then my way of eating improved.
    I haven't been using the counter for a year, and I have maintained my weight. Now I want to loss the last kg/lbs and I'm using it again.

    All the days I have the same breakfast, so, I have it in favourites meals and don't need to key it in.
    Lots of products have its bar-code uploaded to the data base, so only must read it with the app.

    Soon, you will have in "recent" virtually all your regular food.

    Its easy, sure!

    ^^^ This. OMG I was surprised to see what the calorie counts are for some foods. Who would have thought that tiny little kumquats (for example) have so many more calories than strawberries?
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
    If you can't eat a "normal" amount of food without logging then you could maybe try doing one month of logging then copy this months food into the following month and don't have to do any actual seaching out how many calories things have each month. Less hassle at least and it'll keep you on track.
  • ayamagali
    ayamagali Posts: 167 Member
    I totally feel your pain! I quit counting for a long while and thought I was doing pretty good and healthy, but I'd log some random days and got a way different picture. So back to logging and worrying about every macro/micro and achieving the correct balance and worrying about worrying. I hope to eventually learn intuition from it, but in the meantime I do worry about my head! But if I make sure my body's healthy maybe my mind will follow, right? Right?? :p
  • wisteri
    wisteri Posts: 14
    I'm going to come right out and say that calories are arbitrary and completely bogus. They bear little relation to what your body is going to do with the food that you eat. Glycemic index is a better indicator, but nothing is going to be as accurate as really thinking about how you feel. It is useful, however as a rough comparative tool for figuring out how foods compare to one another, or a a quick and dirty way to simply limit the amount of food you are eating overall, but the are an extremely soft science. The idea of a calorie is based on how much energy is produced when it is burned, but you don't have a bunson burner in your stomach. What your body does with food is far more complex, so if counting calories bugs you, don't do it. Find some other way to control and modify your eating habits.

    Without knowning the specific trigger for your disorder, I can only suggest that you stick with logging, but in a way that doesn't include your trigger. If its really about the numbers, dont log your food, just make a food note about what you ate. Logging food has a couple of purposes: accountability for everything you are eating, learning about portion control, and learning to distinguish healthier food choices from poor ones. You can get this without the calorie counts, if you are willing to do the work to on your own. I won't lie,calorie counting works. I've lost weight twice by calorie counting, but here I am again because I didn't really learn anything from it.

    For me,my food log is now all about accountability and my food choices. If you were eating what your body needed and only what it needed you wouldn't need to count calories, but learning what that is and how to maintain that kind I lifestyle change requires practice and education.
  • elsinora
    elsinora Posts: 398 Member
    Hi.
    Well, I have used in the past the calorie counter, (now too, again) and I must say that the counter learns you a lot of information about the food you eat.

    There are lots of things about food we don't know, and what we are wrong.

    I used the calorie counter for a few mounths and then my way of eating improved.
    I haven't been using the counter for a year, and I have maintained my weight. Now I want to loss the last kg/lbs and I'm using it again.

    All the days I have the same breakfast, so, I have it in favourites meals and don't need to key it in.
    Lots of products have its bar-code uploaded to the data base, so only must read it with the app.

    Soon, you will have in "recent" virtually all your regular food.

    Its easy, sure!

    ^^^ This. OMG I was surprised to see what the calorie counts are for some foods. Who would have thought that tiny little kumquats (for example) have so many more calories than strawberries?

    ****goes to look up kumquats**** wth?!?
  • AmandaW01
    AmandaW01 Posts: 138
    I think you have to be patient with it, and also learn from it. We can all think we're intuitively eating well, but if we haven't learnt what 'well' is, or we've been taught incorrectly then it won't work! What MFP and other programmes like this do is to help you to learn - if you take on board what you learn you will stay slim and healthy, if you don't you'll gain again - its all quite simple. See this as a tool - log your food, learn what is low calorie or low GI and healthy, and learn where the hidden fats/calories etc are and what contains the goodies our bodies need to work properly. Our generations have been totally cut off from what real food should be and how to eat well - our lives are full of processed, fast foods - low fat blasted across stuff, healthy etc - most of it is a marketing tool! I've read in a lot of places now that the best thing is to eat foods as nature intended - cook lightly, but not processed. Porridge oats in milk with honey and fruit rather than ready brek or processed cereals. A piece of fish grilled with fresh vegetables and some potatoes or rice rather than fish cakes with fries and so on.
  • BurtHuttz
    BurtHuttz Posts: 3,653 Member
    It can be frustrating. What you are doing is a lot more grand than just tracking your intake daily; you're educating yourself about the energy value of foods, and you're developing an intellectual framework to supplement your physiological framework for determining how much to eat, if you're hungry or not, etc.

    I don't know if you're working with a therapist or not with respect to your recovery, but that has a lot of bearing on how you react to the psychological pressure you describe. If you aren't, perhaps you will consider it. I would imagine that, if recovering from an ED, you should try to feel very comfortable with being within a 5 to 10% margin under or over your calorie goal each day. Focus on the educational aspect of these tools and not the weight-loss aspect.
  • brynnsmom
    brynnsmom Posts: 945 Member
    [/quote]

    Your goal isn't to stay UNDER your calorie allotment. Your goal is to be AT your calorie allotment. Advice? Yes. Log for a week, understand how you "FEEL" when you're losing weight then go by feeling. Check in like once a week(log once a week) and see if you're in the ball park with your calories.
    [/quote]

    This is good advice!

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