Frustrated, even furious

I have found that with the many cooked-from-scratch foods I eat it is simply not practical to calculate how may calories my portion represents. I don't eat food that comes from labeled packages and for me it would just take way, way to long to figure out exactly how many calories a certain bite has.

I'm sorry, but this is an excuse, purely and simply. I eat a ton of from scratch foods - and so do thousands of people on this site that log daily. Most of what I eat through the week is from scratch. I either enter each ingredient individually or enter it as a recipe so I can use it over and over. It takes me minutes to log my food every day. MINUTES and my log is the single most useful tool I have for my weight loss. You don't log because you don't want to, not because it's too hard or too time consuming. Without a food log, there is absolutely no way to figure out why you might be losing or gaining (and you also didn't gain 2 pounds of fat because you ate sushi - you gained water weight).

Sorry for being so harsh, but I've read your excuse over and over in this thread and it was driving me crazy! I don't care if you log or not, but don't complain about lack of progress when you don't because nobody can help you without the background data and you are only fooling yourself by complaining and making the excuse about how difficult it is to log.

To be honest with you, everything that I have read here, particularly the habit of daily calorie logging and the belief that unless you know every little number attached to every little bite - you are on your way to anorexia, metabolic shut down, getting morbidly obese, or even death ...sounds like a clear prescription for weight-related obsession.

As you can see, I come to this forum very rarely because I don't care about THINKING of my weight loss every day. So I am not sure who is closer to "obsessive behavior". Neither do I have epic goals related to weight loss, lookin' good, breaking the weight bars at the gym, working out "truly intensively" as opposed to "intensively"... or acquiring Madonna type arms.

I mentioned the two pounds that come back up because I noticed this is what happens every time I eat a bit more - and it is indeed very annoying.

Maybe that IS water after all, as some mentioned. I will see next week when I weigh in.

Otherwise, arguing that I should have done calorie counting instead of spending time arguing here is a pretty weak argument as I definitely do not plan on being on this discussion forum every day.
Calorie logging IS a daily task though. You would think this would be self-explanatory but looks like not.

You appear to see everything in black or white. There is no middle ground to you, and the more you shrilly defend yourself, the more it becomes apparent. Sorry that life isn't like that. There is no magical weigh to not think about losing weight while still losing weight. If there was, WE'D ALL BE FIT!! Counting calories four or five times a day like I do- breakfast, lunch, snack, and supper - could not be considered obsessive even if someone played fast and loose with the dictionary like you seem to prefer. It takes me maybe 5 mins each time, if I'm building my sandwich or making an omelet. The rest of my day I can focus on the kids, my studies, the farm, making food, cleaning house, and whatever other things I find to do. Including amusing myself on MFP.

I am sorry you seemed to equate "being supportive" with "blindly agreeing with your ill-planned approach". It happens.

One would think that wanting to avoid the "big C" would be an epic weight loss goal. Why, exactly, do you equate losing weight with avoiding cancer? Why do you equate having fibroids with cancer?

Why do you want to lose weight, if it isn't looking good, being healthy, gaining strength, or living longer?

Now I eat intuitively, and I eat when hungry and stop when full.

This is what I am talking about. Eating healthy and INTUITIVELY. NOW someone is getting it, finally!!! :-)

Geez, what have people been doing for thousands of years without the tools on this forum?... and the suckers were rarely, if ever, overweight.

I want to eat just like they were - intuitively, when hungry, stopping when decently full, NOT logging, and NOT putting on weight.
Too much to ask?

But for many, it doesn't work like that..at least to start and for many still..it'll never really work like that. Trying to force yourself to do something you can't do is setting yourself up for failure.

But seriously. If you're not trolling or subtly trying to find pro-ana friends, then you have gotten more than enough info to figure out what to do. If not, there are many other programs out there you might want to spend money on. Maybe those will work for you where they haven't for many of us here.

Now I eat intuitively, and I eat when hungry and stop when full.

This is what I am talking about. Eating healthy and INTUITIVELY. NOW someone is getting it, finally!!! :-)

Geez, what have people been doing for thousands of years without the tools on this forum?... and the suckers were rarely, if ever, overweight.

I want to eat just like they were - intuitively, when hungry, stopping when decently full, NOT logging, and NOT putting on weight.
Too much to ask?

Are you serious? OK then, only eat things that our great-great-grandmothers would have recognized as food, with the frequency and amount they would have eaten them (sorry, no more sushi), and only eat them after you've expended the time and effort they did to get that food. Oh, and you have to live with malnutrition health issues and die when you're 50-60 years old, if you manage to survive a lifetime of child-bearing.

Or, accept that conditions have changed and the rules have changed. It's up to you.

To be honest with you, everything that I have read here, particularly the habit of daily calorie logging and the belief that unless you know every little number attached to every little bite - you are on your way to anorexia, metabolic shut down, getting morbidly obese, or even death ...sounds like a clear prescription for weight-related obsession.

As you can see, I come to this forum very rarely because I don't care about THINKING of my weight loss every day. So I am not sure who is closer to "obsessive behavior". Neither do I have epic goals related to weight loss, lookin' good, breaking the weight bars at the gym, working out "truly intensively" as opposed to "intensively"... or acquiring Madonna type arms.

I mentioned the two pounds that come back up because I noticed this is what happens every time I eat a bit more - and it is indeed very annoying.

Maybe that IS water after all, as some mentioned. I will see next week when I weigh in.

Otherwise, arguing that I should have done calorie counting instead of spending time arguing here is a pretty weak argument as I definitely do not plan on being on this discussion forum every day.
Calorie logging IS a daily task though. You would think this would be self-explanatory but looks like not.

Honestly I'm not really sure why everyone has to be so hostile to the OP in this case. Yes, she might be a little resistant to completely changing the method that has been working for her--I would be to.

That being said OP, to insinuate that everyone who is attempting to diligently count their calories has an eating disorder is a bit out of place.

I weigh and measure everything because that is what keeps me accountable in terms of my portion sizes. Will every ounce be perfect 100% of the time I log? Of course not and I don't expect it to be! However, if I'm taking a careful look at my portions, I'm bound to be right around my calorie goal and still eating at a deficit. That's why I count calories.

I think people are only suggesting that you take a stab at counting them simply so you have more than your own rough estimate of the calories you're eating because A LOT of us have had a huge wake up call when we have started counting and measuring.

For the long term, calorie counting may not work for you and I completely acknowledge that--you have the right to disagree with the people who swear by it. I think most people would encourage you to give it a try SHORT TERM (like a week or two) just to see if what you're estimating is accurate!

If that doesn't help, there have been several other useful suggestions (in spite of some of the rather hostile remarks) that you could also take to heart. However, it seems based on some of your previoius posts that you don't really want suggestions as much as you'd just like to be angry with your body stalling with your progress, and shout it to the world.

To be honest with you, everything that I have read here, particularly the habit of daily calorie logging and the belief that unless you know every little number attached to every little bite - you are on your way to anorexia, metabolic shut down, getting morbidly obese, or even death ...sounds like a clear prescription for weight-related obsession.

Woooah-k. Are you serious right now? Someone up-thread just addressed this- and noted that taking a few minutes a day to log and think about the nutrition you give your body is a far cry from obsessing about every gram.

You are willfully ignoring the dozens of people who have created healthy and sustainable habits for themselves, all in order to justify your own disordered habits. YES, your relationship with food is disordered. You talk about being *good* and *bad*, you write as if food is the enemy of your body, you cling to the belief that you must be hungry to be healthy. These are not good things, OP. You are projecting your own fears onto an entire forum of people, most of whom are able to use this tool in a healthy way. Get a grip or go away.

Now I eat intuitively, and I eat when hungry and stop when full.

This is what I am talking about. Eating healthy and INTUITIVELY. NOW someone is getting it, finally!!! :-)

Geez, what have people been doing for thousands of years without the tools on this forum?... and the suckers were rarely, if ever, overweight.

I want to eat just like they were - intuitively, when hungry, stopping when decently full, NOT logging, and NOT putting on weight.
Too much to ask?

Thing is, I'm doing it successfully and you are not. And the reason for that is I've gone through the process of losing weight with a structured plan (alternate day IF), and through that process (counting calories, breaking bad habits like night time snacking etc), I LEARNED how to listen to my body and eat intuitively successfully. If you try doing this without first going through the process, then you will fail. I've also set up parameters for myself-I don't eat breakfast (break fast at 11am), I don't eat after 7pm, I still measure out portion sizes for nuts and seeds, olives and other higher calorie foods, I chose foods that are filling but not calorie dense (beans, oats, rice, leafy veggies etc). Even eating intuitively, I still need accountability tools to keep me on track. And again-I'm in maintenance. I did NOT eat intuitively to lose weight.

I DO eat a lot of things that aren't in the database. I did track very briefly on this forum in the beginning and it was not something that I wanted to continue doing. Very time consuming for me.
I am not American born and raised and I cook many recipes learned from my mother and grandmother - many adapted to be low in calories (less fat, salt, never sugar). There will be no such dishes in the database - only approximations - which I can do with my own eye balling.
I also sometimes graze just a little bit throughout the day given that I am restraining myself so much with the portions at meal times. Could be a few almonds, flax crackers or a fruit, or a little taste when I cook, etc;
so trying to track all these little bitty things would drive me up the wall.

General Comment

This thread should be used as reference for new users. There is a fantastic amount of good advice offered here. It is our own "12 step program" here sometimes and that works for me!

Me: "Hi I am turnaround2012 and I am a Calorie Counter"[/b]
Group on folding chairs "Hi Turnaround2012!"

I would advise counting calories (and exercise). It works for many people on here, definitely. :-) x

By golly...what is going on?

OP starts a thread.
OP receives responses.
OP doesn't like responses.
OP will continue to do what they want.

Or did I miss something?

Nope, that covers it. There is, however, severe lack of food porn and cat pics in this thread.

By golly...what is going on?

OP starts a thread.
OP receives responses.
OP doesn't like responses.
OP will continue to do what they want.

Or did I miss something?

nope! You pretty much narrowed it down:) Typical there is always one a day threads!

.

Maybe because she asked for advice because her way was no longer working, but when others suggested a different, typically successfully way, she screamed she wasn't going to do anything but what she's already doing? :indifferent:

The internet tells me Einstein, or Mark Twain, or Thomas Edison muttered something about insanity and the frequency of doing something that doesn't work.

^^^^^ Einstein I believe:) States it perfectly.