I hate calorie counting!

That sounds like me, and it's why I've never successfully lost weight in the past for more than a couple of weeks at a time.

Things are different now. I only really restrict calories 2 days a week. But on those 2 days, I limit myself to 600 calories. 3 days a week I count, but I eat much more, like 2000, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on calories. On Saturday and Sunday, I don't count at all.

That DOES NOT MEAN that I allow myself to eat loads of garbage on the no-count days. I still make good choices and limit my alcohol intake. I just don't penny pinch the calories on those days.

That being said, I'm not a big cake/chocolate/crisp eater, but I do eat cake/chocolate/crisps.

It's called 5:2 intermittent fasting. Read up on it.

I've done it for 2 months, have lost 20 lbs and 4% body fat. I love it. It has transformed my life.

Of course it's possible to lose weight with out counting/logging calories. But a lot of what you say in your post... well, they're real cop outs. We all have days when we have to skip lunch, we all go on vacation... I have no idea what those things have to do with logging your food. As a side note, I'm also not sure why you are keeping track of what types of food you are eating? If you can do that, why can't you log the actual food on MFP?

I know that none of this was helpful, but I really think you need to just decide what's important to you and do it... Understanding that there will be bumps in the road. Good luck!

Sure, lots of people lose weight without counting calories. You can make an effort to make lower calorie choices when you eat or restrict certain food groups or increase your exercise (while being cognizant of eating about the same as you were before increasing the exercise). You could also look up something like intuitive eating.

Personally, I also only can handle being on a deficit for about a couple of months. After that I need a couple of weeks break (often coinciding with a vacation or something like that, like you said...and the timing depends on when I just decide I want to eat more) and I eat at maintenance level for a while.

If you think that deliberately increasing your calories periodically could keep you from binging, then that might work for you, too.

You may also want to consider whether you have your weight loss goals set too aggressively and could benefit from decreasing your deficit.

But if you don't want to count calories, don't count calories! There's no point in being miserable and if you think that it's actually making your goals harder to attain or is bad for your mental health then you should try to find something that works for you.

I count calories so I know when I can have a treat, guilt free. Before, I would eat clean, then have a treat, feel bad about it, thinking I've blown my diet anyway so why bother, and binge... Now I see I have the calories for pizza or ice cream, no guilt, and it's been working great.

Everyone is different though. I just find it much harder not to count, because I feel that I can't eat anything 'bad' then, and it's much harder on me.

I love to eat. If I eat as much as I want, I weigh too much -- twice what I should, to be precise. Therefore I must change my habits or continue to weight twice what I should and die young. On the one hand: change and get healthy. On the other hand: eat whatever I want and die young. I hate change, I like to eat but dying young is not something I am willing to do. Therefore, I must change me.

So, that's the situation of all of us. You have a choice. You can continue to eat the way you do, watch your health go downhill, and die young OR you can change your eating habits. Those are the only two choices.

Continuing to eat any way one damned well pleases is easy to do. However, it makes EVERYTHING else, from buying clothes to having sex, harder to do. So, choose to do the one hard thing and change your eating patterns. No one can do it but you.

For many of us, using the food diary to keep track of what we eat helps. Think of it more as a handy diary than as "counting."

Try something different then. There are ways to lose that don't involve "counting calories".

I hate it too, but it's beneficial, so I persevere. Once I got my main go-to meals into the counter, I can just click on them again and again each day and don't have to enter each food into the system again. That makes it easier, I think.

I have been struggling SO much with the whole calorie counting thing over the past few years.

While I do get to points where I can last up to a month or so (though less than two months) counting calories and losing weight, ultimately, SOMETHING gets me off track. Last time, it was a vacation. Other times, it will be not getting a lunch break at work and going from 8am to 6pm without eating.

Whatever the reason- circumstantial or hormonal- I go from losing weight and eating right to binge eating for days. Sometimes, it's not a sudden turn around. Indulging in some good food while in NYC can lead to the downfall- simply because I went over my limit a little.

I've noticed that calorie counting triggers this diet-binge cycle, which makes me question whether it even works- for me, that is. At the same time, I do like how calorie counting allows me to have the freedom to eat whatever I want (though I do try to focus on whole foods).

At this moment, I'm tracking the types of food I'm eating in a little notebook (without measurements or calorie counts) just to get an idea of what I'm eating and how often I'm eating. I am trying to operate by the rule "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial" in hopes that it will guide me in the right direction (ie: buying a yogurt instead of a GoPicnic meal when I find myself out later than expected and I'm ready for another meal, etc.).

I'm just questioning whether it's possible to lose weight without counting calories.

I don't know. Isn't that kinda like trying to stick to a budget with keeping track of how much money you spend?

When my dad died and I went home for the funeral, I took myfitnesspal along! There were many days I went over my calorie goal. Knowing I I was still going to be held accountable (if only to myself) I really did consider what I ate. Some days, I ate the desert anyway. Being together with family was more important to me than scrimping one more time.

The day I felt like taking a nap because I ate too much? I took a walk after dinner. I didn't burn off all the calories, but I felt better because I made a effort. What it all comes down to is tomorrow is another day. Try to do better. It's not something I stress out about too much anymore.

I would just cut everything your normally eat in half! with at least some good healthy snacks in between!

Out of the 108 pounds I have lost.......100 was without counting calories.

I have actually found it harder losing weight as when I track as it becomes almost an obsession.

So I track only once in awhile just to see what my diet looks like.

I am at the point now where I don't need to count calories to know what I should eat.

So counting doesn't work that well for me but it is very interesting to see the breakdown of what I am eating.

Lots of protein......probably should up my fiber.....mostly lower carb except on beer days......

But everyone is different and you need to do what works for you.

Indulging in some good food while in NYC can lead to the downfall- simply because I went over my limit a little.

This statement is worrying to me for a number of reasons. If you think of foods which are calorie dense and high in fats (like icecream, cheesecake, covered in heavy creamy sauces, and whatnot, the types of food which are almost unnaturally sweet or fattening) as "good foods," and other foods as almost punishments, like a lot of people do, you're going to have trouble sticking with any change for the long haul because it means that you may consider things like fruit and vegetables which are prepared in healthy ways which maintain their nutritional content to be lacking and unsatisfying.

It sounds like you get stuck in a cycle of "Ok, I'm going to get healthy/diet!" and then you go out and eat a ton of foods that you don't really like and tell yourself that you're "eating to live, not living to eat" and not looking for compromises or learning to genuinely like foods which are healthy and beneficial for you, and force yourself to live on these types of food (a.k.a depriving yourself things you like). For a while this is ok, you get by... but then, eventually, like a snake in the grass, something comes along which you find impossible to resist, and you cave, and eat something which once it hits your tongue, it's like a bomb which on one hand spits bliss in every possible direction, but on the other, reminds you of how much you crave and miss this feeling. And, like a drug addict just out of a course of unsuccessful or forced rehab, that temptation can be too much, and you try it, and once you try it once, you end up clawing for it going "need... more!!!" and end up binging.

I've been there, too. I honestly believe it's because I was looking at foods as "good" and "bad," which meant that I was using the "good" foods (the ones which tasted good but were awful for me), as a reward for having put up with the "bad" foods for some period of time. This type of pattern and thinking is exactly what makes diets not work. It's a deprivation and reward cycle, and when you get into reward mode, you tend to drastically overdo it.

What I had to do was decide that if I was going to eat the calorie dense foods, I was going to eat something else at the same time that was high in nutrients and low in calories. If I'm going to have fettucine alfredo, one of my favourite dishes, that I was going to spice it up with cajun spices, many of which are excellent for my body, and add lots of onion, zucchini and red, green and orange peppers to it, and am going to have a large portion of vegetables (usually broccoli, asparagus and brussels sprouts) along-side it, which I eat the majority of before I touch the pasta. Instead of doing "either/or" I decided to go with "and." The dish is still far too fattening to really be reasonable, but when you fill up on vegetables and then have a little of the other thrown in, you really do end up eating drastically less of the fattening food and still get all the joy from it. I still eat fettucine alfredo, but I've altered it, and found a way to do so which IMO actually IMPROVES the flavour, and gives me a ton of nutrients I need at the same time. After careful consideration of what I like to eat and treating those dishes this way, I've managed to drop almost 50 pounds and never feel deprived, because I'm not withholding what I like - I'm now controlling it, and I still get to love the food I eat.

Don't give up. It can be difficult. Change is hard, but if you want it enough, it's worth it. There can be compromise, but you do have to work at it.

Best of luck