Methodology in diet

So I really wanted to take a lot of time to construct a well thought out post about the pros and cons to various dieting methods but this isn't very well-thought-out as I'm in a hurry at the moment...

Over the past few years, my stance on things has changed significantly and I don't think my current viewpoint will bring much applause given the population I'm delivering this to (people who count calories).

Generally speaking, I think counting intake is a great method for a lot of people. I also think most people should do it at least short term with a food scale to get them acclimated to estimation and what constitutes a reasonable energy intake.

I also think people who desire a great deal of leanness, such as a physique athlete, may need to count meticulously for accuracy purposes.

But, I think there's a cost associated with it. Usually it's time investment that people bring up but I think there are other issues or concerns that can arise such as becoming too fixated on the numbers, perhaps seeing that slice of pizza as 420c, 50c/18f/20p instead of seeing it as a slice of pizza.

To be clear, I don't think this happens to everyone, and for those who don't have issues with tracking, it's probably going to be an excellent method if not the best method given that nothing negative arises from it, or the negatives are things that can be dealt with.

Ultimately, since I fundamentally believe in context being important, I'm claiming that there are people who just aren't going to thrive on a calorie counting model. And that's not a statement about the flaws of calorie counting (energy balance is fundamentally important), it's just a matter of there not being a universally successful method of dieting that is going to match up to each individual.

Just like low carb dieting is going to be a reasonable choice for some people and just awful for others.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I've made a few posts on my wall, on our facebook fitness page, and in discussions with people in the industry just because this is a topic where my views have changed. What prompted me to post this was a reply that I am going to quote below. I'm quoting it here because it apparently brought a lot of disagreement and I'd like to hear why, but I'll do that in my thread instead of the one it was in because people thought it was derailing the topic.

I have more to say about this but I have to leave soon. If you'd like to add your thoughts to my post above, or to this quote below, please feel free to do so. Thanks.

EDIT: Hopefully I'm clear in that my over-arching point here is that context STILL MATTERS with dieting methodology. While I am a fan of calorie and macronutrient tracking, I am claiming in this thread that it is not the ultimate method because claiming it as such neglects individual contexts.

Eh, I don't know. Calorie Counting has some pretty obvious advantages. Assuming a lack of complicating factors (e.g. metabolic disorders) along with consistent and relatively accurate logging, counting calories has a very strong rational appeal. Problem >> Data >> Math >> Solution. Fairly simple. Note that the complication factors don't negate an approach centered around looking at the energy balance of a system; it just makes it less simple.

What's simple isn't always what's easy, though. For instance, I could:

-get burned out on counting calories because I have enough other stuff going in my day-to-day.
-become obsessive about tiny inaccuracies.
-End up feeling weird about a natural process (Hunger >> eat) being dictated by a more analytical approach.

All of that is about how someone "feels" which can end up being incompatible with calorie counting. That kind of stress doesn't always have an on/off switch. There is some appeal to following a set of guidelines that isn't based on calories. Obviously it works the same way. To lose weight, you're burning more than you take in. But if I am burned out on counting calories, and I'm left with following hunger signals and satiety as a means of helping me lose weight, then "food quality" becomes more important for reasons apart from overall health, getting my micros, and getting enough fiber.

In no way am I a clean eater just for my own personal ideology. I love my processed foods. But, in my experience, the more highly processed foods that I enjoy also tend to be more energy-dense and less satiating per calorie. For those reasons, if I need a calorie counting break, I kind of have to eat more clean to both stay in a deficit and not feel starved.

Sometimes my inner geek is jazzed by the fact that I scan something, weigh something, track it, and even plot out calories over time. And sometimes there's enough other crap going on in my life that I need to leave the lab coat in the office, so to speak, and not put that much thought into whether I can work the math in some way to fit a brownie into my day; it's easier to just to say that for the a few weeks, I'll stick to an apple instead of a brownie just because I know the apple will fill me up faster on a calorie-per-calorie basis.

That part of it is all personal preference, but personal preference is a pretty major factor. For that reason, I would have trouble telling any individual that calorie counting is best without first having a conversation with them about their life and their eating habits.