I hate counting Calories- any other methods?

This may sound backwards but counting on this site actually lets me think LESS of food.

Any other "diet" I've ever followed made me scrutinize everything I ate so I wouldn't eat anything "bad". Made me horribly obsessed with all the things I couldn't have.

Counting calories I can eat what I want within my goal. As soon as I log it I don't have to think about it anymore.

Well, it really wasn't easier than calorie counting (kinda more difficult really) but when I was recovering from an eating disorder, I saw a nutritionist. She moved me from counting calories to something similar to the diabetic exchange, where I was encouraged to eat a certain amount of Starches, Fats, Protein, Dairy, and Fruits and Veggies a day. It made it a little more complicated for me, though, because if I'm having 2% Fruit Greek yogurt, I then got into trying to decide if I counted it as a Dairy, or as a Protein and a Starch, or a Protein, Dairy, Starch, and Fruit. Now, it is just easier for me to know that it is 140 calories.

Try naming them.

Go buy them all matching overalls and call them your minions.

it's math. the question is really why does the math make you hungry?

maybe you are not eating full enough meals so that the tracking of insignificant calories and your hunger get paired as though one is responsible for the other?

when i opted to go from eating 5 meals around 250 calories to three solid meals around 400 with smallish snacks, i felt much better despite the number being the same. you have to know the numbers to know where you stand.

i tried intuitive eating for a week (no logging) and found that my natural tendency was to eat to maintain. it didn't put me in a debt necessary for weight loss. i think you have to really question why heightened mindful awareness of calories is making you hungry? is it really the knowledge or is it how you are portioning your meals?

You might try Beyond Diet. I did it for the 14 day accelerated plan and you just follow what they tell you to eat and you lose weight. They have a website too, but it was not user friendly and I ended up still logging into the MFP. I eventually got tired of the same foods and started eating what I want and logging on MFP. You can't beat this site for the support and accountability to help you lose weight. They take the guesswork out of counting calories and tell you how many calories and nutrition facts there are in what you eat. It works so give it a try. Best of luck.

Your story sounds a lot like mine. It took me 6 months to realize what I was doing wasn't working. I didn't know what to eat and was guessing at my nutrition. I found this amazing nutrition program that has completely changed my body. It's so easy and so wonderful. I have more energy. It worked so fast. In 30 days I had a completely different person. I lost 20 pounds and I've kept it off. After 2 babies in the last 4 years I tried working out and exercising and counting my calories on myfitnesspal but it was just too much work. I'm not talking about a magic diet pill or anything. It's an all natural nutrition program. So you are giving your body the right nutrients. It doesn't have to be this hard and you can see results. Email me at sns628@gmail if you are interested in finding out more and I can help you!
Sarah

Gosh and I wonder how much you'll charge for this help?

You could try 5:2 in the way people not on a calorie counting site do it perhaps? i.e. only counting calories on the two fasting days and "eating normally" on the other five days a week. Maybe that would reduce the feeling of daily food obsession?

My friend has lost weight this way, over a year. I do a "fast" day every now and again when I feel like it, but primarily calorie count, as it's working well for me.

There is a 5:2 forum on here somewhere, if you do a search.

If you hate counting calories and can tolerate occasional extreme deprivation better than low level constant deprivation, 5:2 intermittent fasting might be for you. You build in your calorie deficit by eating very low (500 cals) on two non consecutive days during the week. It means only counting two days out of the week, when you are going to feel pretty obsessed with food anyway due to physical hunger. Works well for people who can tolerate discomfort knowing that they can eat normally the next day.

You could try the "No S" Diet. I like to count calories but if I didn't I think I would give this one a whorl. It seems OK to me if you won't count calories and I know some people that have had a lot of success on it. I just like to have my snacks and count calories so I'm not going to do it.

This is a calorie counting website...

QFT

So there are a number of things you can do but ultimately it's going to boil down to your ability to form food related habits that allow you to keep calories managed. It's still calories in vs calories out regardless of whether those calories are tracked.

Additionally, you'll have some "rules" or some sort of a framework around your eating habits. Some of these things get labeled as "broscience" within the context of a tracking model but in the context of a non tracking model they can help people maintain satiety and reduce the likelihood of overeating. They are not one-size-fits-all rules that are universally true, however.

Some things I'd consider doing would be as follows:

- Eat 3 meals per day with minimal snacking in between.
- Allow yourself to experience hunger for about 30 minutes prior to eating and identify that hunger.
- Eat mixed meals (meals containing protein/carbs/fats) and I'd probably consume fibrous vegetables with each meal for satiety, 1-2 servings/meal. The interview I posted below goes into this in more detail.
- Eat mostly whole and minimally refined foods and limit the consumption of heavily refined and energy dense/nutrient sparse foods.
- Consider occasional or intermittent logging while implementing the above to use that as a check on energy intake. Conversely, if you are ALREADY logging I would keep to it, and gradually remove the logging and/or the food scale use.
- You may want to consider environmental effects on food intake, such as positioning energy dense/heavily refined "junk food" in less visible and less accessible locations in your home and making whole/nutrient dense foods more present in your environment. This will influence you to choose those nutrient dense/calorie sparse foods more frequently and the "junk" food less frequently and it will also cause you to think about those calorie dense/highly palatable foods less often.
- If you implement the above and still have issues with satiety you may want to consider whether or not your food (through preparation (cooking methods), seasonings, or food selection) is hyperpalatable and if so, you may want to tone it down a notch to see if this effectively causes you to eat less.
-Maintain proper hydration.
- Consider documenting (in a simple journal) hunger and why you are choosing to eat what you choose to eat.

This is not a complete list. This is also not something where all techniques are going to work for all people. This is simply a framework around which you can start to build food habits to help you adhere to an energy intake that may get results.

Finally, non tracking dieting methods have worked for people in varying capacities, but it's not the same as "just eating without logging". It's a trade off.

Logging only forces you to learn the habit of logging. If you can manage to stick to a reasonable calorie intake you make progress without necessarily having to implement the above (although some of the above can make it easier!). It is for this reason that people who log may look at the above list and think "what a bunch of nonsense". But the trade-off is that having some sort of a framework around your meal structure/frequency and eating habits MAY allow you to not have to log -- and if you're the type of person that just goes nuts having to log food this trade off can be worth it.


I like calorie counting as a method for many people short term and for some people long term. There are benefits to it even if it's not done for long periods of time. All of my clients START by tracking.

But suggesting that everyone must track is ridiculous.


Some additional resources:

Good post by Steve Troutman on this very topic:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Body-Improvements-LLC/206180602737670

Mindless Eating (book)

Georgie Fear interviewed by Armi Legge:
http://evidencemag.com/weight-loss-habits/

I think if you tend to eat pretty healthy selections - e.g., less processed, more whole, you can follow the food plate model and do well. I would recommend tracking and measuring every once in a while to check in on your calories though. I actually found my food plate meals earlier in the day were a bit light on kcals (averaging 300-400), which was probably making it harder to eat as planned at night. and I needed to add in snacks and a little fat. However, if you want to be more flexible with your food choices (e.g., eating out, having desserts more regularly), you will do much better if you track since those things add up so quickly).

I get that some might not logging, but really, to be successful at losing weight, and maintaining that loss, we need to be cognizant of what we're eating. It's obvious that we're here because just eating the way we want to eat naturally doesn't work for us; it does for some people, believe it or not. I hate those people.

Whether we're counting WW points, grams of net carbs, calories, portion sizes, cookies out of the bag, whatever, we need to be counting something to ensure that we're not eating too much, right? By saying "I hate counting calories" what you're really saying is that you don't like having to keep track. I get that but if eating whatever you wanted didn't work for you before, it won't work for you now, either. You'll need to find something that you can track which will help you to make sure you are eating few enough calories to lose weight.

That's not saying you can't lose weight without tracking, because you certainly can. By eating less calories than you burn. But not tracking makes it more difficult and less likely to succeed because you're just guessing. You could certainly lose weight by eating only salad with veggies and no dressing, oils or butter, and a plain chicken breast for every meal. You'd be assured that you're only getting about 1000 calories per day without counting but you're certainly going to get sick of eating that way after a very short period of time. And then you'll start obsessing about the things you can't eat. IMHO, it's better to count calories and be able to eat what you want as long as it fits in your calorie goals and macros for the day. If I want a piece of chocolate, I have the piece of the chocolate and I log it when I do.

Informative video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M_4_ulozA0&list=UUxUqBcX8-LoJzQokJIIST_Q