I don't want to keep track of everything!

nobody's going to approve you for weight loss surgery at 225. do you think we count calories and keep track just for the hell of it? there're plenty of other things I'd rather spend my time doing than counting and planning ahead everything I'm going to eat, but I want to lose weight, and I know it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. there is no easy way out. if you want to change your body you're going to have to put in some work.

if you don't want to count calories, don't do it. no one's holding a gun to your head. it's definitely not confusing. it's actually about as simple as it gets. it is also a very affective way to control intake and aids in weight loss for many people.

....So don't track everything, nobody is forcing you.

Editing to add... Weight loss surgery isn't going to stop you from eating at all. If you can't stop eating, WLS is a very bad decision to make. You can easily force food into your stomach (potentially life-threatening if you have a stapled stomach) and cause lots of new issues down the road.

looking at it logically you have a few options
option 1 - count calories, and lose weight
option 2 - lose weight some other way (I don't think weight loss surgery would be an option for you...yet)
option 3 - continue going as you are. stay at 225, and possibly gain more weight.

none of those options are particularly easy. (If you're trying to lose weight then you are not finding option 3 easy.)

personally I think option 1 is the least hard :-)

gem_192 wrote: »

I call troll.
A normal person wouldn't come on to a forum on a calorie counting website and say they can't be bothered to write everything down because that would take all day. Obviously the tracking (not tracting) will give you a wakeup call to how much you're actually eating.

I agree.

I expect there are lots of people that lose weight and/or maintain without counting calories. They are just not on a site primarily for calorie counting.

However, if you are already big, then counting calories gives you an idea of portion control, and the foods that are higher or lower in calories. Sometimes this is not obvious, such as liquid calories in juice and coffee.

If you have or think you have an eating disorder, go see a doctor.

You wouldn't actually be physically writing everything down and adding it all up in your head. MFP will do the sums for you. That's why so many of us love it here! All you need to do is be honest about what you're eating, and weigh and measure everything that goes into your mouth. Set your goals and be guided by how many calories MFP tells you to eat. Spend a few days eating how you normally would to see how it all adds up, and then start looking at where you can change things to meet your goals. The longer you stay here the more you'll learn and you might find you prefer to work things differently, but for now this is the way to start changing some of your habits.

Well, you can alwals eat something tasty in the morning, and everything really healthy leave for the rest of the day.))
The best solution if you want to eat - just drink)

Alatariel75 wrote: »

Losing weight is hard. Being fat is hard. Choose your hard.

This.

That being said - I felt the same way. It took a week or so before I realised it's not THAT much of an issue. MFP does most of the work, I just tell it what I've eaten and it tells me how much fat/carb/sugar that is. It's a few minutes a day.

"funchords wrote: »

I did very well on MyFitnessPal (down 72 lbs. so far) that my surgery has been postponed indefinitely.

This is AMAZING - well done!

I started my weight loss journey because my doctor and I thought I should have weight loss surgery. I have serious heart problems so I easily qualified. I started the whole process of exams, psychiatrists, etc. My BMI was 45. (Most doctors insist on a BMI of at least 40 to perform surgery, unless you have a serious weight-related disease and then they will drop it to 35 BMI).

After losing 8 pounds by just being careful, I finally got to see the surgeon. She said that even after surgery, I would have to stick to a 1200 calories a day diet and walk every day. Additionally, I would have to take the myriad of pills I take for my heart and RA one at a time with 15 minutes in between and I could not drink anything with meals. (Those were harder to accept than the exercise and 1200 calorie a day). I was going to have sleeve surgery (as the surgeons here aren't doing lap band much anymore). I asked her if there was a website that would help to discipline myself and she told me about MFP.

I left thinking that I would need to try the 1200 calories a day and the exercise since there was no use to committing to surgery if I could not do what I needed to do afterwards. So mid-January, I came here with a BMI still at 43.5 and I buckled down. However, I was still planning on having the surgery.

As I limited myself to 1200 calories a day, started walking every day as much as I could (which wasn't far back then), logging here everyday, and making friends, I really started to lose weight. However, I also kept going to groups and check-ins in preparation for surgery. Well, I stalled that. By mid-June (only 5.5 months after coming here), my BMI was down below 35 and I no longer qualified for surgery -- even for health reasons!

10 months later, I have lost a total of 78 pounds (70 of those here at MFP)! I only have 1.5 pounds to get out of the obese range!

The moral to this story is: Even with weight loss surgery, you must work very hard. You must limit your intake and you must exercise. So, why not try those things now? Logging helps us realize how much we are actually eating.

With that said, weight loss surgery IS right for some people. It is the impetus they need, but for it to work, it still needs dedication. Recent studies show that it can really have a positive affect on diabetes in just 48 hours after surgery. They don't know why, but it isn't the weight loss for it to be that quickly. However, surgery is expensive, time consuming, painful, a 6-week recovery and you should still end up here at MFP post-surgery to track calories and record exercise!

booty4days365 wrote: »

The idea of written down everything I eat and counting calories, carbs and all that seems confusing to me. Having to add everything up is taking away time to eat more. I always think one more bite won't hurt and here I am now 225. Has anyone tried weight loss surgery? Why can't I stop eating????

If you honestly, no kidding, find tracking that much of a burden there is a solution that can still help contain eating, and while weight loss is slow as hell, it does work.

The No-S Diet.

It's not for everyone, but the real power of it is that instead of tracking macro or micro ANYTHING, it's utterly and completely about habit.

It might work for you. While yes, you do have to reduce your intake to lose, no question, for some people the level of tracking done at MFP isn't going to cut it.

This ain't a quick fix. It's about long-term habit change, but it's not very intrusive, so might work for you.