Calorie counting long term-realistic or not?

I've been logging for 2.5 years now. I'll skip a rare day or two, but it generally gets easier over time. All my regular meals are saved, my recipes built, and the most accurate entry for my snacks and whatnot are all in the 'recent' section of my food diary. It only takes a few minutes to log most days.

I don't think it's necessarily unrealistic. The success stories forum has people who've been doing it years into maintenance - check out the "nominate success stories" thread there.

I am still only 50 days in (today - yay!) but after I reach goal (far in the future) and reverse-diet into my maintenance at my goal range, I see myself easing into monitoring weight, not calories, and only tracking calories if I need to get back down if I gain to above goal range. In order to be able to do that, I've made a point of eyeballing everything and then weighing it on a scale. My portion estimating skills are getting really very good.

Some people set fitness goals to be motivated to track after maintenance (for their macros, bulking/cutting, etc).

I am sure you'll cross that bridge well enough when you get to it. Don't bog yourself down with overthinking it now oh and obviously don't listen too much to onlookers, you have all the tools you need, your friend's opinion is just that -an opinion. good luck!

To some extent, yes. Though sometimes that will mean being aware of how much I'm eating/what I'm eating in relation to what my body needs.

byvanzant wrote: »

Just curious how many people out there see calorie counting as a realistic activity for long term. Do you think that counting calories will be a forever part of your daily life or are you doing it just to get to a certain goal then will stop doing it? I am only 2 months in and feel great about tracking my food and exercise but have been told that it isn't realistic to think I will be doing this a year from now or when I reach my goal. Thoughts? I can see myself doing this forever so that I will never be back to where I was.

Is calorie counting realistic long term...I suppose that depends on who you ask. I feel like the whole point of calorie counting (besides to lose weight) is to educate yourself about what you're eating, how much you're eating, and how to make better choices. Once you've gotten in to that habit, calorie counting may not be necessary.

Every time I slip up on tracking I gain weight....for me, this has to be a lifestyle thing...for others maybe not...I see this as a life long habit...

Whether it is calorie counting or portion control, some level of effort will be required to keep the weight off.

For me, some form of calorie counting will always be necessary. I know this because I've lost weight and gained it back (more than once). A rather large percentage of people gain back the weight they've lost.

Maybe I will use low calorie days here and there to accomplish this (like intermittent fasting) ....maybe I'll log everyday....I don't know yet. But for me, "make healthy choices" doesn't cut it.

I'm about three years in. I did manage to maintain without calorie counting all the time, and now I'm losing a bit more weight without calorie counting at all.

Calorie counting is just one way of reducing calories. I'm not just eating healthy (that made me GAIN weight!), but am moderating the amount I eat by usually only eating at mealtimes and controlling the portion sizes. That's just a way that happens to suit me. I know other people do well with fast days, or other methods of controlling their intake. There's nothing wrong with calorie counting, and I'll probably go back to it now and then, but I found it a pain logging everything and it sometimes affected my eating in adverse ways.

So I just wanted to say - you don't HAVE to count calories for life. You might have to diet (control your intake) for life, but you can find a method of doing that suits you - and that method might change over the years.