Is calorie counting really a lifetime/long term solution?

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  • kern11
    kern11 Posts: 37 Member
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    obviously its a lifetime solution that will work, most people that binge while doing it are restricting too much
  • XXcookiepussXX
    XXcookiepussXX Posts: 19 Member
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    If I had good intuition about eating, I wouldn't be overweight in the first place. It was/still can be hard for me to stop eating when I'm full and I used to keep eating until it was physically painful. So, not very good instincts.

    I'm also a stress/emotional eater. Since I pre-log my day, when I start to feel stressed and want something bad, I just think "that's not in the plan today". I'm not gonna lie, sometimes the alternative is a little stress cry or snapping at my husband. But I isolated the most stressful time of day (when we all get home after work/school) and take 10 quiet minutes in my room snuggling with the cat. Boom, stress eating (almost) eliminated!
  • almondbutterbay
    almondbutterbay Posts: 221 Member
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    Timorous_Beastie wrote: »
    DemoraFairy wrote: »
    wizzybeth wrote: »
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    Judging from the number of "I'm ba-ack!" threads, it's reasonable to guess that no, calorie counting isn't a viable lifetime solution for a significant number of people.
    Or once they reached their goal they stopped calorie counting and got back into the same old eating habits again....and stopped regular weigh in times till the problem was huge.

    That's pretty much what happened to me. I stopped calorie counting because I graduated from uni and moved back home, meaning that I no longer prepared my own food - my mum cooked dinner each night. I did as much exercise as I could and ate as little as possible all day until dinner to try to make sure I didn't gain weight. I tried to limit how much dinner I ate each night. I thought it was working since I couldn't see any difference in the mirror or feel any difference in my clothes. Then when I got some new scales and weighed myself a few months later I found out I'd gained 20lbs.

    So the only solution for me, at least in foreseeable future, is calorie counting and weighing myself.

    Same here. I lost weight calorie counting, kept it off for a couple years logging sporadically, but gained 15-20 with depression and injury that made me unable to keep up the level of activity I'd need to support the way I like to eat (and not logging my food).

    For me, if I think of it as a lifetime thing, I'll feel overwhelmed and think, "You know what? It's really not worth it." I know can maintain a healthy weight without logging my food under normal circumstances and I'm not sure it's worth the hassle to maintain a little leaner than that. So I look at calorie counting as something I do if/when my life changes and I'm not able to maintain without it. If my jeans get too tight, I'll log until they're not.

    Yeah I can't think of it as a lifetime thing cause I'm 21 like how am I supposed to know if I want to count calories when I'm 30 or 50? It's working right now and that's all that matters right now. Let the future worry about itself
  • sweetd6
    sweetd6 Posts: 74 Member
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    If I follow something like South Beach, my cravings for white carbs/sugar completely disappear, and then I can eat intuitively. But if I'm not following that, then I have to count calories or points to keep my emotional eating in check - I will continually crave carbs to excess. White carbs make me hungrier and make me crave nothing but more white carbs. So if I want to eat them, I have to count them in some way and have a limit. Forever. That's why I am now doing South Beach (once again). Unfortunately I can do it for months, feel great, crave nothing, and then one week of vacation and lots of white carbs puts me back in the "craving white carbs, feeling lousy" category. I have gone on vacation and had a great time, enjoying my food and not indulging in a lot of white carbs but sometimes it just gets away from me.
  • ExRelaySprinter
    ExRelaySprinter Posts: 874 Member
    edited April 2015
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    almondbutterbay wrote: »
    Yeah I can't think of it as a lifetime thing cause I'm 21 like how am I supposed to know if I want to count calories when I'm 30 or 50? It's working right now and that's all that matters right now. Let the future worry about itself
    That's interesting.
    Didn't see it from a young persons point of view!
    I'm almost 50, so it's kind of understandable for older people to see it as a lifetime thing.
  • almondbutterbay
    almondbutterbay Posts: 221 Member
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    ExRelaySprinter wrote: »
    almondbutterbay wrote: »
    Yeah I can't think of it as a lifetime thing cause I'm 21 like how am I supposed to know if I want to count calories when I'm 30 or 50? It's working right now and that's all that matters right now. Let the future worry about itself
    That's interesting.
    Didn't see it from a young persons point of view!
    I'm almost 50, so it's kind of understandable for older people to see it as a lifetime thing.

    Makes sense! It seems completely unmanageable if I think about having to count calories forever - like that's a long time!

    Also when I've stopped counting calories in the past I've found myself worrying about gaining weight so I end up not eating for some days on end so it's easier right now just to count calories and save myself the worrying headache

  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    almondbutterbay wrote: »
    When I reached my goal last time I stopped calorie counting and maintained my goal for eight months. The only reason I gained the weight back was cause I went back to college and should've started counting calories there because I didn't know the portion sizes of the cafeteria food.

    I figure calorie counting is possible most of the time but sometimes I need mental breaks from it. Most of the time it's just second nature though. I've been doing it on and off for three years and honestly aren't really trying to lose more weight and will switch to maintaining soon

    I think occasionally going back to calorie counting makes sense, but our bodies are pretty good calorie counters, if we learn to listen to them.
  • autodominio
    autodominio Posts: 55 Member
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    My counter to whether counting calories for ever is a life long solution would be if being overweight and/or unhealthy as the alternative is a lifelong solution. And I can only answer for myself but counting calories is not a whole lot different than counting anything else that needs to be counted like money or gasoline. If you don't have enough you add, if you have enough you are good and if you have too much then subtract (not money of course, but you could give it away, to me if you want).
    You can ask the same question about other things as well, Is showering a lifetime solution?
    is brushing your teeth a lifetime solution?
    For some of us calorie counting is very much part of the solution and if it's only way we can have a healthy fit life then it's a small price to pay. At least that's how I see it.
  • nathan_haveagoodday
    nathan_haveagoodday Posts: 38 Member
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    I love how much control calorie counting gives me. On the surface my parents understand that I am at an unhealthy weight but whenever I visit they unconsciously have to offer me food. My Dad will suggest we make a cake and my Mom will ask if I need a treat at Dairy Queen even though I had already eaten 900 calories worth of burger and fries there. They both are happier when I respond with "If I eat that I won't have enough calories to eat a real supper" than "I'm not hungry" or "I don't feel like eating that".

    I also LOVE when I have an extra 200 calories at the end of the day I didn't expect and I can eat a scoop and a half of ice cream guilt free.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    JaneWhiton wrote: »
    NO , IT IS BASED ENTIRELY ON EXTREME IGNORANCE AND SCIENTIFICALLY ILLITERATE PEOPLE AND THEIR WHIMS...........

    pC8jf5t4eWCDKcMu.jpg


  • freeoscar
    freeoscar Posts: 82 Member
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    It's a lifelong solution in the sense that it undoubtedly works - for weight loss, maintenance or gain. Whether it is feasible for you to count for your whole life is entirely up to the individual. I don't think I can do it for my whole life, but I'm getting to a point where I can informally measure how much I'm eating, by understanding portion sizes and how certain foods and timing of eating affect my total intake. And of course I always have the scale to tell me if I'm off track, and the knowledge and experience to get things back under control through formal monitoring. And the good thing is that technology is only getting better and making it easier to formally track calories. I fully expect that in the not too distant future our phones or fitbands or whatever will be able to pretty accurately tell us the nutritional information of the food on our plates. In the meantime, a pretty well built up database of the foods I eat in MFP makes the task relatively easy.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    edited April 2015
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    The thing with intuitive eating is that if you eat high calorie foods, you'll still gain weight. The only thing that works to lose weight is eating less than you burn... Calorie counting is probably the most foolproof way of assuring that.

    After that, well, it depends on the individual. I've only been doing it for over 2 years so I can't tell you if it's going to work forever, but I can tell you that so far it's worked much better than the other things I've tried, because you can adapt it to what works for you. You like sweets too much to give them up? You can make them fit in your calories. Not hungry for breakfast? Don't have breakfast. Have cravings and like snacking after dinner? You can save calories for an evening snack. But personally, I don't find the idea that I'm going to have to log forever overwhelming... but it is for some people.

    For binge eating, well, I'm not sure it always helps. You got to figure out why/when you binge first. For me... typically it's hormonal, but I've found that if I have a cookie or a piece of chocolate or a bit of ice cream regularly, it will mostly prevent me from eating a whole pint next time I have some in the house (well, unless I have PMS but my hormones make me crazy). And prelogging everything before I eat it and seeing the numbers help me a lot, plus if you take the time to do that before you eat anything, it can stop the binge in its track.

    And by logging at least I can minimize the damage by making sure I stay on track after a binge. It's reassuring to see that I haven't totally ruined everything because despite my binge on Thursday, I'm still in deficit for the week, for example. If I wasn't logging, it would be complete guesswork.

    I have to emphasize though that a proper, reasonable goal is important... none of that 'eating 1200 calories' crap. And if you have a binge... just go back on track the next day. Don't try to 'make up for it' by starving yourself... Eat to your goal. You already have a deficit. You'll make up for it in a few days by sticking to it.

    Obviously people who don't have those issues might not have to log forever.
  • kdz526
    kdz526 Posts: 210 Member
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    I lost some weight and got to a comfy spot a few years ago and stayed here in a 5lb range w/o counting calories. Life just got hectic and I no longer had the drive to lose weight. I was actually pretty statisfied with my progress and where I was at. I stopped counting calories, and just did my thing. I found I tended to gravitate towards the same foods I had been eating and lunch and breakfast tended to be the same as what I had been having while logging. I also tended to snack on healthier foods. I felt that my new knowledge that I aquired during calorie counting sustained me in that time. So while I did not count calories anymore, I did not gain any. If you take what you learn and apply it to every day, you don't need to count calories. There were a few times I did get up over my 5lb or stayed up 5lbs for a bit longer, so I would count calories for about a week, and that fixed the problem.
    To me it is a tool to fall back on if needed, but won't be something I will do for the rest of my life.
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
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    I struggle with Binge Eating Disorder every single day... The only th9ink that really works is calorie counting... I plan on doing this for life.
  • ab_1203
    ab_1203 Posts: 88 Member
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    Calorie counting is the only way Ive ever lost weight. I enjoy it to be honest and one of the reasons I will never stop is because I just hate not knowing how much Ive consumed in the day.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    I know a lot of people maintain long-term by switching to intuitive eating but weighing in every week or so. If they notice the scale starting to creep up to the top of their maintenance range, they'll resume calorie counting for a while.

    I guess it really depends on what works for you.
  • r5d5
    r5d5 Posts: 219 Member
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    I too struggle with binging now and then, and my counselor and dietician both are trying to get me to eat not necessarily intuitively, but without a huge focus on calorie counting. However, it just frightens me to not count because I didn't count earlier in my life and that's how come I'm here, trying to lose weight. Plus, when I log my binges, sometimes it's not as bad as I thought, or it helps me the next binge to say, "hey, remember the last time?" Of course that doesn't always work because binging is not overeating. Far too many people think the terms are synonymous. Binging is a complete lack of control and it's really difficult to stop mid-binge. It's not "oh, I don't need three servings of that." It's more like a whirlwind of crushing anxiety and an overwhelming feeling that you have to eat and eat and eat. It's really more psychological than the solution "put the fork down."
    Anyways, sorry for the rant, that said, as a young person, I think I will hopefully get to a point where maybe I can go a week or two without counting, and just monitor my weight and start counting again if I see a gain. It is hard to imagine doing this forever, not because it's terribly hard, but I guess in my own opinion, it sometimes feels like I can't control myself. It'd be nice to intuitively eat and be able to trust my body and myself to stop when I've had enough but right now I can't do that. I need to count to know how much is enough.
  • marissafit06
    marissafit06 Posts: 1,996 Member
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    Calorie counting allows me to include calorically dense foods in my diet. I have lost 20lbs without calorie counting and am now doing it with calorie counting. With counting, it is taking longer but it likely more sustainable. I don't intend to keep counting forever, but we'll see what happens when I'm out of school again. I like to exercise, so I gained weight when I started working and stopped going to the gym 6x per week. So for me, I guess counting allows me to eat yummy things without gaining weight, whereas if I were to maintain without counting, I would likely restrict the desserts, fast food, and alcohol.
  • TiffanyR71
    TiffanyR71 Posts: 217 Member
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    I've never been good at maintaining after losing. I think, great- I'm done! And then it comes back on, usually slowly at first, then it picks up some momentum (snowball rolling down a steep hill). So, after I reach my goal weight, I will need to keep counting/logging until I find my ideal maintenance intake... After that, well, I hope I won't have to log forever, but I will if I need to so that I never get to this place again...
  • beemerphile1
    beemerphile1 Posts: 1,710 Member
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    Tatarataa wrote: »
    ...Is calorie counting a lifetime solution? I am almost ready to think so and give it a go (and of course at the meantime try to work on my binge eating as well)....I just need some supporters that can tell me "yes" you can decide for calorie couning and NOT feel deprived but free by doing it and relying on it forever...

    Yes.

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