Problems......

Stop stressing over calories, there are more important things to worry about. Just make an effort to eat healthy most of the time because you want to and it makes you feel better. For example, dairy makes me *kitten* and sugar gives me headaches but sometimes I just need cheese fries and ice cream. Bottom line - if you stress over calorie counting it'll lead to obsession which can lead to binge eating. Just take it one day at a time and do your best and forget the rest.

BILLBRYTAN wrote: »

sarahgale wrote: »

I feel a little bit like I'm obsessing over my calories and I'm not sure MFP is helping. I wondered if anyone has any advice about how to stop being obsessive whilst still logging calories?

I 'm glad to meet someone in this same situation. I no longer need to focus purely on calories since I learned that what I eat is more important than how many calories I eat. I focus my concentration on finding the best quality food, regardless of calories.

Quality food is very important, but weight loss is CICO, simple as that. Now on maintenance I focus more on quality. If OP wants to truly lose 12 lbs, she needs to watch her portions/intake, which is calories. If it has become an unhealthy obsession for her perhaps focusing on portion size/ quality of food will naturally put her in a calorie deficit. But I got fat on "healthy, quality" foods.

sarahgale, if your goal is to lose fat, then accurately monitoring your calories in and out will be important.
However, there are various ways of doing this.
I am a dork, and I enjoy weighing and measuring and dividing and figuring... I realize many many people won't like doing that, but I do!

Sometimes you can buy foods that are pre-measured. Cheese sticks are more easy to track than cutting a piece from a cheese block. Frozen dinners are pre-measured. Condiment packets make measuring ketchup, mayo, etc. far easier. So there are ways to make the logging easier...
Best of luck!

I've also seen single-serving packs of veg and fruit that might be helpful. Buy the same brand of eggs each time, and, sigh, laugh if you want...I bought a tall glass measuring cup. If I have a glass of soy milk or orange juice, I just drink it from that glass. Quick and easy.

I was discouraged at first by the prospect of logging everything i eat forever and ever. But it occurred to me that lots of healthy folks don't do that. It's not necessary[ for wellness. What they do, and i didn't, is generally eat healthy. I had too much fast food, particularly. And when i snacked, it was never with any concept of caloric intake.

It finally clicked - i needed to develop good, well-considered habits, and to do that, i had to learn about eating well.

My Plan - Eat Healthy Now
I made my plan to start eating like a healthy person. I worked out TDEE calculations for my 'target weight' and noted that if i just start eating that, it would be a decent deficit, without being too drastic. So i set that as my goal, and i started logging everything as i trained myself to eat like i will when i'm at a good body weight.

I'm down about 35 lbs so far, i've got good habits, and i no longer log my meals. I step on the scale weekly to check progress, and will start logging again immediately if i find my bad habits encroaching. For now, i'm good.