Does watching your calorie intake really help..?...

Yes, it helps, but what made the biggest difference for me was comparing how much I was eating to my desired deficit.

Say for example you want to lose 1lb/week. So you need a deficit of 500 kcals/day, and you plan your calories around that. Then you come across a snack pack targeted at dieters - "Only 100 calories!" it says in big happy shiny letters on the front. You think "Well, I'm allowed 1400 calories per day, 100 more isn't much, this looks delicious ..." and down the hatch it goes. WRONG.

Instead, think, "I'm aiming for a 500 calorie deficit. This is 20% of my goal gone; it'll take 5 weeks instead of 4 to lose 4 lbs, is that worth it to me? This one 100 calorie snack costing me a whole extra week on my goal for the month?" Nope. That's not worth it.

So calorie counting works, but like anything - that cute accessory to go with the new dress, the extra option on the new car - it looks a lot more expensive if you compare it to your saving goal than if you look at it as a percentage of the budget. So don't think of your days in terms of "I can have X calories today"; but instead, plan a plan that's X calories, and then for any choice not on the plan compare it to your desired deficit and realize that it's never worth deviating from the plan.

To make my life easier, I plan my days with room for 300 or even 400 "wildcard calories". Then, because I can easily count to 3 or 4, I can eat those evil snack packs, or an extra piece of fruit, when I want, where I want, spontaneously. And I just have to think "It's OK, this is snack 2 of 4 from the wildcard deck..."

Osric

Of coarse it works. Get yourself a food scale, weigh all your foods and log it accurately. As long as your at a deficit, you'll lose weight.

belitgarland wrote: »

I'm watching my calorie intake im really realizing that I put alot of unnecessary calories in to my body without realizing it before I started using my fitness pal...I'm become more body self aware...it feels good

For me... it's the only thing that helps me lose weight. I stay very active. I swim, walk, and do yoga daily. I run and do cardio classes at the gym. I do workout videos at home and lift weights. But if I'm not actually counting my calories, I will remain at the same body fat simply because all that exercise makes me hungry and I eat more.

This is a personal thing. Not everyone is the same. But for me, I absolutely have to count calories if I want to lose weight, it is the only thing that works for me. Exercise keeps me healthy for sure and i love it, but counting calories helps me shed unnecessary weight.

51 lbs. in 7 months and counting. That included an injury that resulted in a 1 month reset of my exercise routine, and a total of about 6 weeks where I was eating at or close to maintenance ( injury and vacation ).

CICO is the only way to lose weight naturally. Much easier/convenient to control the CI half of the equation with your nutrition plan, than to try to compensate with/control your CO with exercise, unless you can dedicate yourself to it like a full time job.

Works for me. 48 lbs lost.

What it mostly did was make me aware of how much I was eating. I still eat things that classify as junk food, but I've learned how to moderate that and eat more healthy options as well. Knowing I need to my calories under a certain limit helps me say no to some things I was eating out of habit or just because I like the taste unless they fit my daily goal. It's not perfect, but I'm much better at estimating my portions and doing so means I'm much less likely to gain it all back when I hit my weight range goal.

I think one of my favorite, but also most hated, phrases is that you can't out train a bad diet. If I'm working hard in the gym, i dont want to slow down progress by ignoring the second half of a healthy lifestyle; paying attention to my portions shows so much quicker. Counting calories is helpful, but it also shows me what kind of food I'm eating. Going through my food diary tells me if I need to up my protein intake or decrease my carbs, etc.

It's perfect! You know what hasn't worked for me? Unknowingly eating 3000+ calories per day, then busting my hump at the gym to get rid of 400 of it, when I should only be taking in around 1500 per day. If I didn't figure my calories out, I'd have gotten to at least 300 lbs before I leveled out.

It absolutely works. Not just counting, but weighing and measuring when you first start. I remember watching a video several years ago where a guy added up all the EXTRA calories people typically consume when they "guestimate" on portions. It can add up to not losing weight. A lot. Once you're aware of how much your actual portions look like, it's not as imperative, but still I recommend measuring every so often just to ensure you're still eyeballing it on target.

Counting calories is the same as budgeting money. You rarely catch everything unless you write it down!