Noone stab me for asking but does anyone on here not count calories?

There are plenty of people here who don't count calories. Some don't count as a rule, but then will count when they are making some kind of dietary change. I lost most of the weight I lost without counting, then counted and lost more, and in the past few months have gone without counting for periods of time (and successfully maintained). Some don't count in maintenance but count when losing. Some only count if they gain a few pounds until they get back on track.

Do whatever works best for you. Counting calories is a tool many people find helpful, but it is not necessary for many others at all.

I have successfully done limiting diets like the South Beach Diet, which didn't require calorie counting.

The most sustainable method for me has been counting, because it allows me to tweak according to circumstances, i.e. eating at other people's houses.

You MUST count calories!!! If you dont, that makes you a bad person and you will be shunned by the MFP Society. Its our way or the Highway sister! Now, start counting......the Food Police are watching you.......(PS See how silly that sounds? Use this site the way you see fit. Remember, its your site, no one elses. Welcome)

Kalikel wrote: »

satanicbunny wrote: »

I am an adult. I was on a paleo forum once and mentioned I eat half a cup of rice a day and was kicked out so im a little bit nervous haha

I lost 80 lbs so far and would like to use the last 20 to learn to eat intuitively

I'm working on that, too. I kind of got to the point where if I wasn't weighing and logging all my food, I wasn't sure how to eat! Was I eating too much? Too little?

I do not even think that I could go the rest of my life weighing and logging every bite of food I eat, so it's important for me to learn to eat now, while I finish losing my weight.

When I began all this, I'd never have guessed that I would have this issue, lol.

I'm certain that I can learn to eat without needing a scale or a computer. It's a little work on my part, but I'll get there.

That has been harder that I thought, eating without logging. The last three months of maintenance and not logging my food has been more mentally stressful than the 3 years of weight loss was.

I started out counting calories and weighing my food, but recently haven't been. The number on the scale keeps dropping though. If the number isn't going down then I'll go back to counting and reevaluate because that lets me know I'm eating too many calories.

I wish I didn't have to but I'm so famous for taking a bite of this or a handful of that. If I didn't write it all in my diary as I did it, weight would quickly pile back on. Putting those small amounts of food in there keeps me awake and accountable. I have days where I don't bother or I just quick add things just to get an idea but those days aren't too common.

I don't log every day but I'm super-aware. It never leaves my mind. I rock my Fitbit and just try to lose a little at the end of the week.

satanicbunny wrote: »

I am an adult. I was on a paleo forum once and mentioned I eat half a cup of rice a day and was kicked out so im a little bit nervous haha

Gee, they sound like a bunch of cavemen.

Kalikel wrote: »

lyttlewon wrote: »

Kalikel wrote: »

satanicbunny wrote: »

I am an adult. I was on a paleo forum once and mentioned I eat half a cup of rice a day and was kicked out so im a little bit nervous haha

I lost 80 lbs so far and would like to use the last 20 to learn to eat intuitively

I'm working on that, too. I kind of got to the point where if I wasn't weighing and logging all my food, I wasn't sure how to eat! Was I eating too much? Too little?

I do not even think that I could go the rest of my life weighing and logging every bite of food I eat, so it's important for me to learn to eat now, while I finish losing my weight.

When I began all this, I'd never have guessed that I would have this issue, lol.

I'm certain that I can learn to eat without needing a scale or a computer. It's a little work on my part, but I'll get there.

That has been harder that I thought, eating without logging. The last three months of maintenance and not logging my food has been more mentally stressful than the 3 years of weight loss was.

I started by going days where I weighed things and jotted them down, but didn't record it until I was done eating...but found I was relying on that, so moved the logging to the next morning. Still, I found I was under-eating because I was a little nervous that I'd overeat without a computer to tell me how I was doing, lol. Then I did 2-3 days.

I'm now doing single weeks at a time. Still weighing and seeing how I did, but it's a lot harder to undereat for a week. It's not as easy as I'd have thought it might be, but I'll get there.

I just cannot live out the rest of my life not knowing how to eat without a scale and a computer, you know? Some people feel they will be able to accomplish that and Yay for them, but I know I couldn't...and wouldn't want to, anyway. I don't love weighing or logging.

One of these days, I will start cooking like I used to - adding stuff as I think it's needed and not stopping to weigh it first! I can not wait.

Ha, I did that the other day and had a moment of awareness that I hadn't done it freely (according JUST to taste and feel) in a while, and it felt really good

My experience was that once I was well into maintenance, I was able to not have to count. It did mean limiting McDonald's etc. Not completely, though. (I'm not saying you eat McD's or should, just that was my tradeoff.) But I went 80/20 with the "fad" that I started with (South Beach phase 3 - mostly lean meats, veggies, grainy carbs, dairy, etc, it all tasted good to me, no suffering there) and just eyeballing portions, and it worked great for ages.

The other big part of it was 30-60 mins of daily hard cardio, I am pretty sure, though. I can't do that now and the buffer is *missed*. Hitting the same burn with more leisurely paced, non-impact activity takes much more time. (I only estimated my burns then but it *must* be the case that I burned more doing plyometrics etc. than walking on a treadmill or stationary cycling at low resistance.) Not having any kind of cardio is the pits, appetite goes up, while calories have to go down. Result is a constant state of mild deprivation, or just maintenance / not losing.

Find what works for you. You do not have to calorie count. I do count calories and weigh 95% of what I eat and the latter is making most of the people who know me think I'm nuts but it works for me. I hope once I'm at maintenance I will have learnt portion control so I don't have to log and weigh as diligently as I am now. MFP is a tool and use it to how it suits you.

satanicbunny wrote: »

I am an adult. I was on a paleo forum once and mentioned I eat half a cup of rice a day and was kicked out so im a little bit nervous haha

I lost 80 lbs so far and would like to use the last 20 to learn to eat intuitively

classic, I got hounded out of an atkins diet forum for suggesting someone who was failing on atkins for checking how many calories they were getting from cream (they said they were having a lot of cream).

I'm not logging my calories at the moment, I logged for one week, which gave my an idea of good portion sizes for my calorie goal, and since then I've just been trying to maintain discipline on portion sizes - it's been working so far, but I suspect portion creep will kick-in eventually, and I'll have to start logging for another week.

psulemon wrote: »

hamlet1222 wrote: »

satanicbunny wrote: »

I am an adult. I was on a paleo forum once and mentioned I eat half a cup of rice a day and was kicked out so im a little bit nervous haha

I lost 80 lbs so far and would like to use the last 20 to learn to eat intuitively

classic, I got hounded out of an atkins diet forum for suggesting someone who was failing on atkins for checking how many calories they were getting from cream (they said they were having a lot of cream).

I'm not logging my calories at the moment, I logged for one week, which gave my an idea of good portion sizes for my calorie goal, and since then I've just been trying to maintain discipline on portion sizes - it's been working so far, but I suspect portion creep will kick-in eventually, and I'll have to start logging for another week.

I got repeated warned and pretty much kicked off beachbody's website for linking people to science that disproved a lot of their perceptions.. God forbid we listen to science, ha.


OP, I count while on a cut because I have very little room for error. I found that getting to a very low body fat, that tracking is very important. When I maintain though, I transition off calorie counting. And when I would bulk, I would track again.

It's both funny and sad how dogmatic some people get.

Agree that the more precise your body fat goal, the less room for error you have, and the more diligent you need to be in calorie counting.

For most overweight people, I reckon simply cutting out snacking, having sensible meal portions, and drinking calorie free drinks is all they need to do to get to a healthy BMI. Calorie counting initially is a good way to shock them into realizing how much they are overeating.

I was counting until a couple weeks ago. I was put on a sodium restricted diet due to health issues a few months back and was really getting depressed with both calorie restriction and sodium restriction. It got to the point that I cried thinking about eating. Now instead of counting calories I'm weighing my food and watching the things I eat. It's working for me and I'm no longer viewing food as the enemy. I may go back to calorie counting once I'm established with the sodium restriction but for now I'm happy.

ModernRock wrote: »

satanicbunny wrote: »

I am an adult. I was on a paleo forum once and mentioned I eat half a cup of rice a day and was kicked out so im a little bit nervous haha

Gee, they sound like a bunch of cavemen.

+1