What are your feelings on calorie counting?

I love it too. Started MFP 3 years ago, and I'm still close to 80 pounds under my starting weight. Coming from someone who loves food and has a crazy sweet tooth, that's saying a lot, I think.

Eating fewer calories than you burn is literally the only way to lose weight. Every so-called diet out there works by this principle, whether it will admit it or not. So why not cut out the middle man and just do what works?

I count to an extent, but I try to focus on my Macros more instead - I feel those are an important aspect.

frankiesgirlie wrote: »

For me MFP has demystified weight loss. It not any magic pill, or special combination of foods, or cutting out any certain food, or ancient Chinese secret tea. It is quite simply calories in vs calories out. The only thing to figure out is how to structure your allotted calories in a way you can live with forever.

Also, this.^^^

I lost 90lbs calorie counting but i also chose more healthy foods than to simply say "X items fit under 1800 calories so i can eat it".

I had never really dieted before finding MFP, so I don't have any other basis for comparison, but for me, calorie counting is a simple and sustainable way to achieve and maintain my goals. Once I lurked on the forums and understood about TDEE and CICO, it was fairly simple to set reasonable goals that enabled me to lose weight without feeling deprived. Once I got a FitBit, I realized I was burning far more than MFP estimated for a 5'2 female over 40 with a desk job. I lost my weight with a net calorie goal of 1500 and then 1700 cals, and am currently maintaining my loss for about a year eating 2200 or so cals/day. I've logged in every day since I started (>1000 days) and logged almost every single meal I've eaten.

If I didn't use the numbers provided by MFP and my FitBit and instead tried to just eliminate certain foods or food groups, probably would have found that far too restrictive and would have given up long ago.

So yes, I am a calorie counting advocate.

It works.
Lost over 1/2 of my body weight, and have been sustaining my loss for a little over 2 years.
MFP and my fit bit are the two best tools I have for achieving and maintaining my loss.

Calorie counting only teaches the counter to have a relationship with food on a basis of calorie intake. Meaning, they'd opt for unhealthy choices with low calories instead of healthy choices that will essentially fill them up longer. When I counted calories, I would consume the same old crap that made me gain weight in the first place. Junk food almost ALWAYS has one serving to be an okay amount of calories, but the serving does nothing nutritional in the body, and then you want more...cause you're still hungry. I think calorie counting should ONLY come after the person knows about nutrition. And, I honestly don't care about the "ALL IT IS IS CICO, NOTHING ELSE" people, because lets face it...a body full of nutrition works with you, and your weight loss. A body full of crap, works against you, and your weight loss. So, yes, calorie counting is beneficial when used with nutritious foods. But sites like MFP are taking advantage of the user by saying "eat anything, as long as it's in your calorie range, you'll lose weight." Except when the user pigs out on 500 calories worth of junk, feels hungry for the rest of the day, continues to pig out, and goes way over calorie goal. Then what? "I'll shrug it off and start again tomorrow...and again the next day...and so on." I only use MFP to read community posts, and log my weight. I'm losing weight MUCH faster than I ever did about obsessing over calories, and just eating healthier.

whaddupw8loss wrote: »

Calorie counting only teaches the counter to have a relationship with food on a basis of calorie intake. Meaning, they'd opt for unhealthy choices with low calories instead of healthy choices that will essentially fill them up longer. When I counted calories, I would consume the same old crap that made me gain weight in the first place. Junk food almost ALWAYS has one serving to be an okay amount of calories, but the serving does nothing nutritional in the body, and then you want more...cause you're still hungry. I think calorie counting should ONLY come after the person knows about nutrition. And, I honestly don't care about the "ALL IT IS IS CICO, NOTHING ELSE" people, because lets face it...a body full of nutrition works with you, and your weight loss. A body full of crap, works against you, and your weight loss. So, yes, calorie counting is beneficial when used with nutritious foods. But sites like MFP are taking advantage of the user by saying "eat anything, as long as it's in your calorie range, you'll lose weight." Except when the user pigs out on 500 calories worth of junk, feels hungry for the rest of the day, continues to pig out, and goes way over calorie goal. Then what? "I'll shrug it off and start again tomorrow...and again the next day...and so on." I only use MFP to read community posts, and log my weight. I'm losing weight MUCH faster than I ever did about obsessing over calories, and just eating healthier.

Maybe I'm not totally clueless about nutrition but it didn't take long to notice that if I ate too much junk, I was hungry, but if I had more meat and veggies, I wasn't hungry as much. Or do people REALLY not know that fruit, veggies, and meat are more filling than junk food? I seriously have a hard time believing that. My take is more that people are hoping that MFP will be a miracle solution where they don't have to change their bad diet to lose weight, but when they find out that it's not the case, they're not really willing to make the change, so they blame it on the system, when it's really just excuses and their own fault - we're in 2015 and it takes 2 minutes to google 'filling low calorie foods'.

It doesn't mean you can't lose weight by making better choices overall, but for some people, like me, just making better choices is not a long term solution (I've tried it, lost 30 pounds, gained it all back in 6 months because I was too deprived - with MFP I can fit treats without feeling deprived while still making better choices 80% of the time).

whaddupw8loss wrote: »

Calorie counting only teaches the counter to have a relationship with food on a basis of calorie intake. Meaning, they'd opt for unhealthy choices with low calories instead of healthy choices that will essentially fill them up longer. When I counted calories, I would consume the same old crap that made me gain weight in the first place. Junk food almost ALWAYS has one serving to be an okay amount of calories, but the serving does nothing nutritional in the body, and then you want more...cause you're still hungry. I think calorie counting should ONLY come after the person knows about nutrition. And, I honestly don't care about the "ALL IT IS IS CICO, NOTHING ELSE" people, because lets face it...a body full of nutrition works with you, and your weight loss. A body full of crap, works against you, and your weight loss. So, yes, calorie counting is beneficial when used with nutritious foods. But sites like MFP are taking advantage of the user by saying "eat anything, as long as it's in your calorie range, you'll lose weight." Except when the user pigs out on 500 calories worth of junk, feels hungry for the rest of the day, continues to pig out, and goes way over calorie goal. Then what? "I'll shrug it off and start again tomorrow...and again the next day...and so on." I only use MFP to read community posts, and log my weight. I'm losing weight MUCH faster than I ever did about obsessing over calories, and just eating healthier.

I disagree...calorie counting taught me a lot about basic nutrition and how to get proper nutrition and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

People will get out of it what they put into it just like anything else. Making blanket statements like you did is why we just can't have nice things...