Why I stopped counting calories

ConicalFern
ConicalFern Posts: 121 Member
edited July 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
I've been using this website and app since the end of January this year and I've had some great results with it - I lost about 10kg (22lbs) with it, which was about a 12% reduction in my overall weight. I've also been able to keep off the weight I've lost, having being the same average weight for the past few months. I feel great with the weight I am and I'm cycling, swimming and running faster than I ever have. I exercise 6+ times a week, typically burning around 6000-7000 exercise each week. The ability to eat back exercise calories was a huge motivator in getting active again (I haven't done any exercise for the past 2 years until logging into this app) and I've loved every minute of this.

I've been at maintenance for about 4 months now, and throughout that time I've been religiously logging everything I eat, strictly keeping to my weekly calorie goal (within around 100 calories until the past couple of weeks). However, over the past few weeks I've become increasingly aware of the pitfalls of doing this, and as I'll explain below how, for me, I think it's been deleterious. Here are some of the negatives I've encountered whilst counting calories:

- I would rather eat somewhere that published their nutritional info online, so I don't have to worry about what I'm eating when I'm out. This means I miss out on a lot of the nicer, independent places
- I only eat what I can accurately log. For example, it would be good to snack on nuts at work, but because I can't be bothered to weigh them out at home then bring them into work I don't eat them at all, meaning I just snack on carbs. It would probably be better to estimate what I eat, but I don't trust myself to do that.
- On a similar note, I'm often low on my fat macros, so I should have a cheese plate after dinner the counter this, but I can't be bothered to weigh it all so I have something else. Now I've stopped logging everything I can more cheese. Yay.
- I won't cook meals with lots of ingredients but I can't be bothered to weigh them all
- I eat when the app tells me to, not when I'm hungry. I prelog every day more or less a day in advance. I do (did) this so that I knew I wouldn't get to the end of the day and run out of calories. Because I was always scared about getting hungry after dinner I would plan to eat a lot then, even though often I wouldn't really want it. This was often at the expense of snacks in the afternoon when I can get very hungry.
- The most problematic thing for me is that the only thing that matters is the number of calories left over and that I do not go over. I have become so over reliant on this that if I'm worried about going over my calorie goal I will eat something that I know I can't accurately log, so won't bother. This is typically a spoon of peanut butter or a handful of nuts - not great things not to be logging.
- I feel I am a slave to the app. I can never enjoy food without thinking about the 'cost' of eating it, whether it's worth it and so on

Over the past weeks I found the last two have really started to get to me, and I have probably had a 'binge' eating episode about once a week during this period. This typically involves not logging food during the day, and celebrating this lack of accountability by eating what I would estimate to be around double my calorie allowance. Not logging these days meant that I didn't have to worry about the calorie allowance, so I ate far more than I otherwise would. If I were eating like a normal (non-logging) person I would acknowledge that it doesn't matter whether the calories are logged or not, they're all the same. I've been the weight I'm at before without logging anything and I've never suffered from these binge eating episodes before.

With this in mind, I've given up logging, so that I can re-learn what matters is what I eat, not what I log. I'll continue to weigh my portion sizes and myself every morning, but I won't eat to a goal any more, instead eating when I feel I need to. I'm going to try and eat roughly what I was when I was counting calories, but worry less about it. If I start gaining weight again maybe I will go back to logging, or perhaps doing this retrospectively, so I know foods are causing me to go over my calorie goal so I can try and avoid them

Just sharing in case anyone else any thoughts on the above, has gone through anything similar, or has any ideas for why I have suffered in these ways.

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Replies

  • dreaming13000
    dreaming13000 Posts: 68 Member
    Prelogging has always worked best for me too. I think it's great to take a break! I'm an avid weight lifter /crossfitter so I bulk and cut. When I'm bulking I do not weigh, I'll still input from time to time just to see macros. When I'm cutting I weigh everything precisely, mostly, but I'm a big believer in living life to its fullest. If I eat out somewhere and can't log, then I just don't log it. Food is a great part of life! But being healthy is too! Good luck to ya on the next chapter in your life!
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    I do think you make some good points and bring up some of the tools people perhaps don't think to incorporate into learning with this app.

    I don't know if it's because in the UK we have less chain restaurants but only eating where I can see nutrition info would also drive me potty. As it is, being in the UK, it would also nearly eliminate my ability to eat out and I really enjoy eating out. So I eyeball and guesstimate. So far I have had no issues with this, you just have to be sensible. And I think it's good to equip yourself to judge how much food is reasonable when eating out just through instinct.

    I also get where you're coming from with the ingredient heavy meals. I guess for those what's important to me is to know what cut of meat I'm using and any other calorie dense items and again know what is a reasonable portion. I think logging has helped with this because again, you get used to seeing what a portion should look like vs what you'd like it to be.

    I'd like to think once I hit maintenance I could also stop logging. I certainly was able to maintain my weight for years prior (albeit still in an overweight range). If that's also something you can do then great, it certainly can make life easier.

    Good luck going forward and breaking some of the more unhealthy behaviours that can come from trying to better manage our weight!
  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
    Good luck!
  • frankiesgirlie
    frankiesgirlie Posts: 669 Member
    Thanks for putting this together. It's gives points to think about.
    I'm still in weight loss mode, so I haven't had to try and navigate maintenance yet. The point about avoiding independent restaurants is something I've found myself doing. We go out to eat a lot less now because I want more control over what's in my food, but I also find myself always opting for the chains, since their calories are online.
    I hope when I go into maintenance I can be brave enough to eat in the mom & pop places and guesstimate.
    For now, I can't imagine a life without logging.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    I stopped for awhile because of some of the reasons you outlined as well. Eventually I had to start again, because while it was great to be enjoying sesame oil and avocado...my portions got bigger and bigger. My weight was just not steady enough for my liking :(
  • Cutemesoon
    Cutemesoon Posts: 2,646 Member
    I'm in maintenance. I've stopped logging as well. It was driving me crazy & taking over my life. I'm enjoying eating whatever I want. I still workout 5 days a week. I also weigh myself just to ensure I'm staying within -/+ 5 lbs of my lowest weight. If I see that I'm gaining weight, it's back to logging. I was just afraid that I'd have to log for the rest of my life. So that's my reason for taking a break. I NEED to get used to eating proper portions without logging.
  • BodyzLanguage
    BodyzLanguage Posts: 200 Member
    Yeah, mfp becoming a crutch is sorta that elephant room. When you get to that stage of eating JUST because you still have a high "green" number at the end of the day - you'll know. I think everyone eventually reaches that stage tbh. Although I'm pretty skilled at eyeballing/guessimating, I'm relishing the intricacies this app offers. For example: sodium, fibre, sugar etc.. I'm enjoying it at the moment. I will say once one reaches the stage of true mastery in maintenance, with the app.. it's only natural you graduate from the app and tackle things with your new found knowledge of nutrition & discipline.
  • gonetothedogs19
    gonetothedogs19 Posts: 325 Member
    Cutemesoon wrote: »
    I'm in maintenance. I've stopped logging as well. It was driving me crazy & taking over my life. I'm enjoying eating whatever I want. I still workout 5 days a week. I also weigh myself just to ensure I'm staying within -/+ 5 lbs of my lowest weight. If I see that I'm gaining weight, it's back to logging. I was just afraid that I'd have to log for the rest of my life. So that's my reason for taking a break. I NEED to get used to eating proper portions without logging.

    Well said. I think most people who start logging should have that goal - reaching your goal weight, stop logging, weight yourself everyday, and start logging again if you've gained 5+/- pounds. As time goes on you learn more about what you should and shouldn't eat to avoid gaining weight, with the goal of never having to log.
  • gonetothedogs19
    gonetothedogs19 Posts: 325 Member
    cnbbnc wrote: »
    I love that you put all this out there. I log every single day (and days ahead of time) religiously, but truth be told...while it's helped me immensely, it bothers me that I'm so hung up on it. I'm not ready to give it up quite yet, but at some point I'd like to.

    I think logging, weight, measuring and agonizing over every calorie you eat, especially if you've met your weight goal, is a religion.
  • srecupid
    srecupid Posts: 660 Member
    You sound similar to me. I hate cooking things with many ingredients and I hate eating at restaurants with no nutritional value posted but those are often the best restaurants. But it's rare I do either and I'm getting better with just guessing and using quick add calories. It just drives me crazy when I see something that looks great and I don't want to try it because it doesn't have nutritional value posted. Like I went to the local produce store yesterday and they had some roasted peppers and i almost didn't buy them. Heck even cooking something as simple as popcorn has turned complicated. I need to weigh my oil and popcorn and then weigh the yield to get an accurate count. It's made me make popcorn less and less or only make it when I won't have to share.
  • ConicalFern
    ConicalFern Posts: 121 Member
    try2again wrote: »
    I don't know... I get a bad feeling about this. You won't eat things now that you can't log accurately, but intend on indulging in all these things once you're free from logging? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. You mention you will weigh portions, and yet you were unwilling to weigh things before? I know not everyone needs to log to maintain (or even lose), but it seems like you may not have a lot of practice at the skills you will need, because you've been avoiding these things. Maybe I'm wrong. I wish you the best, at any rate :)

    I weighed everything I log, but every now and then (not often) I would cheat and eat something knowing that I won'g log it (actually often the guilt would make me log it the next day). This often leads to a 'cheat' episode whereby I eat everything in sight.

    In particular with the cheese, the issue is not weighing, but rather logging it, alongside a few grapes,crackers etc.. It's just such an effort in comparison to grabbing a bowl of cereal.

    That said, the binge episodes are really the reason why I've stopped and things that have led to them, rather than things like not eating nuts at work.
  • ConicalFern
    ConicalFern Posts: 121 Member
    JoshuaMcAllister wrote: »
    This is pretty concerning really, I've not been logging nearly as long a most here, so I've probably not had the same experiences overall.
    Not making large meals because of weighing the ingredients or not eating out because you can't find the nutritional info is completely alien to me. It takes a matter of second to put an ingredient on the scale before adding it to the pot. A quick search of the database to find a similar meal to the one you've eaten is not difficult either, I'll simply find the highest calorie choice and go with that. Honestly it looks like excuses rather than reasons, this isn't a religion or addiction, it's weight loss or maintenance.. If eating out puts you back 200 calories then adjust your target/goal next week or the week after. This app is more than a weight loss tool, it helps manage a healthy and sustainable lifestyle and surely that is more important than being 100% accurate at logging??

    I'm sure if you've been so strict over the last few years, you should sustain it for some time but I'd imagine meal portions, snacking etc will soon start to sneak back in with time. Good luck, you certainly seem like you need a break from logging maybe you'll be back with a new love for it..

    It's more than a second. It takes a few seconds to weigh it, yes, but then you have spend ages finding it in the database and when you're in a rush to get everything in. A good example of it adding time is parmesan cheese (again!) on my pasta. I love putting it on, but weighing it adds so much time; I have to weigh the bowl, grate it into the bowl (where it tends to go everywhere) then weigh it. Now I can eat similar amounts and just grate it straight onto my meal.


    The things like the effort of weighing big foods and not eating out independent places are relatively minor in comparison to binge eating episodes. Those are the real reason why I'm stopping, the other things I just things I won't miss. Below is a typical episode I retrospectively logged. Eating to maintaince then doing this is going to lead to weight gain faster than not logging everything.

    1o87uhb51hpm.jpg
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
    I have just had to compromise about a number of those issues. I can't give up eating food cooked for me by other people for the rest of my life, and I'm not going to tie myself to only eating packaged food with tightly controlled contents, either. Being human means sharing food with other people and I'm not going to stop that!

    But I *can* use what I know about cooking (From 20+ years of being the family cook) and what I know about nutritional content (from keeping my logs) to at least keep myself aware of what I *likely* am eating, and account for it in the larger picture of my day and my week.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    ConicalFern wrote: »

    (snippage of sensible comments to highlight specific section)

    It's more than a second. It takes a few seconds to weigh it, yes, but then you have spend ages finding it in the database and when you're in a rush to get everything in. A good example of it adding time is parmesan cheese (again!) on my pasta. I love putting it on, but weighing it adds so much time; I have to weigh the bowl, grate it into the bowl (where it tends to go everywhere) then weigh it. Now I can eat similar amounts and just grate it straight onto my meal.

    (more snippage)

    For others' benefit, as I'm still not wanting to tell you that your sensibly, personally-tailored strategy is wrong, because it isn't:

    Put the meal on the scale. Zero the scale. Grate the parmesan cheese onto the meal. Note weight. Done.

    (Yes, you still gotta look it up, I get that part. And one of the things I hate about my occasional episodes of indulge-y eating, which I do log, is that they often push my true frequently-eaten foods off my "recent" list. Sigh! However, I like the way logging indulgence makes me reconsider its worth. Sometimes it was worth it, sometimes not.)

    Nice binge, BTW - looks somewhat like some of my "over goal" moments, mostly healthy stuff (nuts, cheese) I didn't really need to eat. ;)
  • zharptichka
    zharptichka Posts: 127 Member
    I have similar problems. My solution when eating out was to do a best guess (fortunately for me I'm very good at identifying flavors and portion sizes..I've tested myself against a food scale and my friends and I play a game where we'll make a dish and the other will try to say what went in it) and then I add an extra 15% of calories. It's not perfect but it's a nice compromise and since I'm still losing weight doing it, I don't worry so much. Maybe it'll change as my weight lowers and I need to be more exact to keep losing but for now it's keeping me logging which keeps me thinking about the choices I'm making.

  • ConicalFern
    ConicalFern Posts: 121 Member
    edited August 2016
    JoshuaMcAllister wrote: »
    This is pretty concerning really, I've not been logging nearly as long a most here, so I've probably not had the same experiences overall.

    I don't see how placing a bowl of pasta on a scale, grating some parmesan cheese on top and taking the reading is so time consuming and unpractical? Like I say its literally seconds, I mean you wont start to consume the pasta right away anyway, you let it rest a little so that it can cool to a temperature suitable to eat. Maybe it is just me but I don't see that as a reason to stop logging, an excuse maybe.

    Your second point of binge eating, I can kind of get on board with, I had one or two moments like that during cuts but whilst in maintenance I eat food I enjoy that meet my goals. It sounds like you are being far to restrictive on what you "should and shouldn't eat"

    Nothing will stop you "feeling a slave to this app" unless you change your mindset and you don't seem willing to do that. Like I said in my previous post, it's a health and lifestyle app not a religion.

    Thanks for your help but it's not just the time it's the psychological effort. I work roughly 11h a day during the week and 6h/day at weekends, combined with the fact I do around an hour's exercise each day (more at weekends) I just can't be bothered any more. Whether you deem it as an excuse or not, I find it annoying. I assure you life is easier not doing it.

    I do not think that I am being too restrictive. I eat around 3000 calories a day so I have plenty of flexibility in what I can eat. I do, however, do tend to avoid alcohol and things high in the sugar, since I would rather get better 'value for money' for my calories.



  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Some of those are the same reasons I stopped. I only lasted about a month. For me trying to measure everything and log every ingredient sucked all the joy out of cooking, which has long been a passion of mine, for many of the reasons you mention. And, having been at a healthy weight for most of my life without logging I knew it wasn't necessary for me.
  • JoshuaMcAllister
    JoshuaMcAllister Posts: 500 Member
    ConicalFern wrote: »
    JoshuaMcAllister wrote: »
    This is pretty concerning really, I've not been logging nearly as long a most here, so I've probably not had the same experiences overall.

    I don't see how placing a bowl of pasta on a scale, grating some parmesan cheese on top and taking the reading is so time consuming and unpractical? Like I say its literally seconds, I mean you wont start to consume the pasta right away anyway, you let it rest a little so that it can cool to a temperature suitable to eat. Maybe it is just me but I don't see that as a reason to stop logging, an excuse maybe.

    Your second point of binge eating, I can kind of get on board with, I had one or two moments like that during cuts but whilst in maintenance I eat food I enjoy that meet my goals. It sounds like you are being far to restrictive on what you "should and shouldn't eat"

    Nothing will stop you "feeling a slave to this app" unless you change your mindset and you don't seem willing to do that. Like I said in my previous post, it's a health and lifestyle app not a religion.

    Thanks for your help but it's not just the time it's the psychological effort. I work roughly 11h a day during the week and 6h/day at weekends, combined with the fact I do around an hour's exercise each day (more at weekends) I just can't be bothered any more. Whether you deem it as an excuse or not, I find it annoying. I assure you life is easier not doing it.

    I do not think that I am being too restrictive. I eat around 3000 calories a day so I have plenty of flexibility in what I can eat. I do, however, do tend to avoid alcohol and things high in the sugar, since I would rather get better 'value for money' for my calories.



    Yeah it does seem to really hit you psychologically. Your lifestyle sounds ridiculously similar to my own, 12hr working days, minimum of an hours exercise daily due to a cycle commute before you add in my gym time. So believe me I know all about there not be enough hours in a day. I just love MFP and its benefits, just trying to point them out before you give up on it. You think your unhappy now, but in 6 months of not logging and possible weight gain or any detrimental factor that may come of not holding yourself accountable. Each to their own, I just think it would be better long term for you to find a sustainable way of logging rather than giving up altogether.
  • ConicalFern
    ConicalFern Posts: 121 Member
    JoshuaMcAllister wrote: »
    ConicalFern wrote: »
    JoshuaMcAllister wrote: »
    This is pretty concerning really, I've not been logging nearly as long a most here, so I've probably not had the same experiences overall.

    I don't see how placing a bowl of pasta on a scale, grating some parmesan cheese on top and taking the reading is so time consuming and unpractical? Like I say its literally seconds, I mean you wont start to consume the pasta right away anyway, you let it rest a little so that it can cool to a temperature suitable to eat. Maybe it is just me but I don't see that as a reason to stop logging, an excuse maybe.

    Your second point of binge eating, I can kind of get on board with, I had one or two moments like that during cuts but whilst in maintenance I eat food I enjoy that meet my goals. It sounds like you are being far to restrictive on what you "should and shouldn't eat"

    Nothing will stop you "feeling a slave to this app" unless you change your mindset and you don't seem willing to do that. Like I said in my previous post, it's a health and lifestyle app not a religion.

    Thanks for your help but it's not just the time it's the psychological effort. I work roughly 11h a day during the week and 6h/day at weekends, combined with the fact I do around an hour's exercise each day (more at weekends) I just can't be bothered any more. Whether you deem it as an excuse or not, I find it annoying. I assure you life is easier not doing it.

    I do not think that I am being too restrictive. I eat around 3000 calories a day so I have plenty of flexibility in what I can eat. I do, however, do tend to avoid alcohol and things high in the sugar, since I would rather get better 'value for money' for my calories.



    Yeah it does seem to really hit you psychologically. Your lifestyle sounds ridiculously similar to my own, 12hr working days, minimum of an hours exercise daily due to a cycle commute before you add in my gym time. So believe me I know all about there not be enough hours in a day. I just love MFP and its benefits, just trying to point them out before you give up on it. You think your unhappy now, but in 6 months of not logging and possible weight gain or any detrimental factor that may come of not holding yourself accountable. Each to their own, I just think it would be better long term for you to find a sustainable way of logging rather than giving up altogether.

    As I've said before, I've been a similar weight to what I am now before without logging, in fact really paying no attention to what I eat at all (microwave burgers, 175g of crisps in an evening and so on). I put on the weight during a period of my doctoral studies where I was doing no exercise, eating as above, and drinking excessively. I paid no attention to what I ate at all. I'm now eating much more healthily than I was then and doing infinitely more exercise. Combined with a little self-restraint, the body is more than capable of maintaining a constant weight. Plenty of people manage to do this without MyFitnessPal and I'm hoping I can join them. As I said the original post if I start to gain weight I may return to logging.



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