All calories may not be equal

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  • DancingDaffydils
    DancingDaffydils Posts: 13 Member
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    MissusMoon wrote: »
    Let me be clear, the OCD comment was aimed at those who stress over weighing a pre-packaged, single serving yogurt just incase the calories are off by +/- 5-10kcal. Those who weigh restaurant food and pick apart meals "just incase".

    Counting calories is one thing but that is just not normal behaviour.

    If I weren't weighing my food, I would be eating at least 200 more calories more than I should every day. Slices of bread, cups of yogurt, packaged food that says it has "about 1.5 servings" that really has more than three. I'm far from OCD, but yeah, I'm going to weigh all of that--because having lost 75lbs is better than not.

    The receptionist at my physical therapist's office and I got to talking. She used to be obese. She has peanut butter and apples for breakfast, and still weighs it all out. She's not OCD either. She's doing what she needs to do to maintain her healthy weight. Over five years and counting.

    Labeling people with a mental condition because you don't understand why they do what they do is ridiculous.

    If you have reached your goal weight, and five years later you are still counting every calorie and weighing and measuring everything you eat, it is OCD.

    God forbid you gain two pounds. Guess what? You can start counting again and lose the two pounds.

    You are clueless about OCD and you have no business speaking about it. At this point I think you are purposely being disrespectful.

    I mean no disrespect and I do not mean to be argumentative. It is just beyond my comprehension that a healthy person who works out and has reached the correct weight by counting, weighing and measuring, would continue to count, weigh and measure meal after meal after meal, year after year after year.

    Just enjoy your food. Weigh yourself every day. I guarantee that nothing bad will happen to you other than gaining two pounds, which you can lose right away by counting, measuring and weighing.

    Sorry, but I do not understand the obsession. And it is, in my opinion, an obsession.

    There is a different between a habit and an obsession. There is a difference between a choice and a compulsion. There is a difference between having an obsession or a compulsion and having obsessive compulsive disorder. There is a difference between choosing to weigh and stressing about weighing. There is a difference between stressing about weighing and having obsessive compulsive disorder. Until you understand any of these differences, you need to stop throwing diagnoses around like they're Mardi Gras beads.

    So much this

  • gonetothedogs19
    gonetothedogs19 Posts: 325 Member
    edited August 2016
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    MissusMoon wrote: »
    Let me be clear, the OCD comment was aimed at those who stress over weighing a pre-packaged, single serving yogurt just incase the calories are off by +/- 5-10kcal. Those who weigh restaurant food and pick apart meals "just incase".

    Counting calories is one thing but that is just not normal behaviour.

    If I weren't weighing my food, I would be eating at least 200 more calories more than I should every day. Slices of bread, cups of yogurt, packaged food that says it has "about 1.5 servings" that really has more than three. I'm far from OCD, but yeah, I'm going to weigh all of that--because having lost 75lbs is better than not.

    The receptionist at my physical therapist's office and I got to talking. She used to be obese. She has peanut butter and apples for breakfast, and still weighs it all out. She's not OCD either. She's doing what she needs to do to maintain her healthy weight. Over five years and counting.

    Labeling people with a mental condition because you don't understand why they do what they do is ridiculous.

    If you have reached your goal weight, and five years later you are still counting every calorie and weighing and measuring everything you eat, it is OCD.

    God forbid you gain two pounds. Guess what? You can start counting again and lose the two pounds.

    You are clueless about OCD and you have no business speaking about it. At this point I think you are purposely being disrespectful.

    I mean no disrespect and I do not mean to be argumentative. It is just beyond my comprehension that a healthy person who works out and has reached the correct weight by counting, weighing and measuring, would continue to count, weigh and measure meal after meal after meal, year after year after year.

    Just enjoy your food. Weigh yourself every day. I guarantee that nothing bad will happen to you other than gaining two pounds, which you can lose right away by counting, measuring and weighing.

    Sorry, but I do not understand the obsession. And it is, in my opinion, an obsession.

    There is a different between a habit and an obsession. There is a difference between a choice and a compulsion. There is a difference between having an obsession or a compulsion and having obsessive compulsive disorder. There is a difference between choosing to weigh and stressing about weighing. There is a difference between stressing about weighing and having obsessive compulsive disorder. Until you understand any of these differences, you need to stop throwing diagnoses around like they're Mardi Gras beads.

    OK, here is my new diagnosis - it's odd.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    MissusMoon wrote: »
    Let me be clear, the OCD comment was aimed at those who stress over weighing a pre-packaged, single serving yogurt just incase the calories are off by +/- 5-10kcal. Those who weigh restaurant food and pick apart meals "just incase".

    Counting calories is one thing but that is just not normal behaviour.

    If I weren't weighing my food, I would be eating at least 200 more calories more than I should every day. Slices of bread, cups of yogurt, packaged food that says it has "about 1.5 servings" that really has more than three. I'm far from OCD, but yeah, I'm going to weigh all of that--because having lost 75lbs is better than not.

    The receptionist at my physical therapist's office and I got to talking. She used to be obese. She has peanut butter and apples for breakfast, and still weighs it all out. She's not OCD either. She's doing what she needs to do to maintain her healthy weight. Over five years and counting.

    Labeling people with a mental condition because you don't understand why they do what they do is ridiculous.

    If you have reached your goal weight, and five years later you are still counting every calorie and weighing and measuring everything you eat, it is OCD.

    God forbid you gain two pounds. Guess what? You can start counting again and lose the two pounds.

    You are clueless about OCD and you have no business speaking about it. At this point I think you are purposely being disrespectful.

    I mean no disrespect and I do not mean to be argumentative. It is just beyond my comprehension that a healthy person who works out and has reached the correct weight by counting, weighing and measuring, would continue to count, weigh and measure meal after meal after meal, year after year after year.

    Just enjoy your food. Weigh yourself every day. I guarantee that nothing bad will happen to you other than gaining two pounds, which you can lose right away by counting, measuring and weighing.

    Sorry, but I do not understand the obsession. And it is, in my opinion, an obsession.

    I am sure it is a very small minority that still uses a scale after reaching their goal years and years ago.
  • VividVegan
    VividVegan Posts: 200 Member
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    Don't know if the following OCD comment(s) was referring to my original one (that implied my diagnosed and struggle with OCD and MFP) but basically people with OCD often obsess about small things. Just like when I joined MFP and started counting every calorie, I double checked everything and became obsessive over it and its been time consuming. My step-mother has been helping me break this cycle of obsessing over things for years. She's a psychologist with a PHD. With me, the less I know, the better. It didn't hurt my progress before joining MFP anyways. My first 50 pound loss or so was completely intuitive. Have lost a few from MFP but no doubt, its harder (IMO).
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
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    I only "count" while losing and don't while on maintenance. But if someone must count and weigh on maintenance, then I can respect that.
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    edited August 2016
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    leajas1 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    SLLRunner wrote: »
    Mentali wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Let me be clear, the OCD comment was aimed at those who stress over weighing a pre-packaged, single serving yogurt just incase the calories are off by +/- 5-10kcal. Those who weigh restaurant food and pick apart meals "just incase".

    Counting calories is one thing but that is just not normal behaviour.

    The point about pre-packaged stuff being potentially off was a response to a poster who was claiming that it was better to change one's diet to be all packaged single-serving stuff vs. to have to weigh. IMO, saying you must use pre-packaged to count properly is way more neurotic than weighing one's foods*, and once you weigh it's not much of a hassle to weigh everything you put in a bowl or on a plate or use in cooking.

    *If I were going to make such judgments, but I personally think it's wrong to do so.

    I was that poster.

    Bottom line - the vast majority of people fail at diets, whether they count calories or don't count calories.

    My suggestion was that in order to make calorie counting easier for newbies, it would be much better to eat pre-packaged foods (including things like single-serve yogurts, cans of tuna fish and soup) or foods where you don't have to weigh or measure anything (like an egg).

    It's hard enough to start any diet (which is why most people fail). Making newbies weigh and measure and obsess over calories on Day 1 makes the situation even worse, and will result in more failure.

    The people here on this site who say its easy to weigh, measure and count remind me of vegans who say it's easy to be a vegan. Both are not easy.

    You've revealed one of your hidden assumptions here - that the failure of newbies is disproportionately related to being overwhelmed by weighing of food. I would say it's far more likely that the failure of newbies is disproportionately related to not being able to eat everything they want in the portions that they want, which is not resolved by limiting them to specific foods (that will still be off by hundreds of calories).

    In fact, you contradicted your own assumption at the start by saying that most people fail at diets regardless of counting calories. So why would counting calories in a way that severely restricts your eating solve the problem?

    You missed the point. If you want more people to join the fraternity of calories counters, it is suggested that they start out eating pre-packaged food, eggs, etc.

    And another thought - You are more likely to get an accurate count that way (add 10% to the label if you want to), than doing it on your own.

    And another thought - Weigh and measuring yogurt because it's in a large container? How about keeping an empty single-serve container, and scooping the yogurt from the large container into the single-serve container? No counting necessary.

    Now I'm wondering if you are serious or not.

    Fraternity of calorie counters? What is that?

    Did we forget to show you the secret handshake? Message me and I'll fill you in. You did go through the initiation, right?

    The one where you bathe in coke and get the secret motto written on your forehead in twinkie creme?

    Exactly how many grams of Coke and Twinkie creme are used in this ceremony? It sounds amazing.

    Now people are linking OCD and religion? This seems a natural progression.

    FYI They are kidding around.