Calorie Counting FOREVER.

DebSozo wrote: »

AlabasterVerve wrote: »

Counting calories is great but I need to be able to maintain my weight without counting calories too (for when life gets in the way or I just lose interest is logging my food). For that, I've found keeping to a strict food schedule has worked just as well as counting calories for maintaining my weight.

I eat low carb and naturally gravitate towards eating two large meals a day and as long as I stick to that eating pattern it's not possible for me to eat above maintenance consistently enough to gain weight. Figuring out an eating pattern that allows you to maintain your weight without calorie counting might be worthwhile so you have another option.

This has been my solution also. I find that I don't go over maintenance with 2 meals a day and am not hungry with LCHF. I have to watch my protein levels or I can start gaining again. But overall I've been able to maintain without counting. HOWEVER, when I want to actively lose weight I must log and weigh carefully.

I am not understanding the bold part. In the context of counting calories....how can you gain weight just if you have what you consider too much protein? This does not make sense.

Counting calories is about making sure you don't have too much overall food so that you stay within your deficit.

I've been maintaining for a few months, but still doing up to 1000 calorie a day burns six days a week. In general I can drop that to around 750 calories a day burns with exercise and be fully satiated if I watch what I eat (no late night chip binges for instance). For me it's going to be transitioning myself into a normal diet (not sure I know the definition of 'normal' for me yet) and maintaining along with an acceptable level of exercise that I can keep up for the next few years. I'm not there yet. Until I am, I will be logging. I have no end date on that yet at all.

DeniseB0711 wrote: »

Thanks, you guys! I really appreciate the encouragement. I am so glad I am not alone. @AprilCoe I really hope I make it to 1000 days. I have set a mini-goal to log in for 10 days.

This is a great way to start by not setting goalposts so far away that they are intimidating. Do 10 days, and then another 10 days and another 10 days and before you know it, it will just be a comfortable part of what you do for yourself, like taking a shower and brushing your teeth.

Will you have to count calories forever? At this point, who knows? But commit to counting calories for now as a vehicle to help you learn what an appropriate amount of food is for you to achieve whatever your current weight management goal is.

I lost 75lbs last year and reached my goal weight in just under a year. Then I slacked off due to some personal issues that changed my focus for about six months and I regained 20lbs simply by not paying attention. I'm now back to weighing and logging my food again, and the excess I gained is coming off. I don't see this as a chore, but rather as a comfort - it allows me to actually *know* I'm doing what needs to be done in order to lose the weight I put on again, instead of merely *thinking* I am and being wrong.

Eventually I hope to get to a place where I'm so confident in my knowledge about portion size and caloric load that I can forego weighing everything I regularly consume. I hope to only need to do so if I include something that isn't a normal part of my food repertoire to get a realistic handle on the impact that food item will have on my day. I plan to let my body weight be the indicator of whether that is working for me or not.

And if it isn't, I'll simply go back to weighing everything again at that point. Because doing so is a heck of a lot easier for me than yo-yoing all over the place.

bblue656 wrote: »

You will NOT be forced to count calories for the rest of your life. Once you are at your goal weight. You will just count calories for a couple months to learn what your body will need to maintain, then it should be easy

For some this works, intuitive eating is great when it works, but many find that they really do have to log or regain. Whatever works for you is the best plan.

I've been maintaining 100 pound loss for a year and still log, especially now because I'm trying to shave off some additional pounds. However, I started my weight loss (before mfp) on Nutrisystem and used their transition-to-maintenance method for a while as I shifted over to eating home prepared food (PAckaged food was getting soooo boring). I was able to still keep losing weight this way but eventually switched to mfp and Fitbit as I wanted to track nutrition carefully (I was a new vegetarian and had some things I wanted to monitor) and properly fuel training I was doing (I sync with Fitbit). It was a long journey and my methods adapted as I tried new changes! Anyway, what I found useful about the way Nutrisystem taught maintenance back then is that I I learned is how to follow a regular eating pattern where basically you count portions rather than calories. A little more simple than logging every food so I would like to eventually go back to that again and see how it goes. But basically you have a fixed eating plan where you might eat a specific number of servings of food per meal. For example I might decide to eat a piece of fruit, some type of protein, and some type of whole grain at breakfast each day; a protein morning snack; lunch that follows was a pattern, etc. etc. Non starchy veggies anytime. Breakfast could be a banana, serving of cheerios, and serving of milk today and apple, serving of oatmeal, veg sausage tomorrow, etc. Morning snack could be a serving of nuts, or cheese, or yogurt, etc. Not the same food every day but the same pattern for each meal that will roughly add up to the right amount of calories for the whole day and also give a mix of good nutrition. It requires that you be mindful and pay attention to balanced nutrition and portion size but as long as you stick with the eating pattern it requires no logging. You just gotta make up a plan that fits your TDEE and preferred macros and stick to it fairly consistently.

ETA: I've also experimented with not counting portions but instead calories per meal. For example, 400 calorie breakfast every day, 200 morning snack, etc. and as long as I am hitting meal targets, the day is fine overall. No need to log. That might work for someone who naturally gravitates to nutrition/macros that are acceptable to them and don't need to enforce that carefully with specific numbers of protein portions or whatever.

Not I....

Our of curiosity OP when you are trying to lose weight do you modify your diet away from what you would normally eat or do you just moderate your portions? If losing weight is not only calorie counting but also changing your diet to something you wouldn't normally eat then that could go a long way to explain problems with maintenance. Not that I am an expert on maintaining, I have issues with that myself.

I spent the first three decades of my life giving absolutely no thought to what I ate, then one day out of nowhere my metabolism slowed down. I thought I could use a calorie diary for a few weeks then stop, but I went right back to gaining weight when I did. I am realizing the same thing, being healthy and fit has to be a conscious act every day, every meal, and I hate it. But its my job to stay fit, and I want to stay healthy for my family and lifestyle, so here we go. Like most new habits I don't expect the habit to get easier, but I suspect WE will eventually adapt to become stronger and more disciplined at it.

I'll be counting/logging for a long time if not forever. But I don't mind it, in fact I enjoy it much better than being overweight!