Has anyone stopped counting calories and still lose

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  • Ming1951
    Ming1951 Posts: 514 Member
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    kissedbythesunshine wrote: »
    I've been here for over a year. Counting calories, weighing everything. At this point I'm just tired of it per say. I just want to cook dinner for my family and not worry about my portion being exactly calculated to the tee. In reality it only takes a few mins out of my day but I'm wondering do people actually do this....forever? At some point doesn't our bodies know when enough food is enough without having to count calories. I'm thinking of just not counting for a few weeks and I'm wondering how that worked for others.

    For me..and I can only speak for me...I am going to need to log measure & count calories. I've been on diets lost the weight, felt good thought I had control and little my little I fall back into old habits, gain all the weight back plus..So now that I'm am 65 it is my intention to do this and keep the weight off to stay healthy and alive. But thats me.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    rainbowbow wrote: »
    I haven't read the other replies but i'll give you my take on it.


    Often times we think about things as purely black and white. You either do it 100% perfectly weighing, measuring, hitting your goal every single day knowing the exact number of calories you are eating-- OR -- you just go buck wild on food and don't have any clue what you're in-taking.

    I think this is incredibly damaging to our relationship with food. Logging works, absolutely... but i certainly don't want to have to log my food for the rest of my life.

    Logging has taught me the skills i need to have a GENERAL idea about how much i've eaten in a single day, whether or not i should skip that extra bowl of icecream, whether or not I should try and eat a little more protein, or whether i have the wiggle room for some extra treats, etc. My entire experience logging has taught me the skills i need to maintain my weight and have an idea about what i'm eating without being obsessively accurate with it. And since i've found the foods i love and enjoy I eat very similarly every week. If i know i'm going to be eating something beyong my normal routine (such as a huge meal at a restaurant) I will still take a look at the menu and plan my day accordingly (have a lighter breakfast/lunch of IF). This takes out the guess-work.

    In general i recommend people log until they have lost the weight the want to lose and take that time to really get a handle on finding a diet that is sustainable and enjoyable for THEM as well as make all the habitual changes necessary. Then as they go into maintenance i recommend them to slowly and surely start estimating their intake and watch their scale to see if any changes are made. They can make some small adjustments here or there to stay on track with their weight and goals.


    My point being is... you don't have to log forever, but logging is an excellent tool to teach you the skills you need to maintain this lifestyle long term. If you aren't capable of maintaining your weight without logging right now, that's okay.... it just means you have more to learn!

    Well summarised!
  • 85Cardinals
    85Cardinals Posts: 733 Member
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    Your body doesn't know if you're counting or not, so the same rules apply. Of course you can still lose without counting, as long as you're still burning more calories than you're taking in.
  • socialdchic
    socialdchic Posts: 170 Member
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    I have not counted in a very long time BUT I had counted before and got an idea of portion control and all of that. I still eat the same things for breakfast and lunch typically and I still look at nutrition labels when I buy stuff and still avoid things that are high calorie and not healthy. You can lose without counting but you need to have a basic idea of everything first and stick to it.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    I counted for only about 3 months. I am a consistent eater and fairly good at estimating portion sizes. I lost an addition 125 pounds after I stopped counting and now am in my maintenance range after 2 1/2 years. I've done random days of counting, every 6 months or so, and am always right on my calories and macros. You need to know how to prep food in a calorie-friendly way and what your portion sizes should be. Eating twice as much pasta as usual or a bag of chips you don't normally eat isn't going to be ok when you stop counting, if you don't already know how to adjust your overall consumption to balance it out.
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,452 Member
    edited November 2016
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    Yes, I lost some of my weight without counting calories, and maintained for four years, much of it without counting. I regained sixteen pounds recently during a stressful time, and have now lost it again without counting. All you need is some kind of system that works for you to control your intake, so that you have a reasonable deficit. It doesn't need to be controlled to a precise amount of calories.

    I have tried a variety of ways of controlling it. The most successful at the beginning was restricting eating to mealtimes (I followed the "No S Diet"). I still do that, more or less, and am also careful with portions. LCHF also works well for me. Keeping a physical food diary also helped. Limiting certain foods helps. At the moment, I'm doing a bit of IF. But probably the big thing was the change from snacking (which I had been advised to do) to eating at mealtimes. It's much easier to keep track of what you're eating, and to eat healthily I think, if you stick to three (or less) meals.

    I'm not recommending any of these, because I do think it might be an invidual thing. I can't rely on my body to "let me know" when it's had enough food, but maybe some people can, and that case intuitive, mindful eating might work. I think it's just a case of finding what works for you.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    jkquinn13 wrote: »
    SideSteel wrote: »
    Yes I've done it and other people have too.


    [*] Finally, realize that if you fail it does not necessarily mean that you must log for the rest of your life. It simply means that right now, the methods you implemented didn't work and they need to be adjusted.

    [/list]

    Good luck!

    Patrick


    Well said Patrick - one of the best summaries I have seen - I'm printing this off to put in my journal
    Jeff

    thanks Jeff!
  • BigTandthesquatters
    BigTandthesquatters Posts: 151 Member
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    I don't measure old go to recipes that I have made the same way for over a year. I make some standard recipes that are always the same so they don't get recorded, but every new mix, recipe, combination, or dining experience gets weighed measured and recorded.
  • SapphireMoon23
    SapphireMoon23 Posts: 139 Member
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    I need the discipline & accountability. I love food too much.
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
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    I have to count. When I stop I always gain. And I still suck at guestimating portion sizes.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    SideSteel wrote: »
    [*] Consume protein with each meal, somewhere in a range of 20-40g per meal on average. More or less depending on your number of meals and protein needs. You don't need to track this, just eyeball it or use palm sized servings as a guideline. You can use the PN method which I'll link here, but I should mention that I don't agree with them on their rather negative slant on calorie counting which they also present in this article. I DO think the alternative they present is quite good and so that's why I posting this article: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/calorie-control-guide

    I agree that the alternative looks good, but do they ever explain why they think a woman only needs to eat half as much as a man of the same size? That was the only part that felt "off" to me. My husband weighs 50% more than me and needs 50% more food. Not twice as much food and certainly not three times as much food!

    Even if they wanted to incorporate the "men are a bit more muscular and need a few more calories" idea, they could have just given them more protein or just given them more starch. Giving them more veggies too is just bizarre to me.
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    edited November 2016
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    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    SideSteel wrote: »
    [*] Consume protein with each meal, somewhere in a range of 20-40g per meal on average. More or less depending on your number of meals and protein needs. You don't need to track this, just eyeball it or use palm sized servings as a guideline. You can use the PN method which I'll link here, but I should mention that I don't agree with them on their rather negative slant on calorie counting which they also present in this article. I DO think the alternative they present is quite good and so that's why I posting this article: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/calorie-control-guide

    I agree that the alternative looks good, but do they ever explain why they think a woman only needs to eat half as much as a man of the same size? That was the only part that felt "off" to me. My husband weighs 50% more than me and needs 50% more food. Not twice as much food and certainly not three times as much food!

    Even if they wanted to incorporate the "men are a bit more muscular and need a few more calories" idea, they could have just given them more protein or just given them more starch. Giving them more veggies too is just bizarre to me.

    That is strange that they gave the men double portions. I think men's BMRs, RMRs, and TDEES are higher than women's. My husband is my height and can eat more than me for instance. And when we diet together he tends to lose more weight faster. I don't think that it is twice as fast though. But I'd say it is definitely more. On the other hand, he is 30 pounds heavier than me at the same height.

    The "portion method" works well for me to maintain my weight. It is also a good method for estimation when eating at a restaurant, family outing, etc where one might not have access to food scales. I would say though it doesn't help me personally to lose the last few pounds. I like it for maintenance though because it is very simple. I do the plate method for lunch or dinner in a pinch when I can't use a kitchen scale.

    Note-- When in actively losing weight mode I have to weigh food and log carefully in order to be accurate.

    ETA: Out of curiosity I popped in hubby's stats into the TDEE calculator. It gave him 2000 calories for his TDEE and it gave me 1600 calories at the same height and stats only with changing weight and sex. So he needs an extra 400 calories for maintenance than I do.

    If I punch in my weight but only change the sex from female to male it says TDEE is 1800. So for a man at my weight and height there is only an extra 200 calories needed at the same activity level . I guess the difference lies in that the average man likely weighs more than the average female, has more muscle mass, and might be more active.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    I think of my relationship with food a little bit like a drug addiction. If I don't watch it closely, I get out of control every time. So, yeah, I may very well have to count calories for the rest of my life. But, I won't get diabetes, or heart disease, and I won't die an early death, at least not for reasons I can control.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    edited November 2016
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    DebSozo wrote: »
    I guess the difference lies in that the average man likely weighs more than the average female, has more muscle mass, and might be more active.

    Right, but that's accounted for by the fact that you're using your hand to measure portions. Men who are bigger have bigger hands. But that site says men get two palms of meat, 2 fists of veggies and 2 cupped hands of starch - but women only get 1 palm of meat, 1 fist of veggies and 1 cupped hand of starch. That's the part that sounds fishy to me.

    My husband has way bigger hands than me, and if we followed that, he'd be eating at least three (probably four) times as much food as me. He needs more, but not *that* much more.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    edited November 2016
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    Yes! I actually lost 85 pounds not counting, it was not luck, it was totally awareness of food. But the only way to do that is to know portion sizes very well and know your nutrition well enough to make your meals with all the knowledge and awareness in your head, like having a meal plan in your head. I can do it, but I have yet to meet another who has done this. I mainly log my food now for all the people I help and it's not so bad either.
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,452 Member
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    I like the idea of using hands for portion sizes, but agree that the article seems a bit off. It says that it's calculated on four meals a day, which means that men could be having eight palm-sized portions of meat a day (for instance). That seems an awful lot of meat! And I agree that it's odd that women only need half. I've tried to use this method before, but I do find that splitting it into meals like that isn't helpful. I will tend to eat the bulk of my meat and vegetables at my evening meal, and I only eat one to three meals a day, so it just becomes more confusing! It might be easier to show the totals for the day. I think it's not clear where some foods lie (are beans carb or protein? Are eggs protein or fat?).

    But I do agree that there's no need to calorie count if you can visually control your portions. And I like that it makes it clear that these are maintenance portions, and you'll need less if you want to lose.
  • lisalewis7588
    lisalewis7588 Posts: 76 Member
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    I logged for several months and then stopped for several months, and while my weight loss has slowed, I'm still in a downward trend. I do some mental math in my head every day because I know approx. how many calories are in my go-to foods. If I have a new meal, I do log just that one meal sometimes so I can get an idea how many cals is in it.

    My husband, however, can't do that. If he stops logging, he gains - and quickly! I'm not sure what is different between us, but I have somehow learned over time to eat a more appropriate amount, and he just can't do that. He will probably always have to log, even when he hits maintenance.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
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    If you are done losing weight and want to just maintain I'd say sure go ahead and stop counting and try to just estimate proper portions - but keep an eye on your weight and start counting again if it starts to creep up.

    If you're still trying to lose I would say don't stop counting yet, but maybe give yourself 1 day a week or just weekends off of counting to get a little mental break. Or maybe just don't count dinner... whatever works for you.

    This is fine as long as you keep losing weight- if it stalls or starts coming back on then go back to tracking.

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