Are people REALLY counting calories here?
Replies
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I did WW for a couple of years; it worked well for me, I got to my goal, but the most important thing it taught me is that I needed to weigh, measure & track what I was eating. It really was a matter of deciding what my priorities were, & how I wanted to live my life & maintain my health. I swapped over to MFP & calorie counting because it is free, & actually easier, as calorie info is listed on most foods, or more easily obtainable. So I've done this , weighing, measuring, & tracking ALL my food, for more than 5 years. I have been at maintenance for most of that time.
It's not difficult, & in fact, takes up about 5 minutes out of my day. I have a digital food scale on my kitchen counter, & it only takes a few seconds to weigh something. It's worth it!
It only takes a week or two to develop a new habits & that's exactly what it is, a habit. It does take a bit of self discipline, which is a handy thing to cultivate. If you have to eat fast food, you can check in advance & find the things that are the healthiest or least calorific, but personally I think fast food is expensive for what it is. If you really want to lose the weight, really & seriously, you might want to think about all the benefits for such little effort. Good luck!
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I have only been using this a few days. The one thing it has done immediately for me is make me fully aware of what I'm putting in my mouth. There would be days I'd walk past the biscuits and just pick one up. Walk past the biscuits more than a few times and you get what I'm talking about.
Looking to see if I make the progress projected in 5 weeks time.
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Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »Try counting calories 30 years ago and you think this is hard? This is easy.
The more you do this, the easier it gets.
Haha! I used to have quite a collection of calorie books. And my little notebook for logging my calories. And no idea how many I was supposed to eat! This is like living in a futuristic science fiction book
When I see threads asking about how to get a bigger butt, I can't help but giggle.
Can you imagine someone asking that question back in the 80's
People would have been questioning if they were the full quid lol
Yep! My jaw would drop open!
I was thinking this last night. Every time I see a make-your-*kitten*-bigger DVD for sale or see requests for glute workouts, my mind is blown. Does. Not. Compute.
This must be how my grandmother felt about punk.
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Op tracking what you eat is easy, slightly more work in the beginning as you need to find everything in the database, but after a while it gets easier and quicker. If sticking to it is hard maybe start at a lower deficit and build on lowering it in steps. Say 200kcal below maintenance once that is easier lower it again, rinse and repeat until you are at the deficit you want to be. In the meantime consider slowly changing what you eat so that creating that deficit also becomes easier. Small sustainable steps for weightloss and eventually maintenance.3
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Op tracking what you eat is easy, slightly more work in the beginning as you need to find everything in the database, but after a while it gets easier and quicker. If sticking to it is hard maybe start at a lower deficit and build on lowering it in steps. Say 200kcal below maintenance once that is easier lower it again, rinse and repeat until you are at the deficit you want to be. In the meantime consider slowly changing what you eat so that creating that deficit also becomes easier. Small sustainable steps for weightloss and eventually maintenance.
Omg your posts were AWESOME! Im gonna check out that guide. I think the hardest thing is eating my recommended cals anywhere from 1600-1900 depending on which formula is used. That is soo little, i think i take in 2700-3000 right now maybe not every single day but still.
I do want this tho, and i do see the worth in trying, especially if others are really doing it lol.
I like your suggestion of starting with a higher calorie goal and tightening it from there and slowly switching out foods to make it sustainable.
I also like what someone said, you just do it, no excuses.6 -
Lesismore2011 wrote: »Are people REALLY counting calories here? I just find it crazy hard.
Absolutely! And after the first couple weeks, it's actually quite easy.
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Lesismore2011 wrote: »Op tracking what you eat is easy, slightly more work in the beginning as you need to find everything in the database, but after a while it gets easier and quicker. If sticking to it is hard maybe start at a lower deficit and build on lowering it in steps. Say 200kcal below maintenance once that is easier lower it again, rinse and repeat until you are at the deficit you want to be. In the meantime consider slowly changing what you eat so that creating that deficit also becomes easier. Small sustainable steps for weightloss and eventually maintenance.
Omg your posts were AWESOME! Im gonna check out that guide. I think the hardest thing is eating my recommended cals anywhere from 1600-1900 depending on which formula is used. That is soo little, i think i take in 2700-3000 right now maybe not every single day but still.
I do want this tho, and i do see the worth in trying, especially if others are really doing it lol.
I like your suggestion of starting with a higher calorie goal and tightening it from there and slowly switching out foods to make it sustainable.
I also like what someone said, you just do it, no excuses.
Your welcome!
Just remember every little bit lost is a step closer, there is no rush you didn't get overweight overnight and it won't come off overnight.
Also if you have a day where it doesn't go as well, then take it as a day in isolation, don't beat yourself up and try to stick to your plan the next day, life gets in the way sometimes that's just the way it is.4 -
If you desire to lose, you will have to learn to log. It's just that simple
C'mon these days everyone has smart phones and the free MFP makes it
easy to log. You can do it while your chewing. There is no excuse unless,you're
trying to justify not counting as a reason to keep overeating.
I rationalized my way into a 40 lb gain by not logging and avoiding the scale which
was just too many steps away and my poor feet might get cold walking to it.10 -
It took a few weeks to get the hang of it, but now it feels second nature to me. I've worked it into meal planning, so it is less if an inconvenience in the moment. Using the food scale is what set me free from the difficulty of weight loss. I could, in a measurable way and with a high degree of certainty, know that my intake was in a deficit, and as a result, I could expect weight loss. That has indeed been the case for me for going on 9 months.3
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I suggest just start logging what you would normally eat/drink. Notice where most of your calories are going. Is it satisfying? Is it meeting your nutritional needs? Maybe you will see you could cut drink calories pretty easily or something.
Planning. Start thinking about what you will eat in advance- try things like prelogging, looking up nutritional info for places you go and figuring out what will fit your goals, planning meals, preparing food in advance.
Look at some other people's diaries to see how other people manage. Some of us have our diaries set to public so you can just select our name and go see it. There are many threads like "what did you have for breakfast?". Do a search for those type threads if you want some meal ideas.
I prelog my food every morning for the day and adjust portion sizes to fit my goals. I look at calories first then meeting my protein goal. I try to eat several servings of vegetables or fruits a day. I generally have 100-300 calories for snacks.
I pair higher calorie foods with more lower calorie vegetables. I might have a regular burger, side salad and unsweetened tea.
I reduce calories in foods by using less cheese, less oil, lower fat milk, thinner crust for pizza. I might skip rice or bread if it doesn't fit well that day.
I eat food I like but common sense applies. I don't try to have doughnuts, stuffed crust pizza, fried chicken, bacon cheeseburger and a peanut butter shake all in one day.
Typically I eat like this:
Breakfast- things like Greek yogurt, granola bars, cereal with milk, sandwich, dinner leftovers, fruit, cottage cheese (about 200-300 calories)
Lunch- things like sandwich, salad, or dinner leftovers (about 300-500 calories)
Dinner- something different every night of the month. (about 500-600 calories) I have soup once a week usually.
Snacks- things like fruit, chips, popcorn, pretzels, chocolate, cookies, granola bar, carrots, celery, broccoli, trail mix, deviled eggs, pickles, cottage cheese (about 100-300 calories)7 -
I agree that it's not that bad once you get the hang of it. I'm in maintenance now and still weighing/logging b/c I'd really like to stay at maintenance this time and not yoyo.
Eating out at restaurants that don't have nutrition info online (or at potlucks/other people's houses) can be more tricky but I try to build in a little buffer to account for that. 4 -
Being overweight is hard.
Calorie counting is hard (at first).
Pick your "hard".7 -
It's easy now. I use to think it was kinda weird but I can't live without doing it now lol1
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I'm sorry people aren't more encouraging. But you absolutely can do this. The hardest part is getting past yourself and changing your mentality. Once you absolutely 100% decide this is what you need to do to lose weight, it gets easier. Learn about how MFP works. Read around. Start logging. Start learning about nutrition. You don't have to do it all at once. It's a long process. It takes time and you can learn along the way. Everyone here is at a different point in the process.2
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Lesismore2011 wrote: »I just find it crazy hard. How do you all do it? I neeeed to get this 40lbs off me.
I know the biggest negatives in my diet is the daily eating out at fast food places. That combined with my lust for sweets. I like to cook but sticking to my meal plans and counting calories seem pretty impossible.
Like others have said, it gets to be less work as you go. If you're eating out at chains, all those food items should be in the database. When you're at home, you can scan foods that have barcodes on the packages, and build recipes for things you eat a lot and then reuse them over and over. (I eat the same two things for breakfast 95% of the time, for example.) Once you've got some of those things entered as recipes or in your "frequent" foods list, that'll help speed things along.
And like everyone else on the site says--a good food scale will make logging MUCH more accurate and easy.
Good luck!1 -
Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?0
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Lesismore2011 wrote: »Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?
You really can't. Not accurately. You can guess some random amount of calories to try and make up for it and see how your progress goes.
Or you can stop doing that.14 -
It takes me 5 minutes a day to log my food and 5 minutes to shower.
Both are just part of my routine. I'd rather spend 5 minutes less on my hair than stop logging.9 -
Lesismore2011 wrote: »Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?
If you are serious about your diet, maybe you should stop grazing on their food. It's a hidden source of calories that will keep you from hitting your goals.
This is an example of where logging everything builds self awareness.15 -
Lesismore2011 wrote: »Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?
I don't eat other people's food, (and my kids know that if they touch my food the wrath of MOM will be upon them
). I don't take bites, lick bowls, grab extras etc that are not accounted for. Part of the learning process! 10 -
RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »It takes me 5 minutes a day to log my food and 5 minutes to shower.
Both are just part of my routine. I'd rather spend 5 minutes less on my hair than stop logging.
Exactly!
If I'm not going to take the time to log it, then I shouldn't take the time to eat it.8 -
Lesismore2011 wrote: »I just find it crazy hard. How do you all do it? I neeeed to get this 40lbs off me.
I know the biggest negatives in my diet is the daily eating out at fast food places. That combined with my lust for sweets. I like to cook but sticking to my meal plans and counting calories seem pretty impossible.
The biggest negative in your diet is your attitude. You CAN do it, it's not impossible. As with anything, start doing it and eventually it'll become a habit if you are persistent enough.11 -
I started this before the scanner and before there was a lot of foods in the database. (That was a pain and all the different nutrition info I found just made my head spin) I quickly said forget this I'm done and I'll be happy fat! HAHAHAHA Yeah.............NOPE! I found my way back here and found it had changed and I'm having fun with this!!! It's more fun then any game app! I play with different foods and combos of foods to see if I want to use my calories for it. I'm still getting used to it. I'm still trying to learn which foods make me feel good and give me results in my vitamins and minerals and fiber!! I am getting the weight loss -happy dance- and seeing where I can get in my good nutrition!!! I am slowly getting the hang of this and it is so worth every min I spend logging. I have made it a game that I can win (or lose really) on multiple levels! From 282 to 244.8 so far and this is getting even more fun as I get into it!! You can do this!!!! You can play with different items of fast food and see which ones would fit with your goals! You can play with all that at night for a few min or just 5-10 mins of free time. Use this beginning stage as your play time. Play with your logging and figure out you goals. You've got this for sure!!! Have fun!6
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Lesismore2011 wrote: »Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?
A number of ways:- Stop doing it - no need for logging. It is their food not yours
- weigh out childs food and when you have taken a bite weigh it back - time intensive but maybe it will help to stop doing it.
- If you know you do it log quick calories 250 cal every day. if it is just the occasional bite, but consistant
And nobody said you hade to be perfect form day one nor the best pupil in the MFP classs from day one - SO give yourself time, learn (and I mean learn) what the possibilities are within the program.
I know I was not perfect in logging (I am still not perfect). But I do know that I went in with a mindset that this was a tool to help me, not a goal in itself. I also did not beat myself up if I had a bad eating/;ogging day - Then I'd just add quick calories and log it as an over day. As long as that is an occaisonal thing so be it.
But what I did do was being honest to myself - If I ate somethig I would log something. I never found a valid reason not to log. Sometimes it may not be perfect but it was logged. Never an excuse. Not even when I was on a hike in Scotland and we had bad reception on the app. I logged and found a little spot where we did have reception.
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Lesismore2011 wrote: »Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?
You can alter your behavior or you can estimate and add calories to your log to account for it.
I'd say stopping bites and nibbles of your kid's food would be best though.9 -
Lesismore2011 wrote: »Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?
As the others have said ... stop doing this.
My mother never did this when she made our meals. I never did this when I used to work in childcare. Probably just me and the way I was raised, but the idea that someone might have taken a bite out of my food just seems a bit .. ick.11 -
What are you finding hard about it? Open your app and log what you eat. Once it becomes a habit and your regular food choices pop up as options when you add meals it gets even easier. Logging everything also helps give you a second thought about what you're about to consume and whether you really need it or not.2
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Lesismore2011 wrote: »I just find it crazy hard. How do you all do it? I neeeed to get this 40lbs off me.
I know the biggest negatives in my diet is the daily eating out at fast food places. That combined with my lust for sweets. I like to cook but sticking to my meal plans and counting calories seem pretty impossible.
A lot of people are here because they avoided doing things that were "crazy hard" and lapsed into an unsatisfactory level of fitness. Becoming overweight is crazy easy, eating bad food in huge quantities is crazy easy, skipping the gym is crazy easy, and no one needs an app or program to do any of that. Becoming and remaining fit requires a degree of effort, and if it was easy then no one would be overweight...13 -
Eating at restaurants was always my downfall, too. (Fried mozzarella sticks and their siren songs!) Now, if my boyfriend and I plan to go out to eat, I check online menus and plan ahead. We never just spontaneously go out to eat until I know exactly what I'm getting. It's really helped keep me accountable.4
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