Is counting calories/macros destroying our enjoyment of food?

The first thing that comes to mind on this is the growing demands for calorie counts at restaurants.

I love food, and have spent an appalling amount of money at some very, very high end restaurants. When I go out to eat, I want it to be an event, and I'm sure as hell not thinking about calories. But there are some people out there who believe that it should be mandatory for all restaurants to provide nutritional information, which I think would be the death of everything I love about fine dining.

I mean, I'm all for the chains and fast food places which operate a production line kitchen having nutritional info and when I am grabbing something while out (as opposed to going out for the purpose of eating out) I tend to pick the ones that do have the info so I can track.

But the restaurants I love, the ones where I don't even look at a menu and just let them bring us a parade of different food that the chef has whipped up for that morning's trip to the market, could never even try to give nutritional info without destroying that spontaneity.

So in that way, I despair of the calls for mandatory information at restaurants and believe it would destroy the soul of those places, and thus my enjoyment of them.

Not for me. In fact it has enhanced my enjoyment of food (if that was possible lol) because I'm trying all kinds of new recipes that i never even thought of before.

Maybe eventually, but right now it's still new, so kind of fun.

Not at all. For me, I think it has just increased my awareness of what I eat and how much I need.

I don't worry too much about calories for eating out or special events, just try to be mindful of how much I am eating and not get too carried away. I don't eat out very often anyway.

Counting calories made me realise how many little "treats" I was slipping into my overall diet and how often that was happening. Now those treats are still there, but that are special, rare treats that I enjoy and appreciate a lot more.

I find it enhances my enjoyment, since I'm not stressing over whether or not eating that piece of birthday cake will cause me to start gaining weight again. I know exactly where I stand with my energy balance.

I can't eat as much, which might be 'less' enjoyment. If that makes sense.

Even if it does, it's something that I have to do. My choices are

A: count calories/macros
B: gain 10 or more pounds every year

I choose A.

My high weight was 320. I choose to take control now rather than being a My 600-Pound Life candidate later.

My highest enjoyment of food comes with high-calorie and high-volume meals. If I didn't have to deal with the consequences, I'd happily eat fast food 3-4 times a day at 800+ calories per meal. Right now I'd love to get a Dairy Queen 6-piece Chicken Strip Basket (1250 calories), a medium Coke (280 calories) and either a medium Chocolate Xtreme Blizzard (800 calories) or a Peanut Buster Parfait (710 calories). Another meal that I'd really enjoy would be half of a medium Meat Lover's Pan Pizza (1320 calories) from Pizza Hut.

My mouth is watering and I'm getting a bit of a rush just thinking about it.

However, I do have to deal with the consequences. Sigh. Every day that I don't gain weight is a victory.

I've gone through some times of feeling like keeping track of every gram was making life a LOT harder than I wanted it to be. I work my *kitten* off at the gym/home and had an image of my future being where I just make "balanced" "wise" decisions about food and it will all fall into place. It hasn't been that easy. I'm not at my goal weight (after 18 months), so I've had to adjust my expectations and embrace that keeping track of macros might be my life. Maybe maintenance will be a little easier? I'll cross that bridge when I come to it! In the meantime I can't say I love minding my macros, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get to the finish line :-)