Any Tips on Making Calorie Counting Easier?

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IHaveMyActTogether
IHaveMyActTogether Posts: 945 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hi,

I'm new here, but I've tried calorie counting before. It wasn't my jam. So I went ham on exercise and made new eating habits, and lost a lot of weight. See avi - red skirt is past, blue skirt is what I'm wearing, white skirt is a goal.

I feel like a child asking "are we there yet?" on the journey and want to put my foot on the proverbial gas. So I want to give this a try. Again. Sigh.

Not really sure what the psychological hold up is - why I feel doing extreme exercise is easier than typing in what I ate, but eh..? Even tried talking pics of my food. Couldn't even do that consistently. But I can get my behind to the gym dang near every day. And yes, I've also tried calorie counting my food AT the gym. That didn't work either.

Tips. Please. Sorry to sound so pathetic.



Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    What don't you like about calorie counting?
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
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    It becomes routine. And the more you do it, the quicker it is to find foods you eat often. Heck, I am pretty routine so I do a lot of "copy yesterday's meal".

    I generally log ahead for the day (or day before) for prepared foods (or recipies I have made and logged).
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Calorie counting is just a tool to make eating less, easier. If you can easily eat less without counting calories, there really is no point.
  • IHaveMyActTogether
    IHaveMyActTogether Posts: 945 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    What don't you like about calorie counting?

    Maybe the attention paid to what I eat. I think I don't like that. I was once on the cusp of an ED as a teen. Vegetarian, exercising all the time (ALL the time), and doing low fat low cal. Everything I ate was chosen for its low caloric value. It was not a sustainable lifestyle. Fast forward some years, and it was the exact opposite. I ate whatever whenever. Fast food on the daily, sometimes twice daily. It was also not a sustainable lifestyle.

    Now I'm at a happy medium with food. I eat healthy, but enjoy whatever I want. I do a quick glance at calorie content before making selections, but it's not like a running tally in my head. This feels more sustainable. Calorie counting feels like the old me and I don't want food taking over my life, in either extreme.

    But this belly fat got to go.


  • IHaveMyActTogether
    IHaveMyActTogether Posts: 945 Member
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    Panini911 wrote: »
    It becomes routine. And the more you do it, the quicker it is to find foods you eat often. Heck, I am pretty routine so I do a lot of "copy yesterday's meal".

    I generally log ahead for the day (or day before) for prepared foods (or recipies I have made and logged).

    I think you might have given me the answer.

    I changed my eating habits one meal at a time. These meals are pretty consistent calorie wise (250-300 for breakfast, 400-450 for lunch)

    Maybe logging the meal I find most difficult calorie wise might help. Logging once a day is easier than every time I open my pie hole.

    Thanks!
  • IHaveMyActTogether
    IHaveMyActTogether Posts: 945 Member
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    Ok. So I put in the quick add calories for breakfast and lunch a week ahead. I skipped the weekend, because those are not consistent (I go to restaurants, etc.). Now I have only have to pay attention to what I eat in the evenings and on the weekend, which are my "trouble areas."

    Yay!

    I'll report back in a week if I remember and tell you how it went. If I can keep it up for two weeks, I'll enter in some typical breakfasts and lunches, and start tracking those with the "my meals" feature, to see nutritionally what improvements I can make from there.

    Yaaaaaaay!!!!





  • thisPGHlife
    thisPGHlife Posts: 440 Member
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    IHaveMyActTogether wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    What don't you like about calorie counting?

    Maybe the attention paid to what I eat. I think I don't like that. I was once on the cusp of an ED as a teen. Vegetarian, exercising all the time (ALL the time), and doing low fat low cal. Everything I ate was chosen for its low caloric value. It was not a sustainable lifestyle. Fast forward some years, and it was the exact opposite. I ate whatever whenever. Fast food on the daily, sometimes twice daily. It was also not a sustainable lifestyle.

    Now I'm at a happy medium with food. I eat healthy, but enjoy whatever I want. I do a quick glance at calorie content before making selections, but it's not like a running tally in my head. This feels more sustainable. Calorie counting feels like the old me and I don't want food taking over my life, in either extreme.

    But this belly fat got to go.


    Maybe try logging your food on paper for a couple weeks, but just the food and not the calories. Maybe focus on how the food made you feel. Not the emotions of it, but did I feel full? Did I really enjoy what I was eating or did I simply eat it because it's what I had? Did I feel like my food have me energy or did it leave me feeling weighed down?

    I know you didn't say the food was the issue but it could help you to get into the habit of loving and thinking about what you are eating without being obsessive about calories and possibly pushing you towards an ED. Then maybe you can correlate what your eating with any changes you see in your body.

    It also looks like your close to goal since the blue skirt isn't much bigger then the white skirt. Yay!! The going gets slower the closer you get to goal. If you feel like you're at a healthy place mentally witb your food, and it's a sustainable way of eating for you, do you NEED to change?Maybe bump up the exercise?
  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,485 Member
    edited July 2018
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    I learned tracking at WEight Watchers. Not a plug, just how it happened. There’s a learning curve. At first everything is new and you have to put a number on it. Eventually you will have numbers for your favorite dishes and meals. Things will get a lot easier.

    I’m not a very advanced techie. I did almost all of my tracking on paper. I thought it was easier. Just a basic list and numbers. Used the computer for research. But if you are tech savvy getting a data base of your favorite meals and dishes is a big help.

    The reason you don’t like calorie counting is to some extent it’s a drag. But there can be some interesting aspects. It’s clear to me now that pre WL I was knocking back 3500 calories a lot of days, sometimes more. Also, working within my numbers became sort of a puzzle game.

    And if it was possible to lose weight at the gym, I would have never gone near WW. Good luck. Keep going.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
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    My tricks:
    On foods that I'm the only one eating it (sourdough bread and dark chocolate digestives): weigh the whole container to find the calories of everything, divide by servings. That's your entry, no having to reweigh food. Works great for my half-Snickers (cut them in half and freeze), I may be off a few calories for each half, but I'm correct for the whole bag.

    Meals that are eaten often: recipe builder. No need to add all the individual ingredients for Shepards pie every time I have it, as it's exactly the same recipe every time. It takes time, but after a while you'll have a massive database and adding meals becomes very easy
  • PB4Lyfe
    PB4Lyfe Posts: 28 Member
    edited July 2018
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    my biggest tip for making it easier is to make your pool of meals a little shallower for a while. If you just have a handful of go-to meals (I actually have go-to DAYS that I know work) to start with, it’s easier to log them, and then you can start changing them up a bit at a time.


    Besides that, I’ve struggled quite a bit with my diet in the same ways you described, but I actually find counting my calories and macros to be really helpful for that. It stops me undereating as much as it stops me overeating.

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