Anybody else get tired of counting calories?

MikePTY wrote: »

Reading some of the comments, I think some people are definitely in a situation of not being able to see the forest for the trees when it comes to counting and logging. What I mean by that is: If you are finding yourself driven crazy by weighing and measuring every little thing that goes into your cooking, then don't do that anymore. It's much better to log, even if you are estimating, than not log at all.

I do use a food scale, but mostly to weigh portions of finished dishes to estimate the calories based of the ingredients. Is it perfect? No. But it allows me to do it all in only a couple of minutes a day and keep me a lot more on track than not logging.

Most meals only have a couple of items in them that are high calorie. If you don't get the exact right estimate of how much onion is in your dish, you will survive the counting process. I am certainly not bashing exact measurements. If you can do it, that is awesome and will be the best way to do it. But if you can't, just doing the best you can and keeping with it is good enough. My calorie counting has not been perfect, but by keeping with it and getting the majority of it right has helped me a lot.

It's true that many have success this way, but the OP was also bemoaning a lack of progress, which would indicate a need for more accuracy, not less.

I don't often log very low calorie foods, and I'm OK with using the entry in my recipe builder even if I know the amounts were likely off a little. I don't weigh things like eggs, bread slices, and most prepackaged foods like some do. But so far, these things don't affect my results. If they did, I would be more careful.

Also, occasionally I find that I have underestimated my intake for the day and my log reveals I can have more and still meet my goals. I want everything I've got coming to me!

Edited from original comment.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

kimny72 wrote: »

cartersmom06 wrote: »

CSARdiver wrote: »

Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.

I'd rather do that than not track and fail.

You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?

Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.

This is not a criticism at all, but just something to think about. I also never used to plan what I was going to eat or when. But when I realized I had gained 20 lbs and I started logging, I realized logging was easier when I did do some meal planning. So I started doing it, at least sometimes. And now, I honestly think it's the mindfully planning ahead that is really helping me maintain, probably more so than actually logging it. I had to get to a place in my life and in my head where prioritizing how I was fueling my body was worth that time. I tend to take 10-15 minutes on the weekend to think about what I want to be eating this week and making up my shopping list. And I prep my lunches, plus basics for other meals like a big pot of rice, or roasting veggies, or baking a pan of chicken thighs (on good weeks at least . I will still go off plan if I feel like it, but not too often.

In my experience, when you leave things to chance, they have a better chance of going badly and tend to require more work to get right than if you had just planned for it in the first place.

Everyone's thought process is different, so just because this was necessary for me doesn't mean it is for you. It just seemed relevant, at least for me.

Yup, everyone is different. I'm a happy logger, but almost never meal plan. I do tend to eat similar breakfasts/lunches from day to day, but that's been true forever: I'm kinda comatose until the day's been rolling for many hours, so routine and simplicity in the first 6 hours or so are just my jam. Dinner pretty much always starts with looking in the fridge and thinking "hmmm . . . what sounds good?". Sometimes lunch does, too.

Meal planning and happy weighing/logging of food aren't joined at the hip, IMO.

I think this is a really interesting discussion, and that what people mean by meal planning is hugely varied too.

I don't meal plan as in decide at the beginning of the week what I will eat. I do sometimes make some lunches ahead on Sunday (to take to work). I also decide when shopping basically what meats and veg I will be eating that week, but not how I will eat them (and sometimes I just take things out of the freezer, but even that requires a day or so in advance planning).

I tend to eat basically the same breakfast (varied based on vegetables I have on hand), and either a a lunch I prepared in advance (and logged then -- I'll move it around from day to day if I was wrong about when I would eat it) or leftovers from the night before or there are a few places I might buy lunch and I know what fits and meets my preferences for vegetables and calories and so on.

For dinner, I tend to decide during the day what I will have, but it's constrained by what I know I have on hand, and how late I get home (if really late, I plan something that will be even faster to make than my normal choices). Sometimes I might decide I want something that takes longer (or is crockpot based) and so plan that in advance.

For me (not everyone, obviously) just eating what and when I feel like it wouldn't work, since I have set times when eating makes sense (after I get home from work, in the morning before going to work and after running, at lunch time, although that can be basically any time of day that makes sense for me). I feel dissatisfied breaking meals up into smaller snacks, so I just would never be "hmm, feel hungry now, with have a little something" vs. having a meal, which might make it simpler (depending on what the snacks are -- on the whole snack foods, whether whole foods or packaged stuff, seems like it might be simpler to log). If I had to stop at the store every day to get what I felt like eating, cooking itself (and shopping) would be a huge pain, not logging! (And I understand you are not saying you do this either, but when people say they don't plan at all and eat what they are in the mood for, that's what it kind of sounds like to me -- what you said you do, work with what you have on hand, is basically what I do.)

I don't prelog except for lunches I make in advance.

Salixiana wrote: »

oat_bran wrote: »

I will definitely not be able (or willing) to spend my entire life doing that.

Yes - I totally resonate with everything you wrote. I wouldn't be able to do the calorie counting if I didn't live alone right now. Sharing food with others is a real headache of making mental notes ... I do lots of "quick add calories" after the fact in those cases. The whole logging thing is definitely an obsessive mindset, and I can only do it for a limited time.

I lost 25 lbs in 4 months with MFP three years ago, and stopped logging food (with huge relief) as soon as I hit my goal weight. I maintained that goal weight for over a year with no logging, because I was so intuitively aware of caloric value.

But then I quit thinking about it and just ate whatever I wanted, so now I'm re-losing those same 25 lbs, obsessively logging every mouthful again. When I reach my goal weight this time, I will again be enormously happy to quit the whole routine of weighing and recording -- but will strive to continue the background awareness on into the future, rather than only for the first year after losing.

My year-plus of maintenance with no logging proved to me that I'm not doomed to a future of food logging for the rest of my life, but my back-sliding for the two years after that showed me that a certain degree of mindfulness will always be necessary.

It's great that you maintained for over a year without logging. However, logging is not "definitely an obsessive mindset." Many of us who have been doing it for a while spend maybe 5-10 minutes per day logging our food. I like my usual breakfast, so I just copy it into my food diary on most days. The meals that I cook frequently are in my recipe builder, so I just go in and tweak the ingredients as necessary each time I make that dish. I do a lot of meal prep and often have leftovers for lunch, so again I'm just copying the same information across multiple diary entries. While you may dislike logging, it's neither fair nor accurate to say it constitutes an obsession for others.

Weighing & logging is “hard”? Being overweight is hard. Choose your hard.

Hi, everybody. I have a goal to lose 6 kg before the winter holidays, so I can look beautiful in a dress. But counting calories is almost not working and weight goes very slowly. What do you think if I buy a fat-burning supplement https://helloketodiet.com/pro-keto-lab/ will my progress go faster? Or should I look for another solution?

annykey86 wrote: »

Hi, everybody. I have a goal to lose 6 kg before the winter holidays, so I can look beautiful in a dress. But counting calories is almost not working and weight goes very slowly. What do you think if I buy a fat-burning supplement https://helloketodiet.com/pro-keto-lab/ will my progress go faster? Or should I look for another solution?

Lose around 13 pounds in a month, if that's all (or nearly all) you have to lose? Look for another solution, such as a different dress, Spanx, and more patience. Losing weight that fast is likely to make you look drained, sallow, and listless; and sap you of attractive vivacity. Healthy weight loss always goes slowly, and it goes especially slowly when you have relatively little weight to lose. Choose between the fast weight loss, and reasonable assurance of good health and healthy appearance. (I know which I'd pick, but YMMV.)

I just like to see people stay strong, healthy, and attractive while achieving their weight goals.

I know I'm just echoing others' posts but no, I don't mind it. Five years in, and maintaining a healthy weight, I'm totally okay with logging everything. I do like that I can take a break for a day or two, or on vacation, but then I like to get right back to it. I also don't sweat inaccurate counts from time to time, like a restaurant meal that gets logged as some generic entree in the database and could be way off. To me, consistency is key and if I'm 80% correct in my logging that's pretty good for maintaining.

I know some people may find it "woo" but I feel like when I don't log I am actually kind of likely of undereating and then wondering why in the world I feel lightheaded and crave chicken nuggets (which I don't even like) or other junk food seemingly out of the blue. Logging everything simply helps me to stay on track eating the right amount of food so that does not happen!