NO MORE CALORIE COUNTING
Replies
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I like counting. Fun to compare a lot of pointless crap I used to fill up on with stuff I really like.3
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GaleHawkins wrote: »The freedom from the need to count I find personally empowering.
I often don't count, but find the idea that that's "empowerment" to be odd. But YMMV and all that.
I can see why someone may find it empowering and it’s not odd at all. Imagine finally learning what works for you in order to lose weight and maintaining without having to micromanage or depending on anything but just being mindful after years of bad habits and not really knowing what you’re doing. I think empowering is a good word for that.
I'm pretty sure the poster in question never actually counted. That's one reason why I find it odd. Personally, I never thought I had to count (I know how to lose weight just fine without counting, for me), it was something I thought might be an enjoyable way to lose (I was struggling with motivation and found that just as creating a workout schedule and logging workouts often motivates me to be more consistent with my workouts, that logging food was a fun approach for me). I mostly don't count at maintenance, unless I'm experimenting with a new way of eating or just think it would help me be more mindful for a while, and I do it at Cron (which is more micromanaging than MFP, since you can see so many nutrients so much better).
But for me, if one must use the rather abused word "empowering," what would seem empowering is feeling in control of one's dietary choices and weight. Not counting or not.
Lol. Ok
Gosh, I must be more naturally funny than I knew, to make you actually laugh out loud! I feel very proud and empowered.24 -
sweetangelkitten wrote: »Not me. I gained a lot of weight eating wholesome foods and eating when I was hungry.
There are others who are basically doing what you are doing so you are not alone.
Whatever your goals are I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you! I can't seem to find anyone on here who isn't counting calories sadly...
This is a calorie counting app and website... 🤭
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yeah, maybe you are right, be yourself and have a healthy and happy life.4
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estherdragonbat wrote: »sweetangelkitten wrote: »Best of luck in finding what works best for you.
unfortunately for me, eating "healthy" without calorie counting is why i was obese most of my life. even after loosing 100lbs twice. I'm a victim of my own portion creep. even in maintenance this time around i should do check ins with the scale and diary every few weeks even if i don't do so daily.sweetangelkitten wrote: »spinnerdell wrote: »Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.
Why does this lead so many people to weight gain? We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<
a couple of hundred years ago our access to food and what foods as well as our actiivty level was VASTLY different. you can't really compare the two.
Easy, don't eat the processed food
You mean cooked/dried/smoked/pickled/fermented/jellied? Because we've been processing food ever since someone got the idea of putting a piece of raw meat (or an apple, for all we know) into the fire and noticing how much better it tasted that way.
Now I'm imagining roasting a slice of apple on a coat hanger/stick over a camp fire.
Delicious, I assure you.3 -
Not to be snippy, but to me this is a calorie counting site, I wouldn't be on here if I didn't need to count calories....
I don't count calories because I have high anxiety when it comes to doing so, but I still love the community. Right now though, my therapist wants me to get over my fear and anxiety when it comes to food in general. This site though is full of wonderful information and ideas when it comes to food and health in general.
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I have lost 30+ lbs this year. Have only counted calories in the last two weeks out of shear curiosity. However I have counted for years prior. So I have a very good idea of what I am taking in. I do think people starting out they should and they need a food scale.1
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sweetangelkitten wrote: »Not me. I gained a lot of weight eating wholesome foods and eating when I was hungry.
There are others who are basically doing what you are doing so you are not alone.
Whatever your goals are I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you! I can't seem to find anyone on here who isn't counting calories sadly...
Not to be snippy, but to me this is a calorie counting site, I wouldn't be on here if I didn't need to count calories....
MFP isn't just a calorie counting site though. There's lots of us who use the site for the forums, for the fitness aspect of it, to track macros etc. I don't track calories on MFP but I've been using the forums on and off for years now, most of those while in maintenance.4 -
Curious as to how OP is getting on, on her eating all of the wholesome foods mission, no sign of her since.5
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sweetangelkitten wrote: »Yep, that's right! I'm done counting calories and tracking everything I eat! I'm eating wholesome foods and eating when I am hungry. Doing what feels natural! Anyone else here with me on this?
Very good! I never count calories since am very active. I only watch my sodium and sugar in take.13 -
I recently switched to a lower carb way of eating/not tracking or counting calories, and in the process eliminated a lot of the higher calorie foods I was eating before, (and the foods that I had a hard time practicing good portion control with).
I'm now losing too much weight and I'm getting a bit too close to the low end of the healthy BMI range for my comfort level. I'm now trying to eat more food and if that doesn't stop the weight loss then I will have to start tracking my calories again, in order to make sure my calorie intake is appropriate.
[edited by MFP mods]1 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »Curious as to how OP is getting on, on her eating all of the wholesome foods mission, no sign of her since.
She logged yesterday, so maybe she's changed her mind about some things? It would be interesting to have an update from her
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sweetangelkitten wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »The freedom from the need to count I find personally empowering.
I often don't count, but find the idea that that's "empowerment" to be odd. But YMMV and all that.
I can see why someone may find it empowering and it’s not odd at all. Imagine finally learning what works for you in order to lose weight and maintaining without having to micromanage or depending on anything but just being mindful after years of bad habits and not really knowing what you’re doing. I think empowering is a good word for that.
It does feel good to not count, I get very upset about calories and find it difficult to deal with
Yeah that’s ok! You’re not the only one who feels it’s too much. Just do what works for you.3 -
Yeah, that's how a gained a hundred pounds in ten years, so I'll pass.13
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janejellyroll wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »sweetangelkitten wrote: »Best of luck in finding what works best for you.
unfortunately for me, eating "healthy" without calorie counting is why i was obese most of my life. even after loosing 100lbs twice. I'm a victim of my own portion creep. even in maintenance this time around i should do check ins with the scale and diary every few weeks even if i don't do so daily.sweetangelkitten wrote: »spinnerdell wrote: »Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.
Why does this lead so many people to weight gain? We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<
a couple of hundred years ago our access to food and what foods as well as our actiivty level was VASTLY different. you can't really compare the two.
Easy, don't eat the processed food
Not easy. What’s your definition of processed food? That’s such a vague and general term - virtually everything we eat is “processed” in some way.
Eating processed food doesn’t cause weight gain, eating too many calories does. There have been countless examples in this thread alone of people who became overweight eating a Whole Foods diet, because they ate too many calories. There are also countless examples of people who have eaten a diet of all things in moderation, including Whole Foods, processed foods and convenience foods as part of an overall balanced and nutrient dense diet yet have done so at a calorie appropriate level and thus have achieved weight loss goals.
This is fairly much what my definition of processed food is...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441809/
Food processing is defined as any procedure that alters food from its natural state, such as freezing, drying, milling, canning, mixing, or adding salt, sugar, fat, or additives (1, 2). Thus, the US government’s definition of “processed food”—any food other than a raw agricultural commodity—includes a diverse array of foods ranging from frozen vegetables, dried fruit, and canned beans to whole-wheat bread, breakfast cereals, prepared meals, candy, and soda (1, 2). Because of this heterogeneity, classification systems were developed to subdivide processed foods into refined categories based on the complexity of processing, the physical and chemical changes in food as a result of processing, and the purpose of processing; foods are classified into levels along a spectrum, ranging from minimally processed to highly processed (3–6). Here, we define highly processed foods as multi-ingredient industrially formulated mixtures (7).
It wasn't until I joined MFP that I even had a clue that people struggled with defining "processed". I never encountered this debate in the real world. Are there degrees of processing...of course there are. I eat some processed food but over time I am eating less and less of the "highly" processed foods. Not eating some foods that are considered processed will not work for me in my life. When I need tomato products I will always turn to "processed". I do however try to buy those that have no salt added and/or with as few of ingredients as possible.
Anyway...the above definition of "processed" has always been my thinking...just in not so technical of terms.
I don't see people struggling with a definition of processed food here. Every new poster who uses it as a negative seems to be using the Brazilian definition of ultra processed food. That is also my experience off the site. http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/dietary_guidelines_brazilian_population.pdf page 39
I'll say again that I went through a phase where I convinced myself that it was bad to eat processed foods and better to exclude them as much as possible. My definition was most certainly NOT "ultra processed," as I never ate much of that, but "processed" in a broader definition. I tried to eat exclusively from whole foods and was rather neurotic about the fact I could not (I did eat in restaurants some, although it wasn't a huge percentage of my calories, but generally more of the kind where you know the food was mostly cooked from whole foods).
I would find it disingenuous to claim I wasn't eating "processed" foods and yet use the many kinds of lightly processed foods I do use (like cottage cheese and dried beans and dried pasta and olive oil and so on), and so I find it really weird when people claim processed foods can be generalized about (or claim to be avoiding them when what they really mean is something else).
I think it makes communication harder.
I also agree with janejellyroll that it's not all that useful to focus on the amount of processing vs. the actual contribution of the food to the diet. It's easy to get hung up on whether something fits the ultra processed definition or not (I don't think it's really that clear, and I think even that one is broader than many people realize). I eat mostly from whole foods because that's how I like to eat, and I focus on nutrients that foods have and tend to limit those that aren't particularly nutrient dense (while still including a variety in my diet like, again, olive oil, cheese, just because they make other foods more enjoyable), but I don't think it makes sense to exclude something nutrient dense and providing nutrition needed in favor of something else just because the something else is less processed (maybe because it's more appealing to you, of course).
When I was hung up on processing, I'd often make it much much harder on myself to eat healthfully (although I generally did) and created more stress for myself by my insistence on my particular rules about making everything from whole ingredients. (And I still couldn't avoid everything that is technically processed.)
From a weight management POV, I'm much better off weighing out a serving of tortilla chips (what most people would agree is a ultra processed food) and having that instead of eating homemade whole grain bread dipped in extra virgin olive oil or dairy butter (two foods most people would agree are minimally processed, but also hyper-palatable to many of us).
Eating the bread and olive oil until I'm satisfied could easily be hundreds more calories than the serving of tortilla chips.
Now it's not like the tortilla chips are the only alternative to eating bread and olive oil, but this is just to highlight that eliminating ultra processed foods isn't going to do anything for one's weight unless it is also creating a calorie deficit. So for me personally, I just skip the middle man and create the deficit, making sure to include plenty of nutrient-rich foods so I don't have to worry about the days when I'm craving tortilla chips and decide to have some.
Oh my goodness, I can certainly relate to this - I don't even want to know how many calories of bread and butter I was eating in a sitting back when I was baking bread regularly
I left that bread mixer behind when I moved.
I make fresh bread much less often these days. I don't moderate it well. I can, however, moderate tortilla chips.0 -
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sweetangelkitten wrote: »You don't like bread?
Me? I LOVE fresh homemade bread. I was probably eating a half a loaf of homemade bread at a time, with butter.
Our point was if you rack up too many calories with minimally processed food than perhaps a more processed food like tortilla chips was a better option. I can stop at an ounce of tortilla chips - I cannot stop at an ounce of fresh bread, plus I must have butter or EVOO with it.7 -
When I get to my goal weight I shall join you 3
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doesn't work for me. i've tried. lose 20lbs, feel good, stop calorie counting, slowly creep back up to unhealthy weight. i need the accountability of calorie counting and being rewarded when i stay below a certain amount. nothing wrong with constantly calorie counting and tracking it. seeing how i'm on a computer/mobile for work, the 5 minutes it takes to update my calorie intake per day is nothing.0
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Not quite yet, but I'm getting closer0
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sweetangelkitten wrote: »spinnerdell wrote: »Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.
Why does this lead so many people to weight gain? We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<
We also did not have grocery stores open 24-7 where you can get anything and everything you want whenever you want. We also did not have food delivery, and takeout. We had to actually work (expend energy) to procure food.
I'm sure, hundreds of years ago, some were hungry, they just had nothing to eat.
As a species, IMO, we have never had to exercise so much willpower. Times change, so we need to adapt as well...17 -
sweetangelkitten wrote: »spinnerdell wrote: »Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.
Why does this lead so many people to weight gain? We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<
We also did not have grocery stores open 24-7 where you can get anything and everything you want whenever you want. We also did not have food delivery, and takeout. We had to actually work (expend energy) to procure food.
I'm sure, hundreds of years ago, some were hungry, they just had nothing to eat.
As a species, IMO, we have never had to exercise so much willpower. Times change, so we need to adapt as well...
A hundred years ago, if you wanted a cake, you had to make it yourself. Chocolate was a rare and expensive treat, not something you were presented with a wall of when you walked into a shop.
Never before has food been so cheap, so abundant, or so hyper-palatable. We've never had to evolve mechanisms to not want it.9 -
sweetangelkitten wrote: »spinnerdell wrote: »Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.
Why does this lead so many people to weight gain? We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<
We also did not have grocery stores open 24-7 where you can get anything and everything you want whenever you want. We also did not have food delivery, and takeout. We had to actually work (expend energy) to procure food.
I'm sure, hundreds of years ago, some were hungry, they just had nothing to eat.
As a species, IMO, we have never had to exercise so much willpower. Times change, so we need to adapt as well...
A hundred years ago, if you wanted a cake, you had to make it yourself. Chocolate was a rare and expensive treat, not something you were presented with a wall of when you walked into a shop.
Never before has food been so cheap, so abundant, or so hyper-palatable. We've never had to evolve mechanisms to not want it.
Seems so obvious....4 -
sweetangelkitten wrote: »spinnerdell wrote: »Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.
We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<
100 years ago, sure, nobody was calorie counting - but their bodies still gained or lost weight according to CICO, they just didn't have a method of counting and measuring that.
But like 100 years ago, nobody had fitbits - but they still took steps and had a heart rate and whatever else those things measure - they just didnt have a way of measuring them.
Or 1000 years ago they didn't have clocks - but time still passed, it just wasn't measured.
Calorie counting is only a tool to measure and control something that is happening naturally.
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sweetangelkitten wrote: »spinnerdell wrote: »Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.
Why does this lead so many people to weight gain? We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<
We also did not have grocery stores open 24-7 where you can get anything and everything you want whenever you want. We also did not have food delivery, and takeout. We had to actually work (expend energy) to procure food.
I'm sure, hundreds of years ago, some were hungry, they just had nothing to eat.
As a species, IMO, we have never had to exercise so much willpower. Times change, so we need to adapt as well...
I'd also add that people worked a lot harder to accomplish day to day tasks. I dump my clothes in a big square box and push a button to get my laundry done. For probably half of my grandmother's life, laundry took most of a day for a family of five. She had a mechanical wringer, but that was the only machine assistance she had. She scrubbed clothes by hand, ran them through the wringer, took them out to line dry and then had ironing to do. We're all busy these days, but the physical work we do is drastically reduced from what it was from even 75 years ago.12 -
and one of the big changes - many more of us have cars.
People drive to places they would of walked to years ago.
Most days I walk to work and leave my car at home - a 15 minute walk.
Never ceases to amaze me how many people find this an astounding and unusual thing.
(or as I put it last time I posted this comment - one of the reasons we are overweight is we have more cats.)
#queenofstupidtypos7 -
paperpudding wrote: »sweetangelkitten wrote: »spinnerdell wrote: »Eating wholesome food when I was hungry led to a 70 pound weight gain over the years. Counting calories allowed me to lose that weight and maintain the loss. Wishing you a better outcome with your eating plan.
We weren't counting calories a couple hundred years ago or even a hundred years ago... Seems unnatural to be measuring and counting, we should eat when we are hungry >,<
100 years ago, sure, nobody was calorie counting - but their bodies still gained or lost weight according to CICO, they just didn't have a method of counting and measuring that.
But like 100 years ago, nobody had fitbits - but they still took steps and had a heart rate and whatever else those things measure - they just didnt have a way of measuring them.
Or 1000 years ago they didn't have clocks - but time still passed, it just wasn't measured.
Calorie counting is only a tool to measure and control something that is happening naturally.
First commercial diet was developed in 1863, so they might not have been counting calories but they were dieting.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Banting1 -
I did what felt natural and was 283lbs. I’ve been overweight my whole life. Tracking my intake works for me or I will overeat even if I’m being mindful and making good choices.5
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If I let my body be in charge, I'd eat two pizzas a week and wake up with strangers in my bed.
I think I'll keep counting calories and enjoy my clean sheets.
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