Counting calories is so long

83748807schism · December 2019

For about six years now I've been using this app for 4-6 month bursts with up to a year in between of inactivity. I just find calorie counting so time consuming and boring, especially when I can't add my food straight away and I have to strain my inefficient brain to remember what I ate.

This is my first forum post and I'm hoping I can find more motivation by interacting with this community

don't suppose anyone has advice on how to make calorie counting more fun or quick? Particularly with homemade meals, hooowee.

MikePTY · December 2019

It doesn't need to be that hard. I spend less than 5 minutes a day logging and weighing. Do you not have your phone with you when you eat? If you do, you should try to log right away. If not, try to write it down on a piece of paper or something.

There are definitely ways to make this easier. I think compared to other ways of eating which require you to restrict large types of food to try to get you to maintain a deficit, counting is easier. I'd rather eat what I want and just jot it down, than to do that.

Also remember to not let perfect be the enemy of good. If you find yuu find it difficult for your situation weigh and log every tiny thing you eat to exact proportions, know that loose logging is better than no logging. So if you have to guess or estimate sometimes, that's okay too.

Unknown · December 2019

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ohmscheeks · December 2019

Eating the same things regularly. Save meals. Use the recipes in the app (auto-adds to app). Certainly over the course of 4 to 6 months, you should be able to go back to meals that are already logged.

AnnPT77 · December 2019

During your 4-6 month bursts, do you use it for all your meals, every day? I'm wondering if maybe you're just not into it long enough, frequenly enough, to really learn the tool and make it efficient.

Like the others who've commented, I think it only takes me 5-10 minutes a day to log, which to me is well worth it for the benefits of maintaining verified good nutrition and a healthy body weight (after literally decades of obesity

).

The first few weeks, it felt kind of complicated and burdensome, but then I got a bunch of stuff in my recent/frequent foods lists, figured out how to use meals and recipes to best advantage, and that sort of thing, and it became pretty routine and comfortable at that point.

I'm now just about to head into year 5, still logging most days . . . .

88olds · December 2019

There’s a significant calorie counting learning curve that doesn’t get a lot of discussion for some reason. No one was born counting calories. They don’t teach it in school. It’s a skill set.

Do you start the week with a plan? Can you do any pre cooking on weekends? Haven’t you found it easier as you build a database of meals and dishes that you like to repeat? If not, why not?

I tracked for years with pen and paper. What I ended up with were just crude lists identifying what I ate and a calorie number. My food scale was always on the counter.

Can you find a way to make it easier? Personally I find computer logging an unnecessary complication. Are you sure your brain isn’t just tricking you into quitting by telling you it’s a burden?

Counting calories is so long

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