Dietitians say counting calories bad
Replies
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Guys give me some slack here. Ok I looked up what TDEE was. The BMR plus calories burnt during exercise. All good but if the BMR is unreliable it is still hard to know where calorie deficit begins even if I know exactly how much I burnt during exercise. But I dont want to argue too much, you are essentially right even a close estimate is better than nothing. I have roughly six months of keto plus IF plus one day a week fasting behind me, a fairly extreme diet regime, I have had success-60 pounds roughly- but I have to admit I am struggling to lose weight these days and I am in calorie deficit that's for sure without tracking anything. I need twenty pounds off more to get where I want to be and despite calorie deficit I am having difficulties.
TDEE is not BMR + exercise. Keep looking.
I'd give you some slack, except that you keep giving others advice that . . . isn't accurate, or at least isn't complete/comprehensive/nuanced, frankly.
I'm completely sympathetic to you finding your own route, though. If it works, great: That's what counts, for an individual. If it's not working . . . well, maybe give it some more thought, research. There are people here who'd like to help, and try to help. *I'd* try to help, using only the admittedly limited understanding I have. I don't dislike you, am not disagreeing with you just to be oppositional.
One thing from others above I agree with: If you're not losing over a period of 'enough' multi-weeks, and you're not tracking (accurately, and adjusting based on experience), you're not in a deficit.
People can lose without calorie counting. If not losing, and not counting, and not a person at risk for disordered thinking when counting . . . accurate counting can be a useful option. But *many weeks*, not one.9 -
I do agree with the fact that calorie counting can be a trigger for some but for me it's a great tool to lose weight in a healthy way. Now I did actually see where it went wrong in my diet and it does prevent me from eating to little or to much. I don't care about macro's at this point.
Like for example today, I saw that I still had about 500 calories left after dinner to spend on evening snacks. I knew there was a Snickers chocolate bar (about 200 kcal) in the cabinet and I hadn't had chocolate in months. So what did I do? Enjoyed eating that bar to the fullest without feeling guilty at all. If I wasn't counting calories I wouldn't have known I had room left for that bar and might have felt guilty and bad about eating it.9 -
getting_stronger1483 wrote: »I just find it easier to eat as healthily as i can and to actively keep my portions small. I also make sure i do exercise every day. The weight comes off but slower. From personal experience I'd rather lose it slowly and keep it off, rather than lose it quickly by focusing on calories and putting it all back on again anyway. But that's just me.
When I first started I was (in my mind) eating as healthily as I could (and without indulgences, as I defined them) and keeping my portions small, and exercising (although I was still in the ramping up stage). When I joined MFP and started logging I was shocked to see my usual day was 800-1000 (without exercise cals, which I of course was not adding back since I wasn't counting cals). Luckily, I decided to eat more and added back various pleasures (like a little cheese, a little olive oil, etc.) that I in fact could easily include, and which made my diet more sustainable going forward. Absent the logging, I can totally see myself getting to a point where I was starving after days of such low cals and restrictive diet, and going way off the rails and thinking I was a failure and giving up.
Not sure why you assume that counting cals means an unsustainable weight loss.7 -
SnifterPug wrote: »"- I won't, for example, weigh an apple, eat the apple and then weigh the core to discover precisely to the calorie what I consumed."
I'm pretty precise in my tracking.... This never occurred to me, lol. For the record, it doesn't appeal to me either.0 -
SnifterPug wrote: »"- I won't, for example, weigh an apple, eat the apple and then weigh the core to discover precisely to the calorie what I consumed."
I'm pretty precise in my tracking.... This never occurred to me, lol. For the record, it doesn't appeal to me either.
Other example - people will comment about weighing the spoon used to scoop something before and after because they are going to eat what stuck to the spoon.
Ok.
I always wondered did they weigh the bowl or plate before and after eating so as not to count what stuck to the plate?
When some people hear about these types of examples, and perhaps think or are told this is needed for successful calorie counting - yeah, I get how many can think it would not be healthy.
I am curious enough to check the next apple just to see how many calories are being talked about. I guess core is decent amount of the weight.0 -
BMR = calories burned in a day by a person in a coma. Of no relevance except to people in comas and the nurses determining how much liquid food to insert into them each day.
TDEE = the actual calories burned in a day by someone, inclusive of everthing they do. It can only be approximated in online tools, because, obviously, the tools don't have sensors hooked up to your body.
Most people find online TDEE estimates close enough to work with. Those tools are never going to be 100 % accurate. But they're usually within a few percent, unless one is a bodybuilder or other anomaly, making them very useful to people counting calories.
TDEE will fluctuate day to day. Of course. It depends on how much you exercise and otherwise move around. Move more, higher TDEE. That is a key - possibly THE key - diet strategy out there: control your eating, while moving more to raise your TDEE.3 -
Guys give me some slack here. Ok I looked up what TDEE was. The BMR plus calories burnt during exercise. All good but if the BMR is unreliable it is still hard to know where calorie deficit begins even if I know exactly how much I burnt during exercise. But I dont want to argue too much, you are essentially right even a close estimate is better than nothing. I have roughly six months of keto plus IF plus one day a week fasting behind me, a fairly extreme diet regime, I have had success-60 pounds roughly- but I have to admit I am struggling to lose weight these days and I am in calorie deficit that's for sure without tracking anything. I need twenty pounds off more to get where I want to be and despite calorie deficit I am having difficulties.
No, TDEE is not BMR + exercise. There is, in fact, no variable that equals BMR + exercise.
The only real-world application of BMR + exercise would be a person in a coma who's working out, which doesn't make any sense.9 -
Guys give me some slack here. Ok I looked up what TDEE was. The BMR plus calories burnt during exercise. All good but if the BMR is unreliable it is still hard to know where calorie deficit begins even if I know exactly how much I burnt during exercise. But I dont want to argue too much, you are essentially right even a close estimate is better than nothing. I have roughly six months of keto plus IF plus one day a week fasting behind me, a fairly extreme diet regime, I have had success-60 pounds roughly- but I have to admit I am struggling to lose weight these days and I am in calorie deficit that's for sure without tracking anything. I need twenty pounds off more to get where I want to be and despite calorie deficit I am having difficulties.
What might be helpful for you is to realize that, for a very specific reason, you are having a diet issue, and it has nothing to do with BMR/TDEE/etc.
I watched a fascinating video a few months ago. It was a guy talking about the extremely common problem of dieters who've lost 50-60 pounds suddenly hitting a wall. Flush with success, all of a sudden the weight loss stops, and is hard to reconcile with the successes that had been racked up before that.
I was watching that video because I hit a wall right at 50 pounds. I was losing 2 lbs a week and then it just stopped.
Of course the answer is nothing as intricate as varying BMR levels. It's food management - weighing, logging, counting, that kind of thing. Turns out many people just ... lose their calorie deficit edge when they get to 50-60 pounds, BECAUSE THEY STOP BEING HARD-CORE WITH THE TRACKING, it's so common that people write and make videos about this specific problem.
If you want to get back on the weight loss horse, go to the MFP goals tool, bang in all your stats, tell it how much weight you want to lose, and whatever number it gives you, eat that # of calories, 7 days a week, no more, no cheat meals, no resting on your laurels of having lost 60 pounds (which is what I did-a mistake for sure), just get back in there like it's the first day of your diet, counting carefully (every gram of food) and logging it.
Then your weight loss will resume.12 -
For me it is essential what I actually put in to lose weight and hope for the best I am in calorie deficit. But that is me, if you can lose weight eating what you really like hats off congrats.
ANYONE can lose weight eating what they really like, as long as they stay in a caloric deficit whilst eating those foods... as has been stated many times, the type of food you eat has no bearing on weight loss as long as there is a deficit.
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getting_stronger1483 wrote: »I just find it easier to eat as healthily as i can and to actively keep my portions small. I also make sure i do exercise every day. The weight comes off but slower. From personal experience I'd rather lose it slowly and keep it off, rather than lose it quickly by focusing on calories and putting it all back on again anyway. But that's just me.
Anecdotal stories do not supersede science such as the law of thermodynamics.6 -
brianpperkins131 wrote: »getting_stronger1483 wrote: »I just find it easier to eat as healthily as i can and to actively keep my portions small. I also make sure i do exercise every day. The weight comes off but slower. From personal experience I'd rather lose it slowly and keep it off, rather than lose it quickly by focusing on calories and putting it all back on again anyway. But that's just me.
Anecdotal stories do not supersede science such as the law of thermodynamics.
Obviously not, and this poster just has found a way to be in a calorie deficit without counting the calories. If it works for them and makes them less stressed out that's pretty good, though. - It's just sadly such an individualised approach that it may not work as advice for many other people.3 -
SnifterPug wrote: »"- I won't, for example, weigh an apple, eat the apple and then weigh the core to discover precisely to the calorie what I consumed."
I'm pretty precise in my tracking.... This never occurred to me, lol. For the record, it doesn't appeal to me either.
Other example - people will comment about weighing the spoon used to scoop something before and after because they are going to eat what stuck to the spoon.
Ok.
I always wondered did they weigh the bowl or plate before and after eating so as not to count what stuck to the plate?
When some people hear about these types of examples, and perhaps think or are told this is needed for successful calorie counting - yeah, I get how many can think it would not be healthy.
I am curious enough to check the next apple just to see how many calories are being talked about. I guess core is decent amount of the weight.
I went to a bariatric clinic for a while (long story, did not have surgery) and the dietician and psychologist there were very helpful in this regard. They both told us all (there were a few classes with groups of people) that none of the calorie counters are 100% accurate anyway. They pointed out that if you look at the foods in MFP, you will find many times where what is apparently the exact same item is listed numerous times with varying calorie counts. So the best you can do is approximate anyway. The calories burned is the same - unless you're always hooked up to the machinery that measures that, you're just getting a best estimate.
If there's something that doesn't have a nutrition label and you look it up, decide which one that is listed that you are going to follow and use it consistently. I have decided generally to go with the one that falls in the middle to higher calorie count as I would rather err on the side of counting too many than too few. So licking the spoon or plate, or cutting out the core isn't going to garner you that many more grams, and therefore calories of anything, (unless it's pure fat which as I understand it has four times the calories per gram but don't quote me on that!)
They also recommend when you start, to have your calorie goal around 1800 (this is for obese people, not those who are just overweight) and work your way down over a few months. I am in the midst of doing this (been here before!) and it's going much better - I have lost 15 lbs. since Sept. 30. Like others have mentioned, I have had the treats and not blown the calorie budget because I have been able to plan for it. I am also very sedentary - I don't exercise outside of normal daily activities like cleaning house etc. MFP says for my current weight for a .5 lb/wk loss I should be at 1580 calories. i am not sure where they get their figures from but clearly everyone is different and the main thing is whatever your calorie goal is, as long as your weight is going down you are in a deficit and it's working.5 -
SnifterPug wrote: »"- I won't, for example, weigh an apple, eat the apple and then weigh the core to discover precisely to the calorie what I consumed."
I'm pretty precise in my tracking.... This never occurred to me, lol. For the record, it doesn't appeal to me either.
I don't like eating an apple by biting into it, but prefer it chopped up, so I usually weigh it, and don't weigh the part I don't eat (which can be a non-insubstantial amount). If you didn't want to log cals you did not eat, I can see weighing the core or just estimating a bit lower than the weight of the whole apple. This doesn't make me especially obsessive, though. Even when I am weighing regularly I have no issues with estimating the size of an apple I eat out of the house or a banana or so on (if at home I probably would weigh the banana without the peel or weigh the peel, as it helps me be a better estimator going forward). On the other hand, I've also never weighed a single size something from the store or bothered to double check the serving size weight. I lost weight just fine.
Basically, I think most of us come to our own preferred "weigh or not" way of logging based on what feels comfortable and what seems to be necessary (if one isn't losing, more care may be needed). For example, lots of people think weighing greens is crazy, and I don't think it's necessary (I often eyeball salads when eating outside the home or if I just forget to weigh, which is often), but when possible I prefer a gram number vs guessing at the amount (or trying to fit it in a cup). I was adding some chard to a soup just now (making lunch) and weighed it since that seemed easier than estimating and took no real extra time. Not saying anyone else should do this, but don't assume something is obsessive or unpleasant or related to an ED just because it's not something you do. (Not saying you personally were, just a more general statement.)
Relevant to this, I suppose, is that I like to hit the nutrition goals in Cron, and don't want to inflate my amount of greens beyond what I really ate, so again people have a variety of different reasons for what they do. I find the Cron goals thing helps motivate me to be interested in logging, which I do only off and on.3 -
So much talk about weighing apples! I agree with a previous comment about being more concerned with weighing calorie dense foods. If I'm going to eat peanut butter, I weigh that. If it's an apple, I count it as a medium apple, bite into it, and enjoy. I don't weigh apples. If it's the end of the day and I'm making dinner with 80 calories remaining, I will eat as much broccoli as I want and not worry about weighing it. Do you know how much broccoli you have to eat to eat 80 calories worth? It's a lot!
As for the original question, I do think that calorie counting can be a problem for people with eating disorders. For everyone else, it can be super annoying and make one hyper food focused. For me, a solution for that is to eat the same things over and over. I don't mind the lack of variety. If you don't, then that could work for you as well.1 -
Honestly I'm not that accurate with weighing everything I eat. I assume the weight in the package is correct and an apple is an apple. I don't check if that apple is 100 grams or 200 grams. Or a hand of blueberries, never weigh it. Could be 20 grams but also could be 50. I once did weigh a hand of almonds. I was assuming that was 30 grams but it turned out to be only 16. Since I started my weight loss journey back in june I never really gained weight so far and most weeks I lost weight. Sometimes it was 1KG, sometimes 500 grams or less. So I don't feel the need to be more strict on myself.1
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When I started MFP I was obese and MFP gave me only 1500 kcal a day. I noticed that for me that might not be enough. So I did some research online and I found out 1500 is close to/ or is a crash diet and then I asked a friend who is a dietitian and she said I should eat more too. Then I came across a video of a Dutch dietitian explaining MFP and her advice on it. She mentioned that it's best to set your activity levels to the lowest and your weight loss goal for a week to the lowest as well and log exercise. So my settings are not active and 250 grams a week. It gave me 1710 kcal a week. Much better! And on 80% of the weeks I lose more than 250 grams as I do exercise daily.2
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b120in2021 wrote: »So much talk about weighing apples! I agree with a previous comment about being more concerned with weighing calorie dense foods. If I'm going to eat peanut butter, I weigh that. If it's an apple, I count it as a medium apple, bite into it, and enjoy. I don't weigh apples. If it's the end of the day and I'm making dinner with 80 calories remaining, I will eat as much broccoli as I want and not worry about weighing it. Do you know how much broccoli you have to eat to eat 80 calories worth? It's a lot!
As for the original question, I do think that calorie counting can be a problem for people with eating disorders. For everyone else, it can be super annoying and make one hyper food focused. For me, a solution for that is to eat the same things over and over. I don't mind the lack of variety. If you don't, then that could work for you as well.
Maybe it depends: I ate 134 calories worth of broccoli on Thursday night. It didn't seem like a lot. That's just a little over a pound, raw weight.
But I'm just joking around, saying that. Weigh stuff, don't weigh stuff: If weight loss is working, not too fast, not too slow, any method that produces that is fine.
Personally I weigh most things, though generally not the single-serve packs of things (I don't eat large numbers of those) or eggs. For me, it just works best to not go through a thought process about whether to weigh a thing or not. If it were sometimes-yes, sometimes-no for weighing, I'd forget or make more mistakes more often when it actually mattered, with calorie dense things - just how my brain works. I'm better off weighing stuff, doing it on autopilot.
Still, it's not obsessive. If I do forget (like I get distracted before noting the weight or something, and don't realize until later), I just eyeball/guess, and go on, no stress or concern. Ditto for meals out, and that sort of thing. (I'm horrified at the thought of limiting my social life just because I can't weigh food in the social context. Estimating is fine, when needful, in my world. My social relationships are more important to me than a hundred or so calories here or there, if I have to estimate.
Hasn't prevented weight loss, or maintenance, in 5+ years of counting, so far. But that's me. If others want to cut out social events for that reason, it's about their life balance in their view, not about me. Also: For me, not eating varied things so as not to have to weigh food or to make counting easier . . . that would be an unpleasant sacrifice in quality of life, for me. If it's not a sacrifice for others, but a helpful practice instead, go for it.)
Like Lemur, I like knowing how much of certain nutrients I get, too, and weighing keeps that more useful. Also, I have veggie/fruit servings goal in grams, which I spot check on days when I'm not sure I've hit my target, so it's good to have accurate data.
Can't imagine weighing the spoon to subtract, if I licked it, though. Gotta put that jar on the scale, dip out a portion, read the negative weight to see what I took out, put it in the meal from the spoon, then lick the spoon. 😆
I get that weighing would be obsessiveness-generating, for some people. If you're one of those people, don't do it. If you don't want to because it's annoying even though not obsessive for you, don't do it.
But maybe don't psychoanalyze people who are different from you (generic you), and assume that they feel/react just as you do? Often, we don't. Drama and emotion over food/eating - guilt, shame, stress, obsession, annoyance, etc. - are pretty alien to my nature, psychologically speaking. I know that's not everyone's nature, but it's mine.
Calorie counting is a just a big, fun science fair project for grown-ups, in my world . . . with amazing payoffs in health and quality of life.2 -
b120in2021 wrote: »So much talk about weighing apples! I agree with a previous comment about being more concerned with weighing calorie dense foods. If I'm going to eat peanut butter, I weigh that. If it's an apple, I count it as a medium apple, bite into it, and enjoy. I don't weigh apples. If it's the end of the day and I'm making dinner with 80 calories remaining, I will eat as much broccoli as I want and not worry about weighing it. Do you know how much broccoli you have to eat to eat 80 calories worth? It's a lot!
As for the original question, I do think that calorie counting can be a problem for people with eating disorders. For everyone else, it can be super annoying and make one hyper food focused. For me, a solution for that is to eat the same things over and over. I don't mind the lack of variety. If you don't, then that could work for you as well.
Maybe it depends: I ate 134 calories worth of broccoli on Thursday night. It didn't seem like a lot. That's just a little over a pound, raw weight.
Yeah, 250 g of broccoli is 85 cals. Doesn't seem like all that much to me, although I also think for weight loss purposes eyeballing broccoli would work fine. It's more about personal preference. As I noted before, one of my incentives to log is trying to hit all my nutrition goals at Cron, and if I just logged 2 cups of broccoli based on eyeballing, I (or someone else) could easily be deluding themselves about how much broccoli they ate, and for nutrition purposes broccoli is a powerhouse, so for me -- not for most people, I'd imagine -- that would be cheating.
But the main reason I usually weigh broccoli is that I weigh when I am cooking (mostly when I am chopping stuff up), and thinking "this ingredient to too low cal to log, so I will estimate it" would add more time to my process than merely noting the numbers and remembering them to log at my next cooking break. (It's a fun memory exercise for me, although it would be easy to note them down if not.)
I feel like there's a bit of judginess that some are expressing toward those who log/weigh differently than they do, and if so I think that's not helpful. That one prefers weighing and using 195 g vs. a volume estimate has 0 to do with ED tendencies, IMO.But I'm just joking around, saying that. Weigh stuff, don't weigh stuff: If weight loss is working, not too fast, not too slow, any method that produces that is fine.
Yep. When I first started I didn't weigh and lost as expected or more. That I started weighing was more because I was curious about trying it and then found it fun and slightly easier.Still, it's not obsessive. If I do forget (like I get distracted before noting the weight or something, and don't realize until later), I just eyeball/guess, and go on, no stress or concern. Ditto for meals out, and that sort of thing. (I'm horrified at the thought of limiting my social life just because I can't weigh food in the social context. Estimating is fine, when needful, in my world. My social relationships are more important to me than a hundred or so calories here or there, if I have to estimate.
Exactly this.But maybe don't psychoanalyze people who are different from you (generic you), and assume that they feel/react just as you do? Often, we don't. Drama and emotion over food/eating - guilt, shame, stress, obsession, annoyance, etc. - are pretty alien to my nature, psychologically speaking. I know that's not everyone's nature, but it's mine.
Calorie counting is a just a big, fun science fair project for grown-ups, in my world . . . with amazing payoffs in health and quality of life.
This too.1 -
Y'all pretty judgy for people who have an issue with "judginess".
I did not psychoanalyze anyone. OP was concerned about calorie counting and eating disorders. There was additional discussion of this in the thread. I confirmed that calorie counting can be an issue for those who have an ED. I went on to explain that calorie counting can make anyone food focused and annoyed with it and I offered my experiences with this as help to the OP. That's what this forum is for.
I don't regret anything I said and I hope that what I wrote is of value to those looking for suggestions on concerns with food focus and how to be less annoyed with calorie counting.2 -
b120in2021 wrote: »Y'all pretty judgy for people who have an issue with "judginess".
I did not psychoanalyze anyone. OP was concerned about calorie counting and eating disorders. There was additional discussion of this in the thread. I confirmed that calorie counting can be an issue for those who have an ED. I went on to explain that calorie counting can make anyone food focused and annoyed with it and I offered my experiences with this as help to the OP. That's what this forum is for.
I don't regret anything I said and I hope that what I wrote is of value to those looking for suggestions on concerns with food focus and how to be less annoyed with calorie counting.
FTR, I explicitly did not intend to accuse YOU of psychoanalyzing - that was the point of "generic you" in my post. The thread has had a good bit of "behavior X has Y effect on me so it must have Y effect on everyone". That's the "psycholanalyzing" I was talking about. I quoted your post only to comment in a joking way on the bolded part - that what portion of a food is "a lot" is a pretty individual judgement. Beyond that, I was simply continuing the virtual conversation, offering my opinions about several of the general topics in the thread, much as you did.
I appreciate you sharing your opinions and experience: A diversity of opinions being shared is a good thing, as different strategies work better for different people, and different ideas will resonate with different readers.
BTW: I do disagree, pretty emphatically, that "calorie counting can make anyone food focused and annoyed". Sure, it can make some people food focused and annoyed. Those people shouldn't calorie count, as I mentioned in my PP. Overall, I think your advice is good and reasonable, but would quibble at phrasing it as a (counterfactual) universal.
I wasn't trying to be offensive, and if my post was offensive because I communicated unclearly what I did intend, I certainly apologize for that unclarity.3 -
I probably shouldn't have replied/explained as that can be perceived as escalating. So thank you for clarifying.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, Ann, I like your point about calorie counting annoyance. Many on here comment that they've been calorie counting for years. As such, it clearly does not annoy everybody. Your point was a good one. When I said calorie counting could make anyone food focused and annoyed, I mean that one doesn't have to have an eating disorder to think it's a major pain. I was trying to alleviate the OPs concerns about developing an ED from calorie counting.
Good health, healthy eating, and fitness for all!1 -
msalicia07 wrote: »msalicia07
Well done if you have succeeded, I would argue with the 99.99 percent success rate though with your suggested method. But if it works for you amazing.
The method is CICO. Unless you have one of the rarest conditions in the world, it will work because that's physiology. There wasn't a single obese case in any POW situation ever recorded in the history of the earth. Why? Because human physiology determines you will lose weight in a calorie deficit. This is not debatable, it is a fact. And it doesn't matter what the individual eats as long as they're in a deficit. To maintain weight loss, however, it's best to have a diet that you can sustain and enjoy. You cannot provide evidence that someone will gain fat in a deficit, no matter what they ate, because no such evidence exists. I'll wait.
I can't argue with that. If there is calorie deficit one will lose weight. The problem arises though when I try to calculate accurately what my BMR rate is. I found that for me anyway the BMR is not an absolute figure but constantly changing for me almost on a weekly basis if I look at the scale. That's why I dont really like to only depend on what my alleged BMR is because I just dont trust the figure. As a consequence I find it difficult to calculate where my calorie deficit begins. For me it is essential what I actually put in to lose weight and hope for the best I am in calorie deficit. But that is me, if you can lose weight eating what you really like hats off congrats.
It's highly unlikely that your BMR is changing weekly. It is totally possible that your total calorie usage is changing regularly -- we often do different activities each day and that will influence our energy needs. MFP is designed to help you understand how your BMR interacts with your daily activities and your intentional exercise needs to help you plan how many calories you need.5 -
I'm eating a very healthy plant-based wholefood diet under the guidance of my GP. Since then markers for pre-diabetes, heart disease and painful joints have dropped (no meds; yay!) and snacking has become a thing of the past as my body feels satisfied. However, at 72 years of age, even though I'm exercising at a high level for my age, I still find it difficult to lose the little weight I need to lose to make exercise easier. SO, I've gone back to calorie counting. What I've found is that I was eating more than I needed (eg I halved my rolled oats for breakfast without feeling hungrier) so calorie counting has shown me that my portion sizes were too high and I was totally unaware of the fact. I'm hoping this will teach me, without becoming obsessional, exactly how much I need to eat for my metabolism and what this looks like (so I won't be counting forever but be able to judge by eye).
I'd suggest that if you still feel hungry after a meal, wait 20 minutes for it to be digested before eating more - try doing something else or have a drink instead and you may find that your hunger has disappeared in 20 minutes. If you are craving things, look to see how balanced your diet it. A craving for carbs may be telling you that you are eating refined carbs and need more wholegrain products or fruit and vegetables. Don't feel deprived if you cant eat fast foods, candy, soda and refined foods but feel privileged that you have the wisdom to give your body what it needs rather than what you fancy. It will pay you back with extra energy and a pain-free existence.
Personally I believe a nutritionally balanced diet is more important than counting calories but keeping on eye on calories in and calories out, if you are the type of person who gains weight easily or finds it hard to lose weight, is another tool to get you to where you want to be.4 -
msalicia07 wrote: »msalicia07
Well done if you have succeeded, I would argue with the 99.99 percent success rate though with your suggested method. But if it works for you amazing.
The method is CICO. Unless you have one of the rarest conditions in the world, it will work because that's physiology. There wasn't a single obese case in any POW situation ever recorded in the history of the earth. Why? Because human physiology determines you will lose weight in a calorie deficit. This is not debatable, it is a fact. And it doesn't matter what the individual eats as long as they're in a deficit. To maintain weight loss, however, it's best to have a diet that you can sustain and enjoy. You cannot provide evidence that someone will gain fat in a deficit, no matter what they ate, because no such evidence exists. I'll wait.
I can't argue with that. If there is calorie deficit one will lose weight. The problem arises though when I try to calculate accurately what my BMR rate is. I found that for me anyway the BMR is not an absolute figure but constantly changing for me almost on a weekly basis if I look at the scale. That's why I dont really like to only depend on what my alleged BMR is because I just dont trust the figure. As a consequence I find it difficult to calculate where my calorie deficit begins. For me it is essential what I actually put in to lose weight and hope for the best I am in calorie deficit. But that is me, if you can lose weight eating what you really like hats off congrats.
I know some people on MFP love detailed information and calculations.
Yo don't really need to calculate your BMR or TDEE though.
I never did - I just put my stats - height, weight, gender ,age into MFP and ate the net amount of calories it told me to.
Do that as accurately as you can for 1 month.
Then adjust the calorie amount depending on results, if you need to.
This is assuming you are using MFP calorie counting method - but works for other methods too - ie reduce your calories by cutting something in your day if you are not actually counting - just would be more approximate and estimation
There was a post from somebody in maitenance saying they dont count any more- they just weigh themselves and if their weight is creeping up they omit dessert for a week or so - same overall method, cut calories somehow, based on real life results3 -
b120in2021 wrote: »Y'all pretty judgy for people who have an issue with "judginess".
I did not psychoanalyze anyone. OP was concerned about calorie counting and eating disorders. There was additional discussion of this in the thread. I confirmed that calorie counting can be an issue for those who have an ED. I went on to explain that calorie counting can make anyone food focused and annoyed with it and I offered my experiences with this as help to the OP. That's what this forum is for.
I don't regret anything I said and I hope that what I wrote is of value to those looking for suggestions on concerns with food focus and how to be less annoyed with calorie counting.
FTR, I explicitly did not intend to accuse YOU of psychoanalyzing - that was the point of "generic you" in my post. The thread has had a good bit of "behavior X has Y effect on me so it must have Y effect on everyone". That's the "psycholanalyzing" I was talking about.
Yes, this is how I understood it. There were posts earlier in the thread that suggested that some ways of logging/weighing are weird and wrong or inexplicable, so I wanted (in the prior comment, quoting a different poster) to explain why one might do such things, while still being pretty loose as to logging in other ways.
I do think (as I said upthread) that there are plenty of different approaches to logging/counting (or losing without doing so) and that so long as it works for the person they are all great.
(Also, I'm the only one who used the term judginess, I think, so I'd love to know what I said that is supposedly so judgy, as I suspect I was misunderstood. But who cares, I suppose.)1 -
I count calories so I don’t have to obsess over food. I can eat the calories I’m entitled to and be confident my weight will behave itself. I don’t have to stress over whether or not I ran hard enough that I should eat that extra piece of cheese or chocolate, or whether I’m really hungry or just bored. I can just eat, or not, depending on what’s appropriate.
This has worked well for going on four years of maintenance now, with the exception of a period during which my thyroid meds needed to be adjusted, when my weight started to slowly climb despite eating the same number of calories. When my meds were uppped and my tsh was within range again, my weight started trending downwards until it returned to the previous level.
Dieticians are statistically terrible at helping people to lose weight and keep it off, why listen to them?7 -
Dieticians are statistically terrible at helping people to lose weight and keep it off, why listen to them?
I wouldn't agree with that.
I would say actual advice from qualified dieticians (not 15 seconds from who knows who on Tiktok) is good at helping people lose weight and keep it off.
What is terrible , statistically, is people correctly following such advice.
It isnt the advice that is the problem.4 -
Dieticians on Tik Tok............................hahaha. Okay.
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
4 -
ngairedixon48 wrote: »Personally I believe a nutritionally balanced diet is more important than counting calories but keeping on eye on calories in and calories out,
Important for what? Eating to meet your nutritional needs is obviously important for meeting those needs, but when it comes to weight management, it's going to be key to eat the right number of calories. The most balanced diet in the world isn't going to help manage your weight if you wind up consuming more calories than your body is using.6 -
Respectfully disagree @rheddmobile
I first visited my dietitian about two months in, when I’d already lost twenty pounds following an extremely simple elimination diet provided by my GP. I didn’t know where to go from there.
She gave me wonderful suggestions and advice, encouragement, and most importantly, directed me to sign up for MFP.
I only visited the dietician three or four times but each visit was priceless for good advice and reassurance I wasn’t going to screw things up.
I would strongly recommend visiting a dietician, if you can afford it. (Mine was $25 per visit, a perk of the hospital-owned gym which was available to area residents as well.)
It’s not like you have to go every week, every month, or even every six months.5
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