Does Calorie Counting work for everybody?

i feel everyone is an individual and really needs to listen to their body. i eat a really clean diet full of veg and some fruit. i have to be careful with the carbs because i am a diabetic where as someone else that isn't a diabetic may be able to have more cabs and be just fine. find what works best for you

Calorie counting works great when it comes to awareness, for me anyway. When I'm counting calories, I can see what I put it my body and I also pay attention to the other stats like fats, carbs, protein, sugar, etc. It works for portion control! Also, counting calories will only work if you're eating healthy, too. You can stay under your calorie goal by eating chips and candies all day, but you're not going to lose weight. You need to have a balanced diet.

Calorie counting works great when it comes to awareness, for me anyway. When I'm counting calories, I can see what I put it my body and I also pay attention to the other stats like fats, carbs, protein, sugar, etc.

I agree. I also pay so much more attention to my portion sizes that was a shock to see little 75g of pasta actually was for example. buying new kitchen and bathroom scales vital for me at least to work alongside calorie counting. You have to be very honest too when it comes to logging.

I try to put as much data into MFP as I can, calories, carbs, fat, protein, sugar, etc. I don't want to get to obsessed with calorie counting. If I am going out to eat, I won't ask the waiter or manager to get the nutritional information for everything I have ordered and start putting everything exactly into my diary. I will just eat the food and choose something that seems close to what I have eaten, be it over or under my goal.

I will hopefully be able to see how much I am eating without having to weigh everything. I used to weigh crisps which I really should of taken out of my diet all together or limited them.

Foods that I weigh are potatoes because you just never know how heavy they can be until you put them on the scales lol. Cereals, cheese, pieces of chicken, etc. I will also measure certain liquids just to make sure my food is the right consistency to eat, such as Ready Brek. Don't want my Ready Brek looking like a puddle of water.


I just don't want to go over the top with this sort of thing because it will most likely take over my life if I carry on doing it for a long time. The eating part is healthy, but I think getting obsessed with it is unhealthy. Don't want to start panicking over foods that are unhealthy and start judging people.

I've been following a plan written by Dr. Mike Roussell called, "The Six Pillars of Nutrition." It's not as much a "diet" as a healthy eating plan. Within this plan I count calories. I weigh and measure everything and enter all of it into MFP. The plan is a little bit carb-restricted in that starchy carbs are only allowed at certain times; first thing in the morning and after a workout, when my muscles are depleted of glycogen. It's really working for me and I'm not hungry on 1200 calories a day, which is the key, because I don't handle hunger well.

Calorie counting works great when it comes to awareness, for me anyway. When I'm counting calories, I can see what I put it my body and I also pay attention to the other stats like fats, carbs, protein, sugar, etc. It works for portion control! Also, counting calories will only work if you're eating healthy, too. You can stay under your calorie goal by eating chips and candies all day, but you're not going to lose weight. You need to have a balanced diet.

I so agree with you
When I count calories I think twice what I put into my mouth, so I eat healtier.
For the last 2 weeks I'Ve tried South Beach Diet ( zero carbs , a lot of vegetables and protein ) and I lost 2 lb only.
Trust me I have tried everything and so far calorie counting works the best for me

Veggies have carbs.

Calorie counting works for everyone that does it correctly. A few years ago my parents and I all lost a significant amount of weight just counting carbs. None could seem to lose all of our excess weight. I maintained the weight until I came here and started losing the last 20 pounds I could never seem to touch with low carb. My parents have gained back more than they lost, and when they tried low carb again, it didn't work.

Just wondering or do some people only lose weight cutting their carb intake?

Been doing it for over 28 years and not gained any significant amount of weight to put me in horrible shape.

A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I had been counting carbs since last summer and successfully lost 25 lbs. I switched to counting EVERY. SINGLE. CALORIE that goes into my mouth for the past two weeks with an emphasis on no sugar, whole grains, lots of fruits, veggies and protein. All I've gotten is a whole lotta nothin'. I'm very frustrated. MFP suggests I eat 1370 calories/day. I'm exercising 1-2 hours/day with P90x, Jillian's 30 day shred and yoga, walking 3 miles/day, etc. It hasn't changed the scale a bit. I'm going back to carb counting - I was actually losing weight then.

I had been counting carbs since last summer and successfully lost 25 lbs. I switched to counting EVERY. SINGLE. CALORIE that goes into my mouth for the past two weeks with an emphasis on no sugar, whole grains, lots of fruits, veggies and protein. All I've gotten is a whole lotta nothin'. I'm very frustrated. MFP suggests I eat 1370 calories/day. I'm exercising 1-2 hours/day with P90x, Jillian's 30 day shred and yoga, walking 3 miles/day, etc. It hasn't changed the scale a bit. I'm going back to carb counting - I was actually losing weight then.

are you eating back your calories burned? if not, you should be eating back at least some of them. Otherwise your body is hungry and you won't lose weight.