Why not count calories?

Everytime I see a weight loss ad or hear people talking about dieting I hear counting calories as a bad thing. I gained a lot of weight when my work schedule got crazy and as a consequence I let my diet slip. I lost 35 pounds in a month and a half have kept it off with little difficulty for a long time. Once of the main tools for doing this was using sites like fitday.com to count calories. Doing so educates you on the foods you eat and suddenly you can make informed decisions.

Knowing what I'm eating has made all the difference now that I'm older and less able to play sports as often as I'd like. I'm glad I chose to just bite the bullet instead of going with expensive chemical baths shaped like burgers to tell myself I'm still eating what I want while losing weight.

How did I do it? I ate like a bunny for 3 weeks while taking some protien and a multivitamin to keep those levels up. No fruit, no meat, no carbs, no sweets.... 3 weeks. Everyone said I'd gain it back, I didn't and actually lost a bunch more because of what I learned counting calories.

Depends, I guess. When I went to my nutritionist, she suggested I stop counting calories because it can be monotonous. From her experience it puts too much pressure on the individual. She suggested to count meals instead. Then gave me an idea of how to measure the amounts of food you should eat.

You know the old:

2-3 servings of dairy

6-8 servings of grains

2-3 servings of fruit

4-6 servings of vegetables

2-3 servings of meat

~150 calories of fat or any other vice like chocolate or whatever.

It was helpful at first, but I preferred counting the caloric intake. It just seemed simpler to me.

Now its time for me to get back on the horse!

First of all, Des, congratulations on the weight loss and keeping it off. Hearing success stories has been a big motivator for me while I fight my own weight-loss battle.

Second, you could not possibly be more right about counting calories.

Bang suggested it to me back when I started Atkins. Back then I though, "No way. I'm not doing that. It won't work. It'll take forever. And surely I can't lose weight without cutting out stuff I really like, right?"

Wrong.

I started counting calories about three weeks ago, and am down 10 pounds. (Yeah, I did drop 15 before that on Atkins, but I was miserable.)

The best part is, I'm eating what I want, just in moderation. Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, and Weight Watchers all make GREAT tasting meals in the 300-calorie ballpark. It's actually really good stuff.

The other nice thing about it is if I want a candy bar one day, I can have it. Just save the calories somewhere else, or put in some exercise that day. If I want a few beers one evening, same deal.

Anybody out there who's still thinking calorie counting can't work because you're not depriving yourself, PLEASE listen. It works. Trust me. Don't wait any longer.

Congrats on the success, Des. Keep it up.

Depends, I guess. When I went to my nutritionist, she suggested I stop counting calories because it can be monotonous. From her experience it puts too much pressure on the individual. She suggested to count meals instead. Then gave me an idea of how to measure the amounts of food you should eat.

You know the old:

2-3 servings of dairy

6-8 servings of grains

2-3 servings of fruit

4-6 servings of vegetables

2-3 servings of meat

~150 calories of fat or any other vice like chocolate or whatever.

It was helpful at first, but I preferred counting the caloric intake. It just seemed simpler to me.

Now its time for me to get back on the horse!

I agree with you counting calories is easier lol. That seems too complicated. What worked for me is to simply bite the bullet and say "for three weeks eating is simply to stay alive" and I didn't eat to gain any enjoyment from it. I started eating salads and getting my fats from avacados and black olives. Later I started just eating veggies without mixing them at all. By the end of the three weeks when I could finally eat fruit again strawberries tasted like candy to me. Now I keep my breakfast and lunch super healthy, dinner "ok" and go out to eat some bad stuff and drink beer on the weekends. Weight moves after the weekend but averages out after the week. up to 3 pound swing

First of all, Des, congratulations on the weight loss and keeping it off. Hearing success stories has been a big motivator for me while I fight my own weight-loss battle.

Second, you could not possibly be more right about counting calories.

Bang suggested it to me back when I started Atkins. Back then I though, "No way. I'm not doing that. It won't work. It'll take forever. And surely I can't lose weight without cutting out stuff I really like, right?"

Wrong.

I started counting calories about three weeks ago, and am down 10 pounds. (Yeah, I did drop 15 before that on Atkins, but I was miserable.)

The best part is, I'm eating what I want, just in moderation. Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, and Weight Watchers all make GREAT tasting meals in the 300-calorie ballpark. It's actually really good stuff.

The other nice thing about it is if I want a candy bar one day, I can have it. Just save the calories somewhere else, or put in some exercise that day. If I want a few beers one evening, same deal.

Anybody out there who's still thinking calorie counting can't work because you're not depriving yourself, PLEASE listen. It works. Trust me. Don't wait any longer.

Congrats on the success, Des. Keep it up.

Eat like a rabbit for three weeks man. You'll lose a ton and the mental effect of doing so will keep you motivated like you wouldn't believe. I agree with you that calorie counting is so much easier. If I want something bad I just have some mixed fruit for lunch and have that snicker's bar. Simple.

Plus when you realize the amount of calories 2 hours of basketball burns... you have more reason to play basketball. So it motivates you to work out more.

I did the heart diet that they give people with heart problems that need to lose weight fast. I have no patience so when I heard 3 weeks I was like "bingo!"

A word of warning however. Make sure you have money to buy new clothes. I am not kidding. None of my clothes fit, NONE. And buying new everything isn't cheap.

Plus when you realize the amount of calories 2 hours of basketball burns... you have more reason to play basketball. So it motivates you to work out more.

Exactly. And it's nice to know that as a 34-year old male, still hovering around 230, that you burn 460 calories jogging at a moderate pace.

That's either an extra meal, or a nice addition to your daily calorie deficit, depending on your mood that day.

Everytime I see a weight loss ad or hear people talking about dieting I hear counting calories as a bad thing. I gained a lot of weight when my work schedule got crazy and as a consequence I let my diet slip. I lost 35 pounds in a month and a half have kept it off with little difficulty for a long time. Once of the main tools for doing this was using sites like fitday.com to count calories. Doing so educates you on the foods you eat and suddenly you can make informed decisions.

Knowing what I'm eating has made all the difference now that I'm older and less able to play sports as often as I'd like. I'm glad I chose to just bite the bullet instead of going with expensive chemical baths shaped like burgers to tell myself I'm still eating what I want while losing weight.

How did I do it? I ate like a bunny for 3 weeks while taking some protien and a multivitamin to keep those levels up. No fruit, no meat, no carbs, no sweets.... 3 weeks. Everyone said I'd gain it back, I didn't and actually lost a bunch more because of what I learned counting calories.

What diets are those? I'm thinking it's more like a gimmick where it's just eat their food and it's one less thing you need to worry about. As soon as you stop then you're back to eating horribly again. But you're right though...counting calories and actually knowing what's in your food/how it affects your body is invaluable.

Exactly. And it's nice to know that as a 34-year old male, still hovering around 230, that you burn 460 calories jogging at a moderate pace.

That's either an extra meal, or a nice addition to your daily calorie deficit, depending on your mood that day.

I went from 211 to 176 in a little over a month. I'm going to do it again to get down to 165 at which point I'll stop and work on building more muscle mass. Simple.

Just go crazy for weeks at a time and get it over with. Just make sure you have some smaller belts so your pants don't fall off suddenly.

i'm all for counting calories. It seems like the easiest way to burn and keep weight off, and remain healthy. Chances are, it's the healthy food that has the lower calories.

I look at my lunch which is normally a sandwich. If you use the Nature's Own brand bread, they vary between 40-60 calories a slice, and for regular tasting bread too, not the light stuff.

By contrast, cheaper, other breads will be at least 120 calories. Eating fruits as snacks, also calorie savers and just as filling. That way, it seems like breakfast and lunch could be knocked out for under 1000 calories, probably less. You can use the rest on dinner.

What diets are those? I'm thinking it's more like a gimmick where it's just eat their food and it's one less thing you need to worry about. As soon as you stop then you're back to eating horribly again. But you're right though...counting calories and actually knowing what's in your food/how it affects your body is invaluable.

All the food I ate was purchased from the produce section of my supermarket. Because I was counting calories the whole time I never went back to eating horribly becasue I was suddenly educated in the value of everything.

The bottom line is this though: If you think you can go "back" and not gain weight, you're crazy. Eating like that is what made you fat in the first place there is no going back. That's why instead of eating low fat burgers I ate two tomatoes, half an avacado, and some artichoke hearts. By the time I was done I wasn't thinking that I can still eat burges I was thinking "damnit when can I eat fruit again!!!"

Just go crazy for weeks at a time and get it over with. Just make sure you have some smaller belts so your pants don't fall off suddenly.

I'm glad that worked for you, but that's precisely why Atkins didn't work for me. Depriving myself of certain foods just makes me crave them. I end up not eating them, and then binging like a mofo on 'em later.

As it is, I have a 500-calorie per day deficit, so it works out to a pound a week. Course my BMR doesn't take into account anything physical that I do, so I end up dropping 2.5 pounds a week or a little more.

That's an OK pace for me, and like I said, I'm not depriving myself, which means I'll stick to it.

Hard to argue with your results though. Congrats again.

I'm getting more into it now with the food knowledge (doesn't hurt that the fiancee is going to school for nutrition). I still fall by the wayside with my eating though (gonna have to pull the quitting smoking card on that one though!) If I can just cut out some of the crap I'd do ok...it's a great thing I love my veggies/whole grains though.

Counting has worked for me.

I never tried any diets or any of that stuff, and even though I've been overweight most of my adult life, I never got to the point of "oh ****! I'm a fatass!" until this past winter.

I have been playing tennis for three years, and it would keep me in just shape enough to think it was helping, but then I never cared about what I ate so I wasnt doing myself any good.

So this spring I decided to get serious. I bought a notebook and labeled it FOOD and began to track everything I ate every single day. (I even bought some Spiderman stickers to give myself some goofy fun with it .. a day under 1700 calories earned me a spidey sticker,, over got me a villain sticker.) I weigh myself every day at the same time, and write it on the top of the days' page. For me, being beholden to the book makes it real.. something tangible I have to answer to.

I use www.calorieking.com and count every single thing I eat and drink.

Coupled with playing tennis about an hour nearly every day, simply counting calories and sticking to my goals has dropped me 24 lbs as of today. (I began March 25)

Most days I've been able to stay under 1500, actually. And in the entire book there are 3 villain stickers. Each of those times were times I went out to eat.. hard to watch it when you're out.

For me it's as Destino says, and as Zoony said in the "shock an ow" thread. It's a lifestyle change. I still eat most of what I like, but not everything. I haven't had real killers like potato chips and ice cream and such. (although i do love the Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches.. delicious and only 140 calories. ) Paying attention to portion sizes is a HUGE part of dropping weight. Our typical portions here in the US are way over what you should eat. After a few weeks my portion sizes naturally dropped because my stomach began to accept smaller portions, and now they fill me up.

I like burgers and pizza and fries and such.. so once a week, no more. And only on a day that I've played over an hour of hard tennis to offset it. And thing is, I don't anyway. I have had a few slices of pizza here and there, a couple burgers, but I have trained my brain to say no, and move on.

Fact is, now my stomach rolls if there's too much greasy stuff coming in.. so it naturally stops me.

Oh, and I stopped drinking alcohol back in January.. that's been a big help. Beer is a killer.

I don't care about fat grams or anything else. Just counted the calories.

There is one thing I'd add to anyone trying.. it's watching your sodium intake. My doctor told me that the fastest way to get your metabolism up is to balance your sodium to water intake.. Most people take in way too much sodium and it slows things down. That isn't so easy, most of our foods are loaded with it.

So, increase water.

I'm living proof it works, and that it IS that simple.

For the record, I'm over 40 so I did go to my doctor and get a physical to be sure I wouldn't give myself a heart attack, and to get a clear picture of my health at the outset.

Pleased to say everything is great, and my cholesterol is 186, something I was a bit worried over. Since i've stopped eating foods most loaded with it, I am not worried about it at all. It will go nowhere but down.

Life is GREAT!

~Bang