In order to lose weight, the calories burned must be greater than the calories consumed.
Calories out > calories in. Seems simple enough right?
Most of us trying to lose weight are somewhat concerned with our caloric intake, how much we eat every day. Calorie counting makes sense, but is it the final solution?
I don’t think so.
I believe that calorie counting is a useful guideline, a helpful tool, to weight loss, but it should not be the ultimate solution.
Knowledge is power, but only to a certain extent. Knowing what you’re putting into your body is extremely helpful. Through calorie counting, I’ve learned what foods are considered healthy, natural fats. I’ve learned that potassium helps your kidneys dispel excess sodium. I’ve learned that a serving of chicken breast is about the size of my fist.
However, too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Calorie counting can become obsessive. You can start micromanaging everything you eat. You can freak out about going over your calorie limit by 100 calories, even though that limit is actually arbitrary and doesn’t define your health.
When calorie counting starts making you feel bad about your choices, when it begins transforming knowledge into negative power, then it’s actually counterproductive.
This journey is about overall health, both mental and physical.
If you are freaking out about eating an extra cookie or going to the gym for an extra 2 hour session in order to burn off that burger you ate, that’s not healthy.
Weight loss comes when you find balance. With yourself. Your food. Your life.
How can you find balance?
I think this is a very individualized, personal process.
I cannot tell you what demons you must face.
What I CAN tell you is that in order to discover balance, you will have to – you must – face your inner demons and conquer the ghosts of your past.
I had issues with my family and my relationship with my mother was absolutely horrid for many, many years during high school as well as my first year at college. That also happened to be when I was at my heaviest.
I had to learn how to communicate with my mom and realize where she was coming from before I could acknowledge that some of my weight problems arose from that volatile relationship.
Your problems may be different, but regardless of what they are, you will have to face them somewhere down the road.
And calorie counting won’t solve those problems.
Remember. Calorie counting is a tool, an aid, just like how the treadmill can be a training equipment. But if you overdo it, you will get injured.
I am all for calorie counting as a basic, starting tool, a beginner’s reference point, so that you can understand your personal eating habits more and recognize when you might be emotionally or mindlessly eating.
But calorie counting is not the solution.
It will not save you from your problems.
Calorie counting will help you lose weight.
But it will not make you healthy.
Only you can do that.
Do you believe that calorie counting can become obsessive?
How can you find balance between weight loss, calorie counting, and healthy living?
What’s one of your inner demons that you want to – need to – face?
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Female. 25 years old. Chinese. Cook. Foodie. UCLA grad. Traveler. Musician. Scuba diver. GWU Law. Runner.
I count servings of fruits and veggies and servings of water – I honestly believe that is a more healthy solution. That said, @eatwithoutguilt would still say that’s an unhealthy food relationship. To each his own I guess.
Yes, it can become obsessive. That’s why I stopped counting for a month or two. Now I am back at it, but i wont obsess over it. An inner demon I want to face is that I AM BEAUTIFUL. I always pick out things on my body that I don’t like. I want to Love the way I look inside and out.
I believe it absolutely can turn obsessive and detrimental, because it has for me. I’ve had to make myself close down my accounts on all of the different calorie counting sites through the years because it became an unhealthy obsession for me. I am working on intuitive eating, now, and some days it works and others I have trouble, but I’m in a better mental place when I don’t count calories at all and THAT is the most important thing to me.
This is so well said. I couldn’t agree more. I think that obsessing over it is what makes people fall off their wagons. Why? Because as soon as you make a little mistake you submit to your defeat and throw in the towel.
I think that small successes, slow successes and baby steps will bring you to your goal – because doing it right for YOUR life is what makes it happen – and stay there. Fast losses feel good, but they can also turn around and put you back to the beginning just as quick as you got there (or worse!)
I think fighting your demons, and bringing them to the surface is equally as important too. Why are you overweight, why you eat, why you think about food when you’re down is so critical. There are likely a million answers but each one you discover gets you closer to a healthy mind.
It can definitely be a problem but I still count … I just don’t let myself freak out if I go over (or under) my “goal.” Even after being on this journey for years I’m still learning about what my body needs and wants and tracking my calories/fat/carbs/whatever is helping me to figure that out. Just like taking various exercise dvds and equipment for “test runs” — I work out, I upload my information, see how many calories were burned and then decide whether or not it was worth it to me. Some of the higher burn workouts? Not fun and, therefore, not worth it.
I’m sure that it can be obsessive, but I don’t find it to be obsessive for me.
Maybe because it’s far too tedious that I get bored with it. I don’t want to count or plan my meals. I just want to eat!
…that could be why I’m overweight though.
SOOO funny you wrote this! I’m not a calorie-counter and never have been, but I’m a big believer in working extra hard if I go overboard with food. Since (1) I have a bday coming up very soon, (2) my hubby doesn’t like sweets and (3) I hate wasting food, I have a feeling all the leftover cake is going straight into my belly over the course of a few days. But I love it! But at the same time, I decided I’m adding 4 miles to my schedule this week (about 10% higher than I would have planned w/o the bday) and I’m going to work extra hard during my cross-training hours this week (which sometimes include bits of slacking). That way the cake won’t have any ill-effects on the fit of my clothes next week!
I always do this when I know I’ve got some very unhealthy times ahead of me, like working off my bachelorette party in advance b/c I knew I might overindulge in food and drink, making it difficult to workout for a day or two afterward, or when I know I have a friend coming to town and we’ll be going out to eat for most meals and I’ll eat more than usual.
Maybe not the healthiest way of approaching it, but I think/hope it will work for me. It’s been a workable approach so far! And I don’t mind adding 1 mile to each of my 4 runs this week. Running isn’t punishment, it’s something I enjoy anyway, but it’s a good way to work off cake!
I became an obsessive calorie counter and found myself more often than not crying in the middle of food stores because I spent too much time looking at the labels and getting all freaked out. I stopped counting calories about 2 months ago and it has been really good for me. I pay attention to serving sizes still but that’s about it. I eat clean, I eat in moderation, I eat with purpose.
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I can totally get obssessed about calories, I won’t eat a tiny piece of chocolate that I REALLY want because it’s 100 calories, or I think if I can surivive on X calories, I can surivive on X-1 calories, until its gets ridiculous. I end up just blowing it because I can’t maintain what I’m doing.
I like to check out the calories in, say restaurant dishes (I WANT to know if my bowl of pasta is 1200 cals), but when I’m cooking at home, or eating fresh foods, I know to stop eating when I’m full and that should be about right.
I have OCD…so the obsessive part is why it works for me. The lessons I’ve learned along the way though are that if you want to be healthy you just have to keep remembering that 100 calories of broccoli is much different than 100 calories of Twinkie. For me rather than the amount of food I get an accomplished feeling from tracking the calories burned and trying to reach a deficit. If I think of calories as fuel, I only need as much as I’m going to burn (or less in my case, trying to lose weight)…it’s the thing that has really “clicked” for me and I love it!
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