Does calorie counting work and what do you eat in a typical day?

[Nosuchthingastoomichcheese]

I think calorie counting is the only way I can lose weight. Just wanted some ideas of what I could eat in a typical day.

It works if you are strict about portion control. MyFitnessPal is great but you can easily underestimate what you're actually eating.

Most people seem to aim for 1200 calories. I think it helps because you log everything inc drinks etc, which could potentially be overlooked and add calories.

I'm ok with drinks. Rarely drink alcohol and drink lots of water. Good point about portion control. I definitely eat far too big portions

Calorie counting works really well but only if you follow some basic principles, namely calorific deficit
First you need to know what your daily average calorie burn is, a fit it is fairly accurate and you can get one second hand cheap on ebay. Say it's 2000 cals. In theory, a 500 calorie a day deficient =3,500 calories per week, which equates to 1lb a day fat loss. So set your target at 1,500 and see how you do. Use my fitness pal to log and track everything you eat and drink. It can be trial and error hitting your cals at first, but just try logging your usual meals to get a rough idea of calories and look for any surprises, where you can start to make swaps. Try an 80/20 split of nutritious vs crap foods. Completely "clean" eating is not sustainable long term.

*A fitbit is fairly accurate

A 1lb a week loss not day
Sorry

Yes of course it works if you stick to it. You need to find out your TDEE and deduct 500 calories from that to get your goal, don't randomly aim for 1200 as for many people that's far too low. I eat 1900 more or less and I'm losing weight.

There is an app called Lose It that's really good, simple and free. You can eat what you want as long as you stick within the allocated calories so yea if you stick with it you will lose weight.

What is TDEE ?

Total Daily Energy Expenditure

Yes absolutely but you have to be strict on portion control. I lost roughly 5 stone most of that through straight calories counting on my fitness pal. I've kept (most) of it off 4-5 years later. Kept to rougly 1200 cals, more when i ate my exercise calories. meals looked something like this

Breakfast: coffee! two egg omlette with a selection of cheese (mozzarella 5-10g), tomato spinach mushrooms/ scrambled egg wrap/chorizo, mushroom, tomato spinach dry fried.
Lunch: chicken mayo wrap/ tuna wrap/ soup/ leek and salmon pasta (more like a leek broth)/shahaka(bootstrap)/ sandwich in sandwich thins (not bread)/ quesadilla (only one wrap)
Dinner: Brie and bacon rissotto(cooking on a bootstrap with less bacon)/one pot chorizo pasta (eat well for less)/bean chilli/spag bol. Pretty much most things but only 50g of carb, and nearly everything bulked out with mushrooms and/or green veg on the side.
Treat: 1 Ben and Jerry ice cream sandwich/two smart price cookies/90g value ice cream

The main thing is that everything needs to be weighed from milk in coffee to the high cal stuff like carbohydrates. I have a set of electronic scales that still sit on my kitchen top.

It has worked for me - and has changed my eating habits to healthy rather than crap heavy so it is sustainable. I have found that for me - I want to eat a lot of food, so I eat loads of fruit and veg and cut back on the carbs/sugar/dairy. I still eat these things but just lots less of them. And I have found that you can eat really big portions of veg while keeping the cals low, but feeling like you're not missing out.

But you really do have to be very very strict to log absolutely everything. Because if you miss anything out then you can miss the deficit and therefore you won't lose weight.

It absolutely does work but you need to weigh everything otherwise you’ll over eat and go over your calorie amount.

I used my fitness pal - so far, so good. I've been calorie counting for 9 weeks and have lost 6.5kg

Turns out I was massively over eating. Weighing everything has helped me learn what a normal portion is meant to look like

I've been calorie counting since March... in 3lbs I will have lost 5 stone It works! Am having about 1600-1700 every day on average, maybe once a week under 1500. I've also massively upped my exercise from nothing to walking around 80 miles a week.

I did this years ago on Fitness Pal and with exercise too I lost nearly 4 stone which I have kept off.

The hard work is at the beginning logging and weighing and getting used to the new normal.
Ime once you've established healthier eating habits you don't need to keep MFP up every day but if I notice the weight creeping in or I go through an unhealthy patch I might use it again for a few days or a week to re-establish those habits.

It's easy once you're used to it, you get to recognise what is a good day of eating and you can still have treats and unhealthy food every now and then.

When I am being strict I might have toast or porridge for breakfast, piece of fruit for snack, tin of soup and bread roll for lunch with yoghurt or more fruit, then a low carb dinner. This used to see me well under my target and there wasn't much restriction on what I could eat for dinner.
Good luck.

Typical low cal day for me:

Breakfast: coffee with 50-100ml milk, mixed fruit (melon/raspberry/blueberry for eg) salad with 7g powdered seed and linseed mix and 1tsp chia seeds.

Lunch: whole meal wrap with 30g low fat houmus, tomato, nigella seeds, carrot and mixed herb salad

Snack: fruit and another coffee

Dinner: courgetti, tomato sauce, loads of steamed veg
Pudding: apple slices with peanut butter

It is really worth working out your TDEE so that you can make sure you eat enough because if you eat too little it can negatively affect your metabolism which you absolutely don't want to do! I lost 2 stone earlier in the year eating 1450 cals per day, and now am maintaining eating around 1900 (though I no longer log daily - as pp have said you get to know what you can and can't have, including some treats)

It works very well for me. Not calorie counting, at the moment, but thankfully maintaining just above where I would prefer to be. When I am calorie counting, I have my usual muesli, banana and coffee breakfast, a 400 calorie lunch, a 600 calorie dinner - lower carb and both with decent protein but not low fat - plus 300-700 calories if snacks and booze, depending on how active I've been and how hungry I am.

I have a decent Tdee despite being middle aged and short, though. My bmi is about 25. Ifi pushed to maintain or lose at a lower bmi, I would have to work much harder.

@ohidoliketobe

Calorie counting works really well but only if you follow some basic principles, namely calorific deficit First you need to know what your daily average calorie burn is, a fit it is fairly accurate and you can get one second hand cheap on ebay. Say it's 2000 cals. In theory, a 500 calorie a day deficient =3,500 calories per week, which equates to 1lb a day fat loss. So set your target at 1,500 and see how you do. Use my fitness pal to log and track everything you eat and drink. It can be trial and error hitting your cals at first, but just try logging your usual meals to get a rough idea of calories and look for any surprises, where you can start to make swaps. Try an 80/20 split of nutritious vs crap foods. Completely "clean" eating is not sustainable long term.

1lb a week.

Thank you. How do I work out my TDEE?

@Nosuchthingastoomichcheese there are tonnes of TDEE calculators - just Google it (not being passive aggressive, there are just tonnes!). Might be worth doing 2 or 3 and taking an average if they five different results?

Yep did that thank you! Good idea to do a few. This one said 1555 to maintain.

Absolutely agree with most posters. My TDEE was 2000. I aim for 1200 most days but I don’t beat myself up if I need 1500 for whatever reason. I also have the cushion of 1700 but try not to use that more than once or twice a week.

Typical day for me:
Granola, natural yoghurt (I like total) and coffee
Soup or maybe scrambled egg or boiled eggs and chicken sausages - high protein basically
Soup (if not for lunch) or a small portion of whatever is for dinner. That can be tricky to do cals for but I estimate and really don’t overdo the portion.

I also walk at least 5 miles a day most days and have a new exercise subs.

I also do snack sometimes healthy sometimes a few squares of choc but I count it.

Lots and lots of water.

1.7 stones down in 3 months with more to go.

Also, I weigh myself fortnightly or monthly because I like to see good movement - it motivates me.

@PickAChew yep spotted as soon as posted. Wish there was an edit function sometimes