To not count calories in my dinner?!

[BiscuitBandit32]

OK I've got an idea.

I am around 3 stone overweight and SO CONFUSED about how to get the weight off. I'd settle for 1 of those stones off tbh. I've battled with several methods over the years but never found anything I can stick to. I tried calorie counting (again) recently but found it really impractical with a family. Yes, I know loads of mums do it and succeed but I'm just being honest, I struggle. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the people you see on insta pushing calorie counting are mostly either teenage girls or childless men. It's all well and good calorie counting if you are cooking for 1 and have no stress in your life.

So I had an idea...is this totally stupid??

Basically I thought I could count calories BEFORE my dinner only...so breakfast lunch and any snacks. I'd try and keep those below 800. Then I'd just eat my dinner as normal. I'd try to be mindful of portion size, increase my veg, try and make sure its a healthy nutritious meal but I would not count the calories in it. As long as I don't go mad or load up on pasta and butter, any meal would be well below 1000 calories.

The reason I'm thinking of this is because I really struggle with calorie counting dinner. I find it super stressful. Dinner time is chaos in our house and when I'm trying to plan, weigh, measure, track and log my calories it just feels like a HUGE chore, I get fed up and quit.
But I know I need to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight. And I can probably cope with tracking my own bfast and lunch and snacks as its not a complicated family meal.

My idea was that if my pre dinner food comes to 800, my dinner won't be more than about 800 (probably an over estimate really) so I would probably end up with less than 1800 total calories per day (wich is what most calorie calculators give me as a target.

Thoughts? Anyone else tried this way of doing things? I'm thinking it might take the pressure off whilst still reducing my intake.

If you are going to do this just eat less than 800 calories for breakfast and lunch.

I lost two stone with gestational diabetes and honestly it is pretty easy to follow from time to time when I want to keep myself on track. You look at portion control more than calories, in fact I didn't calorie count at all. You reduce your carb intake to 30g of carbs per meal, load up on veggies and protein and make sure any carbs you do have are wholegrain. It's basically just very healthy eating and you cut out junk food and reduce fruit. If you follow something like that your family should have no issue eating what you eat and you won't need to count the calories. You're just managing your intake of sugar and refined carbs.

Honestly I think that's fine OP. Part of what makes "diets" successful if being able to stick to them. if you are finding it impossible that will not be the case.

I'm currently calorie counting to lose weight. I guestimate for dinner. So if we have a spag bol, I'll find a generic spag bol in the app and use that. I know that is open to inaccuries, but it's better than nothing and I can't be doing with weight ingredients and then portions. Life is too short.

Just eat a bowl of Shreddies for your breakfast and lunch. That’s well under 500 calories then you can eat what you want for dinner.

I don’t eat breakfast but I have a bowl of Shreddies for lunch - that’s under 200 calories then I don’t eat anything else until dinner which is normally around 600-700 calories.

On an evening I eat biscuits

This is, nutritionally, such bad advice.

Really? Most people I know who have ever tried to lose weight have tried a calorie controlled diet at some point. Makes you better informed rather than obsessive? For example you might think one small pork pie can't do any harm, yet you could have a proper meal for the same calorific value.

I assumed it was a joke… Maybe it wasn’t.

I found the best way (and I'm so far off the wagon with starting back at work after mat leave, still breastfeeding and so much household sickness but it's next on the agend) for mewas slimming world, 99% of the time. I'd eat almost entirely free food, have a synful snack or treat once a day and always had a loss.

For eating out or special occasions I'd take a 'free syns' approach, so say I was going out for birthday dinner, I'd have whatever I wanted. Starter, main, pud etc but just for that meal then back on plan. It REALLY made a psychological difference for me because if I didn't preplan that time off I'd eat badly all day and maybe all weekend etc because guilt.

So basically all our meals are more or less slimming world friendly anyway, it's the extras that are the issue. That's how I handled them and lost 3 stone for my wedding in a year.

oh right, haha I hope it was! I know someone who basically lives like this though. Same breakfast and lunch every single day, based on calories. 3 dinners on rotation Mon-Friday.

There was an advertising campaign some years ago by one of the breakfast cereal companies advocating cereal for breakfast and lunch then a light evening meal to lose weight!

The Special K diet.

As a single solitary pp said, why not just try it? It might work. Reassess in a month and if you’re not losing weight tweak or change tack accordingly. There are multiple successful paths to weight loss and different people have different circumstances and needs.

honestly I’ve no idea why you’ve received two pages worth of officious comments telling you it’s a terrible idea. Just try it. Why not?

Yup, this is the way to go. I used to pick one on the higher end of the calorie count for the meal or food. That way I could be reasonably assured that I was overestimating my intake.

@BiscuitBandit32 It can be putzy when you are getting started, but after awhile it gets easier and takes very little effort. Once you save some of your go to recipes and meals into the app you can just pick from there. I used to pre-count dinner if I knower in advance what I was going to be eating. Yes it’s best to enter the counts, but there’s not a calorie counting policeman standing over you to make sure it’s done as you’re cooking and eating.

As someone else mentioned, figure out a way to integrate this into your life vs. changing your life. You’ll be more successful in the long run.

Thank you 😄 I think I'm going to give it a go. I don't know why weight loss is so bloody difficult I think I get myself tied up in knots trying to digure put the nest way to lose weight and all the while not actually DOING anything about it...I think I just needed someone to say its not an awful idea and MIGHT just work.

No it wasn’t a joke, I started eating like this to lose weight initially but actually ended up preferring this way of eating. Not having to worry about what to eat for lunch every day, nor having to worry about a few biscuits on an evening. A just buy a big fuck off box of Shreddies each week and that’s me. I do eat varied dinners though and they’re never calorie counted.

I don't think it would work. A dinner could quite easily exceed 800 calories. Unless you're eating steamed fish and veg, plain salad every night.

Quite often when people put on weight, it's because their portions are too big and they underestimate how many calories are in foods.

But of course there is nothing stopping you from giving it a go. You'll soon know if it's working or not.

To add, the only way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you're burning off.

Of course you can do this by calorie counting, low carbing, fasting, cutting sugar, one diet might suit your good preferences and lifestyle more. But ultimately there is no secret you have to take in less calories.

You are taller than me OP. And I was much heavier and doing 1600 cals a day. I’m going to check mine on James Smith I think. I lost 2lbs to 1.5kbs a week on 1600 so maybe he does it slower.

whatever you try will work eventually as long as your output is more than your input. I just know I’d eat 1000+ cals easy for dinner if I didn’t count or at least estimate.

1.5lbs*

I've lost 3stone by cc. I always count my tea. I think you would be being optimistic to think that your main meal will be less than 800 if you aren't counting. But tbh it's not hard to track. Just add your recipe to my fitness pal. It works out calories per portion. It's honestly not hard. Track it the day before if dinner time is hectic.

I feel your pain op. I cannot lose weight. I only really need to lose a stone at most and I am finding it impossible with a busy household. All the calculators say I should lose weight at 1600 calories but it only seems to happen if I go down to 1200 or less snd I am just not able to sustain it, I get hungry cranky and ill.

Give it a go and see how you get on for the next 2 weeks.

Calorie counting has its downsides because for some people when they stop counting they go silly (me).
Whereas if you are able to not count and still eat sensibly then I think that’s fantastic and a way better way to a healthy lifestyle.

As a PP said using lighter versions of meals and maybe having a rough idea of what they are will also help without too much added pressure.

If after a couple of weeks you’ve not lost any weight then perhaps just plan your meals in advance and work out the rough calories beforehand.

Find something you can stick to and that is the best diet.

I like logging calories for accountability, though I don't do it every day, more just as a check in now and again.

One thing I might do in your shoes is calculate the calories of all the meals you have on fairly regular rotation just once, and note them down somewhere. Once you've got them then you can do a rough calculation for dinner most days without having to calculate from scratch every time.

So I was told (by team rh) that this is inaccurate and the only way to do it is to weigh every individual ingredient by the gram, weigh your pot, cook it, then weigh the full dish, minus the weight of the pot, then weigh your serving. Which when you have 3 screaming kids and the dinners burning and the baby has pood and the toddler is trying to murder the cat starts to feel like a huge massive faff on.
Do you just estimate a portion then? Like input your recipe and divide by how many people?