Calorie tracking

[Periperi2025]

I've recently started mounjaro (I'm on week 4) and joined the company i'm using's Facebook support group and noticed that most people seem to be religiously calorie tracking.

I thought the whole point of mounjaro was that i wouldn't need to obsessively calorie track/ conciously restrict calories again after years of dieting and fasting and ultimately failing.

This has thrown me, I've lost 15lb in 3 weeks just by allowing the appetite suppression , sugar aversion and improved glycaemic control to do it's work, and focusing on getting as much protein in as i can.

Obviously I'm very new to this, so for those who've been successful, have you calorie tracked or just let mounjaro guide you?

I’ve lost just over 9st in just over a year and I have not calorie tracked other than for a few days mainly to make sure I was eating enough in the early days.

14 weeks in and yet to count a calorie. Have lost over 2 stone. I understand it works for some people but for me calorie counting is one of the worst parts of previous attempts to lose weight. I focus on nutrition and making sure I am fuelling my body. Mounjaro makes that easy as lost the cravings for food and drink that interfere with that. Do what works for you so long as you aren’t undernourished - which can be easy to do if you don’t pay attention.

I basically ball park it, and have a general sense of what's good value for calories per protein & fibre etc etc. So, greek yoghurt and nuts are more useful than bread, cream/cottage cheese and ryvita make more sense than white pasta. I don't avoid carbs completely, I'm just not very drawn to them any more.

I do not weigh (food, I do weigh myself!) and I do not track. If a restaurant puts calories on the menu then I'll glance at that and sometimes my eyes will pop but it doesn't make my choice for me.

I come from the opposite starting point of a lot of people - never having calorie counted or 'dieted' in my entire life because I've always loathed the whole concept.

I've lost nearly 3 stone since March.

Funnily enough I just downloaded a calorie counting app yesterday (Nutracheck) after not counting calories for a year.
5 stone lost with 4 still to go.
What prompted me is for last 5 months my weight loss has slowed down to 0.75 - 1lb a week If I am lucky.
I haven't lost for the last 2 weeks.
I kind of have a love/hate relationship with it. I don't want to lose more than 2lb a week but would like to bring my average up to 1.5lb a week. At least until say the last stone & half.
It would be interesting to see what my calorie intake is vs my TDEE.
I may decide to make some changes.

I’ve lost 8st since October and haven’t counted calories. I don’t need to. It’s been impossible for me to overeat.

If you are in the fortunate position that you are consistently losing weight without counting calories then you do not need to start. Losing 5lb per week would be dangerously fast in the longer term so if this does not settle down then you may need to track calories in order to ensure that you are eating enough.

Depending on how much they have to lose, many people find that they have to start tracking once they get closer to goal as the TDEE of a smaller body can be significantly lower, and it's harder to maintain the very large deficits of the earlier days.

I've used chatgpt to roughly estimate my calorie intake in the first week, as i was eating so little, and to get an idea of what i needed to eat as a baseline (still not always achieving it so won't be increasing my dose for a while yet) and to get an idea of what i could do to get more protein in with a supressed appetite, so I'm now adding protein powder to my Greek yogurt and berries for breakfast, and having protein supplement in the evening (particularly when i know i haven't eaten enough).

But since then I've not looked at calories.

Even after a year I find myself eating out of habit.
My brain feels I need a certain amount for breakfast, lunch & dinner.
To the point where I probably put too much on my plate but still mostly eat it.
It has got better, but I think it would be helpful if I now started to count calories as it would give me a goalpost.
I like the freedom of not counting but if I want to lose at a quicker pace (all within the healthy guidelines) then I kind of have to lump it or increase my exercise.
Just thinking out loud.

@Redlightbulb that's tough.
So far the food noise is gone and on high suppression days i have to push myself to eat.
The thing that is haunting me is ice-cream FOMO (and probably cake too when the weather cools down) , i have a strong sugar aversion but i still get jealous when everyone else is having an ice-cream and I'm not because i can't stomach it, or i have one and really don't enjoy it. Food was heavily used as punishment and reward when i was a kid, this emotion is going to be a tough one to change.

I haven’t really although after years of calorie awareness, I kind of have a running total in my mind.

I recently thought I’d start tracking and logging properly as I’m at goal and struggling to maintain (keep losing!) and lasted 3 days before I remembered how much I hated it!! 😂

If you’re losing weight whist still having energy and feeling great, don’t worry about!!

I use nutracheck, just because it's a really great app, I'm not obsessive, but it's a good tool when you can eat so little to lose as a post menopausal woman.
I think it's a good idea to check what you're eating, to make sure you're getting the right nutrition.
If you're happy and healthy doing what you're doing though keep doing you!

Never counted a calorie on it ! Going the scenic route , nearly 3 stone in 24 weeks

Yes I am, plus macros etc to see if I have a good balance. The weight loss has slowed/halted now I've got to almost BMI 24 though so it's good to know where I might be going wrong. I may need to do more of a variable calories/4:3 or 5:2 approach. I'll certainly have to track food and be very careful when I stop taking it.

This.

Do people not tracking and eating very little do a lot of exercise? I work out a fair bit and can certainly eat, even on 12.5mg. I ate 2,000 calories on Sunday, no problem, so I have to be careful.

I use MJ to help me manage a healthy diet, this includes tracking everything. I know a lot of people rely on suppression but I have actively chosen to remain on 2.5mg to avoid heavy suppression. I think the difference is some people use MJ to support their weight loss and some people use it for their weight loss. Whichever works for the individual

I have lost 4.5 stone without calorie counting.
In the early days of being on MJ I did 2 random calorie check days, just to see how many I had had, and it was suitably low so I didn't do it again.

I am having 3 modest meals a day. protein and vegetables. If I am genuinely hungry late afternoon, I have a few almonds or an apple.
Each week seems to be different, but on average I lose 1.5 - 2lb a week.
My aim is to be able to NOT fixate on food, what is 'good'/'bad'.

Like you I have given up sugar completely, however I do have a couple of glasses of wine at the weekend as my 'indulgence', so I do not feel FOMO/deprived/punished.
Not having to focus on food all the time has freed up my brain to address the psychological challenges of why/when I overeat.