Are we calorie counting?

[LabOwner95]

I've just completed my 7th week on 2.5mg Mounjaro and I've lost 1 stone, so I'm really happy with that. Didn't really lose much this week or last though, but I did make the mistake of eating A LOT the night before both weigh ins because my food suppression was reduced and because I'd stupidly weighed a day early as a little treat and then thought "oh great I'll have a takeaway". A healthy takeaway, but still - I think water retention from salty food has affected the past 2 weigh ins. Anyway... I haven't been calorie counting, just going off vibes and naturally eating less and making better choices. Are people calorie counting?

I think a lot of people do. I don't, generally. If I find weight loss is slow, plateaued or even gaining, then I will calorie count for a week or so and get back on track with where I'm at. This has become more frequent the closer I am to my goal weight. I started off with BMI 50 so creating a calorie deficit was very simple to achieve. Now my BMI is 25ish I need to be a lot more careful and creating a significant deficit requires a lot fewer calories!

Ive lost 30 kilos since last November. I counted calories and weighed myself every day. I'd just go on chat gpt every day and input what I had eaten and ask it to roughly count my calories.

Í have lost 21kg since starting MJ in Match. I calorie count every day because otherwise I find it's too easy to eat more without hardly noticing. It's also helped me make better choices about what food to eat. The app I use also tells me the macros like how much protein I've eaten.

Of course. The only way you lose weight is by being in a deficit

I lost 6.5st in just over a year on MJ and I've been maintaining now for 5 months.

While I have ballparked my calories and maintained a general awareness, I absolutely cannot be doing with weighing everything, counting spoonfuls, mls of milk, filling in tracker things and whatever. Not happening!

I've saved my focus for the type of food - high protein high fibre, good fats etc, reduced carbs. Seems to have worked for me but I think you'll get a big range of responses about this.

I did barring holidays until I decided to switch to maintenance, still weigh daily though and so far I’m fluctuating by 1.5kg depending on where I am in my cycle. If I weigh in at more than 2kg over goal for more than 2 weeks I’ll start counting again and consider upping my dose

Counting calories is not the only way to manage being in a calorie deficit.

I did, but not everyone does. I'm menopausal and just don't have much leeway if I want to lose weight, so I calorie counted.

Even though WLI are incredibly helpful, you still have to somehow be in a deficit to lose weight, so if you don't restrict the calories, you have to increase the exercise. One way or another, you won't lose weight unless you are burning more calories than you consume.

Of course it is! You can’t just hope and pray.

Of course hoping and praying isn't sufficient. But you can reduce portion size, you can do intermittent fasting or similar, increase movement etc to create a calorie deficit. You won't know exactly what calories that deficit might be but if you are losing weight consistently at 1 to 2lbs each week that's essentially irrelevant.

As I said, when you are morbidly obese it is very easy to create a large calorie deficit just from the effects of the medication resulting in smaller meals consumed, not even objectively small meals but just a normal portion size three times a day and no snacks. My TDEE at BMI 50 was about 2500 based on me being sedentary. Creating at least a 500 cal deficit with Mounjaro and increased movement was very easy to achieve without calorie counting.

As I got less obese I did more exercise and kept my portions smaller. I have also done IF at various points. I would only bother to calorie count if the weight loss was slow or not happening for longer than a couple of weeks.

I find the idea of calorie counting long term, essentially continually, to be a major mental block when it comes to losing weight, hence avoiding it as much as possible. I was put on a calorie controlled diet as a child and find it to be really quite traumatising mentally to think that it is necessary to do it daily, permanently.

I have lost 11st this way.

I lost 75 lbs. Never counted a single calorie.
I ate what I fancied, but ate protein and vegetables first, and stopped when I began to feel full. I found that I automatically couldn't consume a big portion of pasta, bread, or rice. Simple as that. I've kept it off for nearly two years now, still eating in the same intuitive way (having learnt what a portion size really was, and how little I actually need).

Good luck actually eating in a consistent deficit. You must calorie count. In fact most suppliers make you agree to it when you sign up!

I didn't, until weight loss stalled then I did. Now I maintain without counting but I know roughly what I can eat to stay within maintenance. Takeaways ideally won't be a 'treat' if the medication is working properly as it should dampen the dopamine reward from food so maybe you need to increase the dose especially if it's wearing off by day 7?

crikey, do they @memoriesringliketinnitus ? I've never been asked by any of the suppliers I have used.

No they don't! I've never been required to agree to calorie count, and I've used many different suppliers over the last two years that I've been in a consistent calorie deficit and lost 11 stone....

Suppliers will say that you need to eat a reduced calorie diet, and stick to healthy eating. That does not mean that you must calorie count!

It's absolutely not the only way!

Not in my experience

Not meticulously but I know roughly the cals I was consuming so did it roughly, but if you don’t really know I think it’s important to do it, to understand what you can eat,

it’s also important to change your eating habits, not use food as a reward,

You agree to eat a low calorie diet and exercise, and the only way to achieve it is calorie counting.

Can I ask you which supplier asked you to agree to that? Like I say, I've used a number of suppliers and this has not come up.

Medicine marketplace.

@memoriesringliketinnitus You keep saying the only way to achieve a reduced calorie diet is to calorie count. To be clear, are you saying that reducing portion size, cutting out snacks, cutting out alcohol (if applicable), using any of the fasting methods and increasing movement are not ways to reduce the calories that you consume??

Also, how do you explain my weight loss given that I haven't calorie counted?

I am currently using MMP and they did not say a single thing about mandatory calorie counting!

Too late to edit, but I meant "create a calorie deficit" not "reduce the calories you consume" as clearly increased movement won't do that but will help create a calorie deficit.

You do realise that just because something is true for you, it doesn't make it true for everyone, right? You've literally got people on this thread, including me, saying they're lost large amounts without rigidly counting calories yet you just keep repeating the same thing.

If that's what works for you, and the only way that works for you, fine. But stop negating everyone else's experience when they've clearly succeeded in losing weight without cracking out the kitchen scales and opening up Nutracheck every time they eat half an apple.