Sick of calorie counting/ following a plan

[Notquitesureaboutthis]

Has anyone lost weight successfully just by choosing good foods and being mindful of portion sizes?

Everyone seems to be following a plan or calorie counting these days and I'm just so lost and fed up. They don't seem to work for me.

I have a good understanding on what foods I can eat in volume and which foods to eat moderately. I know butter/oil can ramp up the calories quickly. I know to watch out for liquid calories. I know all the tips!

So why am I so scared of just winging it?

I want to be able to make my morning oats with berries without weighing it out. I want to make my salads and soups without logging it all on MFP.

It just makes preparing food such a chore and then I give up because I just can't be bothered.

I want to have a chicken breast for dinner without worrying the piece is too big for example. I think maybe calorie counting is a bit unhealthy for me.

Maybe I should just weigh out the high calorie foods to make sure I'm not eating too much?

Sorry for the garbled post. I'm just at a loss with what to do now as I keep failing. I want eating well to be simple so I can stick with it. Because when I eat extra calories one day I feel deflated and give up. When I've followed slimming world and I've had too many syns I feel I've let myself down...and give up!

I have the knowledge on how to eat well. I want a healthy relationship with food - not a guided one (I know it works brilliantly for some). I'm just scared is all!

P.s you might ask why I'm overweight if I'm eating porridge/soups/salads - but it's because I eat too much processed food.

I think I have developed a terrible mindset:

When I eat crap (sometimes all day long) it is easy. I don't log it or watch what I'm eating because I know what I'm doing is wrong so what's the point in acknowledging it further (terrible I know).

Whereas if I cut out the rubbish and focus on good foods only I think I need to log it all on MFP. Deep down I know cutting out the crap is going to make such a huge difference that I don't need to calorie count it. At least not to begin with.

It's just, when I'm eating well, I've always followed a plan so I feel like I can't eat well without one.

But now I'm thinking that maybe I need to stop focusing so much on every detail of what I eat and just eat consciously.

I’ve been following the advice from Why We Eat (Too Much) for just under 2 weeks and am finally enjoying healthy food and not weighing/measuring anything. You really need to read the book to gain a full understanding but essentially he recommends cutting out sugar, wheat and all processed foods due to their high levels of seed oils, and not worrying about saturated fat or counting calories. Like you, I was eating so much processed sugary crap before but now I have 3 good meals a day and feel so much better. There’s a thread about it on here too which you might find useful

I have calorie counted on and off for many years and have got to the point now that I can do it without logging anything on MFP mainly due to being able to now eyeball portion sizes and know what is correct from years of weighing and measuring.Why don't you give it a go for a few weeks and see how you get on?

Thank you for the boom recommendation - I've just bought it on Kindle. Interested to start reading!

I too have calorie counted on and off and so have a good idea of what a certain amount looks like etc. I'm just scared to make the jump away from calorie counting I guess. Thanks though

P.s you might ask why I'm overweight if I'm eating porridge/soups/salads
Most people wouldn't think that. I got fat on these😂😂😂

On a serious note. Try it. It get grinding having to log and weight for many people.

I think your idea with weighting up the high calorie bits is good. That will help you stay in right portion sizes as well. It's easy to get too big portions of pasta for example.

There are threads here where people justa im to eat better without weighting and counting, they might be good support for you.