Counting calorie really work?

[mummymummymummy123456]

I feel it does but rarely spoke about

I lost 4 stone in 6 months by calorie counting.

It works for me. But reluctantly I do tend to cut out cake / chocolate / biscuits etc, else I get to the end of a day's calories and have too much day left...

@Icanthinkformyselfthanks I think we should all respect that different people use different methods to lose weight and calorie counting works for some people. No one is making money out of me calorie counting apart from one cheap app. Other people prefer to use weight loss drugs or intermittent fasting or cut carbs or count points - each to their own.

It does make you very mindful of do you need that glass of wine or chocolate biscuit doesn’t it? Sometimes the answer is still Yes!

Every single diet ever is about calories. Eat more than you burn - gain weight. Eat less - lose weight.

Count calories, syns, carbs, restrict via surgery/WLI. It’s still calorie restricting in some way.

Yes it does work, and low carb is also ultimately about cals in v cals out. But the reality is many people do not count correctly nor do they accurately know their tdee and so they proclaim they are in a defecit or eating v little when they are still eating too much,

there is a lot of medical marvels on here existing on v few cals and not losing weight,

It’s the only thing that works , there is no magic formula.

Unfortunately, yes it does work. I’m the same weight (57kg and 5’6) as my late teens at the age of 38, barring 3 pregnancies, and I’ve counted calories my whole adult life. Sometimes I’m super strict and weigh everything, sometimes I just eyeball it. But I always go to bed knowing how many calories I’ve eaten that day. My parents and DH do the same so it’s normal for me.

However, there are some little ‘hacks’ that do make weight loss and maintenance easier. E.g.

• Strategic food timing, like stopping eating at 6pm with a 9pm bedtime
• Really good sleep
• Lots of protein: 30g per meal and aiming for 120g per day
• Volume eating e.g. cottage cheese, egg whites, pumpkin etc.
• Eating enough healthy fats but being careful with them due to the calorie density
• Strength training and not overdoing the cardio
• Trying to stick to whole foods, unprocessed, and eating in more of a Mediterranean way rather then relying on protein powders, bars, and diet drinks and products.

But yes, at the end of the day it’s calories in calories out, taking hormonal issues and biology into account.

Stacy Sims and Madeleine Scraran (spelling?) are both awesome on YouTube for this if you want more inspo.

Um no it’s not. It’s average. Ffs.

Look up the recipe for ‘the impossible brownie’. It’s 45 calories for the whole pan of brownie but the ingredients are a bit strange (including Diet Coke!).
On those days when I just need SOMETHING after dinner but I’ve exhausted my calories, it’s a godsend. No, it doesn’t taste as good as a 350 calorie fudgy brownie from the bakery, but it’s enough to scratch the itch.

Not if they've done a Flight 571 ...

Thank you, I hear what you’re saying but I’m not going to give up just yet! I’ll give it another six months. A healthy bmi was always my goal
and I am very close.

I do understand however that I’ll be counting calories forever, let to it on my own I’m greedy and eat my through a day so to maintain what I’ve achieved I’ll be forever logging my food.

it does work and it has changed how I eat and what I eat and the transformation to my body blows my mind tbh. It’s daily though and you have to commit to it. If you want a basic no frills weight loss with no cost it’s definitely worth trying

@Twiglets1 , I don’t care what people do. I do care that people make their decisions with full knowledge of the facts.

Fair enough and I was just saying what I would do. I’m 60 and don’t care that I’ll probably never be a size 12 again, I just want to reduce from a size 16 to 14.

Everyone’s situation is different and what we want to achieve out of losing weight.

Agree with you it’s a no frills way to lose weight. It’s simple and you don’t have to cut any food group out. That’s what I like about it.

yes it works if you stick to it.

I honestly have to agree. I joined sw and I just do not get on with the swips thing at all.

Due to diabetes I try stay around 150g a day or less but I know that is still up there and be better closer to 120g but I am hungry a lot.

i'm in north america and love chronometer (odd name but it's a free nutrition app)
it does calories but all the macro's as well and you can customize your target nutrients.
weighing and logging food is tiresome but after doing it for some time i've learned quite a bit and only weigh and log foods sporadically.
i honestly think you need some nutritional knowledge to eat a healthy well balanced diet, and calorie counting apps are a good starting point.

I agree with you. I use my fitness pal free version. When I first started calorie tracking I knew certain foods were high calorie but not how high! Oils and creams were the biggest shock and I never slosh these things on any more, but I haven’t given them up as I like tasty food!

I don't give anything up as feel like when you do you start craving the thing you know you can't have. I just reduce the portion size or the amount I slosh on in the case of oil and creams. And have moved the family on to only using olive oil even for cooking, for health reasons.

You need healthy fats to fill you up for longer,' google ' bullet proof coffee ' this keeps me going till evening meal, and it doesn't spike your insulin ,
Chocolate fat bombs, home made and kept in the freezer,

Healthy fats don't spike your insulin

yes it does "work" in that you will lose weight if you eat low calories. but i find that calorie counting is one of the most susceptible methods to yoyo-ing, relapsing and bingeing. i think calories counting can tend to be overly strict, result in hunger and a little depressing. (not saying it's not possible to use calorie counting in a healthy and happy way, this is just my experience).

additionally, not all calories are created equal. our body responds to the vast array of different types of foods in different ways. think about if your body has to work hard and perform a lot of different processes to extract the energy from a food, vs food with energy that is already highly available to the body (e.g. fast-acting carbs like refined white flour). therefore the calories of an avocado or handful of nuts, while high, may not affect the body in the exact same way as the calories of, say, a doughnut.