Is counting calories a bit a waste of time???...

[goonieboy2008]

Hi
For the past few months i stop counting calories but i have been eating right.Lean protein,complex carbs and only good fats and i have been shedding fat and never looked better.So im wondering if counting calories is maybe not that important as long as your eating the right foods.
What do you guys think?

 

[~RaZr~]

Hi
For the past few months i stop counting calories but i have been eating right.Lean protein,complex carbs and only good fats and i have been shedding fat and never looked better.So im wondering if counting calories is maybe not that important as long as your eating the right foods.
What do you guys think?

Calories in = Calories out
I think it all comes down to discipline and how strict you want to be. Some guys will weigh their food, count calories and monitor EVERYTHING they take in. Others do not even worry about it and instead just "eyeball" their intake.

If you are making decent progress right now, then it's ok. The amount of calories you are taking in will eventually become maintenance. That is when you will have to crunch numbers.

 

[squigader]

If you are making decent progress right now, then it's ok. The amount of calories you are taking in will eventually become maintenance. That is when you will have to crunch numbers.

This. Not to mention if you want to maximize gain without fat gain, or minimize muscle loss when cutting, counting is the way to go.

It's easier and more convenient though to eyeball, I'll admit.

 

[ThreeGigs]

For some people, their sense of hunger is 'dialed in' quite well. Others... well, they get cravings, and eat when they feel hungry, which is often. Their hunger signalling systems are out of whack. Now, if you're able to maintain or lose weight without counting calories, more power to ya! Your body is accurately sensing nutrition needs and sending the right signals, which are being acted upon.

But if you're hungry and still not losing weight, something is amiss and it's time to start counting.

 

[goonieboy2008]

Calories in = Calories out
I think it all comes down to discipline and how strict you want to be. Some guys will weigh their food, count calories and monitor EVERYTHING they take in. Others do not even worry about it and instead just "eyeball" their intake.

If you are making decent progress right now, then it's ok. The amount of calories you are taking in will eventually become maintenance. That is when you will have to crunch numbers.

But instead of crunching numbers can you just diminish portions instead of calculating every foods?

 

[hypo_glycemic]

But instead of crunching numbers can you just diminish portions instead of calculating every foods?

It all depends on what goals you have. If you can't calculate a gram of protein per body pound, then you need a scale in general.
If your needing a specific amount of nutrient thats impossible to eye ball, a food scale would be good.
You can get pretty close by using serving size and doing the math yourself-but to get accurate and exact to the baseline, I would use a scale.

 

[brazey]

The cleaner you eat the less you need to count calories because you're providing your body with all the nutrients it needs. Therefore you won't have the cravings & hunger you do when you include more junk in your diet. If you're a competitive BB, however, you will probably do better counting/weighing everything.

 

[caaraa]

You just saved me the trouble of reposting.

 

[Powermaster]

Hi
For the past few months i stop counting calories but i have been eating right.Lean protein,complex carbs and only good fats and i have been shedding fat and never looked better.So im wondering if counting calories is maybe not that important as long as your eating the right foods.
What do you guys think?

I do the same. I count macro intake in grams and let the calories fall where they may.
The whole calorie in calorie out theory doesn't account for lot of things that effects individuals differently.

 

[Curt James]

Hi
For the past few months i stop counting calories but i have been eating right.Lean protein,complex carbs and only good fats and i have been shedding fat and never looked better.So im wondering if counting calories is maybe not that important as long as your eating the right foods.
What do you guys think?

I'm just an average joe and so never count calories. If I'm worried about my waist then I'll cut back on the junk and watch the scale and the mirror , but there's seldom any calorie counting.

Are you a competitor? If so then I can understand the need to weigh food, count calories, and be more stringent in your approach to diet.

 

[gixxermaniak]

I don't don't them I'll I count is my carb and sugar intake

 

[goonieboy2008]

Thanks for all your responses.

 

[lee111s]

I count my macros as opposed to individual calories. Seems to be working, down to 9% BF with no loss of strength through intermittent fasting.

 

[BulkMeUp]

Eyeballing your food and and working out may keep you fit and in shape. But things will stall at some point and then you will find the need to kick things up a notch or 10 if you aren't satisfied wit the results.

I used to work out for years without a diet or training plan and always ate 'healthy'. Eventually I got frustrated at the fact I looked the same at the end. So i decided to get serious which is when I discovered this site (among others). I've learned a lot during these years and made some mistakes along the way. While I'm nowhere huge, I've come to a point in the last year or so to where I feel I've hit the right stride. So it will depend on what your final goal is and what you are looking for.

 

[BulkMeUp]

I count my macros as opposed to individual calories. Seems to be working, down to 9% BF with no loss of strength through intermittent fasting.

Sounds good! I'm currently IF'ing and am down to about 12-13% trying to get to 10%. Got any pics of your 9%?

 

[sassy69]

If you've always been eyeballing your food and guessing at portion sizes, its probably a good thing to do the exercise of putting a typical day's meal plan into a food counts program (like FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal) to get a real accounting of what you are eating. Many people are usually way off in how much they think they are eating - both in total calories and in macronutrient breakdown.

This is a good understanding to have both in individual meals as well as to get a handle on what you typically eat in a given day and how you tend to spread those meals over the course of the day. The food counts programs are also a great tool to have to complete the work of calculations for e.g. "amount of protein to gain muscle" for your given weight, etc. Again the point is to have a realistic accounting of what you eat instead of guessing.

The worst is when people come here and want to know how to lose weight or whatever or say they are doing this or that but "its not working". Always start by looking at your diet. Its not good enough to say "I eat clean". People typically have a skewed view of how much or how little they eat. We need to know the details. Once you have a baseline accounting of what you are truly eating, it is usually easy to make a few tweaks here & there to get a sufficient and balanced diet for what you want to accomplish.

The last part of this thought is that the successful diet (for growth or loss) is the one you stick to. That means the one that can be easily fit into your regular lifestyle (or another word - your habits). Not the one that is extreme like people who come on here and post up diets that consist of some cereal in the morning and the rest of the day is all protein mix. Needs to be balanced, the more real food the better, and maintainable. Extreme and restrictive diets are usually guaranteed failures followed by a big fat rebound, so not worth even going there.

 

[Gibson23]

eat clean

 

[DIVINITUS]

Counting macros/calories with a food scale and MyFitnessPal (on my iphone) REALLY opened my eyes to proper portions and what my body feels like eating a certain amount of calories and grams of carbs/protein/fats everyday.

IMO most fear counting calories for reasons I don't understand. My wife and I count everything and because of our smartphones it adds almost no extra time to our day. It's funny to me how many diets tout not having to count calories when counting them for a week or two would really enlighten most as to what they are putting in their bodies.

Just eating clean may work for some, but I can pig out on clean food all day long, so counting is a must for me. Junk food isn't the only thing that makes people fat.

 

[Merkaba]

Depends on how serious you want to be and your goals. If you're going to try to do the most as efficiently as possible, with the best insurance policy for lean tissue, you count. Otherwise, it's up to how much time you have to play around and how much muscle you want to lose or fat you want to gain or vice versa

 

[ELH]

Counting and adjusting week by week makes a huge difference. Adjusting your diet to your goals is a must and you need to track that if all possible.

 

[lee111s]

Don't forget to reduce your macros/calories as you gain/lose weight. Your requirements change depending on your weight and excersise level. On days you don't train, you need to eat less as you're not expending the energy.

Same goes for weekends, if your the kind to sit in front of the TV for sports on a Sunday like me, you need to reduce your calories even further as you'll pretty much be at BMR when just sitting.

 

[Imens]

I sometimes think that to lol But If you want to loose weight and watch out for your health then you have to watch out for it