Counting Calories? page

[jesslikesstuff]

Hello,

I've been crossfitting for over a year now but have only just made the shift to eating Primally. I have about 35 lbs to lose (I weight 185-ish and my 'happy weight' from pre-baby was 150) and have been tracking my calories, trying to stay at 1200 net calories per day (so i'll eat more if I work out).

I've read on this site that counting calories is not necessary, but I have trouble with that.

Do any of you count calories? If so, do you find you need more or less when eating primally? Will I be sabatoging myself by netting 1200 calories per day? I'd really love some feedback on this topic from those who have successfully lost weight eating Primally.

Thanks so much in advance!!

[Karma]

i have not counted a single calorie, eat to setiety and have dropped 14 pouinds since October 2010. Get your proper protein and fat portions and satiety goes up to control she shoveling in of calories you do not need. Just don't crossfit 4000 times a week and you will be fine.

[Diana Renata]

I do occasionally out of curiosity, but I've counted calories so long I can just about eyeball it now. Then things come up that I haven't had, so I plug in to fitday to see what it comes up with.

[Dragonfly]

I am 47, female and after 2 months Primal not counting calories (except for the first week to see what my macros looked like.) After the first week of dropping water weight, I wasn't losing anything, so I decided to fine-tune.

I started tracking again and cut down to 1500 calories (was eating 1600-1700) --and more significantly (for me) I cut my net carbs down to around 20-25. (was 60-100 gm.) It's only been 5 full days and I can already see a significant change in the mirror--and my energy level is way up--after the first couple of days of carb flu, that is!

Everyone's different. Do what works for you.

[Setabas]

I've bench marked my calorie intake for a total of 6 days in the last 4.5 months just to see where I typically land. Eat to satiety with primal foods (my only exceptions are fruit, nuts and booze, all of which I limit to no more than 2 serving per day). I've gotten my body fat down to 11% (from 19%) in 5 weeks when years of chronic workouts and calorie counting never was able to do that.

[Lojasmo]

I spot-check randomly. As I only eat between noon and eight PM, I am consistently running a deficit.

[Minxxa]

My thought process is this... it's good to do some macros at first so you get a feel for carbs/fat/protein ratios. But after that, I think giving it a go in not counting is a good idea. Eat until you're full then stop. Don't eat again until you're hungry. You most likely will eat more some days when your body needs it and less on others, when you're good. Take measurements first. If you feel like you're getting bigger (and not in the good, muscly way), then track for a bit to see what's up.

1200 calories seems a bit low for a woman that's working out on a regular basis and has good lean muscle mass. But each individual will vary.

[NutMeg]

At 185 pounds 1200 calories is really too low. I a, told I should eat about 1400-1700 a day to lose weight and I weigh less than you do, and probably workout less too. 1200 is the bare minimum that you can realistically get the required nutrition according to CW.

You should try eating for satiety for a week, then track what you ate after you are used to eating intuitively, then fine tune from there.

[Rud3d0g]

I only track my food intake if I'm stalling for more than 3 weeks (and normally find that some very un-primal food made it back into my diet - evil pizza), never count calories, never checked my macro ratios, never did chronic cardio - down 60+ in 6 months.

[Misabi]

My thought process is this... it's good to do some macros at first so you get a feel for carbs/fat/protein ratios. But after that, I think giving it a go in not counting is a good idea. Eat until you're full then stop. Don't eat again until you're hungry. You most likely will eat more some days when your body needs it and less on others, when you're good. Take measurements first. If you feel like you're getting bigger (and not in the good, muscly way), then track for a bit to see what's up.

1200 calories seems a bit low for a woman that's working out on a regular basis and has good lean muscle mass. But each individual will vary.

This. I used fitday daily to begin with to make sure I was getting enough fat, not to much carbs etc and found that I was coming up a few hundred calories short each day, but I dialled it in I only check every so often.