Calorie Counting page 2

[Lawyerchick12]

Yes I do, because I tend to OVEREAT a lot and I am still not versed on what a true portion size it. Leave it to me and I will eat a 15 ounce steak and think it was 4 ounces or used like 500 cals worth of butter to cook and think it was 150...lol so ya....I need to but I am hardly a slave. I just know to get the results I need I need to count my cals most days at least

[WeldingHank]

Since getting in tune with my body on when it's actually satisfied (~2 months into primal, started 100% january 2012) I haven't counted a single calorie. Just eat real,clean, nutritious primal food and the fat has been melting off my body.

[Paleobird]

Since getting in tune with my body on when it's actually satisfied (~2 months into primal, started 100% january 2012) I haven't counted a single calorie. Just eat real,clean, nutritious primal food and the fat has been melting off my body.

I'm happy for you but it's not that easy and doesn't happen that quickly for everyone. If you eat as Lawerchick above describes while getting in tune with your body, you could easily end up gaining a lot of weight on Primal. I know. I did exactly that. Then I counted calories. Now, at a healthy weight, I am wonderfully 'in tune" with my body. Some of us need more structure to get from point A to point B however.

[Gadsie]

I count calories. I often want to figure out my maintance level so I can get a slow gain to build muscle. I'm not obsessing over it though. When I go on vacation or something I just eat primal as much as I can and as much as I want and have no clue about calories

[sbhikes]

I don't usually track my calories. I decided to check them this past week, though.

I seem unable to have much control over calories at all. I cannot stand to be hungry. I regularly hit 1900 and above even while trying to be good! Now I feel like maybe I really am a glutton. This is why I prefer to stay ignorant because if I don't have little numbers telling me I'm a glutton, then I'm much happier ignorantly believing I'm normal.

I lost all my weight not looking at calories anyway, except for one two-week stretch last winter. I tracked and stayed in the 1200 calorie range the little app recommended for 2lbs per week of weight loss. I should have lost 4lbs during those two weeks. I lost nothing. So I stopped tracking. My weight is the same now as it was back then.

[JL22]

Some interesting responses here

I particularly like Paleobird's comment about how some people definitely need a way to get from A to B. Perhaps this could be because when people start a paleo/primal diet and hear the advice that "fat is good, eat more fat" they go a bit crazy, cooking everything in butter, eating lots of nuts, etc and forget about the actual calorific content of the food? That seems to be one of the things that isn't made totally clear sometimes, CW states fat makes you fat, and whilst we know that it's not that simple, from a calorific standpoint it seems to be, for CW'ers wanting to lose weight they cut out the things with most calories, seems legit.

I tried my first day without calorie counting today and I'll admit I did still tot up rough estimates in my head. I reckon it would be alright if you really did just eat strict primal though, especially if you plated up on veggies.

[Paleobird]

Some interesting responses here

I particularly like Paleobird's comment about how some people definitely need a way to get from A to B. Perhaps this could be because when people start a paleo/primal diet and hear the advice that "fat is good, eat more fat" they go a bit crazy, cooking everything in butter, eating lots of nuts, etc and forget about the actual calorific content of the food? That seems to be one of the things that isn't made totally clear sometimes, CW states fat makes you fat, and whilst we know that it's not that simple, from a calorific standpoint it seems to be, for CW'ers wanting to lose weight they cut out the things with most calories, seems legit.

I tried my first day without calorie counting today and I'll admit I did still tot up rough estimates in my head. I reckon it would be alright if you really did just eat strict primal though, especially if you plated up on veggies.

I just started a new thread about the "EAT MOAR FAT!" advice given on the forum.

[LauraSB]

I've been counting religiously since the middle of April and losing weight steadily. I've been a least a little overweight almost my whole life, except for a stretch between my mid-teens and mid-twenties, when I was addicted to aerobics and/or bulimic. I also weigh myself every.single.day. The constant flood of numbers has helped me become much more analytical and less emotional about food, which is an indescribable relief to me. It brought me to primal, because as I tried out ways to make a longterm (small) calorie deficit bearable, primal eating kept making it easier. I'm sure some people can "listen" to their body - I'm not there yet.