I like calorie counting because it easy, it works, doesn't cost anything extra, and includes all foods that I want or like.

As others have said...once you've done it for a while - you just know the caloires of things by looking at them. Of course, I still weigh and measure quite often- but, I am getting really good at estimating too when I need too.

Of course - all that being said - I still have to eat healthy foods and once in a while indulge in treats.

I am a rebel...tell me I can't ever eat something - and that's just want I really want. So - calorie counting is such a good fit for me.

I've been doing calorie countng for almost a year now. It's the only plan ever that I've been able to stick with long term all of my 'dieting career'. I have to laugh - cause it's not that much of a diet anymore - but, the way I eat now most of the time.

I know that I already posted a general thought on calorie counting, but here is a very specific example of it:this week I had a 1/2 of a bacon cheeseburger & sweet potato fries from The Vortex on Saturday (greatest burger place ever IMO) and a few chicken fingers and a piece of toast from Zaxby's last night... and I still lost 1.3 pounds this week, because I stayed within my calorie count even with those indulgences.

I told one of my coworkers who is on Adkins about it this morning and she just about lost it... she has been plateaud, even gaining, for almost a year now but keeps hammering the low carb. I'm trying to get her to try counting calories for a little while and see what happens. I think she is eating in the 2000-2500 calorie range right now on Adkins and she just isn't burning those calories off...

i count calories but i also put a big emphasis on where my calories come from because i need to get a certain ratio in by the end of the day.

As simply as I can state it.

Because it works! 145 pounds gone and counting

As Ever
Me

Calorie counting.

I think it all comes down to how I was brought up to eat versus how I've learned to eat.

When I was a kid the meals had to be cheap because we were a family of five on a rather tight budget. My mother didn't really cook much and, while my father liked to cook, his favorite things were the grill and the oven. Roast with potatoes, burgers and brats, lots of gravy, and boxed items.

After my parents were divorced I was the cook. I started cooking healthier meals, but then I found something out. I *really* loved to cook. I loved to make up recipes. I loved butter. I loved baking. This kind of threw healthy out the window for a while. Then came Iron Chef and the introduction of ingredients to me that I'd never had. I started looking for them, cooking them, tasting them, and creating dishes with them. And some were not low fat. I have a distinct liking for a good piece of red meat with heavy marble. And a good piece of pork belly. And skin. And cheek. And...yeah. You get the picture.

Taking some of these things out of my diet would be very hard. Counting calories makes it easy. Nothing is off limits, but I must do it all in moderation. Making a meal with courses at home is a test of my ability to stay on plan. A 3 course meal with starter (generally a salad of some kind), a main dish (which includes a vegetable, a meat, and a starch generally), and a dessert (now more likely to contain fruits and/or yogurt) can be hard to do with an allotment of 600-800 calories for dinner. But I can do it if I plan my main dish well and my dessert is something small.

I think that one of the misconceptions is that you can't eat fattening food and lose weight. You can, but it's harder. The more fattening it is, the higher the calories. The higher the calories that one meal has, the less you have for the rest of your meals.

Being able to go out to my favorite Italian restaurant and ordering the lobster bisque with a side salad or the lobster and shrimp ravioli is one thing that I'd really miss if I wasn't calorie counting. I'd miss pasta a lot. I'd miss a good-sized hunk of rustic French bread dipped in cream soup. I'd certainly miss chocolate. A lot.

The key to any diet is moderation and counting calories really helps with that. I have a target caloric allotment for the day. Going a little under or over is okay as long as it isn't more than 100 calories, and varying by about that much once in a while keeps my weight loss going. I'm happy with what I've done so far and will continue.

Because weight watchers was making me INSANE. All I did was think about food and how much food I couldn't eat. I felt like a total moron shopping with my calculator and the scale never moved. While I can't sing CC's praises JUST yet - seeing that it has been two days since I started - the scaled hit its lowest this morning and I have been eating like a lunatic just to make sure I wasnt actually starving. I needed something that I knew would make sense - scientifically. The only formula I could come up with was how many calories you need to burn to lose poundage. Hit fitday - figured out my what my restrictions were. Went onto a kids encyclopedia and figured out the differences in fats, calories, proteins and carbs and calculated the best nutritional plan.

Can't mess with science. lol.