I agree Gold. When I first started, I counted EVERYTHING. And because I was starting out, and still had the "all or nothing" mentality, it was what I needed to do to take control of my life. Now that I've learned about moderation, and the fact that this is a lifestyle change vs. a diet, I've gotten a little sloppier with my math. I still hold myself accountable, but if I'm going to do this for the long haul, I know myself well enough to know that rounding up is going to work better for me than measuring out a serving of hot sauce. Of course that's just me!

Bargoo: I suppose I should apologize for using the word "anal". I didn't mean to imply that people who count more carefully than others are "uptight" or that there's something "weird" about that. You're right, not knowing what we were putting into our bodies is how we got fat in the first place...that's why we calorie count, right?! That's what I think is cool about CC...we all do it a little differently, but it still works for so many of us!

Thanks again everyone for your responses!

I don't count the veggies that I put on my sandwich. Like tomato slices and a single leaf of lettuce.
That's about it.

I round up as well. I find that its a lot easier to do rather then count every little calorie down to the 1/2 calorie if its an uneven number.

At the end of the day I a lot a certain number of calories for each meal, as long as I'm close I'm happy

I don't count the 15 calories in my fish oil pill. I also don't count medicine calories.


Everything else gets tallied up!

When I was sick a couple of weeks ago, I suppose I *should* have added up my Nyquil calories...that stuff is like taking a shot of booze before bed!

I know im a little late answering this but I dont count my coffee in the morning, its only 1 cup with a shot of 1% milk. Then theres the lettuce or tomato slice on my sandwichs.

Gum and water. That's it.

I don't count gum, vitamins, coffee/tea (I only count the milk added to it), mustard, tabasco or spices.

I don't really think any of those have calories in them at the amount I eat them, except maybe the gum and vitamins, which is why I don't count them. I think my vitamin is 15 calories but I still don't count it.

I don't count spices. I don't count water or diet dr. pepper. Or tea or coffee. I DO count anything with calories that goes into the beverages. I count all condiments when I add them. I usually eat my sandwiches dry these days...go figure. I've gotten used to it though. And a lot of times if I can put my carbs and meat on my salad, I don't use dressing either. One big pile of food at dinnertime!

Barb

Now that I've started calorie counting, I'm tempted not to count fruits and vegetables. I eat at least 2 oranges, 2 bananas and a bunch of grapes every day. Often for lunch I'll have a veggie delight sub from subway, and most of the veggies in that don't have any calories or have very few, so I don't count them.
I write them down but I don't put a calorie value beside them. The point of my calorie counting is to make sure I stay under a certain number, but I'll eat as many fruits and veggies as I can fit in with no guilt whatsoever.

Now, often for dinner I'll get one of those salad kits, then I'll just go by whatever calorie value is on the package.

I don't count the milk in my coffee (usually only drink part of a mug of coffee anyway) veggies, diet drinks, or gum.

rarely to I go right to the limit on calories. And I figure weight watchers always allowed most veggies free anyway.

I hadn't really thought about it before but I don't count gum or small amounts of condiments like mustard or a spot of ketchup on something. Everything else gets counted.

I thought of this thread on Sunday while my mind was wandering... Do CCers who partake of communion count the wafer and the wine (or grape juice)? I don't. But I did a quick search on my plate and there are entries for it so some folks do. The calorie counts were all over the place (I searched on communion wafer). I think I'll continue to not count mine...

I don't count plain coffee or tea, stevia, 0 calorie vitamin water, apple cider vinegar, or sodium free spices/seasonings. I count all my fruits and veggies, and usually round up (if a serving of something is 15 calories and I only have half a serving, I'll just say 15 anyway, decimals are annoying haha). So long as I'm still losing, I'm not too worried about it.

At my church communion is once a month and the portions are so itty bitty I don't even worry about. Now at my dad's church instead of a small crumb and a really small cup of juice there is a huge honking peice of bread and a normal size cup of juice which are probably way more calorie-laden.