I follow my workout idol, Chalene Johnson on Twitter and FB and 99% of the time she posts things that are motivating or inspirational. Earlier today she posted the following:

"75 calories over your daily maintenance calories equals 7.8lb of fat gain per year. EVERY CALORIE COUNTS!"

I understand the point she is trying to make. But instead of motivating me to stay within my calories each day, I find this thought depressing and the thought of trying to count calories without making any errors seems pretty much impossible. This short little phrase makes it seem inevitable that I will gain back the weight I've lost over the last year. Maybe I'm just emotional today because I'm sure I'm overreacting, but this quote is just bothering me today. I usually love what she has to say so I'm surprised and disappointed on many levels. Maybe I'm just in a mood today.

This sounds like a good topic for the maintenance forum, not that I don't like seeing it here. I'm just not sure I have any leg to stand on in responding to it. But I'll try!

I think most maintainers routinely weigh themselves and balance their intake accordingly. So if you saw yourself going up by whatever your window is, you'd back off on the calories. I don't think most maintainers eat exactly X number of calories.

I think her point was just that every calorie counts, which is true. I think she means that peanut you just snagged off the bar counts or that handful of a couple chocolate chips. Your body knows you ate them.

Yep, that is depressing. I'm like you, lol. I see that as a threat.

But, does that not mean that 75 calories UNDER your daily maintenance equals 7.8lbs of fat LOSS per year? Currently, while in my losing phase, I'm eating less and burning more than 75cal under my maintenance. But eventually I'll slow that down, and if I can still eat 75cal under, I wouldn't mind losing a few pounds per year, lol.

I don't religiously calorie count though, I'm just very aware of ingredients and portion sizes. I certainly pay attention to calories, but I don't record and count accurately.

I can totally see why some would view it as depressing and pessimistic, but to me it's comforting lol. I like that there is a method to it, a science. I like that it works the other way, too. If I eat X amount under then I'll lose X/year. It sort of puts it in my hands. I like to feel that I'm in control, rather than that frustrating feeling of not being able to predict what my weight will do. However I do understand that for a lot of people, this quote is just too drastic. Just keep in perspective that it's not like it's 75 calories over one time, it's 75 calories over every single day!

This is exactly one of the reasons I exercise every single day. That way, even if I did miscalculate something, I have that little room for error. At the same time, I think I typically tend to err on the side of eating too few calories and assuming foods are more caloric than they really are. It's not something that happens overnight, so as Eliana said, it can be monitored with the use of a scale or body measurements. I hope you start to feel more confident about it and not worry so much, but I can see how that statement would be overwhelming.

I think the point is just that eating a little bit more than you need every day really will lead to a few pounds' gain in a year's time. Of course, the converse is also true.

It's good to keep in mind that all the calorie numbers are estimates. No one's metabolic burn is exactly the same number per day, every day. What's more, it drops as you age.

Also, the calorie values for foods are averages--any one particular food you have in your hand or on your plate may contain more or less than that.

It all evens out in the end, hopefully. And, it can still be useful to track calories because it gives you at least some way of judging how much you're eating. It should never be treated as an exact science, though.

I use a moving weekly average as my calorie target. That means some days I eat less, some days I eat more. And I use a range of + or - 50 calories from the target. FitDay lets me do this easily.

Jay

Just because calorie balance equals in vs out, does not mean you can manipulate one factor in the equation without affecting the others. Your body adjusts metabolism and spontaneous activity to burn off extra calories and reduces it to conserve when you eat less. Obviously you can overwhelm these mechanisms.

If you had no way to measure success (no feedback to tell you how you were doing) you might have a point, but that's not anyone's reality. There are SO many ways to gauge progress that math is only the tiniest part of the equation.

If you've got even one of the following; a scale, a tape measure, clothing, eyes and a mirror, hands to run over your body, a brain and senses to notice when you're feeling healthier and fitter, people in your life who can give you feedback (friends, family, doctors...)..... you've got all the feedback you need to tell you when you're on the right track.

You know you're making the calories count by your measure of progress. Your math doesn't have to be perfect (and it never will be), but it doesn't have to be - the scale (or any other tool you use) will give you the feedback you need.

Your math probably isn't perfect, but if you're losing or maintaining your weight as you wish, your math is "good enough." If not, you'll make adjustments. And your math still won't be perfect, but it doesn't have to be perfect - it just has to be good enough to see the results you want (or to give you the feedback you need to make the changes required to see the results you want).