There are lots of ways to manage weight safely. I think many people prefer to count calories or points or weigh portions. It's fairly easy to find like minded people if this is your plan.

MaryL recently posted thread looking for Buddies who don't count. So it prompted me to wonder how many of us are in 3FC..

So raise your hand if you don't count calories, points, or weigh food portions.

Counting exercise... that is a different story!! I gotta count that.

Just raising my hand.

Raising my hand too.

Another hand going up.

And ya I do count exercise.

I don't!!!

Another hand going up.

I definitely count exercise though. I count minutes and I count distance. I'd count steps as well if I had a reliable pedometer.

Zelma

I'm trying to cut out junk and make healthier choices. I HATE counting but I do keep a rough estimate in my head.

Zelma, WOW!!!!! You look like a completely different person (both beautiful ). Congratulations on your weight loss!!!!!!!!!

Holy moly! 126 pounds.

I'm severely impressed

Did you lose your weight by never counting or do you just no longer count now that you're at your goal?

I'd like to know too!! Wow.

No counting here.

I do keep track of exercise though. I put an x on every day that I exercise and try to fill up as many days as I can each month.

I'm semi- watching calories being so close to goal and harder to get the last few off, but I don't strictly adhere to them. I just partly add them in my head. I used to measure my food to get a good idea on portion sizes...cause I had no clue. But after doing it for so long, I now have a good idea of what proper portions are without needing to resort to measuring. I just take a best guesstimate. I stopped putting stuff into Fitday long ago...no time for it anymore. I'm just careful about what I eat, making sure it's healthy.

I don't really count calories, althoughI do look at the labels and then decide if it's worth the cals. This is something I guess I never really did before, because I was amazed at the high calories of a lot of things I used to eat a lot of and the low calories of most fruits and veggies.

Oh I should clarify... I am definitely AWARE of the calories I eat and the nutritional value, etc. I just don't log stuff, journal and all that. I KNOW that celery is better than chocolate, etc.

You CAN eat healthful foods, exercise and lose weight without writing down everything and all that. But you DO need to be aware of what IS and is not healthful... not eat junk and all that.

Yes, and even with the healthful stuff, you have to watch portions. Healthy food has calories too.

No, I'm not saying you're gonna get fat eating baby carrots or celery sticks. I highly doubt that's possible, since celery, especially, has very little calories. But I mean things like baked fish, chicken breast, many types of veggies, things like that. The calories add up and they add up quick. I found that I lost weight way too slowly (meaning it took forever just to lose one pound) when I did the "as long as I eat healthy and exercise, the weight will come off" thing.

I tried going without logging for a while, but I can't do it. I found myself using the "well if I'm not logging it, it doesn't count" excuse. Or, "it's a perfectly healthy food, it's not going to put weight on me."

I wanted to try not logging just to see if I was comfortable with it and if it would work for ME. And it doesn't, unfortunately. Everyone is different, I suppose