I'm really sick of counting calories everyday. I've used fitday.com, and calorieking.com, weight watchers, and also track calories in Excel, but its pretty exhausting to do this day in and day out. Does anyone have anything that lets them know portions instead of calories? Anyone ever eat Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating? or things like that. not quite nutrisystem, but more portioned out real world food?
I'm not a calorie counter either. I get too obsessive with it and it's hard to count calories IMO when you don't eat a lot of processed foods that don't have numbers on a box. That being said, I did try nutra system and did lose some weight but I gained it all back. I've also contemplated seattle sutton but I'm scared I would gain all the weight back like before. I am losing weight just through eating real foods and exercising. HTH!
What if you tried something like weight watchers - and then you could easily memorize how many points each food item has (calorie counting, but a bit easier).
The thing about fit day is that after awhile it's easy because the stuff you eat habitually is already on the list. Usually I just do it to plan the day -- not like eat something, track it, eat something track it which would be annoying. Like I'll say if I have XYZ for breakfast (usually stuff I eat all the time) and OK if I have a salad for lunch how many calories/fat/carbs is all that? Then I just keep that in my head for what I should eat for dinner. It's really only a couple of minutes in the a.m. or before I go to bed to plan it all out.
PS oh the other thing you might try is to input the per serving info after you go shopping, while you're putting things away -- then it's just a matter of clicking on it as you go! But the thing is it gets easier and easier the more you input.
While I have never tried this myself, I wonder if a food exchange program would be suitable for you. It basically tells you how many servings of each food group you can have in a day and it gives you examples of each portion. Some programs offer tracking sheets, or you can make your own. Richard Simmon's program comes to mind lol, but there are others. Its worth looking into if that type of program interests you
Last edited by sweetnlow28; 11-04-2010 at 10:13 AM.
You could definitely go the 'serving' route & see how that works for you. Meaning, set up how many of each type of food you can have in a day (e.g., 2 lean proteins, 2 dairy, 3 fruits, 5 non-starch veggies, 2 whole grains, etc.).
The thing is, you still have to weight/measure to understand a serving. So is it actually tracking or is it all the weighing & measuring? If it is the latter, I'd recommend portioning things out right away. For example, when I cook chicken, I put individual servings for myself in separate containers. That way during the week when I'm really busy, I just have to grab it & not think about how much is it.
Try it for awhile & see how it works for you. If you are getting tired of tracking, then it just may not be for you.
You could try South Beach. Its more restrictive of what you can and can't eat. But besides nuts and "sweet treat" calories, there isn't really any counting. You should read the book and see if it is something that would work for you. I have been doing it since March 1 and have lost over 30 pounds. I'm starting to feel in a little bit of a rut, so I am going to combine the healthy eating habits that I learned with SB but start CC'ing also. I've really increased my daily activity and I don't think I was getting enough calories in on SB.
Try Spark People and Daily Plate. I also just came across a thing called nutritiondata.com which is kinda cool but not the best tracker.
I will say from experience that for me when I stop counting calories I gain weight. I have lost weight in the past with calorie counting and then slowly gained it all back. I guess I have to police myself. It sucks but I'm trying to deal with it.
Another option would be planning all your meals for the week and then calculating the calories all at once on one day and and maybe leave room for if you have something extra and track just that. That would basically be the same as doing one of those nutri-system type programs only you would put together your meals yourself.
I tend to have the same breakfast (cereal or oatmeal) and a similar lunch (soup or lean cuisine) everyday. Dinner varies but I usually go home from work knowing how many calories I have left and unless I think it will be close I don't track dinner. I am trying to get better at tracking dinner, but I haven't been doing it regularly and I've lost 40 lbs so I must be staying under my calories.
dailyplate (by livestrong) has the best food database I've come across. its VERY rare for me to have to enter a custom food. takes me less than 5 min a day total to track my calories.
I'm really sick of counting calories everyday. I've used fitday.com, and calorieking.com, weight watchers, and also track calories in Excel, but its pretty exhausting to do this day in and day out.
For me, it came to be that I was sick and tired of being overweight. It was exhausting being super morbidly obese. Calorie counting is responsible for helping me manage my food addiction and saving my life, so I am a little prejudiced (and this IS the calorie counters forum).
I don't find it exhausting, I find it comforting. This way there's no guessing. It's really, really important and worthy of any time and effort I put towards it. Besides at this point, it's all automatic to me.
If I weren't to count calories, I wouldn't remain slim. But, I don't track it on the computer. That I did find a little bothersome. I like paper and pen.
loseit.com is pretty simple though; I just stumbled upon it.
I read about it the other day on the boards here. So I checked it out and I really like it. They have a free i-pod app which I really like for when your on the go.
yes, there are other methods. There are a couple of companies that create food portion plates, where the plate is marked up by drawings or lines for portion sizes. I have used a vintage divider plate I found in a thirft shop, it had 5 sections in it. The book, ONE BOWL by Don Gerrard talks about using a single bowl to eat all one's food from, as a way to re-connect with the process of eating....it is the method I have used for years and it helped me overcome bingeing.
You can do a search for healthy plates and dish diet are two off the top of my head, but there are more.
ANTI-Calorie Tracker
