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IMHO, calorie counting is not as important as carbs and fats counting on menus. One of our greatest problems with dieting is that calories are not really equal

IMHO, calorie counting is not as important as carbs and fats counting on menus. One of our greatest problems with dieting is that calories are not really equal and the effect food has on you really depends a lot on your particular metabolism. Maybe if you eat more than 2000 daily calories worth of stake and diary you get fat, but I can eat more than that without any effects whatsoever, while a single cookie ads 2 pounds on me (my body retains a lot of water after eating sugar). And it's a problem because the common advice given to people doesn't work so well. Which is why dieting hasn't really caught on. Personally I separate foods in dangerous (for me) and non-dangerous. I measure my weight every morning and I know precisely what types of food lead me to gain weight. For the non-dangerous kind I have no restrictions and eat as much as I please, as long as I don't combine it with the dangerous kind ... whenever I do that, I starve myself a little (for a day or so, eating some fruit and a yogurt), then it's back to normal. Btw, I lost 44 pounds this year after cutting my sugar intake drastically + a dissociated diet that lasted for 4 months. Right now I'm happy that the diet is over and my weight has stabilized to the point that I eat whatever I like, except snacks (which I never liked anyway) and sugars. Of course I don't overeat, because I don't feel the need to do that anymore - somehow giving up on sugar has cut into my appetite.

lrm242 14y ago
Calories are the only determinant as to whether you gain or lose weight. It's thermodynamics. 3500 calories deficit or surplus is approximately equal to 1 lb of body weight lost or gained. Your body burns X calories per day to feed itself. If you eat less than this number, you will lose weight. Period. If you eat more than this number, you will gain weight. Period. Your TDEE or Total Daily Energy Expenditure can be easily estimated if your are so inclined, but it isn't necessary. Want to lose weight? Start at 2,000 calories per day. Monitor your weight across 4 weeks. If you aren't losing at a rate you're happy with, drop it to 1,800 calories per day. Repeat. If you want to lose 5 lbs, you need a net deficit over time of 3500 * 5 = 17,500 calories. Good/bad foods play a different role in your overall health, for example by impacting your level of water retention or satiety.
- jdminhbg 14y ago
  I wish there were some way other than the impolite downvote to register just how miserable believing this broken logic made me for a decade.
  - indiecore 14y ago
    Can you expand on that? Calories in/out has lost me a net 30 lbs.
    - stephengillie 14y ago
      Agreed -- the method I explained was just calories in/out. The problem I had was that I didn't have enough data. The app and calorie counts on menus give me the data.
    - bad_user 14y ago
      I lost 44 lbs on a disassociated diet, which is now over and my weight is stable by abstaining from sugar, as otherwise I only try to eat healthy, but I do not count calories or whatever. Congratulations on your 30 lbs loss. Unfortunately not many people can abstain from eating. For some people it's a source of depression. What works for you doesn't necessarily work for somebody else - and have you noticed how some people can eat whatever they want without getting fat? Freaking bastards.
      - indiecore 14y ago
        >I lost 44 lbs on a disassociated diet, which is now over and my weight is stable by abstaining from sugar, as otherwise I only try to eat healthy, but I do not count calories or whatever. It doesn't matter if you count it or not if you lost weight you were taking in less energy than you were expending. >What works for you doesn't necessarily work for somebody else - and have you noticed how some people can eat whatever they want without getting fat? Freaking bastards. Those people are a myth and it's been proven, they just consider "eating a lot" to be less than the amount needed to get them to gain weight. I mean I could eat 2000 calories of chocolate everyday and aside from the massive problems related to not getting enough vitamins/macros I'd still be losing weight. Anyway congrats on the weight lost, we're all gunna make it bro.
jaredsohn 14y ago
Shouldn't you expect to lose that water weight at some point though? Longer term weight gain should be calories in - calories out. What you eat might affect how full you feel (which could cause you to overeat in some circumstances), and macros matter if you're trying to build/maintain muscle. My understanding is that peoples' weight problems are that they underestimate the calories of what they eat (related to specific foods or portions or forgetting details like the butter used for cooking) or overestimate that caloric effects of exercise.
- bad_user 14y ago
  Overeating may be the big problem, but abstinence from overeating is not really feasible for most people (it's depressing, really) and the truth is there are better ways of tackling overeating at the core. For me the interesting question is "why" we overeat. For instance by eating healthier foods, instead of sugars and snacks filled with fats and refined carbs, you tend to feel less hungry. The theory behind it is proven actually, because sugars and refined carbs burn too fast, leaving you either with an empty stomach that wants more or with fat deposits from all the food that didn't burn at the same rate.
klochner 14y ago
Water weight may make it harder to track your "true" weight, but that shouldn't affect your eating decisions. More specifically, your water retention will fluctuate up and down within a narrow band depending on your diet, but you will never put on 40 pounds of water weight. It's similar to limiting your how much water you drink so that you don't have all the liquid in your belly making you heavier.
- bad_user 14y ago
  Water retention is also a warning sign that something's wrong (like a hormone imbalance, one of the biggest causes for water retention) and you should probably take it easy. Fat people retain a lot of water. When people start a high-fat diet the first 5 pounds or so are from all the water loss (or even more). > It's similar to limiting your how much water you drink Not at all. In fact when dieting it's good to drink a lot of water, precisely to stop your body from retaining it. Odd, isn't it?
  - klochner 14y ago
    aside from hormone imbalances, why do you care at all about water retention?
    - bad_user 14y ago
      Because hormone imbalance is the primary reason for why some people are fat and some aren't, being the reason for why type 2 diabetics can die of hunger while still being overweight. Do some reading on the subject dude.
- dguaraglia 14y ago
  You should be able to get a relatively accurate number by always measuring your weight first thing in the morning, before drinking anything. You have to be careful not to get fooled, this is some kind of "best possible scenario" because your body loses a lot of water through perspiration during the night, but it'll give you a somewhat solid baseline.
Shorel 14y ago
IMHO fats is too generic. Do you mean unsaturated, polyunsaturated or saturated fats? Margarine or butter? The answer is just as significant for any diet as the carbohydrates quantity.

lrm242 14y ago

Calories are the only determinant as to whether you gain or lose weight. It's thermodynamics. 3500 calories deficit or surplus is approximately equal to 1 lb of body weight lost or gained. Your body burns X calories per day to feed itself. If you eat less than this number, you will lose weight. Period. If you eat more than this number, you will gain weight. Period. Your TDEE or Total Daily Energy Expenditure can be easily estimated if your are so inclined, but it isn't necessary. Want to lose weight? Start at 2,000 calories per day. Monitor your weight across 4 weeks. If you aren't losing at a rate you're happy with, drop it to 1,800 calories per day. Repeat. If you want to lose 5 lbs, you need a net deficit over time of 3500 * 5 = 17,500 calories. Good/bad foods play a different role in your overall health, for example by impacting your level of water retention or satiety.

jdminhbg 14y ago
I wish there were some way other than the impolite downvote to register just how miserable believing this broken logic made me for a decade.
- indiecore 14y ago
  Can you expand on that? Calories in/out has lost me a net 30 lbs.
  - stephengillie 14y ago
    Agreed -- the method I explained was just calories in/out. The problem I had was that I didn't have enough data. The app and calorie counts on menus give me the data.
  - bad_user 14y ago
    I lost 44 lbs on a disassociated diet, which is now over and my weight is stable by abstaining from sugar, as otherwise I only try to eat healthy, but I do not count calories or whatever. Congratulations on your 30 lbs loss. Unfortunately not many people can abstain from eating. For some people it's a source of depression. What works for you doesn't necessarily work for somebody else - and have you noticed how some people can eat whatever they want without getting fat? Freaking bastards.
    - indiecore 14y ago
      >I lost 44 lbs on a disassociated diet, which is now over and my weight is stable by abstaining from sugar, as otherwise I only try to eat healthy, but I do not count calories or whatever. It doesn't matter if you count it or not if you lost weight you were taking in less energy than you were expending. >What works for you doesn't necessarily work for somebody else - and have you noticed how some people can eat whatever they want without getting fat? Freaking bastards. Those people are a myth and it's been proven, they just consider "eating a lot" to be less than the amount needed to get them to gain weight. I mean I could eat 2000 calories of chocolate everyday and aside from the massive problems related to not getting enough vitamins/macros I'd still be losing weight. Anyway congrats on the weight lost, we're all gunna make it bro.

jaredsohn 14y ago

Shouldn't you expect to lose that water weight at some point though? Longer term weight gain should be calories in - calories out. What you eat might affect how full you feel (which could cause you to overeat in some circumstances), and macros matter if you're trying to build/maintain muscle. My understanding is that peoples' weight problems are that they underestimate the calories of what they eat (related to specific foods or portions or forgetting details like the butter used for cooking) or overestimate that caloric effects of exercise.

bad_user 14y ago
Overeating may be the big problem, but abstinence from overeating is not really feasible for most people (it's depressing, really) and the truth is there are better ways of tackling overeating at the core. For me the interesting question is "why" we overeat. For instance by eating healthier foods, instead of sugars and snacks filled with fats and refined carbs, you tend to feel less hungry. The theory behind it is proven actually, because sugars and refined carbs burn too fast, leaving you either with an empty stomach that wants more or with fat deposits from all the food that didn't burn at the same rate.

klochner 14y ago

Water weight may make it harder to track your "true" weight, but that shouldn't affect your eating decisions. More specifically, your water retention will fluctuate up and down within a narrow band depending on your diet, but you will never put on 40 pounds of water weight. It's similar to limiting your how much water you drink so that you don't have all the liquid in your belly making you heavier.

bad_user 14y ago
Water retention is also a warning sign that something's wrong (like a hormone imbalance, one of the biggest causes for water retention) and you should probably take it easy. Fat people retain a lot of water. When people start a high-fat diet the first 5 pounds or so are from all the water loss (or even more). > It's similar to limiting your how much water you drink Not at all. In fact when dieting it's good to drink a lot of water, precisely to stop your body from retaining it. Odd, isn't it?
- klochner 14y ago
  aside from hormone imbalances, why do you care at all about water retention?
  - bad_user 14y ago
    Because hormone imbalance is the primary reason for why some people are fat and some aren't, being the reason for why type 2 diabetics can die of hunger while still being overweight. Do some reading on the subject dude.
dguaraglia 14y ago
You should be able to get a relatively accurate number by always measuring your weight first thing in the morning, before drinking anything. You have to be careful not to get fooled, this is some kind of "best possible scenario" because your body loses a lot of water through perspiration during the night, but it'll give you a somewhat solid baseline.

Shorel 14y ago

IMHO fats is too generic. Do you mean unsaturated, polyunsaturated or saturated fats? Margarine or butter? The answer is just as significant for any diet as the carbohydrates quantity.