Calorie counting vs. serving counting

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fatbeforethin

New member
Hi all,

I'm in the beginning of my weight loss crusade and I'm trying to get my head around diet. Counting calories is obviously the surest way to ensure you're not eating too much, but it seems unrealistic and tedious to me.

I'm thinking I'd rather use serving recommendations (for example from the Mayo Clinic) and just get used to eyeballing how many servings of each food group I'm getting per day.

What do you all think?
 
Try it and see.

I've often said there's no sense in muddying the waters until you have to. But I've also said in other contexts that I feel it's important to count calories at first, at least for a while, as it provides invaluable perspective with regards to just what serving sizes look like relative to calorie content.

But again, the only way to tell is jump in head first. If you're not losing by simply eye balling portions, you know you're still consuming too much. At that time, a more thorough approach may be called for.

I'll say this though, I'd highly recommend the books "Mindless Eating" and "Volumetrics" if you're going to take the looser approach. They're very affordable and invaluable as far as I'm concerned.
 
It may work for you, it may not.

I don't religiously count calories any longer, but all times combined I counted calories for just over 2 years of my life. I have several little notebooks laying around that attest to this.

I think I am pretty good at estimating caloires, but not becasue I know "a serving of meat is a deck of cards" or "a s erving of veggies is a softball" or whatever their gauges are, lol, but just becasue I did it for so long.

When I am home I still weigh out the food I eat (with a few exceptions). I weigh out ingredients when I am cooking. I weigh things and preportion them before going in the fridge or freezer. Some days I even still track everything I am eating, becasue as I get smaller I need to start eating less, and that makes it harder to gauge too.

I think when eyeballing it's very hard to forget that you need to readjust your calories based on your new size and start eating closer to a maintenance diet.

I agree with Steve, try it! If it doesn't seem to be working I highly recommend you start counting caloires before getting discouraged. Good luck!
 
Thanks and here's a video you might be interested in

Thanks for the answers guys - really thoughtful and obviously based on experience.

I wanted to share this on Youtube, discussing these issues in the context of making a sandwich. Silly I know!!
 
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Depends on how you big are/body type...etc

I was 352 two years ago...and I'm about 282 right now (fluctuate up to 290 and down to the mid-270s). When I was doing REALLY well...I was simply monitoring the amount of servings.

I've never closely counted exactly how many calories I was eating a day. It really is too tedious at my size when I have seen excellent results just monitoring my serving size/what I eat.

Calorie counting can also be misleading too...because what kind of calories are you intaking? Diet soda has ZERO calories...but can you drink diet soda and really see weight-loss? I certainly haven't.

I think the key issue is when you get really, really close to your goal (220 for me), those last 10-15 pounds have to be made via counting your calories and also making sure you're getting the right ones. At that point you should be pretty good on serving size, just monitor the types of calories you're intaking.
 
fatbeforethin said:
Hi all,

I'm in the beginning of my weight loss crusade and I'm trying to get my head around diet. Counting calories is obviously the surest way to ensure you're not eating too much, but it seems unrealistic and tedious to me.

I'm thinking I'd rather use serving recommendations (for example from the Mayo Clinic) and just get used to eyeballing how many servings of each food group I'm getting per day.

What do you all think?
Click to expand...

I tried doing something like this, and it has worked quite well. I've lost 20 pounds (!) and I'm happy with my weight as it is now.

I got so interested in this approach that I started collecting data comparing calorie counting to portion counting, and I think that portion counting should really be good enough for most people.

This has become a hobby of mine. I actually rolled the whole thing up into an iPhone App and published it as free-ware. If you're interested, you can find it at pertinacity.org

Dave
 
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