Thoughts About Counting Calories

my problem with weighing myself daily (which I do) is that I have no idea what I’m going to weigh. My weight fluctuates so much based on water weight and I’m assuming other factors that I don’t trust it even though I have a body composition scale. I’ve tried looking at trends weekly trying to trust a specific day of the week more than others, but even that seems subject to pretty big swings. By the time I’m sure the trend has gone the wrong direction, it could be several weeks.

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I eat 3 meals a day and also eat when I’m hungry. Counting calories is probably good if you are a person who struggles with weight. It’s a bad behavior if you are an otherwise healthy person (it is leading toward disordered eating). I usually don’t eat breakfast til 10am unless I’m training on the weekend and then I’ll eat before I go ride.
I used to be into weighing food and counting calories. In hindsight, it led to under performance for myself due to being chronically under fueled for exercise and recovery. That’s why I don’t do it anymore and would not recommend (unless you’re a person who legitimately struggles with being overweight / obese).

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I feel like counting calories is at minimum instructive. I’ve done it 5-10 times over the last 20 years for various stretches of time.

In particular, I lost the most weight the first time I did it with the Lose It! app. I lost around 30 pounds and I’m down 50-60 pounds from that all time high. The interesting thing is that despite keeping to the same calorie count, the weight loss started to slow and slow and slow. It just shows you that a diet is pretty much forever. :frowning:

A couple of years ago I counted religiously with the intention of losing weight during base miles season. I lost 7 pounds over 3 months (way less than I thought I’d lose) while riding 10-15 hours per week. As soon as I gave up counting I quickly gained back 3 pounds for a net loss of 4 pounds total. In retrospect, I think I was giving myself too much calorie credit for rides.

Counting really helped with the small things. Like it’s really easy to shave 300 calories per day off of your eating by doing a few small things. Like, one slice of cheese versus two on a sandwich. Mustard instead of mayo. Or no cheese and save 200 calories.

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uhhh. ok.

People just need to find what ‘works’ for their personal psychology. Weighing myself every day as some people here do (and it works for them) is not a good thing for me. Counting calories works for me but might have the same affect on other people that daily weighing does for me. Not eating until 10am is a non starter for me and would feel excessively restrictive. I’m guessing it doesn’t for you.

I have been calorie counting for over 4 years. I’m not super strict about it, but it keeps me on track in general. Some days counting calories helps me not eat to excess. Other days, like a long endurance ride day, it is a reminder to keep packing in the food (as long as I don’t feel like I’m force feeding.). I do a belly pinch test a couple times a week and weight myself 1-2 times/month.

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There are several possible reasons for this: 1 - as you loose weight you are getting lighter and have lower daily metabolic needs (your natural calorie burn reduces), 2 - depending on your deficit and time involved you may have reduced NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) by just moving around less outside of cycling.

You can deal with 1 by lowering you planned calorie intake as you loose mass (recalculate TDEE every so often and reset calorie goals.). I think 2 is a tougher nut to crack: diet breaks, refeed days, etc. might help with that. As long as one doesn’t go too far down the rabbit hole I got a lot of good information from some YouTube body building channels and applying the general concepts to my personal situation as an endurance athlete.

What I’ve learned from my personal experience is that over time, you will gain confidence in what works for you in managing weight so the reliance or impulse to count calories as a measuring control may be reduced. I think it’s ok to do this - it is teaching you something, but just know that eventually you may not need this practice to continue because you’ll hopefully get the hang of what works for you. Food can be tricky. I do not believe it is a one-size-fits-all approach, and that’s why this question is relevant and can be complicated to answer.

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I only count two times a year. Off season in November and in June for a week each. Gives me something to gauge my intake but after that I don’t.

I count nearly every day. I also weigh myself every day. I don’t think it has any negative impacts on my life. I’m ok with days I forget or just don’t, I’m also ok with days where I just eat what I want and stop counting as I’ve gone so far over its just silly…

I’m a glutton. I’m a fat man trapped in a slim mans body. I find it helps me to make better choices more regularly. It reigns me in, it keeps me sensible.

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I need to count calories especially to keep cheats in check. I’ve lost weight by only calorie counting but I’ve done the best by riding + counting. When I first started the weight really did melt away overnight. Now, it requires me being diligent.

Is counting a PITA? You bet it is especially in social situations. I also weigh myself daily with the understanding that the best and worst weights are not the best numbers to gauge my current state on.

I eat a lot of homemade food, but not always made in our home. When we go to a party often the hosts will send food home with the guests and so I end up eating that instead of what I had planned on.

I’ve been counting calories for about a year now. Last half of last year to lose weight. Went from 85kg to 75kg and since then it’s to make sure I eat enough and to track my protein intake. Also weigh myself daily to make sure my calorie tracking is on par with me maintaining this weight.

For me, this works really well. I don’t feel like it’s an obsession or restriction on my diet. Yesterday I had a BBQ and tracked the rest of the day but don’t really care about that I went way over my normale intake during the BBQ.
Same goes for the weight. Don’t really care for my daily weight, just that my weekly average is about the same.

I don’t enjoy the idea of counting calories. I am however very aware of only eating healthy foods.

As an alternative I fuel properly before and after hard workouts, SS and above, but on rest days and 1-2 hour endurance rides I fast for 18 hours and have an eating window for the remaining 6 hours. Typically I will be fasting from 7PM (dinner) to 1PM (lunch). As you get more comfortable being in a fasted state, you can be doing moderate endurance rides while fasting and it feels amazing. Especially first thing in the morning on a cup of black coffee and plenty of water.

Everyone is different but personally I have to eat a lot during my 6 hour eating window to maintain my weight. Furthermore I have no issues improving fitness this way. Hope this can work as a little inspiration for you. Best of luck.

Been counting 1500 calories since last November to a good effect- dropped from 210 to 190 and am 6’6". Notable shifts in strategy - offseason I did not eat back my exercise calories. Now eating back the exercise calories, I have maintained my weight. I use the lose it app for the bar code scanning function and use a premium account for the garmin sync. So the first 200-300 calories don’t even count for increasing calorie allowances, but on intensity days my calories per ride easily be over 1000 per hour thanks to a 318 tr ftp. But very nice to have a measurable system to provide visibility into why I am gaining or losing weight. We produce data for so many things but have so many excuses why we cannot produce data for food.

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