To count or not to count? That is the dilemma

[djhaycock]

A few years back I made incredible progress by tracking every single calorie I placed in my mouth and tried to keep my macro breakdown relatively consistent. As I learned more and more I got discouraged and eventually gave up. I read about only eating certain macros with others and not these with that and so on and so forth.

I've read "The ABS Diet", "The South Beach Diet", and "Adam's Diet" and all of these recommend NOT counting calories.

I have "Precision Nutrition" from Berardi but have not read it yet.

I am currently following the eat sensible portion size and nutrient dense food style advocated by the above mentioned "diets". I made great progress dropping about 35 or so pounds and have stalled for some time now.

I'm stuck around 218-221.

What I'm looking for is the best answer to what I should do next. Should I count my calories for the next "X" amount of weeks? Should I stick it out with what I'm currently doing?

If I should count calories, what is the optimal range for my stats?

Age: 27
Weight: Let's average it at 219
Height: 6' / 6'1"
BF%: no idea
Lifestyle: I'm in outside sales, a lot of driving. I workout a min of 3x a week and do some yard work on weekends (not too much, I have a small yard).

Thanks!

[Jason B]

I'm in the same boat calorie counting wise. I've tried it before and just can't stick with it. I love variety in my diet, and it's a pain in the ass counting different stuff every day. I've pretty much given up, and I just use common sense when it comes to diet. But if you can count calories and macro's, it can help, but I don't feel it's required.


As far as stalling on your diet, how long have you been dieting? 35lbs is remarkable progress, your body is probably just stalled out and your metabolism is probably really slow right now. Try a couple weeks of actually upping your cals (a little bit, slowly) to rev the ol' metabolism back up, don't worry if your weight stays the same or maybe you even gain a couple pounds during this time. Then cut your cals back down slowly again and use your increased metabolism.

Check out the current article at thefitcastmag.com 'Avoiding the Diet Downfall.'

[Lost Dog]

I think you should eat like you've been eating, and track your diet for the next few days. See about how many cals you are actually getting. Then you can try to make a decision on the next step.

You may have slimmed down to match your typical caloric intake. Your metabolism may have adjusted and you might need to shake things up.

Track for a bit to see what's up.

[Dued]

yeah I have PN, and JB recommends in a sense what LD said. Track your calories for a couple of days, see how much you are eating, if you find your loss (or gain) slowing down add or subtract some calories. This was mentioned during the Dave Tate project as well, where I think he was losing it too fast so they had to adjust caloric intake.

You have been eating clean/properly for a while so I assume generally you have an idea of how many calories you are eating.

[galya]

Have someone else track them for you. Make a list for a week, give it to someone, have them calculate it and voila, you only have to do half the work yourself

[djhaycock]

Count cals is not the big problem. What annoys me the most is keeping the macro ratios correct. My problem with cals is that I never quite am sure if I'm calculating them correctly. I'm not sure what activity level most accurately describes my lifestyle so I kind of go with the lowest to be safe, which could actually be counterproductive.

The other problem, which I'm going to address in a new thread, is that I find it hard to eat enough veggies during the day due to my line of work so I end up eating at least 3 servings of grains a day. I usually have a bowl of oatmeal with breakfast and almost always have a sandwich for my 3rd or 4th feeding of the day.

[GG300]

I have found that counting calories works the best for me as well. I think the reason most of the books and diets tell you not to is because most people get frustrated doing it. Then they end up stopping the diet completely.

As far as the vegetables goes you could try greens plus. I have heard alot about it but I have not tried them myself. I seem to have no problem getting 6 servings a day or more.

[Lost Dog]

Don't sweat the macros so much. Get enough protein. Make sure you get enough healthy fats. The rest is carbs. The ratios can swing pretty wildly and still be good.

Track for a while, see how the macros come out, then adjust a bit, if necessary.

I didn't see the veggie thread. I'll try to add some tips...

[BFG]

count the cals and dont do a static weekly number calorie cycle 200 down 100 up for your given fat loss period.

So mine 219 thats around 2200 cals down to 1500 cals then back to the top and start again. It stops the body adjust so easy.

I dont count tho I have portion charts that are worked out for me that actualy give the reauired number of calories and specific macro breakdown its so much easier

[djhaycock]

BFG,

Let me see if I understand this.

You're saying if my maintenance level is say 2500 kcal, I would cut to 2300 one day, up to 2400 the next, down to 2200, up to 2300, down to 2100 and so on???

This is what I interpreted it as. If not, can you try to break it down a bit easier??

Thanks.

[BFG]

per week so

week 1: 2200
week 2: 2000
week 3: 2100
week 4: 1900
week 5: 2000
week 6: 1800
week 7: 1900
week 8: 1700
week 9: 1800
week 10: 1600
week 11: Back to top

Changed minimum there slightly as yuo need a refeed in there slightly sooner or you will go stir crazy. To give you an idea that its not as bad as it looks you are talking what say two bananas less per day to achieve a 200 cal deficit


helps to keep a food log as there is repitition there and you will easily be able to see what you ate on same calorie weeks

and so on
week 6: 2100

[Lost Dog]

I think BFG might be onto something. A lot of other coaches recommend staggering/cycling things, one way or another. BFG's way is pretty simple.