Counting calories vs. portion control: thoughts?

[fitlover]

So I've been thinking about it lately...is calorie counting really all that necessary? Say you follow the rules of portion control by hand measurements (meat in the palm of your hand, carbs in one cupped hand, etc) is this just as effective? What do you think?

(Note: this is assuming you want to stay lean, but build muscle at the same time)

[aznprincess]

HA, i had this conversation with my husband just the other day.

I think, at first... if you have a lot to lose, eye balling it will work.

I think, if you are extremely in touch with your body and experienced with training, that you can eyeball a portion accurately and achieve your goals.

however, as you get more elite or closer to your goal weight and fat %... monitoring your macros might be what you need to continue to lose fat or gain muscle. knowing for a fact how many calories are in that piece of chicken, how many grams of protein etc and then adding that to the balance your trying to achieve for your macros BECAUSE this affects the results of your training....

my choice is to count calories vs portions and to track macros percentages. the reason is when things aren't working... i have somewhere to turn. you can't tweak it if you don't know have the information at hand.

[freebirdmac]

If you can achieve your goals without counting, then no. Where it really helps to count is when you feel stymied. You're not moving towards your goal or don't feel you are or feel it's going too slow. Then a sanity check, at the very least, is needed.

[fitlover]

Thanks for the replies

[Outdoor Girl]

I have personally had some eating issues throughout my life (compulsive and emotional eating). My current goals are a slow but steady loss of body fat while maintaining (or even building) muscle mass. I can get very, very disciplined about pre-planning meals and obsessing over macros, and after doing that most of the year I decided to try to learn my body better - eat reasonably but go based on how I feel. It has been an exceptional education for me so far (and so far I still fit comfortably into my clothes and haven't fluctuated at all in weight). I will go back to counting again at some point but at slightly over 20% body fat it's not so critical right now, and I am enjoying being a bit more relaxed.

I do have to concentrate on being mindful when I eat, having lean protein readily available, eating my mini meals throughout the day, and getting plenty of water. Other than that I just eat healthy - fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean proteins, etc. On occasion I will track what I've eaten for a few days and then plug the details into Fitday to see what my calories and macros actually were. (I really like having data.)

So I guess I'd say I think both methods can work and be an education.