How Obsessive/Anal are you, when it comes to counting calories?

[Strong_1rd_Post]

Please don't take this the wrong way...I DO NOT have an eating disorder, like some might think. I'm very healthy, and I'm sensible with my caloric intake. Now, with that out of the way...

How obsessive are you with calorie counting?

Personally, I am VERY VERY VERY Obsessive. I use a weighing scale all the time, I have 'POST IT' notes everywhere, with Macro calculations, and I constantly use a calculator everyday, to make sure I'm on track. I follow IFFYM's style of dieting...having said that, 95% of the time, I eat the same foods everyday.

Here's the thing though: I want to start eating Sweet Potato's! But I'm nervous on calculating calories for it, because its not boxed...and I just don't know how reliable the nutrition facts can be. Anybody else face this dilemma, when dealing with foods that are NOT boxed or packaged with nutrition labels???

[Drew75]

Never i just eat whatever whenever had half gallon of choc milk today with 2 burgers, pizza, oats and some fried chicken not a single f is given

[AlwaysTryin]

Barely ever do

[Pralidoxime]

Count pretty much everything I eat at home including Scotch whisky weighed down to the ± 0.5 grams. Typically over guestimate by 10% when eating out. Wouldn't say I'm obsessive about it since it's part of my daily cooking routine.

[Tdiguy]

anal...ah not really into that but hey if its your cup of tea more power to yah....would not say im surprised

[Mrricco]

Count pretty much everything I eat at home including Scotch whisky weighed down to the ± 0.5 grams. Typically over guestimate by 10% when eating out. Wouldn't say I'm obsessive about it since it's part of my daily cooking routine.

Depends on how far im into my daily intake. If im near like 500 away I usually get pretty accurate so I dont go over. Then again I usually have my meals planned throughout the week so I know my calories and macros. Prepping for competition, so I gotta be accurate

[Plectume]

pretty obsessive but I dont have a scale so that bugs me a lot

[AlwaysTryin]

Count pretty much everything I eat at home including Scotch whisky weighed down to the ± 0.5 grams. Typically over guestimate by 10% when eating out. Wouldn't say I'm obsessive about it since it's part of my daily cooking routine.

Ok...

[Pralidoxime]

Ok...

We obviously have different interpretations of obsessive. Obsessive to me would be bringing a scale to a restaurant. Obsessive would be posting a thread in Nutrition asking if the residual protein powder left in the blender bottle would cause one to go catabrolic. I've just gotten very efficient at weighing and logging the food I cook at home. Fat : protein content in meat varies wildly, but I don't sweat it and still weigh and log it as usual.

[Mrricco]

I dont think its obsessive if just dump milk into a 1 cup measuring cup then dump it into a glass.

[Lites10]

I think you might need to take a step back and realize that there is no point in being that anal. Remember, the boxed foods you are eating are made from the same raw, unpackaged ingredients you are too nervous to use. Everything is an average, and you can't control all the variables, so don't stress on it. I personally weigh just about everything, with the exception of a few things like mayo on bread (done it enough times to know how 1tbsp looks) or milk for my cereal cause I know where it fills the container to. I also don't even bother to track the milk in my coffee and a few other little things.

[PR1MO]

I weigh an measure most things at home and will guesstimate if I go out to eat or just say f*ck it altogether. But I round most numbers up/down and don't obsess over getting exactly x protein and x fat etc. Plus, remember your TDEE (at least as you have calculated it) is never going to be an exact number, so obsessing over getting an exact number for your intake is kinda silly.

Gotta put it in context too, if cutting for a show I can see being somewhat anal as warranted, but bulking, general weight loss or to look good on the beach? Nope.

[Dujin77]

I weigh my food, and I estimate if I'm out. I'm pretty good with number so I track in my head and it works well for me.

To help with your sweet potato issue, just weigh them, they generally contain ~25 calories per ounce, obviously that is primally carbs.

[gymjunki3]

I weigh and count everything, but 2-3 meals a week will be guessing.

[Tupperwolf]

You might think about taking a break from weighing and counting, OP. I don't think it's worth it to give yourself an eating disorder and you sound like you may be borderline. Having the need to weigh and log everything and fear of a food because of slightly unknown caloric content should be a warning sign.

I actually gave myself a scare because I was being too anal. I think I got excited about my new food scale and myfitnesspal and I was being rewarded by the weight falling off. When I realized that I was starting to have similar thoughts and fears I broke out of that pattern. I still weigh the basic things like the amount of meat, and calorically dense things like peanut butter, but I quit weighing barbecue sauce and stuff like that. Once or twice a week I now have a meal where I don't count anything at all and guess what? I'm still losing weight, because I have developed patterns of eating where I know how much of each kind of foodstuff will put me near my macros for the day.

You don't expend the same amount of calories every day, so you don't need to hit your exact calories and macros every day. As long as you're close and you're still losing weight you should be able to relax.

[Robert0aka0gets]

It's hard to find a balance! I weigh all my food. I don't look at the calories at all. I look at the protein, carbs, and the sugar. I have never seen the need to get that anal over calories! This is a time consuming life style as it is. Why add more to it if you don't have to????

[SideSteal]

My counting comes and goes as I get more or less OCD about it. My desire is to be accurate, but I easily go over-board with it and as such, I take steps back. When cutting I probably track on average 5 to 6 days per week. On this bulk I'm starting out by only tracking 3 to 4 days per week. But (as Pr1mo mentions context) I'm nowhere near competitive. I'm a guy that wants to look good and I believe tracking can help with that. If I were competing I would probably be more strict about it.

[Andrew_S]

Myfitnesspal app. It just takes a couple of minutes a day to log food and then I have a good idea.

[DeathBySquats]

^ This myfitnesspal is where it is at, I have been tracking on and off for the past 2 years and you gain a pretty good understanding over time of how much certain items are and how much your taking in so when I get into my bulking cycles I never count.

But right now trying to do a mini cut, I'm tracking a little tighter I don't weigh all my food but measure it out and what not as long as I'm in the ballpark it generally doesn't matter as I generally over estimate to be safe.

[Kevin71]

I live on campus and so the food where I eat is buffet style and it's tough to get exact measurements... So I'm not too anal with it but I keep my measurements consistent so while I may not actually eat 12oz of turkey, I'm eating the same amount when I have it so it ends up working.