Calorie counting is the only fail proof way to lose weight. Pure math. You will feel hungry.
I can assure you, I have counted many, many a calorie. Sometimes I lose weight, sometimes I don't. It's a very powerful tool, and one every overweight person should learn to use. Unfortunately, the math is anything but pure. It's very gross approximation of a complex system nobody fully understands. Clearly, you can't escape thermodynamics, but what I eat when and how I burn it are also influential factors besides how much I eat in my weight ups and downs.
I don't agree. I have counted calories for a few years now. You eventually will figure out your normal daily calorie burn rate, mine is 2075 a day. I can tell you my weight based on how many calories eaten over a month. It is pure math.
The problem with this is you are n=1.
I'm at 170 and 5'4" female. I want to lose 35 lbs and be at 135. I'm doing 1200 calories per day, about.
And...1200 is really low. I don't think it's a place you want to be forever.
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Weight loss is hard, and everyone is different. You cannot apply one person's experience to everyone else.
It's like "counting calories works" or "this hardcore plan works" or "this easy plan works". Well, sometimes it doesn't.
Personally, I like the
@Malcat and
@GuitarStv method of eating lots of vegetables and drinking water, because it's simple, if not always easy. But that's just me.
But also, I read a lot about health and fitness and diet and weight loss. So all these ideas here are ideas to try, to see if they work for you.
The one problem with calorie counting is that your body gets used to lower calories. So, you cut your calories to 1200 or 1500 or whatever, and you lose weight, and then you stall and stop losing. Then what? Cut more? Well, maybe yes or maybe no.
For example, a lot of professionals you can hire would do the opposite. They would slowly add back calories to a "normal" level (say 2000 +/- for a woman, more for a man, depending on size and activity level). Yes, you are going to gain a few pounds back, and then you are going to sit there for awhile. Your body will adjust, and get used to this calorie level. You may be there for months.
Then, you will cut calories again to start losing again. This method is well known by body builders who compete, with "bulk" and "cut" phases because it works. Well, it often works. It might not ACTUALLY work for everyone. At a minimum, it gives you a break from "dieting". This method, like any calorie counting method, can be a fuck-ton of work with meal prepping, counting, weighing, and measuring.
I mean, studies have shown that former Biggest Loser contestants who go back to their old weight are now burning hundreds of calories less a day than before they were on the show. That's a huge hit to your metabolism.
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TLDR, "this always works", "it worked for me, so it obviously works for someone else", "the math is simple"...
not true, unfortunately you have to just experiment.
