{"id":109,"date":"2008-04-19T23:19:27","date_gmt":"2008-04-19T21:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/wordpress\/how-to-not-count-calories\/"},"modified":"2008-04-19T23:19:27","modified_gmt":"2008-04-19T21:19:27","slug":"how-to-not-count-calories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/how-to-not-count-calories\/","title":{"rendered":"How to NOT Count Calories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over on the “Bodybuilding Revealed” and “Fat Loss Revealed” forums, we encourage people to weigh\/measure their food and keep track of their calorie intake.\u00a0 After all, changes in body composition are the name of the game.\u00a0 If things aren’t going the way they should, you need to know exactly what you’re doing, in order to get an idea of what to change.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it can get out of hand.\u00a0 I know of some people who keep obsessive records of every morsel that goes into their mouths, lest they slip up,\u00a0and – God forbid –\u00a0enjoy themselves a bit.\u00a0 It doesn’t help that some of these OCD types are in excellent shape, as they lend credence to the fallacy that you must sacrifice all and be as iron-willed as they are in order to get – and stay – in shape.<\/p>\n

This is – to put it politely – horse hockey.\u00a0 Yes, counting calories is a valuable exercise: but it should ultimately teach you enough about foods and portion control, so that you DON’T have to count calories.\u00a0 Life’s too short to spend it on bookkeeping.\u00a0 Eating is an activity that should be\u00a0psychologically – as well as physically – healthy.<\/p>\n

FWIW, I don’t count calories most of the time, yet maintain my weight and body fat percentage quite easily.\u00a0 These are the rules I live by:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Lean protein, green\/fibrous veggies\/some fruits (citrus, berries), and healthy fats (fish &\u00a0extra virgin olive\u00a0oils + food sources such as nuts\/seeds, avocados, etc.) are the essential foods\u00a0I build my menu around.\u00a0 What do I mean by lean protein?\u00a0 I mean low fat red meat\/fish\/poultry, eggs\/whites, and cottage cheese. I generally reserve protein powders for workouts only.<\/li>\n
  2. If I need to cut back, these foods represent practically all of my total cals. When maintaining or gaining, other foods are added. These\u00a0include legumes, starchy veggies, additional fruits,\u00a0additional dairy foods (lowfat milk\/plain yogurt\/kefir)\u00a0and whole grains.<\/li>\n
  3. I also drink plenty of water\/tea throughout the day – there’s always a big cup of green tea at my elbow while sitting at my desk, for example.<\/li>\n
  4. I eat only one serving of the foods that constitute the main source of calories in a meal – no seconds.\u00a0 What constitutes a serving varies with the food: if it’s meat\/fish\/poultry, then it’s a piece about the size of my hand.\u00a0 If it’s something like pasta, chili, or stew, its about a cup.\u00a0 If it’s something like take out Indian food (my favorite), I’ll just fill a small (dessert or salad) plate, rather than a dinner plate.<\/li>\n
  5. I also eat slowly (this comes naturally) and only enough to feel comfortable. If I can’t go out for a reasonably brisk walk after eating, and instead, feel like just sitting around – or worse – taking a nap, I’ve eaten too much.<\/li>\n
  6. On the flip side, I eat to prevent hunger – so I generally eat 4 – 5 meals\/day, not 3.\u00a0 That way, I\u00a0avoid the other\u00a0extreme: feeling hungry and deprived vs. feeling bloated and stuffed.<\/li>\n
  7. I always rely on foods w\/high nutrient density and avoid “displacement” eating of foods w\/low nutrient density.\u00a0\u00a0Deep fat fried anything is verboten. I generally avoid sweets or desserts (I don’t really have a “sweet tooth” so this comes pretty naturally).\u00a0 I have a glass of red wine on occasion, but generally no more than 3 times a week.\u00a0 In restaurants, I’ll skip the bread, and ask the server to hold the rice\/potatoes, and substitute double veggies.<\/li>\n
  8. When a special occasion arises, I eat what I damn well want and don’t worry about it.\u00a0BUT: “eating everything I want” isn’t synonymous with “eating everything.” Rule Number 4 still applies. Rule\u00a07 usually does too, since I happen to like healthy foods – I just bend the rule a bit to accomodate my whims (like having blue cheese crumbles on my salad or mornay sauce on my fish). But even when it doesn’t, the indulgence is of no consequence, since I’m right back to living by all the rules again for subsequent meals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It’s a pretty simple system, and it works like a champ.\u00a0 To take a recent example, we recently moved to Washington (state) from Ohio, so we\u00a0ate in restaurants exclusively for close to a month – places like Olive Garden, Applebees and Outback – your typical chain eateries.\u00a0 It was chaos, and I missed more than a few workouts.\u00a0 Yet when all was said and done, I not only didn’t gain any weight, I actually lost a couple of pounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Over on the “Bodybuilding Revealed” and “Fat Loss Revealed” forums, we encourage people to weigh\/measure their food and keep track of their calorie intake.\u00a0 After all, changes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[439,559,700,1058,1397,1867],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}