Calorie counting has gotten a bit of a bad rap over the years. People often see it as an obsessive behavior that can lead to a bad relationship with food.
In my experience however, and what I would argue, is that the opposite is true. It actually makes life easier and makes you stress about food way less.
Definitive Information Equals Peace of Mind
It’s not that different than managing finances. When someone who has perpetual money problems and constantly stresses about going broke finally starts keeping a budget, all of a sudden they can relax. As long as I stick to the plan, I know I’ll have enough for my bills and know I’m good.
No More Rumination
It’s insidiously easy to spend a lot of time agonizing over a cookie. Can I eat it? Should I eat it? I ate it and now I feel bad about it. On and on. Think about how much time you’ve spent second-guessing food decisions, both before and after the fact.
If you’re counting calories, though, and the cookie fits your budget, you can fully enjoy it knowing you’re still on track. You don’t have to negotiate with yourself over every bite or let eating a cookie become a judgment of your self-worth.
No one ever got fat because they ate one cookie, and you can definitively see that when the 200 calories still fit well within your daily energy requirement. You can also see why it’s perfectly fine to enjoy one or two, but maybe not the entire box.
You Will Learn a Lot About the Food We Eat
I remember being shocked at how much of a calorie bomb a “healthy” muffin could be, and being equally surprised that a heaping plate of beans and potatoes is, in addition to being very nutritious, not at all high in calories.
You’ll also learn what works for you – the go-tos that reliably satisfy you, and the vices that seem to always leave you wanting more.
Even just a few months of consistent calorie counting will give you a ton of knowledge that you’ll have for life. And having that will make managing your diet by feel way easier.
No Diet Wars
Food doesn’t need to be moralized. There is no such thing as “good” or “bad” food. No ostensible purity or poison. There’s only what works for you and what doesn’t.
You can eat what you like (in sensible moderation) and not feel guilty about it. Food guilt is so real and it sucks.
A Proven Strategy That Works
There’s another great benefit to having successfully counted calories to lose weight or accomplish some other goal: you always have a strategy in your back pocket that works.
Life happens. We go on vacation, or through a rough patch, maybe put on a few, and that is absolutely OK. Gaining five pounds of fat is not the end of the world, and is something that you can revert in a few weeks if you want to.
In Conclusion? Calorie Counting Actually Saves a Lot of Time
Less doubt, less uncertainty, less guilt, less feeling bad about yourself, less time thinking about food, period.
This is the premise on which CalorieLite is built. No health and fitness “lifestyles.” Instead, spending as absolutely little time and energy on it as possible so you can get back to living your life.