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0 pointslumost8mo ago0 comments

You're being downvoted as many people who try to count calories fail to achieve meaningful results. From my own experience, weight gain follows a simple progression.

1. Expected high stress work day -> Coffee w/ food item in the morning

2. Stress during the day -> No exercise + large lunch.

3. Post-day -> door dash due to not feeling up for cooking.

4. Sleep -> Get 6 hours of sleep due to not having the energy to maintain bedtime discipline, getting paged, or late night meetings + childcare obligations.

5. Repeat.

This cycle continues for a few months leading to 10-20 pounds of weight gain, followed by a year long push to rebalance life and lose the weight. There is nothing that a magic calorie counter could do for this cycle other than guilt me over my door dash order at the end of the night.

0 comments

9x398mo ago

I think of a calorie tracker as a compass as I navigate an overly calorie-dense world that doesn't make us exert ourselves to the point of caloric deficits any longer.

For the aware user, combined with a scale, it helps normalize estimations of calories which can be incredibly deceptive. For example, try getting a group of people to estimate how many calories are in a store-bought muffin or donut, a bowl of nuts, a sweetened coffee drink from a drive-thru, or their typical bowl of a favorite cereal. I'm used to the casual observer's guess being about 1/3 of the true total if you weigh the item and read the label.

So in your scenario, the calorie counter would be a signal that you need to cut portions or cal density if your weight is going in the wrong direction, not unlike how a compass is just a tool if you're lost - you still need to know how to use it.

lumostOP8mo ago

Im sure it would alert me to the trend, just as the scale does :) the fundamental problem is whether health is being exchanged for another good “stable income.”

No calorie counter will stop a ramen quest after 90 hours of work. Unfortunately, I worked in environments where these stretches were obligatory.

gbcbooks8mo ago

In 2013, my weight was around 48kg, and I increased it to 55kg through fitness and dietary control. In 2016, my body shape reached its peak at 60kg, with a body fat percentage of 12%. In 2022, my weight was 63kg, but my body fat percentage was around 22%. I still managed to regain a weight of around 57kg and a body fat percentage of 18% through fitness and dietary control. I just want to emphasize that controlling diet is very important for shaping the body, and the method of controlling diet is to calculate the calories of food. Only then will you realize what foods you should consume. For example, when you are thirsty but don't want to drink pure water, you want to drink a beverage with a taste like coffee or tea. If you understand the calorie percentage of these foods, you can know that if you choose coffee, it's best to drink an Americano, and if you prefer tea, you can drink almost all types of tea. Even tea is considered beneficial for weight loss. Find tea here,https://teayucafe.com/ The reason why many people fail to achieve their weight change goals by calculating calories is that they cannot persist. Remember, this is a long process.

pmg1028mo ago

People seem to be taking it as given that "someone else preparing the food for you" == "the food is more likely to lead to weight gain".

Why should that be? Is it not possible to order healthy food in? If not this would surprise me as it seems a number of people would be seeking this.

I'm asking as I don't have personal experience.

paul79868mo ago

Everyone lives and enjoy life as they choose as they should!

For those who are not interested cutting down daily on what they eat this data would not be valuable to them just as the data their phone captures now how many steps you walked in a day.

Myself I eat Cava bowls for lunch that are less then 600 calories, drink 70 percent water (not consuming calories from what I drink) and unsweet tea (zero calories in tea) with some lemonade to sweeten it a bit as the remainder. Other chains you can find similar meals that are less then 600. If you eat as such and keep at (change ur lifestyle for good) it some weight will be lost if the person wants to as well go for a walk on their lunch break. But again all about to how people want to live and enjoy their lives!

lumostOP8mo ago

The ordering out tends to correlate with someone not having the energy or discipline to make what they want themselves. That lack of energy leads to caving on food cravings and overeating.

I recently switched from a major tech company to an academic position and lost 5 pounds in the first month. Simply due to lower stress making the healthy habits seem “easy.”

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointslumost8mo ago0 comments

You're being downvoted as many people who try to count calories fail to achieve meaningful results. From my own experience, weight gain follows a simple progression.

1. Expected high stress work day -> Coffee w/ food item in the morning

2. Stress during the day -> No exercise + large lunch.

3. Post-day -> door dash due to not feeling up for cooking.

4. Sleep -> Get 6 hours of sleep due to not having the energy to maintain bedtime discipline, getting paged, or late night meetings + childcare obligations.

5. Repeat.

0 comments

9x398mo ago

I think of a calorie tracker as a compass as I navigate an overly calorie-dense world that doesn't make us exert ourselves to the point of caloric deficits any longer.

lumostOP8mo ago

Im sure it would alert me to the trend, just as the scale does :) the fundamental problem is whether health is being exchanged for another good “stable income.”

No calorie counter will stop a ramen quest after 90 hours of work. Unfortunately, I worked in environments where these stretches were obligatory.

gbcbooks8mo ago

pmg1028mo ago

People seem to be taking it as given that "someone else preparing the food for you" == "the food is more likely to lead to weight gain".

Why should that be? Is it not possible to order healthy food in? If not this would surprise me as it seems a number of people would be seeking this.

I'm asking as I don't have personal experience.

paul79868mo ago

Everyone lives and enjoy life as they choose as they should!

For those who are not interested cutting down daily on what they eat this data would not be valuable to them just as the data their phone captures now how many steps you walked in a day.

lumostOP8mo ago

The ordering out tends to correlate with someone not having the energy or discipline to make what they want themselves. That lack of energy leads to caving on food cravings and overeating.

I recently switched from a major tech company to an academic position and lost 5 pounds in the first month. Simply due to lower stress making the healthy habits seem “easy.”

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse