I am terrified of over/under eating but feel restricted counting cals. What’s the majority think? I’m moving between 18/6 and 16/8.
I count calories because to be honest I can’t be trusted. I have always been an unhealthy eater. I don’t even eat a lot but what I do eat is just ridiculous. I’m the type of person that can just eat spaghetti bolognese and chips and mayo all day lmao. or pizza hut
So I count my calories. I eat 1500 calories within my eating window. my eating window use to be 1 pm to 9 pm but now it’s about 10/11 to 6/7 pm every day
Only when I feel like counting. Did it this week 3 times. Most of the times I don’t count when I only have lunch and potatoes+meat+vegetables for dinner. Had pancakes on Wednesday and a huge hamburger yesterday and didn’t want to go way over 1500 kcal. Both days it was just below 2000 kcal but I also worked out so I deserved that hamburger lol.
I did 20:4 IF for roughly 75 days and then started counting calories on top of that, just to have a better understanding of my nutrition. It blew my mind at how many calories I manage to fit inside a 4 hr eating window! I’m not overeating at this point, but it’s obvious to me that if I increased the window of eating, I’d be way over my calorie limit.
So… it’s just something that helped me gain a better understanding of my portions. And when I saw the macronutrients, that was fascinating as well.
I consume like 1,700 calories on average, btw. It’s a deficit for me, and I have a hard time eating less than that due to my workout habits.
The answer will depend on one’s resting energy expenditure and physical activity levels, their desired weight, food choices (palatability, calorie-density, satiety promotion potential), awareness of satiety cues, their food relationship (eating mainly to satisfy hunger vs eating mainly to meet emotional and/or social needs); some individuals will have considerably more leeway than others.
I for one maintain an aggressively low weight without formally counting calories. I do journal food choices and guesstimated calories at the end of each day, but the rationale in so doing is preserving historical data and learning from my mistakes, not seeking to prevent overconsumption in real time. I get to do so thanks to OMAD and a food basket that’s virtually impossible to overeat from. Make no mistake though, I still am subject to energy balance, for me some ~2k kcal/day. Anything laxer than 20:4 and/or unconstrained food choices and I most certainly would have to actively mind my intake in some manner, be it by counting calories, macros, plates or bites.
I meal prep and divide portions based on macros mostly and have a loose estimate of calories so it falls within my daily range usually. So I wouldn’t say I’m super precise about it but I don’t exactly eat freely either
Nope. Calorie amounts listed are allowed to vary by up to 20%. I keep track of carbs sometimes, but mostly try to stay as close to zero as I can with whole foods, mostly meat. If I’m going to do a special treat, I make sure that it’s only been meat and cheese that day and have a reasonable portion.
My satiety hormones function so much better eating a majority meat that I am able to actively lose weight because I can hear my body saying I’m full. I often extend my fasting window because I’m simply not hungry yet.
Neither. I’m very mindful of what I eat during my window. Sometimes I’ll tally up a day just to see generally what my calorie intake is. But I never just eat whatever just because it’s my eating window.