How calorie counting helped me lose 90lbs

Counting calories has become a taboo subject on the internet and amongst the wellness world. It used to be praised as a great way for weight loss but now is seen as the incorrect strategy for weight loss because it doesn’t work for everyone and because not all calories are created equal in everyone’s bodies. There are many blogs, articles and podcasts that say you should focus on macro nutrients or intermittent fasting or a number of other diet strategies. Let’s be real here though..no weight loss strategy or diet is going to work for EVERYONE. You have to find what works best for you and your body. It may be wise to chat that up with your doctor or a nutritionist (because I am not either of those).

Now that I got that out 🙂 I wanted to share how calorie counting was a large reason that I lost 90lbs. In 2009 when I wanted to lose weight, I read many articles and diet books to figure out what I should do. I went with the old saying of “calories in, calories out” and figured if I ate fewer calories than my body burned, I would lose weight. So in 2009 when I wanted to lose weight for my wedding, I did a calorie needs calculator (similar to this one) and found that my body’s basal metabolic rate (BMR) was 1595 calories. I think of BMR as how many calories my body needs if I just lay around all day. Once I had my BMR, I knew that it should be my minimum calorie allowance for myself so that I didn’t “starve” myself. I then could add more calories for how active I am during the day. Now when starting out, I pretty much used my BMR and went with it as my daily calorie allowance. Since one pound = 3,500 calories, I figured I should lose about 1-2 pounds per week with this strategy (depending on how active I was).

To hold myself accountable to my daily calorie allowance, I wrote down everything that I ate and listed the calories to keep track of my daily totals. Since this was 2009, and I don’t think I was cool enough or had enough money to own a smart phone, I wrote down my food and calories in a daily planner. Each day I would have a pretty good plan for what I ate (remember my meal planning post?) and I would update as the day went on. To figure out how many calories were in the food I was eating, I used websites like MyFitnessPal, which is an great website that has a database of all kinds of foods and recipes.

There are a few reasons why calorie counting worked for me:

1. It held me accountable to portions. If I ate too large of portions, I would go over my calorie limit. This also forced me to find foods that would be lower calorie but filling to ensure I could stay in my calorie allowance (e.g. greek yogurt, veggies).
2. It forced me to eat healthier. While I technically could have ate twinkies all day, it would have left me starving while going through sugar crashes so I chose healthier options. I was still craving dishes like pizza and mac & cheese so I would google how to make it a healthier way.
3. It forced me to meal plan. It is much easier to stay within my calorie count if I plan out my meals in advance to ensure that I wouldn’t be over my calories by lunch.

After counting my calories (and exercising) for about 3 months in 2009, I had lost 40 lbs. My initial weight loss was faster than I thought it would be so I was pumped! After my initial weight loss, I continued to count my calories on and off for years and by 2012, I had lost 90lb. Just to be clear, my weight loss did not happen overnight. Over those years though, I slowly learned how to cook more and more, meal plan more and figure out what worked for myself and Ryan in that time of our lives.

Fast forward 10 years later, I don’t need to consistently calorie count anymore because I have a fairly good awareness of how many calories are in certain foods and how much I should be eating. With that said, there are certain times (e.g. post holidays or post babies) that I usually bring back the calorie counting to get myself back into check with my food quality and portions. I am still using MyFitnessPal when I calorie count but now through the app which is extremely convenient because I don’t have to write everything down anymore.

Calorie counting seems like a “duh” thing but it wasn’t for me when I was obese and not focusing on my weight. If you are looking to lose weight, calorie counting is a great tool to help guide the way. It was my tool to help me figure out how to eat healthy so that I could sustain my weight loss and not just be another fad diet that comes and goes.

Have you ever tried calorie counting?