Counting Calories

By Joey

In some ways, counting your calories can be a good thing. In other ways, it is the worst thing. While some people count calories to make sure they are eating a healthy amount, others are counting calories hoping to eat less than enough in order to lose weight.

For a long while, I counted calories for the second option. I hated the way I looked and I wanted to feel better about myself. Well, making sure I was taking in not enough calories was a bad choice. I was eating 400 calories a day as the maximum. This meant I did not eat breakfast, lunch, or snacks. Just dinner and maybe a dessert if I felt up to it. At the time, I was unsure if this was disordered eating or an eating disorder. Looking back, it was disordered eating. It was only bad while I was extremely depressed, frustrated, or anxious. I would take all of those feelings on my body by telling myself I was not good enough.

Since I was not eating enough, I was always tired, hungry, depressed and cranky. This made me feel worse about myself as time went on. As soon as I realized what what going on, I decided to make a change. When I count calories now, it is to make sure I am getting a healthy amount. Not to make sure I am eating the bare minimum to lose weight.

If you’re consumed by calorie counting for negative goals, here are things you can do:

​Focus on moderation rather than the number

Technically when you want to lose weight, you can still eat anything you would like as long as it is in moderation. For example, if you like donuts and there are twenty in the box, you should only have one or two. Having too much of anything can be extremely unhealthy. Even if the food is something healthy like carrots or fruit.

Exercise

This may seem a bit cliche. But I once watched a video of a ballerina who counted her calories in order to make sure she was balancing out what she was intaking and what she was burning off.

Switch to the Weight Watchers app

This app, instead of using calories, uses points. This way you can make sure you are eating a healthy amount and healthy foods without worrying about all the calories. An example of foods and their points would be that chicken and vegetables have no points. These are healthy foods. Timbits however are two points each. This means you can still enjoy things you like!

​In the end, calories are not as important as eating healthy. Calories are just numbers that distinguish the amount of fats and sugars in your foods. These are important things that you need, but that doesn’t mean you need to make sure they are counted on the number. This method does not work for everyone of course. If you decide to use this option than make sure you are careful and continuing to eat healthily. Talk to your doctor about whether this is a good option for you.

If you have any questions about counting calories, talk to your doctor. They often have helpful tips. If you are looking for healthy ways to lose weight, check out more of our articles! We have plenty of articles on healthy weight loss.