Do you HAVE TO count calories?

I was told by my dietician to eat in moderation and about 4 ounces at a time ( i have 4 ounce containers ( when I am eating fully still on liquids for now)

But it seems people are saying if you do not count all your calories you will not lose as fast, but i wanted to step away from the counting cals diet as i can get obsessed.

I was going to do the protein first and eating healthy with veggies.

So is it true i wont have success if i dont weigh food? does everyone do this?

I get obsessed easily with numbers so I opted not to track. I weigh everything so that I make sure I avoid portion-creep, and I log what I eat, but just in a journal and not with calorie/macro tracking. This is healthiest for me. I did promise myself that if my weight loss stopped/slowed and I "didn't know why" that I would start counting calories then. But that has never happened.

I've lost ~170 pounds and consider myself successful, so I think this is clearly working well for me.

I definitely encourage people who are trying to get back on track to weigh/track everything. But that's a different scenario.

My plans requirements are 3 meals a day no snacks, 60+ grams of protein a day, no more than 4-6 ounces per meal. (Although now I aim for 100+ grams of protein due to plastic surgery recovery.)

That sounds like a good way to do it .

In my book it says this also

" Look at the amount of sugar and fat per 100grams

Keep what you eat low fat and low sugar..

Low sugar is 5g or less

Total fat per 100g 3g or less.

That does not seem alot of fat?

I eat low sugar (and low carb in general), I track fat in the sense that it's listed in MFP...but I don't care how much fat I eat as long as I'm low-carb and within my calories. In my case, tracking calories has been very successful for me. Unlike Gwen, I do snack (though not all the time or even daily).

I have never cared about the amount of fat in my diet - fat doesn't make us fat. I avoid added sugars and I avoid refined and processed foods.

I started down the calorie counting road and quickly messed myself up... how many were from protein, fat, carbs??? how much fibre???

I stopped. I saw the dietician yesterday (first visit post-op at 7 weeks). She said I could reasonably expect to eat close to one cup per meal (total). Half of it to be protein, quarter each of carbs and veggie. They stress eating a fruit too, but what they mean by fruit is a quarter of an apple, banana, orange, or quarter of a cup of berries, etc.

My struggle is not the calories or the macro nutrient division, it is serving sizes. I'd gotten so used to thinking a mountain of food was 'normal' and that what I ate at fast food stores or restaurants was considered 'normal' servings.

Now post-operatively I'm really looking at the labels and realizing my 'helpings' have been totally out of whack with healthy.

So I've begun to measure (weigh) as much of my food as I can. As someone else mentioned to keep my portions appropriate. Often I can't eat that whole cup of food, at least not yet, and I don't fret about it... at least I know I didn't eat too much!

Cheers and best wishes.

You will most likely not be able to eat a full cup of food, especially at first. When I started "real" food, I could barely eat 1oz of protein.

Me, too, Julie. When I completed my "healing phases" at 9 weeks, I was supposed to be able to eat a cup. I could barely manage half a cup lol

I think the most successful people choose one of two options and stick with it.

Option 1: track Cals and macros and log in MyFitnessPal or similar. Eat whatever and whenever as long as it fits your calorie and macro goals but make sure you track every bite.

Option 2: Eat no more than 4oz per meal and have only 3 meals per day, at mealtimes, no snacks. Mostly protein.

That said, I personally find it hard to stick with either option and am constantly switching between the two and being imperfect. The one thing I personally make sure to never mess up on is keeping my carbs under 20g.