Calorie Tracking Is Horrible For Weight Loss 

I am definitely not obsessive about tracking calories, but I use it to help me avoid super calorie dense foods. Even with a 20% variance it helps me make better overall choices, especially when eating at a restaurant. I've lost over 50 pounds in 5 months and feel that paying attention to calories has been helpful. Your RU-vid channel has also been very helpful. Thank you.

The only thing worse than tracking calories is not tracking calories

Only way i ever lost weight, normally do it for several months but then get a general idea of what I'm eating.

Having tracked closely to lose 40kg about 5 years back I know it's the only approach to lose fat in the longer term as it makes me personally accountable, but I also hate the process as it's annoyingly hard. Eating intuitively has worked ever since to maintain and slowly gain muscle, but with desires to get down towards 10% body fat it'll be back to calorie counting although thankfully it should only take a few months. Great video Ben.

Tracking my calories/macros helps me choose better options in my diet. I've been doing it for so long now that I'll probably have a good guesstimation if I stopped logging everything. I try to be as accurate as I can, but I do have some days when I don't track at all, meals out etc I'm planning a bulk soon so will hopefully help with my progression on that

I obsess over calories and it sucks and is maddening how inaccurate it all is. I got back to weight lifting last month and the 24 hours or so after a session I know my burn shoots up. My Garmin does actually reflect that but if you just went by online calcs it would drive you nuts. My hunger is bottomless on lift days so I eat more. Same goes for not hungry days - just eat less. Trying to let go of the constant tracking. Important to know what a normal weekly food intake is but maybe I can admit to myself that I don’t need to keep adding it up. Definitely need to check new food or drink though, especially eating out.

What are some ways to make sure you aren't obsessive about tracking calories?

I absolutely hate calorie tracking. I'm one of the ones that gets obsessive. I used it to get a general idea and am moving on. Because if I follow theirs, they have me in a deficit of 760 calories on their "slow weight loss" path vs maintenance. I have issues with binging and wondered why I was so hungry. Now I know

I tried to look up the study this guy references, I assume its data is included in the review you provided in the description. Between the different studies included, the outcomes vary by ethnic group, gender, obesity status etc. between "overreported" and "47% underreported", but of course they ONLY mention the 47% percent number from that one study. That seems cherry-picked on purpose. They could have as well picked one of the studies that concluded that calorie estimates ended up quite accurate, and it would have been just as wrong. Looking closer at the methods used, I think that deserves mentioning too: The included studies used mainly 3 methods, one of which instructed participants to take photos of meals, one was a 24h recall report (daily interview asking what was eaten), and one is a food frequency questionnaire, which I assume means being asked questions about how often you generally eat certain foods and how much of them. Bluntly said, it's no fucking surprise that this type of "calorie counting" leads to underreporting! 24h recall seemed to have the highest accuracy ("only" 10-30% underreporting), and I can guarantee that if I was asked about what I had eaten in the last 24h off the top of my head, I would forget meals too and misremember the size and components of meals. The way I do calorie counting - and I just assumed everyone did similar things? - is by weighing ingredients for cooked meals, weighing the cooked meal and then doing math to figure out how much it is per 100g. Then weighing out all food I actually eat. Sometimes literally everything, sometimes foregoing stuff like raw veggies or condiments or giving myself a flatrate of maybe a couple hundred kcal per day for such minor items. I have a tough time thinking that this could lead to underreporting to the tune of 30% error rate, unless the calorie labels are all off in the same direction (I would assume they err in both directions, since there's less of an incentive to underreport). Of course there is some bias that I notice when counting, like wanting to round off a little, or eating the rest of the yogurt off the spoon and not weighing it on the scale, but as long as you count everything that you eat, you should be roughly correct. I would like to have those important details about study methodology and participant selection spelled out, because it can be very misleading otherwise. Like eg if the study included only participants who complain about having a "slow metabolism" and "not being able to lose weight despite low calorie intake", they might be more predisposed to accidentally underreport their calorie intake and have "food amnesia".

I’ve been tracking calories and macros for over 6 years all while keeping the lost weight off. IT WORKS!

I do believe everyone should start tracking calories so that they know that tasteful salad and they think is zero calories is actually 750 calories of fat

I eat more conscious portions withouth tracking and lost 12kg, going from bf%20ish to 14ish. (Visible abs and veins)

I tracked my diet for a bit just to know the macros of all the stuff I eat the most often for weight loss. I innately know that I’m roughly around 2400ish. Whether that’s 2250 or 2550 it doesn’t really matter if you’re still comfortably in a deficit and you don’t binge on the weekends like most people

I think tracking calories for a while is good to get a feel of the calorie density of foods and macro splits (f.e. how damn hard it is to hit your protein goals without supplements). But doing it long term is such a headache that the added stress to your daily routine is probably worse for you than the 5% better optimization of your diet.

Love your short videos, god bless you and keep them short and informative :)

I track and do well, then after a while it gets so tedious that I stop because I'm so sure I know what to do. Before you know it I'm heavy again.

So where exactly does the line between "just enough" and "obsessive" actually lie? Say I track all of my calories (cause I am) when I'm dieting to lose weight, and decide to keep that going after I've reached my goal and slowly add more calories into my diet, would that be obsessive? Not pulling anyone's leg here, just curious about how to avoid the obsessive slippery slide, and more importantly how to handle this weight loss business in an actually healthy manner.