Why I No Longer Count Calories

But Maybe You Still Should

I used to track everything.

Carbs, fats and protein, diligently jotted down for months and months, years and years. I progressed quickly, gaining muscle fast, going from 68kg to 81kg 8 months later, and 86kg a year after that.

Start, 8 months, 20 months. Naturally.

Everyday, multiple times per day, I estimated my intake as best I could, recording how many grams of chicken breast and rice and oatmeal, even broccoli couldn’t crawl away: it too was pinned down and weighed. While I didn’t have a set number of calories that I had to eat each day, it all got written down, whether it was 5,000 calories or 1,200 calories.

Even on vacation, this notebook still went with me, and everything was still tracked — even that eleventh beer on a night out.

Obsessive? Maybe.

But I actually learned a lot about myself, my relationship with food, and food itself from doing it, and don’t regret it all.

While I’ve written about how counting calories doesn’t work, I still think it has value. Even if you are 50% off with tracking things, it’s useful.

The mere act of genuinely attempting to count calories is enough. It…