How Counting Calories Helped me Lose 50 Pounds

I’ve lost weight in a few different ways over time. My most effective as of yet is counting calories. It seems to be one of the less popular options, but I can’t argue with results. Whether you use MyFitnessPal or a journal, tracking calories is a proven way to drop some extra pounds.

Counting Calories with MyFitnessPal

I have always had a lot of success using MyFitnessPal. It is easy to use and it’s free! It doesn’t get much better than that. You simply put in your information, how much weight you want to lose per week, and it spits out a daily calorie goal.

What a lot of people don’t understand is that your daily intake changes with exercise. So, if you were to consume the exact number of calories that you’re allowed in a day, but have a hard 90-minute workout, your intake needs to increase. If you use MyFitnessPal for logging your food consumption, you must also use it for logging your exercise.

My first time using MyFittnessPal seriously, I was unaware that I should be added to my caloric intake after working out. So, I was already consuming something like 1650 calories in a day and would put in a good workout every day. Those workouts would burn an additional 300-400 calories. I lost 40 pounds in about 5 months and an additional 10 over the next few months.

It was great until I ended up in the ER suffering from horrible headaches and fainting. I wasn’t eating enough for how much I was working out. Only then did I start to understand more about nutrition. By following MyFitnessPal’s suggestions, it is scientifically calculated so that you will lose weight. However, it is important that you consider how much you consume vs. how much you exert.

Nutrition and Calorie Counting

In order to get your stomach fuller on fewer calories, you have to eat foods that have less. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had steamed asparagus as a late night snack because of its low-calorie count. Although I usually have to eat something with low calories after eating one too many cupcakes or chips throughout the day.

This just means that if you eat more vegetables and low-calorie foods, you will have room for that dessert you’ve been craving. In order to finish the day without going to bed hungry, find out which foods have the lowest in calories and stock up!

I’m no professional, but I have learned that you need balanced meals in order to get the best results in both weight loss and overall health. Apps like MyFitnessPal will figure out what you should be eating, or you can do the math yourself. A person should consume .36 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Standard weight loss typically recommends eating between 50 and 150 carbs each day. On average, you should consume 50 grams of fat each day. You can use this calculator to determine your caloric intake to lose 1 pound a week.

By figuring out your needs and tracking your intake, weight loss will become 10 times easier! The hard part is then sticking to it. If you need to get yourself motivated, I have a post on that!

Counting Calories for the Long Term

When I first started counting calories, the first thing I heard was, “Once you stop counting calories you will gain it all back!” I’m here to tell you that isn’t exactly true. At my heaviest, I was 243 pounds. I am 5’6. I was very active, but I was miserable when I had to run for more than a few minutes. Anyway, I digress. When I got married in 2015, I was 193 pounds. That’s my lowest weight in my adult life. I felt great!

After I got married, it was only 4 months until I was pregnant. I didn’t count calories while I was pregnant, nor when I was breastfeeding my son. I got pregnant while I was still breastfeeding and am now breastfeeding my daughter. While I am now starting to focus on counting calories, I do eat a little extra because of the breastfeeding. It’s been three years since I truly counted anything. I weigh 208 pounds – nowhere near my highest weight! Plus, I’m 5 months postpartum.

When you count calories, your body learns what you can eat – portion sizes and particular foods. Just because you stop calculating your intake doesn’t mean you’ve dropped that knowledge. It’s like muscle memory.

Tips and Tricks of Calorie Counting

In my experience of counting calories, I learned a few things:

1. Restaurants have all of their nutritional information online. Use it.
2. You can afford to cheat every once in a while. I actually recommend it at least once every other week.
3. One bad day or one bad week doesn’t completely set you back. You can keep moving forward.
4. Results are inspiring.
5. It works if you keep it up.

If you’re feeling like nothing is working – not the prepackaged food that you spend hundreds of dollars on, the diet pills, or even the gym membership you pay for and don’t use…I felt the same way. There is something out there that works for everyone. For me, it was this.

Have you ever tried calorie counting? How did it end up? Let’s talk about it in the comments!