Over the course of the project, many of my perspectives have changed related to weight loss. When Mariah and I first lost our weight, we didn’t really count calories at all, we just ate things that we intuitively knew had fewer calories, more protein and less refined sugars. We didn’t have a true sense of the number of calories we ate per day.

Still, we had tremendous progress, and ultimately got into great shape. So now we often recommend that people stay within a caloric range, even when first starting out…why? We’ve never stopped learning and getting better and managing our weight or our health over the last 2 years.

There are different thoughts on this concept, most are valid. As always, it depends on the person!

Why does it always depend? Because we all think a little differently! For some, counting calories creates a negative mindset, and makes everything feel more difficult (and as I mentioned earlier…mindset is everything!). But I think this can be overcome, depending on how we are introduced to the concept of monitoring how many calories we eat.

The term, “Calorie Counting” is a bad term in my opinion, because it makes people believe they are making the number of calories some major part of their day, that takes away from work, and other everyday tasks. It give us a sense that we are now so strict about everything we eat, that we need a calculator to keep track of it all.

In the beginning, understanding calories is a new concept. So we have to approach this with a positive attitude, and realize that understanding how calories relate to our health or our weight is actually something valuable to learn. It isn’t just a tool in weight loss, it teaches us about how our bodies work in the long run.

From a very simplistic viewpoint, the number of calories we eat, and the number of calories we burn each day, will determine our weight loss (or gain). So if this is true, doesn’t it also make sense why we should know how many calories we eat?

Now many nutritionists and dietitians will disagree with this concept, because they don’t want clients to feel like they are “on a diet”. This makes sense. But in this scenario where someone is working with an expert, they are paying the expert to keep track of their calories, whether they know this or not. Most dietitians do have a good sense of the number of calories their clients consume.

So if we are trying to lose weight, and we have no idea of how many calories we are eating…how do you suppose we can be certain of what we are doing? Well, intuitively we can eat less, and we can make better choices, so most positive changes will result in weight loss if we are eating healthier.

So from one standpoint, if we are eating better, eating a bit less, and we are losing weight as we expect to, then there is no need to count calories.

It is when we feel like we do not have control over what we are doing, that our efforts are not yielding the results we expect, that knowing how many calories we are eating can really be useful.

I prefer to call it “calorie awareness” rather than calorie counting, because the idea of being aware of how many calories you assume (roughly) is very valuable. If you were to ask the average person how many calories they eat a day, or for a particular meal, they’d most likely have no idea.

This matters, if we don’t understand that eating a meal with over 1000 calories is too much for most people.

If we desire something like weight loss, we must be prepared to learn how it works, which means knowing how many calories you eat each day, and ultimately finding out what your own caloric needs are (based on your individual metabolic rate). The easiest way to determine your own target, is to start paying attention (ok, COUNTING). See how many calories you are eating on a normal day, and see which direction your weight is going. This takes some patience, that is for sure! But ultimately you will come to understand your own body.

If you want to know how many calories are in just about anything, go to www.nutritiondata.com, or go buy yourself a small nutritional book at the bookstore. No, you don’t have to carry this around for the rest of your life, this is just for a short period of time for you to learn a little bit more…to become more aware of calories in general.

The next time you are at the grocery store, try looking at a typical can of nuts, or even a small can…calculate how many calories are in an entire can (multiple number of servings times calories per serving). You might be shocked!

If you need a place to start, 2000 calories per day is a nice conservative target. You can adjust from there…