For years, I’ve been adamant that no living soul with an appreciation for functional sanity should ever attempt to count calories. But I’ve changed my mind.
I still think most people that I work with will do just fine with intuitive eating habits or using hand portions instead of counting calories. But sometimes…
Here’s one scenario where doing the calorie math is likely the better.
Prolonged under eating
When you’ve eaten a very low-calorie diet (less than 1500-1800 calories / day for most) for a long time. Especially if you’ve combined this with a high volume of physical activity. And doubly especially if a lot of that activity’s been the high-intensity sort.
Your body’s hunger signals are all over the place. You struggle with constant cravings, lack of genuine hunger, or feel lost on how much to eat at each meal. It’s often helpful to establish “enough” by counting calories for a week or two.
Estimate your daily calorie expenditure. Plenty of apps and websites out there for this. You’re likely going to be “holy smoke balls!” surprised by how many calories you “should” be eating vs how many you’ve been eating lately.
Aim to, roughly, eat your daily expenditure’s worth of calories each day for a week or two. Roughly, because counting calories is, at best, a game of guesswork.
It’s not unusual to feel you’re forcing yourself to eat. Stick with it. Eat most of the calories from healthy, real foods. Most, not all. Because life.
Don’t add “burned” calories from exercise to your calculations. Exercise. Be active. Do it because it’s good for you, not because you can count how much you’re burning. A solid rule for any occasion.
Imagine how much healthier and more energetic you’ll feel when you’re eating the amount of food and nutrients your body actually needs.
It also gives you a permission to stop restricting yourself with strict, low-calorie diets that are as about as fun as sucking a broccoli florets through a straw.