Quote:
Originally Posted by Aniseteph
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! 
And if you DO know how many calories you've burned, what do you do with it? Award yourelf the corresponding percentage of a doughnut or something? I really don't get this profit and loss calorie counting when it's taken to extremes. Eating a whole cheesecake = bad. Getting a bit puffed doing some sort of activity = good. Take it too far and it can get a bit obsessive IMHO - in many cases I don't think it's healthy. |
Its important, unfortunately, because one doesn't get to be fat by gorging on cheesecake everyday. Most people who are overweight eat almost what they burn every day. Almost.
If you eat on average a mere 100 cals more than you need (thats a cookie, or a piece of bread, or a banana extra), you'll put on a pound in a little over a month, 10 lbs in a year, and after 5 years of that you'd be 50 lbs overweight. That is how most people gain weight.
If you are trying to lose weight, you can't (or at least most people can't) "just try to be sensible". What feels like sensible to our bodies is the amount of cals that maintains us where we are. You have to create a calorie deficit within a fairly narrow range of parameters. Too little of a deficit won't negate the occasional "cheat" and the error in the system (error in measuring/estimating portions etc). Too big of a deficit will leave you feeling tired and prime to fall off the wagon within a very short period of time.
So for me any way, obtaining fairly accurate estimates of calories consumed and burned has been very important. Call me obsessed if you will, but obsessive calorie counting has gotten my cholesterol from 289 to 180 and it has gotten me into size 8 clothes and back looking good in bedlah at 42. It worked where other strategies failed.
Would you consider balancing your checkbook to the penny to be obsessive? What if someone told you to not worry about finding out how much your paycheck was, or how much your bills add to, just work hard, try to be frugal, and everything will work out peachy keen? Why treat your body so much more sloppily?