Do you count calories or weigh food?

[Katy Castro 1]

I do both! If you walk into my surgeon's office and are not losing, the first thing he'll ask you is why you stopped weighing your food.

I use SparkPeople to track all of my food and exercise. I really like their format and their website syncs with the app that I use from them so I can track anytime. And they've got all kinds of reports I can run at the end of the day to see my calorie differential and whatnots. And though I was told to not eat over 800 calories per day, that's very difficult for me... I'm usually between 450 to 650 calories and with that I can get in 60 to 70 g of Protein. If I make it to 800 calories in a day I have eaten something I shouldn't have eaten.

For every meal, I weigh my food. I am not supposed to eat over 4 oz of food and so I weigh not only the ingredients that I put into making my meal but the final meal as well. Doing that allows me to accurately track my food intake.

[BetsyB 9]

I do both. I journal on FitDay, and will continue to do so; it keeps me aware of what I am putting in my mouth so that I don't slip back into bad habits. And I weigh out portions, too---most of the time, I don't finish what I'm "allotted," so I've become more lax about this. (My body stops me well before I run into trouble, as long as I choose the right foods, which I do.)

[isaviolinist 11]

I do a combination of both. I got a nice little scale at Bed, Bath & Beyond that has a little book of cheat codes & you put the food on the scale, enter the code & you get calories, fat, sodium, cholesterol, Fiber, sugars and weight. All in either grams or ounces. Or i just use it to weigh out the serving sizes. I'm keeping my calories anywhere between 800 & 1200 a day depending on the meal and each starts with 2-4 ozs of meat with Protein. I've only had one fill & routinely exercising and i'm down 30lbs since being banded on Oct 25th. Other than some raw veggies, i can eat just about anything if it is within my limits. Like others, i follow Protein first, veggies & then carbs. If i know we are eating out for dinner, i'll make sure to do minimal calories during the day with protein rich foods. Then if i know where we are going for dinner, i will check out the nutrition menu online and already know what i'm getting when we get there. Otherwise, i just chose wisely. We do wing night every 2 weeks or so. YUMMIE but within reason. I'll have 6 - 10 wings depending on if i'm having a side salad with it. Are they the most healthy choice?? Nope, but i'm not going to deprive myself of something i love, rather just switch to moderation! As time is passing, i do notice that it's easier to tell how much food is a meal size. I use a small salad plate now instead of a dinner plate and know that just because you can still fill it, doesn't mean you should. The food journal....LOVE IT. That's been the best counterpart of the scale, it holds me accountable for what i'm eating, how much exercising.

That scale sounds awesome!! Maybe when my current scale poops out, I'll look into that one. It sounds great!