Tracking macros and calories is not obsessive behaviour . It can be , for some people , but isn’t itself indicative of pre-anorexia , nor is it to be dismissed . It can be very eye opening to those who aren’t aware of what they are really consuming or for those who need assistance with learning to eat well . The trouble with threads like this is so much of what is shared is pure opinion and conjecture , or reinterpretation of something someone read on line . No one here is a professional dietician from what I understand - or they aren’t saying so do that’s the case . Experiences are wildly different for everyone , and anecdotal “ evidence” is dangerous when it comes to diet and exercise unless you’re a qualified professional .

Amen, Lisa. Most of us (on planet Earth) are doing the best we can.

Tracking for me doesn't mean restricting, but it sure is eye opening.

I suppose different people can use tracking different ways. I changed up the target macros in My Fitness Pal to suit my goals—lose excess weight and build muscle back up. Of course I weigh food, to be able to accurately record what I eat. For me, getting in enough protein is as important—and usually a bigger challenge—than keeping down calories.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Yes as someone said this topic is fraught with conflicting ideas and emotions.
I understand the need to avoid obsessions, but I can't eat alot of sugar due to ongoing problems with candida so I guess I will need to maintain a low carb diet anyway, and I intend to be disciplined and keep my moderate exercise routine of yoga and walking. Lets see what eventuates. I was told by a dietician to download fitness pal and check my calories and macros so I could keep the carbs low and not overdo the fat. I don't think I am being overly obsessive. I was interested to see if there were people who had kept weight off successfully because I am sick of buying clothes in different sizes and it is heartening that there is and good to note the ideas. Of course everyone is different. I am going to read, "the obesity code" by Jason Fung, a nephrologist which looks at the link between carbs, insulin and weightloss.

I’ve got an appointment with a dietician for next month now, since the thread started. I’ve had a lot of training as a type 1 diabetic. It may or may not prove helpful for my dilemma, this consult, but I like to check in with one every five years. Hear the latest thinking and formulas. A prerequisite for the consult is tracking what I eat in the run-up. I don’t worry about being too meticulous about weighing and note taking, but it’s valuable for the conversation with a professional and for training your hand and eye when dishing up a plate of food. We’ll see what she says about how to get calories without carbs and nuts and avocados and keeping meat to the RDA! Haha. She’ll probably tell me to eat more steak...

One other thought on being obsessed with working out, from a young man you’re all sick of hearing me talk about.
I described above how I feel healthier living here than where we used to be. Some of the factors in Tampa are specific to that place; others are common across the USA. We both felt worse, physically, over there. He had been longing to get back, so he was surprised. Whether we were at my parents’ home with the beautiful lanai or scrounging around in the storage locker, we were very sedentary, unless we got motivated and did a workout. We ate some Taco Bell and Moe’s, some food from better restaurants, and a lot from Publix and Fresh Market. He used the feelings in our bodies while he was trying to figure out how/why people there are so much heavier than here. What he came up with is that the US makes it hard to be your natural shape and size; in order to not put on excess pounds, you have to be extreme and fight back against all the subtle pushes against you there. It’s a stronger way of putting what I said above, but I don’t disagree.

@rachylou All the best for the visit to the dietician.
@fashion intern..I have only been to the states twice for periods of 3 weeks. I stayed in people's homes so food wasn't really a problem. I found Dallas Texas a lot harder to walk around. I wanted to walk to the mall and I had to cross a free way, and it seemed like I was the only one walking....I felt the same way in the CBD of Dallas However in San Francisco it seemed much easier to get around on foot. We travelled to Miami, Florida, Seattle and Los Angeles. I assumed that it was variable depending on state. I noticed that meal portions were large but they can be large in NZ as well. I did notice that in places I visited in Europe there was a lot more walking. When I lived in London, walking was my only exercise but I did a lot of it! I have to make a big effort to walk where I live now as I can't take public transport to work. Some cities are designed to keep you fit.

I've not historically been able to maintain a set weight- ever. Either I lose or gain too much.

But I'm working on a new mindful approach (aside from calorie counting). I'm trying to notice how foods make me feel. For example, usually I eat salad at lunch, but I ran out of lettuce and ate Grillers (veggie burgers) instead. By 2pm I was Exhausted, like couldn't keep my head up. Being on meetings for 5 hours didn't help...

The next day I ate only carrots and ranch and mandarins at lunch, and didn't have the slump at all. I also didn't get hungry again quickly, though I didn't eat much.

FashIntern, when I moved to Australia for a semester in college I, without particularly trying, lost about 20 pounds. Just because I was walking everywhere (and doing so was pleasant and not dangerous), eating smaller portions and all those little things that aren't much on one day but add up over time. For sure, most of the US is set up so that the default is to eat too much and move too little.

I've lost weight several times and eventually gained most of it back, but overall my health habits are improved from when I was younger. One of the factors for me is the antidepressants I take, some of which can make it harder to lose weight and easier to gain, but personally I'd rather be overweight and a functional person rather than skinny and suicidally depressed.

I think the fat positivity movement has a lot to recommend it. But I also think Jason Fung, Gary Taubes, etc. and the intermittent fasting people have a lot of scientific evidence on their side. I've never been able to stick to a really low carb diet myself, a) because starchy foods are so much more logistically convenient when you're busy or low energy and b) because becoming 'fat adapted' seems to be really challenging for me. If someone could just lock me in a room with only lean proteins and vegetables for 3 months, I'd get used to it, but access to sugar, unhealthy fats, junk food, etc., is so easy (unlike most of human history), and I'm definitely an emotional eater.

While I don't do it, I have to agree that tracking macros and counting calories is not necessarily obsessive behavior. For many people, it is just routine. Tracking what we eat can be eye-opening, as so much goes into our mouths that we forget or later don't count, so being mindful of that can be beneficial.

Additionally, many people track macros for health - either for weight and muscle gain, ketosis, diabetes or other concerns - and not necessarily just to lose weight or count calories. Talking with a nutitionist or dietician is a good idea, but as Rachy said, knowing what you are working with when you go in is important.

Overall, we may all have some baggage around weight given the society we live in. But being aware of your weight and your diet isn't automatically obsessive or dangerous.

Apropos of nothing... when I learned two glasses of red wine is equal in calories to what I eat for a meal... I was really stunned...

Rachy - my point exactly .

The poster asked about the people we know who kept weight off, as the stats are that only 5 percent of dieters can accomplish this. I answered that three women I know who have done this have done so by adopting a lifestyle that is long term unhealthy, by dramatically restricting their diets to the point of obsession. Only one actually looks good, the other two have kept their weight down but at too high a cost. The more realistic approach is to establish workout goals and work on a healthy eating plan that is actually sustainable.

Cat2, you are opposing a sustainable eating plan to tracking what one eats. That makes as much sense as comparing planning your driving to save energy with knowing your car’s mpg. Tracking is simply keeping track of what you eat. It used to be called a food diary. There is nothing about it that dictates how or what you eat.
I do agree with you that losing weight in the USA (at least the parts I’ve lived in) is hard; because things are stacked against you, you almost have to get extreme to fight back.

I will say I’ve known many people with... honestly crazy, ‘controlling’ habits and attitudes about eating. I knew one woman who only ate lettuce and steak - loads of steak. She carried her food around with her in Tupperware and wouldn’t even eat her daughter’s cooking. She’d tell her daughter, directly and indirectly, she needed to be thin to get a man - and that was the only success possible, a man. Her daughter in turn dealt with EVERY problem by planning her meals. No matter what the problem was. Lost keys to sick pet. The daughter couldn’t keep a job because her meal plans were so complicated. My English ex-boss is ex because he told me to eat lettuce and lose 5lbs when I became diabetic and was a 5-lb loss from hospitalization. And I’ll throw in the 20-yr-old guy who got kidney failure because he only ever ate steak. Literally that was all he ate. Not even the bun on a burger.

Diabetics with eating disorders IS a thing too. That’s a tricky one - because you literally can’t survive without knowing what you put in your mouth and doing a lot of math and recording it all so you can tell your medical team and look at the patterns, and your medical team of professionals will be pretty obsessive about it and bring their own fears to the mix that they expect you to fix for them. They can get very emotional and hysterical! And because you have to live it, more often than not you will be more knowledgeable than the professionals.

It can be very difficult.

R: That’s why I suggested a nutritionist to the poster. You can get caught up in Internet health advice that can wreck your health, if for example you jettison dairy and don’t otherwise get enough calcium, or if you throw whole grains out with the carb bath water, or you won’t eat anything that is a source of potassium.

FI: I understand using tracking to learn healthy habits, but you know that’s not what I am referring to here.

Cat2 - I agree that a sustainable plan of healthy eating and activity is best. I don't think anyone here is disagreeing. We all grow up with different ethnicities, food and weight cultures, social/family pressures, genetic traits, emotional stresses, diseases, and through different decades and changing eras of "standard" healthy eating and ideal physiques.

That sustainable lifestyle sounds simple, but for many, not easy to achieve, that's all. I find tracking helpful.

RachyLou - yes, living with diabetes is another added challenge!
I'm type 2, and saw my mother, diagnosed type 2 in the 1970's, immediately put on insulin because there was't anything else to offer in those days. Then kidney failure, stroke, etc.

Part of my tracking is to keep my blood sugar on track, and my A1C reasonable (and you know all this stuff of course!!!!)

... and in the 70s the insulins were pretty different, pretty primitive. There was no way to know your blood sugar until it was far too late to do anything about it—and no way to do anything, if you could know! And a lot of people, a lot of doctors, still think about it all as if it were the 70s. It’s difficult indeed.

Sloper, I also find logging my food intake helpful, as someone who doesn't have any serious underlying conditions and already maintains a quite active, non-sedentary life. It helps correct some of the not-so-great eating habits that can slip back in when I'm not paying closer attention.

Cat2 and LisaP are correct -- taking nutrition and health advice from strangers on the internet is not exactly a surefire plan for success. I understand anecdotal evidence can have bits of wisdom, and it can certainly be validating, as we tend to listen to the advice we want to hear and ignore that which we don't.

RachyLou, that experience certainly put me off injectables. I practically cried when I had to use Basaglar and Humalog for a while when high prednisone doses shot my counts sky high.

I realized that treatments had advanced, but I had a major mind block against it.

I hope you are doing well.

Apologies for the thread hijack.

Cat2, nope, nothing you said suggested that you had any recognition that tracking is not the same as the extreme behaviors you described. I’m glad to hear you realize that, don’t know why you equated them in your earlier post, but whatever.

Getting dietary advice from people online is the same as chatting about it irl—a way to get some ideas to think about later, possibly research, and maybe implement. I don’t think anyone here is jumping to do what someone else says worked for them. That’s how it should be.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It is good to hear other people's experiences. As fashionIntern said it is a bit like chatting to people face to face to get their experiences, but all experiences differ. I also agree that being positively healthy is important. I'm at a healthy weight ...just have a habit of giving up my healthy habits because i get too busy and like a lot of women put other people first instead of taking the time to exercise or eat at reasonable hours etc, but I think I need to make it a priority from now on.

I'm late to this conversation, but I am nodding yes to all those that mentioned lifestyle changes and maintaining those lifestyle changes long term. Also nodding along with sticking with what works for you ... as it is highly individual. Some of you may remember me when I was more active on YLF, through a period of weight loss of 75 lbs. I have maintained close to that for the past two years, though a few pounds crept back on at beginning of the pandemic (comfort eating), but I'm now back at my goal weight by reinstating healthy eating patterns.

I hate the word diet. It denotes a time-constrained time period of restriction. I never dieted. I considered it a lifestyle change that changed the importance of sweets and desserts in my life and that I committed to long term. I changed to a healthy eating plan that worked for me and let the weight come off very slowly (~1/1.5 lb per week). A focus on high fiber filling foods, quality proteins. I never felt deprived or hungry. Never tracked my food nor weighed it. For me, it was mostly about eliminating sugars and refined foods and focusing on filling nutrient dense foods. I am also very active. Just finished a 5 day, 110 mile backpacking trip in Shenandoah National Park. (It was awesome!) I mostly focus on what my strong body can do and not the scale. In summary, I found creating a series of healthy habits, both food and exercise, that I could stick to long term was my key to my weight maintenance.

Thank you Toban. It is inspiring that you have maintained your weight loss through healthy habits. I did see some of your posts about building a wardrobe after weight loss as it was recommended when I first came back on the site after losing weight and those posts were really useful.

Sally, it seems to me that your health challenges (re carbs) will probably prove to be the most effective mechanism in keeping your weight off and preventing the dreaded yo-yo. But maybe think of strategies and quick snacks to have on hand when you get super busy? Small bags of nuts? Hummus and carrot sticks?

A few years ago I realized that one of my challenges has been solved by my growing lactose intolerance. No way can I now binge on ice cream or even a double scoop. So far, I can still tolerate tiny Trader Joe’s ice cream cones or other small servings. I also figured out the hard way that buttermilk doughnuts have (gasp!) lactose. I’ve never tried Lactaid ice cream, but there’s no reason to start.

I also wanted to mention that due to COVID exercise (not dieting) my weight has gone down and is lower than it’s been for at least 30 years — but I am pretty sure I am larger than when I was previously at this weight, as in when I weighed five pounds more. That’s okay; I don’t want to buy new clothes. Waistlines rarely get tight on me but bra bands do. I hate that tourniquet feeling I got at the beginning of the pandemic.

I think you are right Donna. It will be my having to adhere to restrictions due to health concerns that will keep my weight from yoyoing. I do have soups, seeded crackers, goat cheese and hummus and sugar free chocolate among others things to eat when I get busy.
LIke you it was the pandemic and being in lockdown that helped me get into a good home exercise practice.