Is Calorie Counting really essential or can you just use the Portion Size Method?

Savant21

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Title says it all. I'm just curious in regards to ensuring I'm acquiring the proper nutrients my body needs in order to prosper & be healthy overall. I'm currently bulking. I'm 6'2 weigh around 191 or so with 16% bodyfat. Basically I'm skinny fat & I've read the best way to get rid of this look is to clean bulk (unless your bodyfat percentage is way over 18% or some shit like that).

My diet consists of 5 eggs (scrambled) in the morning with either 3 sausage links or 1/2 cup of oatmeal, a cup of milk & a banana. I have a protein bar & maybe a banana for my morning snack. For lunch it's a chicken thigh with green peas, broccoli & 1/2 - 1 cup of brown rice. My afternoon snack is a whey shake with milk or if I lift that day it's a whey shake with 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream & 3/4 cup of milk. For dinner it's the same as lunch except instead of rice I have about 3 or 4 eggs & a glass of milk.

I've heard the portion size method is significantly easier for recreational lifters & calorie counting is only crucial if you're a professional athlete.

Here's the video I watched a while ago regarding this topic:


He also made another video titled "Why Counting Your Calories Doesn't Work". Then there's this article as well: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/calorie-control-guide

That said I wanna get you guy's opinions, it doesn't seem like calorie counting is really crucial tbh but what are you guy's thoughts on this? Apologies if this has been posted numerous times before.
 
no way.....

i mean look man... to be counting your calories is next level dedication and i don't think most pro athletes would even bother counting calories unless they're prepping..

look i'll be honest, i used to and still do but ONLY when I'm cutting.... when i bulk i just eat whatever, as long as i know I'm gaining, i'll just eat. to be honest, you kinda have a rough idea over time as to how much you should eat for the day etc. but man, I'd rather spend the time/invest my energcy watching fights and analysing fights rather than counting calories IMO....

don't get me wrong... obviously don't neglect your diet/nutrition... if you want maybe download an app like 'myfitnesspal' and track your daily macros to get a feel... after a while it'll be second nature... basic things like 4 calories per g for protein or carbs and 9 calories per g for fat becomes an everyday thing.

imo your diet looks good. maybe just track and count, see what your daily macros are for now and work towards that.
 
Damn i would also love to bulk up. But my cheeks are chubby af.
 
Calorie counting is a flawed system and a flawed way to manage your diet. It doesn't take rocket science to appreciate that 100 calories from some soda or candy bars is different compared to 100 calories from some carrots in terms of how it affects your body.
 
I need to count calories and plan meals otherwise I will just fucking explode. I completely lost track of how much I'm eating and what really fast.
 
Calorie counting is a flawed system and a flawed way to manage your diet. It doesn't take rocket science to appreciate that 100 calories from some soda or candy bars is different compared to 100 calories from some carrots in terms of how it affects your body.
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considerate a massive waste of time

people make this out to be a lot more complicated then it is

are you gaining weight? eat less

are losing weight? eat more

more then anything, listen to the body and make changes based off this
 
considerate a massive waste of time

people make this out to be a lot more complicated then it is

are you gaining weight? eat less

are losing weight? eat more

more then anything, listen to the body and make changes based off this

normally you are right.

some days ago an obese guy with knee problems asked me about losing weight and he had absolutely no clue about anything.
he thought 1 egg has around 100 g of protein and if he wants to lose weight he shouldn't eat more than 500 calories a day. after some minutes of clearing up his nonsense i just recommended weight watchers because he was very reluctant in accepting my advises. he had an excuse for anything. people like that should learn portion sizes and approx. the calories of that portions.
 
The portion size method works just fine. Coutning calories is obviously optimal and more accurate, but it takes a certain amount of dedication. I think the portion size method is a good trade off in that you are actually paying attention to what you eat but not becoming overly obsessed with every single calories. PN is a reputable source as well, so I would trust the artticle you linked.

Also, the diet you described doesn't look like a bulking diet for a 195 lbs man. Are you actually gaining weight from eating that little?

Calorie counting is a flawed system and a flawed way to manage your diet. It doesn't take rocket science to appreciate that 100 calories from some soda or candy bars is different compared to 100 calories from some carrots in terms of how it affects your body.

Have you been living under a rock? The science is OVERWHELMING in the fact that calories are calories. Reaching a caloric deficit is the ONLY WAY to lose weight. It doesn't matter if you eat the best organic chicken in the world, if you eat too much of it you won't loose weight.

Taking your pop vs carrots analogy as an example, do you think that a 160 lbs desk worker, eating 5,000 calories of carrots a day, will lose weight due to higher qualitiy calories? I think not.
 
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Just depends how deep you want to go. I'd say you should count calories if you dont want to spend as much time tuning your diet. It's a lot easier to look at data and move the bar up or down 100-200 calories than it is to guess and fail repeatedly. Personally my diet only ever changes by +/- 350 calories so between cutting and bulking all I really need to do is incorporate a snack at the end of the day to gain and not eat that snack to lose. If you arent cutting for some kind of competition or photoshoot etc speed isnt all that important when losing weight and honestly doing it slower is a lot less painful than just chopping out like 750+ calories.
 
Have you been living under a rock? The science is OVERWHELMING in the fact that calories are calories. Reaching a caloric deficit is the ONLY WAY to lose weight. It doesn't matter if you eat the best organic chicken in the world, if you eat too much of it you won't loose weight.

Taking your pop vs carrots analogy as an example, do you think that a 160 lbs desk worker, eating 5,000 calories of carrots a day, will lose weight due to higher qualitiy calories? I think not.

I haven't been living under a rock but thanks for asking and worrying about my wellbeing.

If we take two people with the exact same profile, age, genes, way of life, amount of physical exercise etc. and you put one of them on a diet of 3,000 calories of mcdonalds a day while the other is on a diet of 3,000 calories of vegetables a day, I have no doubt which one will have weight issues, a fatty liver, other damaged organs and other health issues in a nearer future compared to the other.

In my opinion it's much better to focus on good physical exercise, good sleep, and a balanced diet with lots of vegetables, fish, nuts, fruits and so on rather than trying to count the calories of everything you put through your mouth while trying to count how many calories you burn for every step you make.

But I'm not here to preach, believe what you want and keep having fun counting your calories on a daily basis, it's so fun to do and so effective lol.
 
The point is, 3,000 calories might be too much to lose weight. If the person eating 3,000 calories of vegetables only spend 2,500 a day, they will actually gain weight on that "clean" diet.

I understand that counting calories might be too time consuming or obsessive for some person, and that's where the portion size method comes in. It allows you to eyeball your portions, and get a rough approximate of your daily calories intake. There's really no need to be 100% accurate with your macros unless you plan to get on a bodybuilding stage. For most people, eyeballing portions of healthy food is sufficient.

The problem with only focusing on the quality of the aliments is that there is no quantity control. I'm not denying the importance of healthy food, a good workout program, and quality sleep, but if you have no idea of how much your eating portions should be, you risk overeating. This is especially true with food that are more calorie dense, i.e. cheat meals.
 
The problem with only focusing on the quality of the aliments is that there is no quantity control. I'm not denying the importance of healthy food, a good workout program, and quality sleep, but if you have no idea of how much your eating portions should be, you risk overeating. This is especially true with food that are more calorie dense, i.e. cheat meals.

An easy way for quantity control is to eat when your body tells you it's hungry up until you're about 80% full. If you're not eating enough you will feel it, and same if you're eating too much.

Focusing on good nutrition with fresh aliments and avoiding processed foods, fried stuff etc. is also mega important. You are what you eat.
 
The portion size method works just fine. Coutning calories is obviously optimal and more accurate, but it takes a certain amount of dedication. I think the portion size method is a good trade off in that you are actually paying attention to what you eat but not becoming overly obsessed with every single calories. PN is a reputable source as well, so I would trust the artticle you linked.

Also, the diet you described doesn't look like a bulking diet for a 195 lbs man. Are you actually gaining weight from eating that little?

I appreciate your response thanks. Honestly, my nutrition & my training have all been fucked up & inconsistent for a few reasons being bad form in training, bad posture (anterior pelvic tilt), health & budget. I started "attempting" to lift about 2 years ago but didn't realize until about a year into lifting that my Squat & DL form was horrible (wasn't hitting parallel). I went to a chiropractor last year & he told me I have APT (which is a fucking bitch to eliminate). Then a few months later I was basically eating garbage & apparently was pre-diabetic (I was eating 2-3 cups of white rice for lunch & dinner, I thought I could eat anything in sight since I'm a hardgainer). I had my blood sugar checked a few months later & it was good so I've been fine ever since (I check it periodically) but I've also been super paranoid about how many carbs I consume everyday (I basically try to only eat carbs during the day & never at night).

Honestly, despite all that I've made some progress in the gym, but I strained/hurt my lower back doing sumo DLs last week (started doing them on a suggestion to do them since I'm tall & have APT). I'm just gonna focus on fixing my APT cuz trying to make any progress with bad posture is absolute hell. You could have the best program & diet but if your posture's bad you're sol.
 
Why don't you jump on a bodybuilding split for a while to increase your energy expenditure and make some muscle gains? If the DLs are causing pain, try different varitations where you can work on your flexibility such as good mornings, Stiff Leg Deadlifts, trap bar deadlift or deadlifts from blocks.
 
I'm in no way any sort of a dietary guru but will share my 2c. I think it depends on the why and the consequences.

Assuming a person is maintaining their weight and want to start losing it for no other reason than to want to lose some weight, the portion size/eyeball method should be sufficient.

If on the other hand, you're a professional athlete and your pay cheque depends on it or if a doctor said to you "You MUST lose 40lb by such and such a date or you WILL die" then you better be increasing your odds of hitting your target and counting calories
 
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