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Comment by Swizec | Hacker News Reader

I've been counting calories for at least 5 years now.

It makes my life so much easier. That chocolate looks delicious. Can I have it?

Normal person: Ugh but I didn't work out today. Humbug my belly is getting big. Those pants from last year are kinda tight. I'm a little peckish and bored. Hm agony for 20 minutes before you finally give in and have the chocolate. Then you feel guilty for the rest of the day.

Swiz: Check calorie and macro tracker. Yup, all good. Eat chocolate. Enjoy life. Take 20 grams less potatoes at dinner.

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I have tracked calories in the past. At some point I developed some sort of intuition about how much food I can have and what foods I should prefer and stopped counting.

I managed to look my best ever by doing that. But that's not the point. The point is that not counting obsessively is liberating.

If you are counting the calories of 20 grams of potatoes you're worrying too much.

You have to learn to count in order not to count though. So it's a helpful step (though maybe not required).

Yeah but check this out: https://gyrosco.pe/swizec/8825e3a2-96e9-11e8-a492-061afa5c8c...

From about 16% bodyfat to about 11% in the past year.

That must've been some impossibly wimpy or tiny cake.

One slice (about 150g, they're dense) of those is equivalent to a whole standard meal. (like 500 kcal or so)

Smart person: I only eat a tiny bit of candy/chocolate per week, and I haven't had any yet. This small piece of rich dark chocolate will be my allowance for the week, so I'll make sure to savor it.

Me: Check calorie tracker. Nope, can't eat anything but salad today. Screw it, gonna gain some weight. Eat chocolate anyways :-)

How do you track meals out, or when you order in food? (An actual question - no snark. I want to start but I always get stuck here)

There are some apps that have calories from some restaurants.

Also after some time weighting all the food you get better at estimating how much each ingredient weights, and at knowing how much each thing "costs" in calories.

It will not be perfect, but better than nothing.

Myfitnesspal’s database is surprisingly good. Most chains are in there.

For other restaurants I guesstimate. After 5 years my guesstimates have gotten pretty accurate.

I also don’t sweat about perfect tracking. It’s more about observing general trends. 100 cals up or down all averages out over your lifetime. Or even a single week.

That said when you have strict goals, the only solution is not to eat out or at least to limit it a lot. Like when you have to be a certain weight or bodyfat for a specific event that’s X days/weeks out

Yes, there are pretty good proxy items, even if you don't have exactly the same item. If they have wings from chain X in MFP, but you're at chain Y and you know chain X has a bigger order, or bigger wings, estimate and do your best. Use what you know about other comparable items.

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