Do you count calories?

Yes, and I cook/prep all of my meals. It's easy with apps such as MyFitnessPal (which is what I use and suggest), especially since I eat the same thing every day. Kind of boring, but I save a lot of money and I haven't gained the first year 15. You should definitely do it to offset your sedentary lifestyle. It helps if you're in a group which is health/fitness friendly. If not, it'll take a lot of willpower and tough skin to dealet with people constantly egging you on to get crap from seamless/go out for drinks.

I've done it in the past but always end up getting lazy. Having said that, when I did use a calorie tracker, I found it to be pretty helpful. Not in the sense that I was watching every little thing I ate (who has time for that), but just made me more aware and accountable (i.e, fine I won't order $25 worth of dinner every time just to feel like I'm getting the most out of my dinners).

Just go for a low carb or vegan diet and you'll see the energy boost you get. Cut carbs to 50g a day for 3 months and I never feel drowsy or tired. Plus cutting carbs out forces you to eat clean foods as most foods that are bad for you are carb-heavy. Cutting carbs is best fitness and health related decision I have ever made and am now thinking of testing a vegan diet.

Yes, as others have said it's what really made the difference for me fitness wise. I've always been in good shape, but people tend to underestimate the amount of calories they take in. Tracking with something like myfitnesspal makes you way more accountable and aware. And can stop that banker 20 before it happens. It's always easy to prevent then have to lose weight later.

Yes, because I need more for the gainz.

I'm lucky my metabolism hasn't slowed down (yet) so I just worry about getting consistent workouts in. I know some of the other analysts/associates track calories though.

I've been doing it for the last 2 months. It is not too difficult.

I just use an excel sheet that breaks out like the following:

                    100%           30%            30%       40%

FOOD | CALORIES | PROTEIN | CARBS | FAT banana | 100 | 2 | 27 | 1

Total: =sum() Goal: Hard Entry Goal Reached?: =D5>=D6 Remaining: =IF(D6-D5

I don't count them. But 3 days a week I see my personal trainer during my lunch break and 1 day a week I see my nutritionist who routinely goes over diet plans, takes my measurements, and calculates my body fat.

MyFitnessPal is a solid app you can use to count calories and somewhat reliable for counting macros.

Personally I don't, I try to focus more on maintaining some level of consistent workouts. Counting calories sounds great but honestly the hardest part is figuring out exactly how many calories you need to sustain your weight (or build muscle/lose weight) based on the amount of calories you burn. There's stuff that helps you with this but for the most part its fairly inaccurate unless you have some pretty specific equipment to measure everything from your blood pressure, muscle mass, activity level, etc. which is just a pain in the ass.

Maybe its just me but it seems like a lot of effort to put into something that (without some sort of individualized testing) could be fairly off base with regards to your calorie needs. I'd rather just take the lazy mans way out and fit in exercise whenever I can and avoid ordering that damn tiramisu every night

I use myfitnesspal to track most of what I eat. Once you use the app for a few weeks it becomes pretty easy to add meals on the go. You can even add your own recipes if you like to cook.

I always eat a very light breakfast and lunch as dinner is usually the most unpredictable meal (for me). After tracking what I ate for a few years now I have a very good feel for where I'm at even if I'm not tracking.

I eat the same foods everyday; so counting calories isn't hard since it's definitive. When I do eat out; it's not a huge problem.

I've been counting calories since mid-January of this year (4 months or so now) and have lost about 13 lbs (and about 15 lbs since January 1). So it definitely works with routine exercise.

Started properly counting calories last year as i had one of the greatest dreambulks of all time and wanted to get to 10% bodyfat. Was tough at first to hit macro's but after a couple weeks it becomes second nature and you learn how to incorporate it while having a social life. But it was amazing as once you dial it in you can lose/gain a steady 1-2 lbs a week. Anyone who tells me they are trying to change their body, learning how to manage your macro's/calories is the number one priority. I now make sure to do it in intervals, so will do 3 months on and 1 month off, but not like 1 month completely let myself go, I still probably hit the numbers just by memory and approximating and dont eat crap, but i dont keep a spreadsheet for that month. But honestly couldnt go back to just free for all eating.

I strongly recommend against counting calories. Why? Because there is a 25% error when estimating 'calories in', and a similar error on the 'calories out' math.

Basically, it's a pain in the ass and it's extremely inaccurate.

Here's an article that sums up the issues well: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/problem-with-calorie-counting-calorie…

When I think of counting calories I think to myself, "just another thing to add to my list..." I don't count calories, I focus on just making healthier food decisions like avoiding fast food and running into a health store to pick up something.

So this is something I've spent some time thinking about (along with fitness). By no means claim to be an expert but some thoughts below:

I counted calories for the last 2 years or so targeting a long-term daily caloric intake of ~1,900 (male in 20s). My idea originally was that by tracking my weekly over/under I could stay healthy with minimal lifestyle modification (i.e., if I drink 10 beers on Friday, I eat less on Monday and average out). While this sort of worked, I didn't gain any weight during analyst stint , I actually don't think this is a practical or healthy method for the following reasons:

++ Calories in - calories out = weight gain / (loss) is an overly simplistic model and is poorly understood. Our metabolisms adjust quickly to changes in consumption (i.e., if you cut food for more than a day or two, your metabolism will actually slow and adjust down, same vice versa). Thought exercise - there's ~3,500 calories in a pound of fat, if you were to eat 100 calories less than your current metabolism needed forever, would you eventually waste away? Empirically this doesn't happen

++ Estimation error is huge. Outside of packaged foods where we can reasonably assume calorie estimates are accurate, it's very difficult to correctly guess the caloric content of various foods. Especially so for "healthier" options - can you guess how many calories are in your salmon or chicken breast without measuring grams? What about a burger at 5 guys vs. Bills vs. Burger Heaven... being off by a couple % makes the entire exercise pretty moot. This also excludes are natural biases - you're likely to under count on bad foods (i.e., 10 tortilla chips vs. 15, etc.)

++ Not all calories are equal. This is a little more controversial in nutrition literature but should make intuitive sense. I've read some books recently that summarize this well (links below). Key takeaway is that your body processes macronutrients differently. Do you think eating 1,900 calories of ice cream vs. 1,900 calories of spinach provides same health? Obviously not... both of the books below argue for an insulin theory of obesity - which translates into carbs are bad for you. This generally supports paleo/low carb/Atkins type diets. From my expansive research (read: 15 minutes of google searching) it looks like this theory has been falsified so not sure what the actual mechanism is (still looking if anyone has some good materials). That said - the intuition still makes sense, high carb diets tend to be inefficient for micronutrient intake (google food efficiency to see what I'm talking about). There's also been some academic research suggesting that we eat the same amount of food independent of calorie density (4-5lbs per day, regardless of whether it's high calorie pasta, or low calorie spinach)

++ Fitness is another important component of this. One of the key parts of metabolism is how much energy you're expending. To oversimplify - there are two forms: (1) active exercise (i.e., the calories you burn while in the gym) and (ii) passive metabolism (muscle requires more energy than fat). I highly suggest reading "Body by Science" (link below). High level summary is that you should follow a high intensity work-out once a week for like 20 minutes and don't do any "cardio". Cardio, according to the research summarized in the book, is a horrible form of exercise which destroys your body because (i) it's high impact on your body... imagine how much force you're putting on knees when running (ii) it's bad for muscle mass - which is important for your metabolism and (iii) it's inefficient - significant time required to burn any calories. Instead, the book argues for a high intensity training where you work compound exercises to muscle failure. The once a week frequency is important because it allows your body to heal (can be upped to twice, if you recover fast enough). The benefit of working out isn't the calories burned from exercise (see point 1 above - when you expend more energy you're likely to consume more) it's increasing your resting metabolism and building muscle which stimulates certain hormones that are healthy

Think I got a little long-winded here... key take away is don't bother counting calories, it's not worth the time. Eat healthier foods and you'll be fine (i.e., cut out most processed foods)

https://www.amazon.com/Calorie-Myth-Exercise-Weight-Better-ebook/dp/B00…

https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About-ebook/dp/B003WUYOQ6?ie=UTF8…

https://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Program-Results-ebook/dp/B…

Yes, though lazily recently. It really helps to remind you of what you've eaten, which can be hard sometimes if you do a lot of snacking. That in and of itself can help you keep yourself from overeating by making you more aware of what you're eating. I personally lost about 30 lbs from diet and exercise, and the diet was 100% calorie counting, aided by MyFitnessPal.

I don't really count calories. I focus on macros more than calories. In terms of caloric intake, I just try to stay roughly around maintenance level and focus on keeping body fat in the 12-15% range. Outside of maintaining a good level of body fat (extremely important for overall health, way more relevant than BMI), it's more important to make sure that you're getting enough fiber, protein, and omega 3s and NOT having too much glucose/carbs as that is EXTREMELY easy to do in the United States.

Fitness is a lifelong commitment. Imo, even if someone is wildly successful, what is the point if he allows his physical form to deteriorate due to lack of exercise, stress, etc? Ultimately it's much more difficult to generate wellbeing in spite of health than the opposite condition.

I've done it in the past. From personal experience, you may find it to be a pain in the backside at the start, but soon, it will become a habit. It's totally worth doing it.

I do. It's very effective and with myfitnesspal, incredibly easy. I'm not a psycho about it because I'm not trying to be a model or a competitor, but it's good to plan out what you eat that day and good to think "alright, I need x more protein" or "I ate way too much pasta yesterday. I should probably chill on carbs for the next few."

it's easy to get obsessed with it. find it easier to estimate loosely as long as i'm within +/-10% of intended

Late to the party but I highly recommend everyone count calories for at least one month. You quickly realize which foods are making you fat and which ones you can eat and enjoy more of. Case in point, I realized my favorite food (peanut butter) is highly calorie dense. I also learned which condiments I can enjoy more of (siracha, mustard) and which I should stay away from (BBQ sauce is a ton of sugar).

did it with myfitnesspal for about 6 months. here's what I learned:

1. great way to make sure you eat enough of the right nutrients
2. great way to make sure you have enough calories if you're going for muscle gain
3. terribly inconvenient if you cook for yourself
4. is a good way to start good habits, but once you've gotten in shape, no need to do it forever
5. as others have said, really gets you to question the little "extras" like snacks & booze
6. makes you feel like a huge piece of shit if you add in all the drinks you have any given evening

always remember, balance. exercise will get your body right, moreso than cutting carbs (depending on your workouts, you may need to increase carbs, like if you swim or bike) or other things. a proper diet filled with nutrients and real food (not processed stuff) is all you need. don't expect to get a 6 pack just because you consumed kale, just like you shouldn't expect to be "healthy" if you workout 6x a week but still eat McDonald's for breakfast everyday.

Just started doing this in the past week, and it's made a huge difference. It's not only helped me eat better, but has also helped me eat less. Eating an excessive amount of "healthy" food can still cause you to gain weight. Counting has taught me that the I really don't need to eat as much as I thought I did.

Always count calories; am more zealous when I'm on a cut, care less when I'm bulking.

Two tips: 1) buy a food scale, and 2) use proxies for the food you eat when dining out. Ie. if the hole in the wall bistro you ordered a beef dip for lunch doesn't have calories posted, go find a beef dip at one of the major restaurants that provides nutritional information and use that for your calories. If you want to be conservative, add 100 or 200 calories more.

Finally, anyone who tells you that you can reach your physique goals without counting calories and setting macro nutrient targets is a fucking idiot.

I do. I purchased the new Fitbit not too long ago, and it has made a huge difference with awareness (it's helped me kicked the college habit of not stopping after two beers or whiskys). I have also switched completely to cardio. I found that continuing my college football lifts left me with too big of an appetite for my calorie output. This probably isn't true for every financier though, but doing all of this has given me a couple more abs.

Yes of course, because health is wealth.