For example, I probably get through 1000-1200 calories whilst at work. I usually bring in the food I will be eating at work from home. However, sometimes I forget to take my packed lunch from the fridge on the way out and have to instead improvise by popping into the supermarket near my work. If I was counting the calories for every meal at work, then everytime I forgot my lunch it would be extremely frustrating to find some substitute meals with the exact same calories.

Using your finance example, counting calories is good to find the ‘calorie leak’ and identify where all those extra calories are coming in at the beginning. However, once you have found and addressed the leak you start to develop an understanding of the general amount of calories in foods and the general amounts you should be eating with each meal. Once you get to this stage counting calories is no longer necessary.

My opinion is that any diet plan which enforces strict calorie counting throughout will not be successful in the long term. Apart from what I have said above, placing too much emphasis on counting calories also means that no distinction is made between healthy calories and unhealthy calories. Whilst I am not completely against calorie counting I don’t think it should be used constantly throughout a diet plan.

It is like personal finance. When you are not sure where your money is going, the common advice is to start writing down everything you buy in order to find out where is the money leak.

With eating, logging your calories, at least for the first two weeks, will give you a better understanding on where you are blowing your calorie intake.

I find that once I start to have eating amnesia again, returning to calorie counting will usually snap me out of it after 2-3 days.