A week ago, I signed up for MyFitnessPal and started counting calories. A first for me. Until then I had never counted calories as it always seemed too much work to me. I did Weight Watchers for the longest time and found it a lot easier to keep track of points.

Even though it’s only been a week, I want to share my experience with both. Counting points is a lot easier. It simplifies nutrition facts into a (usually) single-digit number so you quickly memorize how many points a specific food has.

However, counting calories is a lot more accurate. On Weight Watchers, at least in Germany, fruit and veggies have always been free (meaning as far back as I know the program which is 2005). I probably ate 4-5 servings of fruit every day. Sometimes more. I love fruit so much and I reckon out of all the snacking you can do, it probably is one of the best kinds.

But fruit do have calories, and they do have sugar. When counting calories, nothing is really free. Which in turn is a little impractical, because you literally have to weigh every single thing you eat. Doing Weight Watchers, I would never weigh fruit or veggies as they were all free anyway. Nor would I usually weigh rice, pasta or lean meat (for filling foods that you could eat any size portion of until you were full for a set amount of points). That greatly simplified cooking, because weighing everything takes time, and is really inconvenient when you are not eating or cooking at home.

For the longest time, that kept me from wanting to count calories. I was shying away from all the extra effort, looking at Weight Watchers as an easier way of doing basically the exact same thing. I suppose you could simply say I was too lazy.

Despite all this, I find myself preferring to count calories. So far, the extra effort has been worth it. And it turns out that Weight Watchers is not basically the exact same thing. It simplifies nutritional facts to a point where it allows you to make poor choices. In the past week I have become much more knowledgeable about the nutrition facts of food and I find myself making much better choices.

I am making an effort to incorporate more veggies into my diet and cut down on fruit, simply because veggies have a lot fewer calories and less sugar. I realize that 80g of (uncooked) pasta really is enough to fill me up, I do not need to be eating 100g or even 125g (like I used to). I eat fewer carbs because MyFitnessPal also tracks my carbs for me and I try not to go over. Y’all, I love carbs. But with my insulin resistance, I have to limit my intake of refined carbs so I try to do that. Most of the carbs I eat now are complex carbs (found in vegetables, whole grain and oatmeal). I found out that I eat a lot of fiber and that is a good thing. I also found out that my diet is very low-fat on most days, unless I make an effort to snack on some walnuts in the afternoon or evening.

I try to balance my meals in terms of carbs and protein because if I don’t, MyFitnessPal tells me so (and all my friends on MFP as well). I never knew just how few calories there are in a salad. Or how many there are in tortillas and cheese (a lesson I learned the hard way last night).

I am simply a lot more aware of the nutritional value of food. I eat better lunches – because if I want to know how many calories it is, I have to prepare it before work (either the night before or the morning) so I spend more time thinking about what I eat. I plan meals ahead of time. I take time to prepare them. And that in turn results in better choices and more balanced meals.

I still love my treats. I think it’s important to add a little chocolate here, some ice-cream or a cookie there. I am not one of those dieters who think that losing weight means depriving yourself of everything that is not ideal in terms of nutritional value. I do believe that everyone deserves a cookie. Snacking in moderation is not going to keep you from losing weight and it will keep you a lot happier because you are not denying your body anything.

And last but not least, the community on MyFitnessPal keeps me accountable. That is something that was almost non-existent with Weight Watchers Online and it makes such a difference. Not only does it make me think twice about shoving a cookie into my mouth when I have to put it in my public food diary afterward, I also get a lot of positive reinforcement which keeps me motivated.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like Weight Watchers and think their plan works well, but for me, counting calories seems a better fit right now.

What is your preferred method of losing weight? If you have experience with both Weight Watchers and counting calories, which did/do you prefer?