this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
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me_irl
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How so? It's only an abstraction, but it's the simplest way to estimate how much you shoved in your face.
is there an open source app of calorie counting?
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.waist.line/
I imagine, but I don't know. Sorry.
It's not accurate enough to be useful. You know the difference between a snickers bar and a cucumber. One is very energy dense, one is not. Putting specific numbers on it adds no value when those numbers are just guesses.
What makes you think they're just guesses?
And if it isn't accurate enough to be useful, why does counting calories and running a caloric deficit help you lose weight? Personal experience says you're wrong on that one.
Personal experience is wildly unscientific.
If attempting to count calories leads to eating less, and that leads to weight loss, bravo, you did a thing. But you could accomplish the same thing just by going to bed a little bit hungry most nights.
Do you know how they figured out how much energy is in food? The burned it. Literally burned, with fire. You may be surprised to learn that's not what our bodies do.
If you're eating processed food from a factory, the estimate of energy contained in the food (note, this is not what you'll absorb from the food) may be fairly accurate, but if you ever cook at home, then you're just adding a wild guess on top of an educated guess. You may as well just throw some darts at some numbers and save yourself some time.
Counting calories to eat less likely means going to bed hungry. And that's easier to do if you're attempting to keep under a certain threshold. Which counting calories is a close enough approximation to get the job done.
And your assertion that it's impossible to count calories when cooking at home is just ignorant at best. It's not that hard to put the approximate calorie count in for all the ingredients, and the total calorie count by the servings you made. I and multiple people I know, and many more I don't but have followed online) have used this kind of method to lose weight.
No matter your opinion on the matter, counting calories is actually accurate enough to help you lose weight. it doesn't need to be a perfect tool to live in your toolbox.