Being aware of the things you eat is by far the easiest and most effective way to start your fitness journey.
I've been lurking into some fat loss subreddits and AI generated articles about weight loss these past couple days, we can call that research at this point (not) and I bestow upon you what I can absorb with the few brain cells that I have.
Counting calories is this idea that the outcome where we would lose or gain weight is based upon a number, calories. I'm too lazy to pull up a Wikipedia article to fully explain a calorie is. Essentially, all foods can be generalized by how much calories it has. Though when I say calories in this blog I mean kilocalories or Calories, I'm just lazy to type it correctly. Now your body has a minimum number of calories needed, you know to make sure your organs work, and you won't fizzle out and die. This minimum amount + some calories extra because you move your body becomes your baseline. (basal metabolic rate, actual term).
Go above this baseline, gain weight. Go below? lose weight. It's that simple really. Now the baseline moves around because your body tends to adjust and adapt to your lifestyle, but this simple idea actually breaks so much snake oil fitness methods out there.
Diet changes are unnecessary, you don't need to keto, paleo, raw, vegetarian, vegan, whatever bullshit you read over the internet. The trick is to simply eat less. Drop all the sweet snacks and the coke, eat a Filipino diet and I reckon you are already below your baseline. Now I won't go over macros (carbs, protein, fats) and the possible malnutrition you might contract doing this over a couple weeks, why? I have only a slight idea on what they are, and I don't think it's necessary to explain to prove a point.
So, I made an uneducated guess that my baseline caloric intake is around 2000, pretty average and maybe off by a few hundred. Now I've been portioning my meals to hit 1500 a day. And the tragic part of the blog starts right here.
A single trip to the nearest Jollibee is 1000 calories...... yeah..... what the fuck??? A coke + shortcake afternoon snack is 500 calories minimum..... (??????) And why is rice so calorie dense? and don't get me started on white bread holy shit. And forget about mayonnaise and peanut butter. A spoonful of peanut butter is 300 freaking calories.
I've checked fast food in the glorious Americas (they have calories listed on the menu items) and nothing goes below 900. Remember, I have a 1500 calorie budget.
AND FOR YOUR SAKE STOP ORDERING COFFEE DRINKS OR BOBA TEAS. Holy shit it will be like you ate a second lunch. For me to have that freaking cup I have to eat a freaking cockroach on the morning and skip lunch.
No wonder all of us are getting fat and obese, the common fun day of eating food can reach upwards of 3000 calories.... it's insane to me. How are we this oblivious of the food we eat? Are all of us collectively retarded? Have you seen the back of a pack of chips?? It's my entire breakfast budget! This is absolutely deranged and why is this not regulated.
Okay... understood. I basically have to remove all the fun to my food intake. I don't take myself as a masochist but sure I'll try self-suffering for a while. Honestly, it's not that hard to portion the day out if you just eat some rice + whatever protein my mom cooked.