Even if you're fat, is calorie counting healthy?

Trigger warning:  Weight and calories

Hello world, here's another controversial post for you!  Hear me out though.

I know, I used the word 'fat' in the subject line.  That was to get your attention.  Also because it's the excuse used.

"Oh I know counting calories isn't healthy for you because you have an eating disorder, but I'm fat, so it's okay."

I beg to differ.  Two days ago, Michelle Obama (for whom I normally have great respect) unveiled the FDA's newest updates to the ubiquitous nutrition label, as described here (trigger warning for calories).  I'm seriously disturbed.  The one line that is the most highly triggering for millions of people, is now practically doubled in size.  I've trained myself to avoid looking at nutrition labels like the plague, because when I do, my mind spirals.  And I know others.

But is triggering the disordered really the main problem?  No, it isn't.  I recognize that even though there are a lot of us who have battled eating disorders past and present, we're still a minority.  We are still not the 'typical' population at large.  (Oh but there's an interesting discussion right there - minority visibility for the eating disordered!)

Still, as I've seen, even for those with significant weight to lose in order to be healthy, counting the numbers of stuff entering your body is not the healthiest way to get healthy.  Not by far.  Perhaps the concept of just eating healthy is a distant memory for many, but it a person gently reduces the processed foods and sugars they are consuming, weight comes off.  Calories in, calories out, is a horrible way to live.  So quickly it becomes an obsession, as I've seen in the daily lives of my fitbit-ing friends.

Get a dog and walk it.  Eat more salad.  Do your own baking.  Make treats a special occasion.  Live life fully, not enslaved to some step counter, bite counter, stair counter, life counter.  You are the only one with the job of living your life.  Don't let some machine buckled to your wrist or program of numbers destroy your spontaneity!

Besides - have you ever heard of diets turning into eating disorders?  Oh yes, it's far more common than you think.  I was a normal human with a normal relationship to food, and then I dieted.  And look at me now.  Years of recovery and fighting!

Your overweight friend might just be fighting that big, bold number on the new-and-improved nutrition label, and you don't even know it.  For goodness sake, buy big, bad, stickers, and cover up all that crap on your boxes.  Even better, don't buy boxed food.  Eat fresh.  Live active.  Buy local.

Just be responsible for your own life and don't let some government-issued label run your life.