Why can't I stop myself from checking the number of calories?

It seems like you may be a bit cautious when it comes to "How many calories" you consume. When we start doing things, and continue to do them, it becomes a habit something we do religiously. Being honest with yourself, and asking yourself why you do it, is a good step to change. Do you do it because you are concerned about your weight? If the answer is yes, try and make small changed to help you out of this habit, there's nothing wrong with checking calories, but it starts to become a worry when you say you "Can't stop" doing it. See if you can go a day without checking calories, ask yourself how you feel by the end of the day, see if there are feelings of guilt, sometimes reflecting can help us understand why we do things.

I think when you get into the habit it's hard to break. Try and focus on healthy meal options - working towards getting loads of veg, fruit and other nutrients into your diet - over counting calories. Just stop looking for the numbers cause they don't really mean that much.

Because your too worried about your weight. You don't trust that you are perfect the way you are. You pay WAY too much attention to what other people think. If you want to be healthy, then be healthy. counting calories isn't how to be healthy. Focusing on unprocessed foods is a start. However honestly our life is mostly dictated by our mind and emotions. I know I'm overweight due to my fear based thinking, it manifests physically. The more I heal inside, the more I lose weight. Stressing wont make you lose weight, your just releasing negative chemicals and hormones into your body that way. If your not doing things out of love for yourself, your not doing it in any beneficial, lasting way.

Checking the number of calories is a behaviour of an eating disordered person and it becomes a habit as part of the eating disorder. Checking the amount of calories was so that you could know how much you had to burn after you ate it, correct? This means that you were planning on burning the calories so just continue to eat whatever you want, and gain whatever you need and just try to remember that you need to be healthy, and there are so many healthy people out there that do not check the calories so it is not necessary.

That is a type of OCD and its ok if it does effect your mind in anyway. It must not effect your health as well. If it does please see someone for help.

Because your ED wants you too. Try to cover up the nutrition labels on products and ignore the ED telling you otherwise. Remember that everything is healthy in moderation.

You check calories because you see it as the most important thing to being healthy. Learning about the human body could be truly life changing. There are channels on youtube that actually make it fun and exciting! Learning can be so fulfilling! I'm rooting for you!

I assume you are very strict about your weight, meaning you are afraid or don't want to gain any weight at all.

Good question! I've done this for a good 30 years now and have unfortunately memorized the calories in a lot of items....which means I don't even need to check the darn things and I already know! I still remember how many calories there are in a box of "Smarties". (A chocolate candy....) I hope you can find a suitable solution to coping with this before you find it's become like myself. After a while, when I look at an item of food I see the food like a number and not for it's nutritional content or ingredients. It's a horrible curse... :(

Weight loss/gain can be, and often is an overwhelming journey. I know that I check calories as a way to feel in control of my eating habits and use it as a way to motivate myself to do better. However, I found this sort of mindset was really harmful to my mental and emotional well-being, and negatively impacted my eating habits. Using calorie counting as a measure for success denied me the opportunity to celebrate the good choices I made for my body because I was too focused on the "bad choices" I made. To me food is more than fuel, it is compassion and effort that you can give to others and yourself. Reducing something I loved to numbers, while it felt good initially because I felt it gave me some control, took away something I loved. What I found more helpful than calorie counting was learning about that macro-content of my food, and how what I was eating could help me.