Just because you don't need to count calories to maintain your weight doesn't mean it isn't a useful tool for many people.
The idea that the precise quantification of food that leads to poor diets/eating habits is rather obsurd given that most diets unfortuantely don't actually do that. Most diets are composed of ridiculous rules like "Don't eat any carbs!" or "Eat only cabbage!" Tracking what you are eating and not going over a calorie limit is one of the most reliable ways to lose weight if you actually do it. Most people, "dieters" included, have absolutely no clue how many calories they eat every day.
I guarantee that anyone who wants to lose weight can do so if they eat fewer calories than they use in a day. Losing weight is that simple. It's not necessarily easy, but it is extremely simple.
I didn't mean diets in the restrictive sense, but rather as a description of any type of food a person generally eats.
I agree completely that weight loss/control is about caloric spendature in relation to caloric intake. However in the US we have more labeling and discussion about calories than any other country that I'm aware of yet we remain an overweight nation with nearly 2/3 of our population being over weight, and 1/3 being obese. I don't feel as though further quantification on the consumer side is going to remedy the situation.
Many social situations and small restaurants/cafes exclude calories. And many calorie labels have awkward 'amount of servings' that make it hard to calculate for the average American to calculate actual calories. Someone who may have a daily muffin from some no-name cafe may think it's only 250 calories from their previous label experience and then are surprised to find out it's actually 700 calories for example.
Another example is a bottle of ice tea might say '4 servings per bottle' and say 30 calories/serving. Missing those small numbers is easy to do and I know of people thinking they're only consuming 30 calories vs. 120 calories.
The cheapest food is also very unhealthy, while in other countries it is opposite. That along with a car and sit in an office culture leads to part of the obesity epidemic today.
A magic automatic calorie counter would decrease the effort to diet significantly and would still be a great educational tool for many people.
I saw a demo awhile back of an app that would try to estimate calories based on pictures of food. It was wildly inaccurate. For people who are determined to make it work, counting calories requires an obsessive mindset that will weigh a handful of nuts before eating them.
This is one of the few use cases where Soylent ( the pseudo food ) may be superior. Because you can guarantee that you are eating x calories per day and only x calories per day.
The idea that the precise quantification of food that leads to poor diets/eating habits is rather obsurd given that most diets unfortuantely don't actually do that. Most diets are composed of ridiculous rules like "Don't eat any carbs!" or "Eat only cabbage!" Tracking what you are eating and not going over a calorie limit is one of the most reliable ways to lose weight if you actually do it. Most people, "dieters" included, have absolutely no clue how many calories they eat every day.
I guarantee that anyone who wants to lose weight can do so if they eat fewer calories than they use in a day. Losing weight is that simple. It's not necessarily easy, but it is extremely simple.