Learn Italian: Anche mangiando senza contare le calorie, non ingrassano. - Even eating without counting calories, they do not gain weight.

Yes, you could! Anche mangiando is an "implicit" concessive clause, meaning it uses a gerund (mangiando) instead of a conjugated verb to express "even if" or "even though". You can only use this gerund structure when the subject doing the eating is the exact same as the subject of the main clause (in this case, "they"). If you wanted to use a normal, "explicit" clause, anche se mangiano means exactly the same thing.

Why is it senza contare (infinitive) rather than a gerund like senza contando for "without counting"?

In Italian, prepositions like senza (without), di (of), and per (for) are always followed by the infinitive form of the verb. Even though English uses the "-ing" form ("without counting"), Italian strictly uses the infinitive: senza contare.

Why do we need the article le before calorie when English just says "calories"?

Italian almost always requires definite articles (il, la, i, le) when talking about nouns in a broad, general sense. While English drops the article to say "without counting calories" in general, Italian keeps it: senza contare le calorie.

What is the root of the verb ingrassano?