impossible for me to accurately count calories :(

shw112

hello everyone

i am newish here and i need some advice on the whole calorie counting thing. i am 18, so in my last year at school, so i am still eating school lunches. i can't bring my own lunch, because my parents are paying for the school ones (and at my school you have to pay for lunches even if you dont want to- its a stupid rule i know). so in our sixth form centre thing we have a bunch of options- i obviously stay away from the calorific ones like sandwhiches, toasties chips etc and go for the salad bar- but i just have no idea how many calories are in the food? what i usually eat is a ladle full of whatever soup they have that day, a bowl of tomato cucumber and onion salad and a small piece of bagette, sometimes tuna if its there. i estimate that thats around 400 calories- but i dont know what kind of soup it is, what kind of dressing is on the salad and obviously i cant weigh my food at school. i am using mfp to find what i think might be equivalents to what im eating, but obviously i cant be sure and im paranoid that im drastically underestimating how many calories im consuming.

at home i kinda have the same problem- obviously i still live with my parents so its difficult for me to completely control everything i eat. i try and get out of family meals and buy packet soups, low calorie ready meals etc but understandably this annoys my parents and i feel bad about it. i dont want to ask them to weigh out/ work out how many calories are in the food they make beacsue i am kinda embarrassed to say im trying to lose weight.

anyway, sorry about the lengthy post- does anyone have any advice?

Arliah

Welcome to the community!

If you are only 18, do you HAVE to lose weight? If so, then a doctor should be involved anyway (if you are overweight or obese), and you can work with your parents.

Also, don't try get out of family meals. They are so important, especially these days. Don't refuse home-cooked stuff for processed crap like soups etc. Be happy that your mom/dad actually cook. That's not something a lot of kids/teenagers experience these days.

lbride

I do think that you are underestimating the number of calories in that meal, but perhaps you can consider just eating healthy / smaller portions at the school meal, and count calories the rest of the day (I do that, count all day, eat a reasonable dinner).

Some hints - Does the salad come with dressing on it? can you get it on the side? If so, get it on the side and then you can estimate 1 tablespoon of dressing or skip dressing.

Soups are hard to determine calories when you don't make them yourself. In general, the clearer the broth, the fewer the calories, so you may want to stay away from the creamier soups while you are trying to lose weight if you are that concerned. What other options do you have? Can you get something with protein instead of the soup? Sandwiches can be lower in cal (if you have any control over how they are made) and more protein than the soup./ salad. there grilled chicken sandwich? You could eat that with no mayo - that's fairly easy to estimate for calories.

Either way, as long as you are eating a reasonable portion during lunch, which it seems that you are, I wouldn't be too concerned about the fact that you cannot count the lunch calories.

Th3Ph03n1x

As far as school goes the best suggestion I can come up with is leave a couple hundred calories uneaten to hopefully make up for any discrepancy.

At home is it possibly for you to help your mom cook and you weigh the food? Or even if you can get the recipes from her and enter them into the recipe calculator it could help you figure out the calories.

Also maybe set your goal for 1 1/2 lbs a week that way you have a little wiggle room for calories but you aren't depriving yourself too much if you leave some of your allotment uneaten.

Do your parents know what you are trying to do? I would think they'd do anything within reason to help you if they did but I'm thinking from my perspective.

jemhh

Learn what serving sizes look like. Ask what kind of dressing is on the salad. Ask what kind of soup is being served. You sound very passive. Don't let that stand in the way of taking care of yourself.

WalkingAlong

There are other methods besides calorie counting. But if you prefer calorie counting, you can estimate. You don't have to be precise to lose weight. Just eat less than you ate to gain the weight and you'll lose. But I agree that a good first step is learning to identify what your soup and dressing is.

I'm assuming here you really do have 50 lbs. to lose. If you need to hide your goal from your folks, that might be a signal you don't really need to lose weight.

I bet your folks would love it if you took an interest in helping with the cooking. If you do that, you can learn to create low cal meals and enter them in the recipe builder. Doing that would also help you estimate those school lunches.

RodaRose

shw112 wrote: »

hello everyone

i i try and get out of family meals and buy packet soups, low calorie ready meals etc but understandably this annoys my parents and i feel bad about it. i dont want to ask them to weigh out/ work out how many calories are in the food they make beacsue i am kinda embarrassed to say im trying to lose weight.

anyway, sorry about the lengthy post- does anyone have any advice?

Are your parents cooking actual food?
Stop eating the packets and ready meals.
Ask your mom to include you in the meal planning, shopping, and preparing so that you have some input into the meals, and know how many calories you are eating.
The school can (has to) provide you with all the calories for every meal. Ask.

paperpudding

My advice would be to use one of those charts as provided above to help with ideas of serving sizes and then to estimate according to similar things in data base - eg if you have one ladle of pumpkin soup at school, find an equivalent in data base and put that many calories per ladle.

It won't be accurate so leave small leeway at end of day, say, aim for 100 under your goal rather than your actual goal to start.

Do this, logging everything by estimate or weighing where possible, for 1 month.
At the end of the month, re assess - if you have lost expected amount of weight, continue on. If not, adjust accordingly.
For example if you have lost only really tiny amount instead of the expected 4 1b ( just using 1lb/week expectation as example) then reduce your Intake further,perhaps by aiming for 250 under goal instead of 100. Or something like that

NJGamerChick

Another reason to take interest in preparing dinner is that it's just good to know how to feed yourself right and it's a nice bonding moment between you and your parents. I'm in my 30s and still love cooking with my mom.

SergeantSausage

(1) Eat. Whatever amounts of whatever.
(2) Observe weight changes. If gaining weight, reduce amounts. Goto 1
(3) else, continue eating same amount. Goto 1

We call it "trial and error".

Sometimes it's all we've got.

scrapbookingtm

go online and see if there is info for your state/school districts for school lunch program and nutrition. There is for ours and there is a section that shares recipes that they use. Good luck.

ajff

While you cannot control the menus, you can control the portion size. PLUS, if you do keep track of the calories (even with estimates), you'll be in a better position in a few months when you are on your own!

Remember, that if you have a more calorie-dense meal, you can exercise to use up some of those calories!

Good luck!

talimunchkin

I used to live with my parents and was trying to lose weight. I kept a scale in the kitchen so I could weigh food on my plate. I asked a lot about how my mum cooked the meal (so I also learnt how to cook some lovely homemade recipes). I asked questions about the ingredients. I'd save the packaging she tossed out so I could work out how much of an ingredient went in. I cooked more of the meals. I went with her to do the shopping. I think with this scenario, engage as much as you can, do your homework on the food, ask lots of questions and take over some of the responsibilities.

Outside of the home, your school meal is trickier. Ask them to put the salad dressing on the side (and maybe make your own to take with you?) one day, take the baguette home with you instead of eating it and weigh it up? Soup - it's hard because you can't tell what's in it. Ask if there is cream/milk - they have to tell you because of allergies right? Avoid those and bulk up on salad and a bit more of the baguette.

Hope some of that helps.

Sued0nim

SergeantSausage wrote: »

(1) Eat. Whatever amounts of whatever.
(2) Observe weight changes. If gaining weight, reduce amounts. Goto 1
(3) else, continue eating same amount. Goto 1

We call it "trial and error".

Sometimes it's all we've got.

This

Plus talk to your parents and cook alongside them

DeWoSa

+1 all the shop with your parents and make the food with them.

The information you learn about calories and portion sizes will carry you through the rest of your life.

shw112

thanks so much for all the replies all your advise has been really useful