How do you avoid obsession (calorie counting)?

tigersgrowl1093
tigersgrowl1093 Posts: 45 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
When I make my own meals, I'm able to measure everything out with my food scale and enter the information into MFP accordingly. When I eat what others cook, however, I get frustrated that I can't make a better estimate.

For example, tomorrow I'm going to my Dad's for some homemade sweet and sour chicken. He hand breads and fries chicken breast chunks, and then uses a bottled sauce. He thinks it's silly when I weigh foods, and hates when I ask for specifics (how much of this did you put in, etc.). I'm stressing over the chicken, but I know it's really NOT that big of a deal, especially since everything entered into MFP is an estimate anyway. I don't want to overestimate and be hungry, but I don't want to underestimate and effect my losses. But, it's also only one meal, and one meal won't destroy the progress I've made.

How do you keep from obsessing over things that are out of your control?

Replies

  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    I trim off the breading and push off the sauce.
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    DebSozo wrote: »
    I trim off the breading and push off the sauce.


    Really, that might be a little too harsh. If I had a guest over for something homemade and they scraped all the goodness off, it would hurt my feelings.

    Op, it's just one meal out of thousands you will eat in your lifetime, it will hardly make a dent. It's your dad, I'm sure he loves you and wants to share a meal with his daughter. Enjoy it!!

    Lol. I love the breading. I wouldn't do that at a friend's house. But I would with my dad.
  • ElizabethOakes2
    ElizabethOakes2 Posts: 1,038 Member
    Take a good guess, and then just enjoy the good food and the quality time with your family. :)
    I don't know how it works in your family, but with my friends and family, I usually show up for dinner bearing a nice healthy side, like a huge salad or my infamous ginger broccoli. That way there's something I can 'top up on' after eating my smaller portion, and everyone appreciates having a little extra veg. Except my nephew who believes broccoli is poisonous. :)
    If you find yourself becoming a little too obsessive about counting calories, try forcing yourself to just enter estimate numbers for everything for a week or so, and see how you do with the weight loss.
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
    It wuld be a guestimate meal. The bottled sauce is easy in a way - that can be found in the database and you know roughtly what portion of that is on your plate. Chicken - fried is I think in the USDA database and otherise I'd use the KFC entry. Chickens sold here generally weigh 1-1.5 Kg with bone in. So I know which part I got and I know what the it is in proportion to a whole chicken say 1/4 well that is what I then guess.
    As long as this only happens occasionally it works for me.
    Another way to deal with it is just to say I can't guess, I am over and log it at 1500 cal. I sometimes do that as well.
    And I prelog it at the high end so that whatever happens I do not get a sort of guilt shame feeling after I have eaten it, after all I had already decided on it.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,786 Member
    edited June 2016
    1. I look up the recipe online and see if I can find something that comes close.

    2. I exercise before I enter into this sort of situation. Go for a 2 hour bicycle ride or decent jog or long walk or something before you go over to your Dad's. Underestimate the exercise -- select a slow speed or "light" workout or shorter time or whatever so the calorie count on the exercise is a little lower than what it actually may have been.

    3. Eat a bit lighter prior to going, earlier in the day, like for lunch ... have a heaping bowl of veggies or a salad instead of something higher in calories.


    I'm eating at a takeaway place this evening, and so I had a lower calorie lunch and I'm skipping my usual after-work snacks. My husband and I may also go for a bit of a walk before or after.
  • Rosefern1
    Rosefern1 Posts: 42 Member
    Have a small snack and fill up on water before you go so that you don't overindulge on your dinner. But enjoy it!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I'd overestimate too (which yeah, often means I end up hungry later, which sucks, lol).

    But yeah, focus on low calorie, filling foods for the rest of the day.
  • ashliedelgado
    ashliedelgado Posts: 814 Member
    All my suggestions were said - make room for it in your day with a lighter breakfast and lunch, do some extra activity, and just guess. I'll look something up and usually go with the highest version I can find from an establishment, because I'm pretty sure that is going to be well over whatever I ate was. And remember, it's one meal! You've been at a deficit all week, okay so maybe you have this one day where you go way over because of your dads delicious food, and you lose 1/2 pound this week instead of 1.
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,197 Member
    I don't log at all when I am eating at a friend's house or at a restaurant, unless I find the nutritional information on line. I make notes in the Comment section of my diary listing what I ate as clearly as possible and let it go.

    I usually don't eat my exercise calories during the week so I have extra room for the weekend or special occasions so going over doesn't bother me at all. I like to clarify that I am in maintenance so things are a little bit different with me.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    85Cardinals wrote: »
    Ya gotta chillax when you're out in public. Be cool like James Bond baby, blend in. Save the diet craziness for behind closed doors.

    Words to live by <3
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    What I do is work out like a maniac afterwards. I *do* obsess. My TDEE is hella low because short/old/female/prediabetic. One slip and..... magic! fast weight gain!
  • willburpeeforcookie
    willburpeeforcookie Posts: 117 Member
    I would also plan a killer workout for that day just to be safe!
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
    One meal out of the rest of your life? Do you really think that will make a difference?
  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
    I estimate it. Log it and go on. :)
  • endlessfall16
    endlessfall16 Posts: 932 Member
    Counting will do that to you. :) I started to see every food as number. It affected my mood, my enjoyment with meals.

    My way of dealing with this problem was I stopped counting. I developed a different approach.

    I don't know if you could stop counting altogether. "Not for everyone" thing!!! I don't know if you could reduce this obsession while continue counting, but keep in mind a fact that the body can function perfectly well with going over or under by a few hundred calories each day. Perhaps find a way to relax your counting a little and just go for a ball park number (blasphemy to a calorie counting community? lol), and weigh yourself once a week? That way you don't have to be obsessed over every little sauce.
  • LINIA
    LINIA Posts: 1,161 Member
    DebSozo wrote: »
    I trim off the breading and push off the sauce.

    Same Here, i decide what goes into my mouth...not the cook.

    Not that i obsess, can't because my technique is a good guess and that's close enough.

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