To what length have you gone to count calories?

amusedmonkey · February 2017

I had a dream about my grandmother today. I remembered how every morning, a few women from the neighborhood would gather at my grandmother's and drink tea. I felt special because in addition to tea I got these biscotti-like cookies. She would arrange them in a plate for me, sprinkle some dried milk on top then pour the tea on top. They would soak up all the tea and become soft so I could eat them with a spoon.

I'm determined to buy them today, but they are only sold by weight in local bakeries. No labels or calories. Do I just log any Italian biscotti (that's the most similar item in terms of moisture level)? NOOOO! That would be too easy! I googled local recipes for making them, and most of them have similar ingredient ratios, so that should make things easier. Next, I created a recipe using one of the most representative recipes I found online. I then looked at the ratio of fat to carbs and protein. That's 18 grams of fat to roughly 100 grams of carbs+protein. Now, back to the database sifting through all the biscotti entries in grams until I found one that had a close enough fat to carb and protein ratio. I then used that to guess at the finished weight of my created recipe and divide the number of servings into 100 gram servings for easy logging. Of course knowing how calorie dense these are made me a little bit sad, but that's another story.

It felt like a mini victory and I did a small victory dance. I didn't need to go through all that, but it felt good to do. No wonder some people think we are pathologically obsessed.

What weird things have you done to count calories/manage intake/exercise...etc that make you deserving of that "you're crazy" reaction?

leanjogreen18 · February 2017

Heehee that's pretty funny.

I'm actually pretty lazy so I would have just picked something similar in the database.

If I had to name something odd I've done I guess it would be discreetly picking through a burrito trying to identify all the ingredients while at a friends house.

lynn_glenmont · February 2017

I calculate the area of pizzas when I buy them from places that don't post calories, and use entries for pizzas from chains that I've eaten from, matching as best I can for crust thickness and toppings. Some of the non-chain places make their pizzas in different diameters than the common sizes from the chain, and they cut they them in different numbers of slices than the chains, and one of my favorite places makes rectangular pizzas, instead of circular. So I end up having to calculate serving sizes like

(5 X 13)/ [.0833 X (3.14 X 64)] (yes, I ate the whole 5X13-inch rectangular pizza)

or

(4.5 squared) / (.125 X 49) (yes, I ate the whole 9" circular pizza -- at least when they're both round you can ignore pi)

But I think you definitely have me beat.

L1zardQueen · February 2017

Loved this. I am very lazy logger but you take the cake!

Anonymous_fiend · February 2017

How close was it to the generic biscotti? Might be too much effort for me lol

amusedmonkey · February 2017

I don't usually do this with every item, I often just log something similar and tend to pick entries that are on the higher end just to be safe. I just got curious for information purposes. Am I doing well logging the higher calorie items? These are like biscotti but VERY lightly sweetened (2 tbsp of sugar per 1kg of flour), so they must be a little bit different - I was hoping to justify logging a lower calorie entry. I had to know! Turns out the closest database entry was also the second highest in calories with only a few calories difference from the highest. It also turns out my "biscottis" have twice the protein. Yes, I will definitely continue picking the highest calorie entries when guessing in the future.

MelanieCN77 · February 2017

Early on in my logging, my husband bought me a tub of a noodle salad I like from the grocery store deli counter. It has chicken and mango and jicama and noodles and some cashews, carrots maybe. I love this salad and wanted to eat it so I took it apart and weighed all the components on my scale. I'd probably be able to make a good estimated guess now I'm accustomed to seeing how much things weigh.

zyxst · February 2017

Taking a food scale with me when I go out to eat, weighing each item of food as I eat it, and writing it down in a notebook.

Chef_Barbell · February 2017

Fishing packaging out of the trash bin because I forgot to scan it or log it. :laugh:

paperpudding · February 2017

Yes, me too.

Probably would of guessed the weight too.

But then I am on record as being a lazy logger

CooCooPuff · February 2017

This and digging through the menu and database for entries similar to what I want are the most that I've done.

Ill keep a picture of nutriton facts on my phone if it's something I haven't entered into my diary before.

2Luverly · February 2017

I did that last night. My husband cooked sausages but tossed out the tray it came in. I screeched and started digging through the trash bag. Thankfully it was just two items down in the bag and the UPC scanner code was clean. I scanned that baby and logged it in with a sigh of relief. My husband thinks I'm nuts.

I also wrote the grocery store chain last month where I purchased some tea. "Immunitea". The tea was a store brand without a nutritional label. I know normally counts/nutrition would be considered negligible if no label is present...But I scanned in the UPC and it came up with 4 Carbs or so per serving. (What?!). So I wrote "Metro" asking them if they could provide the information on it. The response I got back was...Thank you for your email. Unfortunately this information is not available. This product does not require a nutritional facts panel so the vendor would not test for nutritionals.

Yeah. Great.

Christine_72 · February 2017

Haha I'm glad I'm not the only one

Bchlvr64 · February 2017

I take pictures of my food, often in restaurants. When I get home, I use the picture to log my calories.

Lounmoun · February 2017

I took a container and my food scale with me in the car because I knew we would be getting a big thing of fries at a drive thru and splitting them among 3 people while we were on the road. I wanted my portion to be exactly right with what I had prelogged.
Nothing too crazy.

FatPorkyChop · February 2017

I actually don't count calories, it never worked for me... I m halfway through my weigth loss and what works for me is no alcohol and training 5 times a week.
I basically eat mostly healthy food that I enjoy as much as I need/want to and have a cheat meal once or twice a week. I rarely drink: 2/3 glasses every 3 weeks...
Thankfully it works

girlgroves · February 2017

Yes - I've done this before.

I've also risked taking my as-yet-unpaid-for pre-packaged salad outside the café to catch a wi-fi signal so that I could scan the barcode on it before I decided to buy it!

tinkerbellang83 · February 2017

I do this at work, alllll the time. Throw out a wrapper from a protein bar or something and back in I go.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld · February 2017

The amount of times I have done that is ridiculous!

I've emailed companies asking for their nutritional info if it isn't on the packaging and website.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld · February 2017

It works because you are eating less calories than you are burning.

StealthHealth · February 2017

Yep, done that.

Also, last night I made MrsStealthHealth eat half a round of toast because I only had cals for 1 and a half and I didn't wan't to throw the other half away.

BruinsGal_91 · February 2017

**waves to my fellow dumpster divers**

mamadon · February 2017

Yet another dumpster diver here! I don't know if this really counts but on Sunday I plan on bringing my bottle of Bolthouse Farms salad dressing to the restaurant with me.

rightoncommander · February 2017

OK, I think we've all fished packaging out of the bin to scan it. But I don't go to great lengths to measure restaurant food, meals my wife made before I got home etc. After all, even if I get the ingredients exactly right, I don't know what it weighs. I'm usually pretty good at estimating these things, if the scales are any judge. Which they are.

Actually, I've been a pretty lazy logger for the last few weeks, and it has done my weight loss no harm. I don't expect that streak to last, though. I'll get strict when I stall again.

kimmicklus · February 2017

I use to be fanatic about counting calories. Until I realized I was I was actually depleting my body of nutrients in favor of low calorie foods. I now use a container system and I eat incredibly nutrient dense foods now. I am losing and toning and haven't felt this energized in years. Even going through menopause. Friends call me the Energizer Bunny. I haven't been really sick since I started giving my body the proper nutrition either. It is about quality not quantity.

rightoncommander · February 2017

Leaving aside the perplexing question of why anyone would be on MyFitnessPal who doesn't count calories,
different strategies for losing weight are successful for different people. Not all of them include logging calories, though of course all of them do produce a sustainable calorie deficit.

kgirlhart · February 2017

I've done that many times.

One time my mother in law sent some cake home with my son. I had the recipe for it, but it was made in an extra large cake pan so I called her and asked her how many pieces she cut the cake into. It was when I first started calorie counting and I think she thought I was a little crazy. But I was able to enter it into the recipe builder and know when I eat that cake I have a pretty reasonable estimate for the calories.

newheavensearth · February 2017

I've weighed cake at work. I've walked around with a purse full of food wrappers when my phone died and couldn't scan things. Also took items off of store shelves, walked around until I got a signal to scan it, and walked around with multiple items to find the lower calorie bargain. Grocery shopping is an ordeal. Many a security guard is convinced I'm casing their stores.

leajas1 · February 2017

I've taken food out of the trash to eat it. I didn't log that food.

I'm known to bring my own food over to a friend's house for a gathering. I'll also bring some food into restaurants (for example, if I know I"m going to have chili, I'll bring my own weighed out Greek yogurt to put on top). I don't think any of that is too crazy, though.

murph155 · February 2017

I've used the postage scale at work to weigh my food, either because I forgot to do it when I packed my lunch, or it's something I bought out. And since there's no tare function on a postage scale (!), I've also weighed the paper plate or bowl I'm using first so I know how much to subtract for it.

Oh, and dumpster dived!

cross2bear · February 2017

Oh gosh its good to know I am not the only one who fishes packaging out of the trash to check the bar code, or that uses the postage meter at work to weigh fruit if I forgot to do so at home! Humans are such adaptable creatures!!

To what length have you gone to count calories?

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