February 4 Sign In
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RangerRickL
Posts: 8,469 Member
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
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Replies
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The food industry in the USA is intentionally deceptive. One of the most important things you can do to protect yourself is to take the time to read & understand food labels.
Pay very close attention to the serving size that is used to explain calories per serving. Your serving must be measured so that you can determine how many food-label-servings you are about to eat.
In addition, do not assume that caloric content is the same from one brand of food compared to another.
Just today, one brand of French vanilla ice cream has 150 calories per 1/2 cup. Another brand of ice cream has 280 calories per 1/2 cup.
Beware false advertising and making false assumptions!
What advice can you share in about food and calories?7 -
I find numerous errors in the MFP food database and always compare even the MFP green checked verified database items with the nutrition label on the product I am actually using. I double-check even green checked items in the database for the very simple reason that food manufacturers are known to alter their ingredients over time resulting in an asserted "new and improved" product, thereby changing nutritional value or caloric content of what may have been a previously entered database item. So, an entry for a green checked verified database item in MFP may actually be incorrect. MFP does provide for editing of database items when errors are found, but it would be nice if MFP would be proactive and weed out erroneous entries in their database. For further confirmation, if needed, I often refer to the USDA website https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list and if all else fails, I create my own food item in the MFP "My Foods" section.
Care must be exercised when entering recipes in MFP, as well, to avoid erroneous calorie counts. In fact, MFP's RECIPES should, more appropriately, be renamed RECIPE INGREDIENTS as the program does not allow for recipe instructions. MFP could use some improvement in this area so recipes are complete with instructions. Often when entering ingredients for a recipe, the matched ingredients are not consistent with the actual ingredients I am using, and the program incorrectly matches to another ingredient with differing nutrition label values, caloric content, and/or units of measure. This can result in significant errors if one is attempting to track, accurately.
Needing to check/doublecheck nutrition facts/labels/recipes for all foods consumed can be very frustrating and time-consuming but is necessary for accurate tracking of caloric and nutritional values.
Thank you @RangerRickL for suggesting this topic for discussion. There is lots of room for discrepancy where one must exercise due diligence.10 -
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes – I did a C25K walk/run this morning. I also walked to the shops in my lunch break and did some hard core dress shopping for an upcoming wedding in Bali! (that counts right?!?)
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes
It's a good point about food labels. I think because I've dieted for many years, I have learnt a lot about weighing out and checking in on portion sizes & brands. My mother thinks I'm a little crazy when I did out the fresh soup container out of the rubbish to scan it to check it! Lol
When you do not live in the USA also I'm really careful not to pick products from another country (usually the USA), I always try for a local brand if I can. 8 -
Date: February 4
Exercised?: Yes - 30 minute Leslie Sansone YouTube workout. I'm really loving these at the moment, especially as it's a bit too warm outside most days!
Calories?: Yes - nicely under.
Tracked?: Yes - all tracked.
Reading labels is second nature to me now. I've been checking ingredients for as long as i can remember (due to allergies and dietary requirements) and this gives me a pretty good idea on how healthy something is. As for portions, i always weigh my food at home and count calories based on how many grams it is, rather than the given portion size on the packet. Sometimes it works out i have one portion, sometimes two, sometimes half... i just go with whatever fits in my calorie budget.
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February 4
Exercised?: Yes. (5km in 40 mins hills)
Calories?: Yes
Tracked?: Yes
Another late walk after dinner. Could not keep my normal pace. I blame back stiffness. At least the walking helps loosen it up a bit.
Hopefully a good nights sleep will help.
@RangerRickL. Calories and food labelling is both a can or worms and a rabbit hole.
A food calorie is an estimate of how much energy it will give you. Some get more, some get less from food depends on how the body process it. Fats, Proteins, Carbs with fibre and Carbs without fibre are all processed differently. The calories from 10g of protein and 10g of carbohydrate are mathematically the same, but how they processed is remarkably different.
There are over 50 different labels for sugar (fructose, sucrose, evaporated cane juice, syrup, treacle, etc..). Sugar is the ultimate carbohydrate, instant energy, no fibre to slow it down. Sugar also does not fill you up at all. They are in effect "empty" calories.
Two similar products from different manufacturers can have very different ingredients, hence different macros and different calorie counts (and even serving sizes).
Nutrition labelling is for of advertising (as well as information). A lot of people shop by what's on the nutrition label. If you want to make your product look better for calories, reduce the serving size. The real clue is the relative percentages of "sugar", "protein" and "fat".
US food labelling, fibre is in included in total carbohydrates. The problem is that the body cannot digest fibre and you get no usable calories from it. If calories are worked out from formula (4 calories per gram of carbohydrate, 4 calories per gram of protein, 9 calories per gram of fat), then the real calorie count of high fibre food it overstated and high sugar food understated.
My best advice is, when starting check everything, weigh, track and find what works for you. Once you have a routine that works for you, stick to it and you can start to ease off on the checking and weighing everything (also your skills at estimation get MUCH better). If you find you are starting to slip, go back to checking and weighing.
(soap box away).10 -
Calories ... VERY GOOD points in the posts above.
I do read labels, measure, etc. I also assume in those instances when I can't be certain, (e.g., restaurant nutrition) that I am probably eating more than stated. Similarly, I assume that actual exercise calories are probably less than stated. My solution has been to stay 300-400 calories under (allowed + exercise). This seems to have been effective for me.7 -
Good points, everyone. I've read ingredient and nutrition labels for years, and sometimes, they're just so silly. Serving sizes that are 1/2 or less of something that is clearly pre-packaged as one whole thing to be eaten really annoys me. Like @jan110144, I assume that I eat more and exercise less than any estimate I enter in MFP (and like @craigo3154 says, even if we eliminate all user error, it's still only an estimate of how it will work for my body), and I keep a buffer deficit for the same reason. I always double-check entries found in the database, especially as a Canadian; a lot of the same brands have different nutritional data for Canadian versus American versions.
Finding what works for me has been the most important part of this journey. No matter what the labels say (or what I'm estimating for the items without labels), I check my progress (scale and inches) to make sure that I'm headed in the right direction.7 -
February 4, 2019
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes7 -
Yes x3:
3 mile Leslie Sansone walk and playing in the the snow in 60 degree weather 🙂
8 -
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes7 -
Exercise: 1h30 sup on lake / some rehab
Calories: yes
Tracked: yes7 -
3 x Yes
Read your food labels
7 -
Exercise: YES, 30 minutes running; took a break from running last week so it was good to get back to it.
Calories: YES
Tracked: YES7 -
Party Person
February 4
Exercised?: Yes. (20 mins exercise bike)
Calories?: Yes
Tracked?: Yes
Finding it hard to eat back exercise calories - but I guess that will make up for the blow out at my friends birthday party on Saturday lol8 -
Yes the labelling is very good here in uk , I do weigh everything, has become such a habit now! and guesstimate on the rare occasions when eating out
Exercise yes
Tracking yes
Calories yes6 -
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes5 -
Exercise? Yes, 20 minutes of brisk walking and 35 minute run
Calories? Yes
Tracked? Yes4 -
Exercise: 5 mins strength and oodles of walking
Under Calories? Yes. By a long way
Tracked: Yes
Re Calories: I am rather cynical, and always assume that calories in food are under and that exercise Calories are over-estimated. Also, I weigh my food and beverages, use USDA figures when I can, and cook most of my food from fresh ingredients. When in doubt I ere on the side of higher CI and lower CO. And I only eat back a small amount o fry exercise calories. It seems to work for me.6 -
Yes x 3 today!
Funny you should be showing and talking about food labels today. I've just decided yesterday that I'm going to be extra aware of my sodium intake. The last three days my sodium has been 2542, 2884, and 2237 mgs. I'm thinking it could be why I'm losing so incredibly slowly. I know for a fact on days when my sodium is high I will most likely gain. So, tomorrow I will be reading lots of labels as I grocery shop.4 -
2/4
Exercise? Yes, 80 minutes outside walk in the sunshine today with temp at 61 degrees. Some different than a week ago when it was below zero with wind chills of -24 degrees. Such a beautiful change...followed our walk (DH accompanied me) with washing and drying the car. Good to get the road salt off it.
Calories? Under
Tracked? Yes5
