Calorie counting is harder than I thought

SalahKamell

Who else is having trouble counting calories in a precise order? My daily calorie goal is 2900 and I either go below it like 2500 or way higher than my goals up to 3700. Help. Xd

TavistockToad

try pre logging

tinkerbellang83

SalahKamell wrote: »

The thing is, I don't cook most of my foods. I buy it so its so hard for me to do right tracking

Perhaps start cooking?

tinkerbellang83

SalahKamell wrote: »

Perhaps start cooking?

I wish I could, can you suggest me any cooking channels to learn from? [/quote]

I've never used a cooking channel, but I imagine there are plenty around, perhaps just pick yourself up a basic recipe book and start there.

duygusarikaya

@SalahKamell try BBC Good Food, Jamie Oliver, Lean in 15 etc lots of ideas :-)

trbp72

Take each day on merit...your goal is 2900 calories...but if you only do 2500 calories one or more days a week don't sweat it...similarly if you have a loaded day and do 3700 calories...those "under goal" days have garnered you a buffer of sorts so it will balance out in the grand scheme of things...I mean as long as you keep an eye on not consuming 3700 calories that often through out the week you should be OK.

I mean I often come in under on calories daily and trying to achieve the correct macro-nutrient intake I find to be hardest of all (I have days where I acheive my protein goals excellently, but then others where I am way under!). But on the occasions where I do go over my calorie goal considerably (I watch WWE with a friend of mine one day of the month and that invariably is food and beer fuelled), as long as I am sticking to my exercise regime (I go to the gym 4-5 times a week for an hour or so) I don't feel any harm is done. I mean from my personal experience, my overall well-being has improved and weight loss is noticable after two and a half years of monitoring my eating habits using MyFitnessPal, so there's something going right somewhere...

I think as long as you are mindful of these things it's OK to go over every now and then...and if you're under then hey it might mean you can treat yourself to something a little extra or you can "bank" the calories for a day where you know you'll be going over...

As for pre-logging...that depends on how organised your eating habits are...personally though I do restrict myself to specific calories at breakfast and lunch, teatime (aka dinner) is harder because it is usually a case of finding something in the freezer (whether that be bought in goods or frozen homemade fare)...maybe I should be stricter at teatime, but my other half is the one doing the cooking so she has her own ideas...and we both hate restricting mealtimes to specific meals on specific days...that's just too much for me!

trbp72

SalahKamell wrote: »

That's the type of answer I was looking for, thank you very much for the details and your effort writing this. I think I understand the whole thing now, so I best look at my calorie goals from a weekly perspective rather than a daily goal, right? I read this somewhere before but I totally forgot about it. Thank you for the reminder hahaha

No worries, thank you for inspiring me to contribute to the forum after all this time! Yes looking at goals from a weekly perspective will help you understand what you are aiming for and how to deal with those "over" days...I mean if you're "under" your daily goal on a couple of days in the week and then one day you've gone a bit over...everything will average out...so its best not to worry about it...

As for cooking from scratch...batch cooking is helpful given that most recipes in books (or on TV shows) deal with cooking dishes for more than one person...so rather than messing about trying to work out the single portion quantities of the ingredients, cook the dish as instructed and then eat one portion whilst freezing the rest for future use...that then saves time on the day you're cooking because the portion you eat is dinner or lunch and the rest are just ready to heat up when you can't be bothered to cook from scratch because you don't have much time!

Of course you need the freezer space to do something like that...and that is something again I struggle with...because of all the bought in food (or frozen vegetables in my case from last years summer crop) that already takes up the freezer space! lol!

But even just making things like home-made burger patties using fresh/frozen mince and mixing in herbs/spices or a little bit of onion is a good building block for starting out down the home prepared road...it is a simple process as long as you have a pattie maker...which you can find online easily or if you have a decent sized cookie cutter that can be repurposed as a mould, you can set yourself up for a good number of burgers to go at. I mean I have recently prepared a variety of lamb, turkey, pork and beef burgers using fresh and frozen mince. It takes about 15-20 minutes to turn 500g of mince into 4 or 8 burgers (depending on if you want quarter pounders or smaller patties) once you've chosen the additions (though you could just make plain burgers with a little salt and pepper to add a spot of flavour), but they are now sitting in my freezer waiting to be eaten as and when required.

hiethg

Hey We are the same the thing we found helped is to do a bit of extra Cardio if we went over also this helped myself and Big Al lose 14 lbs in 30 days so we decided to share it with everyone if you are interested head over to this intro on YouTube it is free [link removed by MFP moderator]

MikePTY

It is totally fine to have your goal within a range. So if your goal is 2900 and you have 2500 one day, and 3300 the next day, you are still averaging your goal over a 2 day period. You don't want to be over your goal every single day, but you don't necessarily want to be under it either. I lose weight consistently and am over my goal at least a couple of times a week, because I am also under it a couple of times a week. It all balances out. Some people choose to look at their goals on a weekly basis because of this.

Learning to cook is a good thing, both from a health and financial perspective. It dosn't need to be complicated. It can be as simple as throwing some chicken or ground beef in a pan with some spices, then boiling some water and throwing some pasta in it. My wife and I combined really only cook like 5 things: grilled chicken, ground beef, eggs, salmon, and shrimp. But it helps make a lot of meals.

A fair amount of my food is cooked by others though, and I do the best I can with it. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. It is still better to count and log even if you can't get it right or exact every single day.

funjen1972

Are you getting your prepared foods from the grocery store, restaurant or other source?

You can certainly eat prepared foods and stay within your calorie allotment. You could look at the calorie counts before purchasing. For instance, if you allow 900 to 1100 calories for dinner then only buy dinner options within that range.

The more you log, the easier it becomes. You will find foods that you enjoy that fit into your calorie allotment. After a while you will have go-to's that are staples and will be able rattle off their total calories.

One option besides cooking is to stock up on lower calorie basics that require no cooking or just warming - canned soups, bread, tortillas, lunch meat, rotisserie chicken, yogurt, fruits and veggies (canned, frozen or fresh), precooked rice, pasta or other grains, jarred sauce, frozen dinners, oatmeal, cereal, milk, cheese sticks, etc...

33gail33

It is hard at first but gets easier as you go. If you are tracking your calories every day then you get used to what and how much you can eat every day. Most people tend to eat many of the same thing throughout the week so after a couple of weeks you get a better handle on it.

lynn_glenmont

SalahKamell wrote: »

@Funjen1972 I know that sounds a little 'Dangerous' but I do buy cooked food. Like cooked beans and cooked meat. I know someone who is very very good at cooking and he runs a little business like that. He isn't authorized but I trust his cookings because he is my life time friend however, I can't know what he added to my food precisely because whenever I ask him about the food ingredients he added. He tells me he can't really estimate them in OZ or grams. He just adds what he feels is right to my food

If the things he is adding are mostly spices, herbs, and small amounts of aromatic vegetables (onions, celery, carrots, garlic, sweet or hot peppers/chilis) for flavor, you can probably just ignore them. If you bring the food home to eat and you have a food scale (or can get one), just weigh and log as whatever type of cooked meat or cooked beans they are. You'll be slightly overcounting the calories by ignoring the weight of things added for flavor, but it won't amount to much.

Do ask your friend if he adds fat (oil, butter, lard, etc.) to the food, or just generally the types of things he adds, without needing to tell you amounts. You only need to worry about accounting for relatively calorie-dense things that he adds. If he adds fat, just make a guess (this is much easier if you cook yourself, because that gives you a known standard to compare it to). If it doesn't seem like there's much visible fat (pool of oil floating on top, or sitting around the edge when you put it on your plate), I would guess about 2 tsp of oil (10 ml.) per serving, which is on the high end for what I do for home-prepared food, which is how I would think of this, since it's a small, "unauthorized" operation.

Best of luck, and remember that if your results aren't what you expect you can always make adjustments, like increasing your estimate of how fat is in his food, or increasing your estimates of how much food you're eating, if you don't have a food scale, or lowering your calorie goal a little.

try2again

Is your goal to gain weight or to lose weight? (If it's been mentioned, I apologize.) I ask because 2900 is a very generous calorie allowance and your profile pic doesn't make it obvious that you would need to lose weight.

As has been discussed, it can be easier to achieve a weekly goal that allows for some variance per day. My concern would be that, if you eat out regularly, it's really impossible to track accurately, since even at places that have nutritional info available, you can't be sure how closely the person preparing the meal is adhering to the company guidelines. This is obviously a bigger deal if a person is trying to lose weight and has limited room for error, as opposed to trying to gain, in which case if you end up with several hundred extra calories, it's no big deal.