eating more than you think....

ChristineLavi

GREAT post .... Bump

Siansonea

Here's my question about this: I use spray for cooking. It has zero calories for 1/3 of a second of a spray. But, I assume after that, it has 1 calorie, and then 2 and on and on. However, zero times 1,000,000,000 is zero, so how do you calculate stuff like that? It says zero calories, but there is no easy way to actually measure.

You're talking about such miniscule amounts, that worrying about such calories is really pointless. You'll never have complete precision in your measuring, you should strive for the most precision attainable, but fractions of a calorie is going off the deep end.

Mr_Knight

It's a quarter-teaspoon per spritz - call it 10 calories.

LiminalAscendance

Here's my question about this: I use spray for cooking. It has zero calories for 1/3 of a second of a spray. But, I assume after that, it has 1 calorie, and then 2 and on and on. However, zero times 1,000,000,000 is zero, so how do you calculate stuff like that? It says zero calories, but there is no easy way to actually measure.

You're talking about such miniscule amounts, that worrying about such calories is really pointless. You'll never have complete precision in your measuring, you should strive for the most precision attainable, but fractions of a calorie is going off the deep end.

That isn't an answer to the question. I'm probably not going to calculate it. However, I am interested if I use 50 calories or 5. I really have no idea. But, the question stems around the idea that anything times zero is zero, so effectively, it is impossible to calculate, even though it is documented that it does have calories, and significant calories, as I understand it. So, olive oil has about 120 cals per tablespoon, I think. The spray is the same. It is effectively, sprayable olive oil. So, I could effectively be using 100 calories, thinking I'm using zero. If I use it twice or three times a day, which I do at times, that could be 300 or so calories above what I thought.

This is an example of how calories just slip into the mix without you really knwoing. Until you know, don't dismiss it so quickly. If it turns out I use 5 calories, I will be the first one to ignore it. But, my question first is: How many do I use and how do I calculate it?

If the spray were 50 calories per use, it wouldn't be noted as "zero" for 1/3 of a second, so that concern isn't valid.

What are we talking about anyway? Cooking spray?

What are you going to do with it, that makes this a potential issue? Do you use it as a marinade? Drink it as a treat?

VoodooAborisha

Every time I hear people say "eat more" to lose weight, I think of the things my father said.

He was a professional wrestler for 30 years and was a Greco-Roman wrestler before that, and made it to the Olympic finals, so he was a proper athlete. Coached football and wrestling at the university of Alabama and Chattanooga, and a couple of things stick in my mind:

I asked him what exercise to do to lose weight, and he said there was only one - stretch your arms out and push away from the table.

I also heard stories of him eating absolutely nothing for 2 days except a single piece of toast to qualify for a lower weight division. Apparently, if you eat less, you lose weight, starvation mode or not.

Also my sister has a ph. D in nursing and has taught nursing, pediatrics, and pharmaceuticals at universities across the country for 20 years, and she is always sending me medical studies from proper medical journals that show that when they underfed monkeys, they were much healthier than the ones who were even slightly overfed. Not that I agree with animal testing, mind you.

I think we have to be very careful and make sure to discourage people from eating disorders but we also don't need to be telling people who are chubby (like me!) to eat more. Nice story, but no.

LiminalAscendance

Here's my question about this: I use spray for cooking. It has zero calories for 1/3 of a second of a spray. But, I assume after that, it has 1 calorie, and then 2 and on and on. However, zero times 1,000,000,000 is zero, so how do you calculate stuff like that? It says zero calories, but there is no easy way to actually measure.

You're talking about such miniscule amounts, that worrying about such calories is really pointless. You'll never have complete precision in your measuring, you should strive for the most precision attainable, but fractions of a calorie is going off the deep end.

That isn't an answer to the question. I'm probably not going to calculate it. However, I am interested if I use 50 calories or 5. I really have no idea. But, the question stems around the idea that anything times zero is zero, so effectively, it is impossible to calculate, even though it is documented that it does have calories, and significant calories, as I understand it. So, olive oil has about 120 cals per tablespoon, I think. The spray is the same. It is effectively, sprayable olive oil. So, I could effectively be using 100 calories, thinking I'm using zero. If I use it twice or three times a day, which I do at times, that could be 300 or so calories above what I thought.

This is an example of how calories just slip into the mix without you really knwoing. Until you know, don't dismiss it so quickly. If it turns out I use 5 calories, I will be the first one to ignore it. But, my question first is: How many do I use and how do I calculate it?

If the spray were 50 calories per use, it wouldn't be noted as "zero" for 1/3 of a second, so that concern isn't valid.

What are we talking about anyway? Cooking spray?

What are you going to do with it, that makes this a potential issue? Do you use it as a marinade? Drink it as a treat?

Why are you on this thread?

The topic is "eating more than you think". Cooking spray has calories. I am asking how many does it have because I don't know how many it has since it says zero on the can. But, I also know that that is not true.

Yeah, the topic is "eating more than you think...." although the implication is, additionally, where it can make a difference.

As to whether or not concern over foods legally labelled as "zero" calories is a valid pursuit, you can re-read my previous post.

jillmarie125

Ok- I just want to clear some things up. When I posted this, I was really trying to help someone who thought they were logging correctly and not losing weight. I was not trying to promote becoming obsessive. I really don't thing the 3-4 gram difference in packaged food will make a huge difference because it has been stated it can go either way. (i haven't noticed that yet.) I just really wanted to point out that measuring makes room for more error than weighing. Especially if you are only eating at 300-400 calorie deficit. It can stall weight loss for months, like it has for me. I read a post where a woman refused to weigh her food to see if that helped. It opened my eyes to what I was doing wrong. And just wanted to share.

Jill

aylajane

Anything with less than 5 calories can be advertised as 0 calories. Sometimes manufactures exploit that by making their serving size smaller (i.e. if 2 Tbsp has 8 calories, then 1 Tbls has 4 calories... so if they use 1 Tbsp as the serving size, they can legally say 0 calories).

Jillian Michaels talks about the cooking spray as she used to go through a bottle every few days. If you assume the worst - every one second spray has 4 calories, and there are 100 sprays in the bottle, that is 400 calories every time you go through the bottle.

Example (not sure where this came from!!): "Parkay Spray has .8 calories in 1 spray and 4 calories in 5 sprays. (the serving size is listed as 0 calories for 1-5 sprays) Fat content is .085 grams in 1 spray, .4 grams in 5 sprays. That means that in the entire bottle there are 832 total calories from 93 grams of fat. "

Francl27

Every time I hear people say "eat more" to lose weight, I think of the things my father said.

He was a professional wrestler for 30 years and was a Greco-Roman wrestler before that, and made it to the Olympic finals, so he was a proper athlete. Coached football and wrestling at the university of Alabama and Chattanooga, and a couple of things stick in my mind:

I asked him what exercise to do to lose weight, and he said there was only one - stretch your arms out and push away from the table.

I also heard stories of him eating absolutely nothing for 2 days except a single piece of toast to qualify for a lower weight division. Apparently, if you eat less, you lose weight, starvation mode or not.

Also my sister has a ph. D in nursing and has taught nursing, pediatrics, and pharmaceuticals at universities across the country for 20 years, and she is always sending me medical studies from proper medical journals that show that when they underfed monkeys, they were much healthier than the ones who were even slightly overfed. Not that I agree with animal testing, mind you.

I think we have to be very careful and make sure to discourage people from eating disorders but we also don't need to be telling people who are chubby (like me!) to eat more. Nice story, but no.

The whole 'eat more to lose more' thing has been taken way out of context IMO. Although I agree that the title is deceptive, it doesn't mean you will lose more weight if you eat more, obviously. It means that you don't have to starve yourself to lose weight, and arguably, that you will lose more long term if you eat more (than 1200 calories) because you'll be less likely to binge and give up, and you'll have more energy to be active. That's always how I've seen it and it's worked for me so far.

molissep

When my husband was diagnosed with diabetes almost 3 years ago now, our life styles changed completely. We had already been hitting the gym consistently and trying to eat healthier, but we weren't weighing/measuring our food. After speaking with a nutritionist to determine the right diet for him I noticed the majority of her notes were in specifying portions in grams and ounces. I had never really thought about how much a gram or an ounce of a particular food looked like before this point. Since I do the cooking, I went out and got a food scale and what a surprise that was! My husband was only about 30 lbs overweight and I have struggled with my weight since childhood. Once I started weighing and measuring everything (meats, veggies, nuts, cheese - I didn't go as far as to weigh peanut butter or coffee creamer) we both lost weight....him much more and faster than me. Since then we have both pretty much maintained our 30 lb losses, but for me it's not enough. I'm still overweight with a high BMI. I never stopped working out, but I did stop weighing/measuring food...I figured I did it for long enough, I could start eyeballing it. Well, I guess my eyes have gotten bigger, because I have lost and gained the same 10 lbs for 2 years now. Reading this post made the lightbulb go off in my head. I know what is missing from my weight loss equation...it's not lack of excercise, it's not that I'm eating junk food all day long, it's that I'm not taking the time to actually make sure my estimates are as close to accurate as they can be.

gigglesinthesun

Ok- I just want to clear some things up. When I posted this, I was really trying to help someone who thought they were logging correctly and not losing weight. I was not trying to promote becoming obsessive. I really don't thing the 3-4 gram difference in packaged food will make a huge difference because it has been stated it can go either way. (i haven't noticed that yet.) I just really wanted to point out that measuring makes room for more error than weighing. Especially if you are only eating at 300-400 calorie deficit. It can stall weight loss for months, like it has for me. I read a post where a woman refused to weigh her food to see if that helped. It opened my eyes to what I was doing wrong. And just wanted to share.

Jill

I wouldn't take that girl seriously. She's coming from a different background. Not sure that there is a realistic chance that the people here who way all their food will end up with an eating disorder. She's just attention seeking. It's a great topic, thanks for posting :-)

Sjenny5891

Not everyone burns the same ammount of calories exercising too. I try to under calculate how much I burn to be on the safe side too.

RockinTerri

Great way to look at it! A digital food scale is on my Christmas wish list, so I'll see if I get that then, otherwise I'll invest in one after. My current goal is step one, I'll refine it to my final goal (right now anyway).

jillmarie125

Ok- I just want to clear some things up. When I posted this, I was really trying to help someone who thought they were logging correctly and not losing weight. I was not trying to promote becoming obsessive. I really don't thing the 3-4 gram difference in packaged food will make a huge difference because it has been stated it can go either way. (i haven't noticed that yet.) I just really wanted to point out that measuring makes room for more error than weighing. Especially if you are only eating at 300-400 calorie deficit. It can stall weight loss for months, like it has for me. I read a post where a woman refused to weigh her food to see if that helped. It opened my eyes to what I was doing wrong. And just wanted to share.

Jill

I wouldn't take that girl seriously. She's coming from a different background. Not sure that there is a realistic chance that the people here who way all their food will end up with an eating disorder. She's just attention seeking. It's a great topic, thanks for posting :-)

Thank you. I do understand where she is coming from, to a point. I can see how certain types of people can become too obsessed with food. And feeling the need to weigh everything can be stressful.

sweebum

Bumping for knowledge. And to remind me to weight my eggs in the morning because now I'm curious!:huh:

Francl27

Yes but is it eggs with or without the shell?

mel4bee

You just convinced me to buy a food scale tonight. Thanks