Estimating Calories

pattyebricker
pattyebricker Posts: 149 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Generally, how much over are people when they try to estimate their calorie intake. Does mfp calculate this when they tell you how many calories you should have?

Replies

  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    I'm not sure what you mean.

    If you're not using a food scale but are just eyeballing and guessing at portion sizes, you could be way off.

    MFP does not assume you're wrong on the entries you post, its up to you to be accurate.

    Personally I try to be as accurate (and honest) as possible.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
    I think people on average are off by as much as 30%, but I've noticed that many "dieters", especially those trying to do 1200 calorie diets, can be off by as much as 50% or more. I think this happens when you are guesstimating because when you have such a limited number of calories it's easy to convince yourself that that looks like about a tablespoon of peanut butter when in all actuality it's 3 tablespoons.

    If you don't want to invest in a food scale, at least use measuring cups and spoons and use them properly (top should be level, not mounded). Over time, you may decide to get a scale or not, but at least it's more accurate than guesstimating.
  • asciiqwerty
    asciiqwerty Posts: 565 Member
    A recent study found that even dietitians (who should know better - right?) underestimated their calorie intake. This is from a study (source below) (small sample alert) or 10 dietitians and 10 other similar adults over a week. The under-reporting was 223 and 429 kcal/day respectively, implying that those who take care and are knowledgeable can significant;y increase the accuracy of their calorie tracking compared to those who are less careful/knowledgeable.

    223 Cal/day doesn't seem too bad - but beware all of these people were trying to be as accurate as possible.

    So if you're just guesing and using measuring cups rther than weighing, you may be out by 500 or more per day. That will wipe out a 1lb/week deficit. And will probably usually result in a post by someone saying "i'm eating 1200 Cal and not losing weight" when in fact they may be eating 1700+

    (source) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12396160

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