Calorie Counting 101

ericaeast92

Great post, I didn't realize foods with as many as 5 cals per serving can show up as 0.

alexuyLB2020

Well I am new to fitness pal and I feel overweight but I just am not motivated any suggestions?

redoself

livinatthegym wrote: »

I agree. Calories listed anywhere cannot be taken as gospel. I'd also like to mention (and I'll keep it brief), that the same goes for calories burned. There are too many intangibles that cannot be accounted for. One of my favorite examples is form. New runners, especially those who are overweight, will often bounce while they walk/ run at speeds they are not used to. They also will often sway from side to side. An experienced runner's form will be tight with deliberate movements. The inexperienced runner with bad form (if running at the same pace) will burn more calories from their form alone. A machine or exercise expert cannot accurately assess your form during every workout. A person could do the same exercise (say running at 5mph on a 5 degree incline) every day for a week and have used varying amounts of energy. This is why I never eat back calories I burn.

bq4me

I am new here, I was wondering do I need to eat less than recommended calories in order to be in calorie deficit to lose weight. according to a MAP I need to take 1200 calories everyday, so in order to lose weight do I need to eat less than that?

malibu927

bq4me wrote: »

I am new here, I was wondering do I need to eat less than recommended calories in order to be in calorie deficit to lose weight. according to a MAP I need to take 1200 calories everyday, so in order to lose weight do I need to eat less than that?

The calories MFP gives you already accounts for a deficit, so you should be eating the amount it says.

mattoon82

vismal wrote:
Time is of very little importance when compared to your total intake for the day. There is no scientific reason to stop eating any types of food after any arbitrary time. Unless you plan on during lots of endurance competitions or training, you really don't need to worry about timing at all.

[/quote]

So here is my question: I usually do not eat calories during the night because that is when I sleep. But I have a job that occasionally I get called into work in the middle of the night. Lets say I happen to be called into work for a few hours at a time when I am normally sleeping and I have a "weak moment" and I eat something at midnight. How would being awake at this time alter my TDEE and as a result where do I count these extra calories?

vismal

mattoon82 wrote: »

vismal wrote:
Time is of very little importance when compared to your total intake for the day. There is no scientific reason to stop eating any types of food after any arbitrary time. Unless you plan on during lots of endurance competitions or training, you really don't need to worry about timing at all.

So here is my question: I usually do not eat calories during the night because that is when I sleep. But I have a job that occasionally I get called into work in the middle of the night. Lets say I happen to be called into work for a few hours at a time when I am normally sleeping and I have a "weak moment" and I eat something at midnight. How would being awake at this time alter my TDEE and as a result where do I count these extra calories?[/quote]There will not be a huge effect to TDEE unless you are spending the extra hours doing something physical. You can count the food for the day before or the next day, just count it and it won't make any difference that you are having it in the middle of the nights.

SkinnyWannabe30

I am looking for some advice....I finally have gotten on track with this weight loss journey, my head has finally caught up and I am determined to do this. I started wearing a bodymedia armband and getting a clearer picture of what I burn through the day, I have a desk job so I knew it would not be high but on average I burn about 2500. I started solid February 12th and have been tracking absolutely everything I put in my mouth and trying to be as honest as I can, I realize it won't be perfect especially when trying to track certain meals but I weighed in February 12th and as of February 27th I had lost 4 pounds and thought awesome I am finally on track, I proved to myself I was my own worst enemy before and not really be true to the process. I started adding in the exercise and about 90% of the time I am in a deficit of between 5600 and 7600 per 7 days. Since Feb 12th I went from 222.8 to currently 217.8....why am I not losing more?? the last 7 days from the 16th of March 16th of 22nd I was in a total deficit of 7347 and my weight remained the same when I weighed in on the 23rd.

It is normal that I would stay so early? I am eating between 1500-1600 per day and this week I dropped it down to 1450 to see if that made a difference but that would my deficit would be quit large.

Anyways, your advice and suggestions are welcome at what I should be looking at. I do realize I need to "clean" up my food still but I am very much trying to keep what I eat, good back and the ugly into my calories and not going outside of my budget.

vismal

SkinnyWannabe30 wrote: »

I am looking for some advice....I finally have gotten on track with this weight loss journey, my head has finally caught up and I am determined to do this. I started wearing a bodymedia armband and getting a clearer picture of what I burn through the day, I have a desk job so I knew it would not be high but on average I burn about 2500. I started solid February 12th and have been tracking absolutely everything I put in my mouth and trying to be as honest as I can, I realize it won't be perfect especially when trying to track certain meals but I weighed in February 12th and as of February 27th I had lost 4 pounds and thought awesome I am finally on track, I proved to myself I was my own worst enemy before and not really be true to the process. I started adding in the exercise and about 90% of the time I am in a deficit of between 5600 and 7600 per 7 days. Since Feb 12th I went from 222.8 to currently 217.8....why am I not losing more?? the last 7 days from the 16th of March 16th of 22nd I was in a total deficit of 7347 and my weight remained the same when I weighed in on the 23rd.

It is normal that I would stay so early? I am eating between 1500-1600 per day and this week I dropped it down to 1450 to see if that made a difference but that would my deficit would be quit large.

Anyways, your advice and suggestions are welcome at what I should be looking at. I do realize I need to "clean" up my food still but I am very much trying to keep what I eat, good back and the ugly into my calories and not going outside of my budget.

You are putting a little too much trust that your numbers are accurate. They aren't. No one's are, not even mine and I wrote the guide, so don't feel bad. Just assume your calorie counting is going to be wrong by at least 10%. Certain meals or foods increase that number. Eating out or having food you didn't prepare/weigh can increase the number a lot. Between the FDA letting companies round, human error, and companies simply lying about their nutritional information (this happens, don't kid yourself), your calories consumed number will never be completely accurate. Your bodymedia is also not 100% accurate, though from what I understand, it's one of the better fitness tracking devices as far as accuracy is concerned. Even so, I'd give it at least a 10% margin of error, maybe more.

Even if your calories in and calories out numbers were 100% perfect (they aren't) you would still not lose weight per the numbers. We often say 3500 calories deficit is 1 lb of fat loss. That statement makes no mention of weight loss though. Water retention or water losses can make it look like we are losing more or less fat than we actually are. Also, you cannot assume that 100% of what you lose will be fat. You will always have lean mass losses as well. There are ways to limit lean mass loss (lifting weights, eating adequate protein) but you can never completely prevent it.

To sum it up, assume your numbers are a little bit off because they almost always are, and even if they weren't, they will never perfectly correlate with your weight loss. The best way to look at it is in the long run. What has your weight done over the course of a month? If you are not losing weight at an acceptable rate over the course of 4-6 weeks, eat less, move more, or both.

rani54

Didn't even think about condiments! Will start tracking those. Also, definitely recommend that eat smart scale. It's worth every penny. My biggest question is is 'starvation mode' a myth? Because I read mixed reviews. I'm not at all trying to starve myself but there are definitely days when I eat less than I probably should. And I just want to be sure I'm not hindering myself in the long run.

SkinnyWannabe30

vismal thank you for your response! definitely makes sense and I will look at it over the long run and make adjustments as I go! its still very new and I have a long way to go and a lot to learn still.

vismal

rani54 wrote: »

Didn't even think about condiments! Will start tracking those. Also, definitely recommend that eat smart scale. It's worth every penny. My biggest question is is 'starvation mode' a myth? Because I read mixed reviews. I'm not at all trying to starve myself but there are definitely days when I eat less than I probably should. And I just want to be sure I'm not hindering myself in the long run.

There are many other threads that discuss this ad nauseam. The way starvation mode, the way it is usually described is a complete and total myth. Eating very low calories has drawbacks, but fat loss stopping is not one of them. You certainly can starve to death, but you won't be fat when it happens...

emmab517

Brilliant thread! I include everything even my Aloe Drinking Gel. I'm looking for help on protein amounts? I'm just about to start a rigorous training regime to burn fat and build lean muscle. Can anyone help or direct me to a thread? Xx

tajteri

I am counting calories and logging burned calories using my Fitbit. Am I suppose to eat until I get to my daily calorie intake or am I suppose to eat close to the final calorie number? Am I eating enough if I don't reach either number?

vismal

emmab517 wrote: »

Brilliant thread! I include everything even my Aloe Drinking Gel. I'm looking for help on protein amounts? I'm just about to start a rigorous training regime to burn fat and build lean muscle. Can anyone help or direct me to a thread? Xx

Attempting lean muscle gain while losing lots of fat are two competing goals. Often times is much more efficient to do one at a time. The body will not optimally build muscle in a deficit, if any is built at all. On the same hand, the body will not burn fat in a surplus. Pick whichever goal is most important to you at the moment and go for that. Once achieved switch to the other.

tajteri wrote: »

I am counting calories and logging burned calories using my Fitbit. Am I suppose to eat until I get to my daily calorie intake or am I suppose to eat close to the final calorie number? Am I eating enough if I don't reach either number?

You are over complicating it. Just eat a consistent amount of calories everyday for a few weeks. If you lose weight at an acceptable pace, keep that number. If you don't, reduce total calories a bit and give it a few more weeks. Repeat this process until you reach your goal.

MonsoonStorm

Perhaps put a little note on that it would be a much better investment to buy a kitchen scale rather than some fancy bathroom scale with the silly bmi/body fat settings that don't really tell you anything anyway.

It amazes me how many people say that they aren't losing weight, and their body fat has gone up x% because their fancy new scales tell them so, but that they haven't gotten around to buying a kitchen scale yet so they can't log properly.

sandykg159

Hi, this is just a quick question in regards to calorie deficits... How do you know how many calories on average your body is using? MFP has set my calories to 1200 and that's only for lightly active when I actually do cardio and weights so it could possibly be higher, around 1500/1600 according to my macros so does this mean as long as I hit 1200 I will be in a deficit? Or that I should eat less than that?

purpleheart725

Thank you for sharing this great and very helpful information!

kungfuterka

Hello there

I would like to find out if being on 1450 calories/day is okay... It says that I should eat approximately 2000 and my suggested daily calorie deficit is 550 calories. I'm quite new to this whole dieting and nutrition thing so I have doubts...

VerlaCollins

If you are just trying to lose weight with no real deadlines and don’t mind if your diet takes a few weeks longer than planned, feel free to be a little less strict. If you find you are not losing weight despite the fact that your caloric intake is low enough that you should be, then you need to start considering doing things like weighing condiments. Only then can you be truly sure it is time to lower calories. I hope this guide helps you guys.

Yes, of course, all such things are important for our fitness. If you can take all things in a proper way it will definitely work on your body.

YanskaNY

This post is amazing. It is going to help me straighten up and fly right!

vismal

sandykg159 wrote: »

Hi, this is just a quick question in regards to calorie deficits... How do you know how many calories on average your body is using? MFP has set my calories to 1200 and that's only for lightly active when I actually do cardio and weights so it could possibly be higher, around 1500/1600 according to my macros so does this mean as long as I hit 1200 I will be in a deficit? Or that I should eat less than that?

You don't really know how much calories you burn on a day to day basis. Fortunately, you do not need to. If you keep your calorie intake extremely consistent by sticking to the things posted in the guide you will know if you are in a deficit or not by your results. If over the long run your weight is trending down, you are in a deficit. If it does not trend down, you aren't. It's as simple as that.

My best advice on how much to eat is to just pick a reasonable number of calories per day. Eat that amount every day for a few weeks. Adjust the number based on whether or not you lost weight and at what rate you lost it.

kungfuterka wrote: »

Hello there

I would like to find out if being on 1450 calories/day is okay... It says that I should eat approximately 2000 and my suggested daily calorie deficit is 550 calories. I'm quite new to this whole dieting and nutrition thing so I have doubts...

See the above response.

camkel1982

Wow. This has totally rejigged my brain. I had a zero weight loss this week and was lying to myself why! It's because I've started estimating!! Time to get back in control!!

eseeton

I weighed out some tortilla chips for my taco salad for lunch today. The bag said 28g (about 13 chips) is 140 calories. I weighed 28g of chips and only ended up with 9 chips!! OH NO. This was one of the only things I never weighed because they are just so delicious I didn't want to know the truth. I guess I will have to start weighing those too. This south Texas girl loves her chips and salsa. *pouts*

tammy_maj

3 years ago I started using this ap and lost 30 pounds by counting calories and walking. Counting calories is hard but well worth it! I lapsed for awhile and am ready to get back at it before summer gets here☺. Any motivation is gladly accepted

mel20j

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cheezels83

I was always put off by weighing things and I couldn't believe that mfp had a scanner for the bar codes. I was sceptical that it would know random swedes foods but omg it does! !!! I am way more motivated to log things now even the good the bad and the ugly. Had some good surprises too by weighing that my bread weight allows for 3 not 2 slices so had been over counting that. Good thread. Thanks!!!

BBigler72

Thanks for all that information! I'm going to have to re-read it again, but it was very good! I've been using this app now for about six months and lost 35 pounds. While I am cooking or before eating I note it so I don't go over. I have to remind myself that it's not just the calories, but what I'm eating. I'm working on cutting out the Dr. Pepper, but I love it!

I find I am eating better and more active now. I don't know you all and you don't know me, but I have learned a lot from this thread. So, thanks and keep posting!

sgarnica1

Great topic thanks

davidlam

I am weighing a lot of stuff with grams since I have read this. I have found that some things I actually get more food for my bang.