Calorie Counting 101

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  • phoenixbaby2014
    phoenixbaby2014 Posts: 23
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    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.
    So glad I saw this. this app is always saying am not eating enough as I never eat the calories I have burnt.
    Hence I thought I was going the wrong way about
  • jor53
    jor53 Posts: 5 Member
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    This is great! I just started weighing my food, but the condiments I never thought of! Will start doing it.
  • crocky64
    crocky64 Posts: 93 Member
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    Don't know if anyone else has thought of this but it dawned on me the other day when making up dishes to try from scratch I as most chef do taste as I go along, ooops that odd taste here n there soon add up lol. I have also been looking at what my friends are eating many are reduced portion sizes of ready prepared foods, these have all sorts in the salts sugars but most of all chemicals that don't help with weight loss listen folks where possible eat food you prepare and cook yourself most frozen veg nower days are believe it or not more fresh than what you get at the shop as it is frozen soon after it is picked. I have been weighing all my foods since first week of January and lost 1.5 stone so it does work
  • crocky64
    crocky64 Posts: 93 Member
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    Vismal do think it is a good idea to train on empty stomach? Would this assist the body to use the stored reserved energy (fat) or am I thinking wrong?
  • GoimHam06
    GoimHam06 Posts: 3 Member
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    It's sad that you have to tell people to log everything. I thought that was common sense. Good post though; It's good to see that I'm doing mostly the right thing.
  • Worgy2015
    Worgy2015 Posts: 2
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    Hi, Im new here and i was wondering if anyone could help me? At the moment I've been juicing my food and having one meal a day (it's been working the first wewk i lost 9 1/2 pound the second i lost 2 pound) i juice a lot of veg and some fruit but after reading this you saying to weigh you food/liquids how would i do it before i juice or after and if after how? Thanks in advance.
  • SunshinyQueen
    SunshinyQueen Posts: 2 Member
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    Great info and well said!!!!
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    crocky64 wrote: »
    Vismal do think it is a good idea to train on empty stomach? Would this assist the body to use the stored reserved energy (fat) or am I thinking wrong?
    There is a lot of data saying that fasted training does not burn any more fat then fed training. If you prefer to train fasted that's fine. There might be several reasons a person might prefer it. There is nothing wrong with fasted training (I do it myself sometimes), there just isn't an added fat burn.
    GoimHam06 wrote: »
    It's sad that you have to tell people to log everything. I thought that was common sense. Good post though; It's good to see that I'm doing mostly the right thing.
    It's not so much that people didn't know to log everything. I think the website conveys that. It's that people don't have a clue of what an actual serving size is and you must actually weigh the food to verify a serving. If I had to convey this entire guide in 1 sentence it would be, "Track 100% of what you eat after you weigh it on a scale."
    Worgy2015 wrote: »
    Hi, Im new here and i was wondering if anyone could help me? At the moment I've been juicing my food and having one meal a day (it's been working the first wewk i lost 9 1/2 pound the second i lost 2 pound) i juice a lot of veg and some fruit but after reading this you saying to weigh you food/liquids how would i do it before i juice or after and if after how? Thanks in advance.
    Just weigh what you juice before you drink it. The juicing process shouldn't remove any calories.
  • crocky64
    crocky64 Posts: 93 Member
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    I weigh as I go so I know what is in my portion size is done. Just made a a chilli bake weighed each item individually through to the end of the cook proces then weighed it all together again and then devided in to indevidual portion sizes with the exact amount of calories for each one
  • athena61
    athena61 Posts: 54 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Please, please, please forgive the redundancy of my question. I've read other answers and my (dull) brain reads to much into it and confuses me. Please respond yes or no. I want to lose the last 5lbs (.5 per week) . I set my activity level to sedentary. I do a lot of cardio about 4-5 days a week, 400 calories expended at a time. (I use a HRM with a chest strap and built in fitness testing to track my calories burned during cardio activities, so assuming expenditure is somewhat accurate.) To lose weight is it alright to include the additional calories burned from cardio in to my total allotment for the day?

    Thank you Everyone for contributing overall on these forums.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    athena61 wrote: »
    Please, please, please forgive the redundancy of my question. I've read other answers and my (dull) brain reads to much into it and confuses me. Please respond yes or no. I want to lose the last 5lbs (.5 per week) . I set my activity level to sedentary. I do a lot of cardio about 4-5 days a week, 400 calories expended at a time. (I use a HRM with a chest strap and built in fitness testing to track my calories burned during cardio activities, so assuming expenditure is somewhat accurate.) To lose weight is it alright to include the additional calories burned from cardio in to my total allotment for the day?

    Thank you Everyone for contributing overall on these forums.
    This isn't really a yes or no question. In a perfect world, where your calories were 100% accurate (they aren't) and your heart monitor was 100% accurate (it isn't) and your body burned exactly the number of calories mfp give to someone who is sedentary (it doesn't), you would be fine eating back exactly what you burned. Unfortunately in the real world, these are all estimations. They all have margins of error and for that reason, you'll just have to try it and see what happens. Start by trying to eat back the calories, if you don't lose, eat half of them back, if you still don't lose, don't eat any of them back. Trial and error will eventually get you there.
  • ingridehikwe
    ingridehikwe Posts: 13 Member
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    I didn't realize I had to weigh condiments :| I keep getting final calorie intake for the day way under what my goal is. But I think, after reading this, my margin of error is probably close to 30%
  • nic0leeey
    nic0leeey Posts: 3
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    I'm starting to count my calories and log them really well. I'm recommended to be at 1460, but I feel full and still have 500 calories left. Any suggestions? I'm not sure what else to do. I've had meals and snacks already
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    nic0leeey wrote: »
    I'm starting to count my calories and log them really well. I'm recommended to be at 1460, but I feel full and still have 500 calories left. Any suggestions? I'm not sure what else to do. I've had meals and snacks already
    Eat something high in calories that isn't filling. Peanut butter comes to mind. You could put milk, peanut butter and a banana in a blender and have a quick 500 calories in a glass.

  • nic0leeey
    nic0leeey Posts: 3
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    vismal wrote: »
    nic0leeey wrote: »
    I'm starting to count my calories and log them really well. I'm recommended to be at 1460, but I feel full and still have 500 calories left. Any suggestions? I'm not sure what else to do. I've had meals and snacks already
    Eat something high in calories that isn't filling. Peanut butter comes to mind. You could put milk, peanut butter and a banana in a blender and have a quick 500 calories in a glass.

    Thanks! I do love peanut butter. I can't have lactose though, and I don't like any of those substitutes.
  • athena61
    athena61 Posts: 54 Member
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    [/quote]This isn't really a yes or no question. In a perfect world, where your calories were 100% accurate (they aren't) and your heart monitor was 100% accurate (it isn't) and your body burned exactly the number of calories mfp give to someone who is sedentary (it doesn't), you would be fine eating back exactly what you burned. Unfortunately in the real world, these are all estimations. They all have margins of error and for that reason, you'll just have to try it and see what happens. Start by trying to eat back the calories, if you don't lose, eat half of them back, if you still don't lose, don't eat any of them back. Trial and error will eventually get you there.
    [/quote]

    Thank you. Your explanation made sense and I will try this approach. I'm very new to counting calories after only relying on exercise in the past to maintain weight. I like the data this provides and the systematic approach to finding out what will work for me. Thanks again.
  • AvidAdrienne
    AvidAdrienne Posts: 41 Member
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    This was fantastic and very helpful! What if I don't have a scale? Will measuring my peanut butter in a measuring cup be okay?
  • SuperFlyVega
    SuperFlyVega Posts: 1
    edited February 2015
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    Wow this is extremely useful! I'm going to do my best to follow along. I'm totally printing this out, Thanks!
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    AvidAdrienne wrote: »
    This was fantastic and very helpful! What if I don't have a scale? Will measuring my peanut butter in a measuring cup be okay?
    No! A scale is 10 bucks at Walmart. It's the best 10 dollars you'll ever spend. It's better then any supplement you could ever take or any piece of exercise equipment or technology. Measuring cups and spoons are meant for liquids only. They are not accurate for solid food. Once you start weighing foods you'll realize how inaccurate spoons and cups are for solids.

    Here's a little story about me and peanut butter. I used to eat 1 serving (2 tbsp or 32g) every day. I used a measuring table spoon and had 2 spoonfuls. I started weighing my peanut butter on a scale. I found I was actually eating 3 tablespoons worth of peanut butter. That's 100 unaccounted for calories a day. Seems somewhat insignificant, but that's 700 calories a week, and 2800 calories a month. That's nearly a lb a month I wasn't losing. And that's just 1 food! Combine that same kind on inaccuracy across a bunch of different foods and it adds up quite a bit!
  • AvidAdrienne
    AvidAdrienne Posts: 41 Member
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    vismal wrote: »
    AvidAdrienne wrote: »
    This was fantastic and very helpful! What if I don't have a scale? Will measuring my peanut butter in a measuring cup be okay?
    No! A scale is 10 bucks at Walmart. It's the best 10 dollars you'll ever spend.

    Thanks for such an informative response! I thought scales were in the $100-200 range, I will certainly be getting one now. An extra tbsp of peanut butter is a BIG deal! Thank you for your knowledge & help.

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