Calorie Counting 101
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HappyCampr1 wrote: »with your weighing of condiments... whats the difference between your method and just zero'ing the scale with your food on it then applying? is there a difference in accuracy?
I don't think so, unless you like licking the spoon/knife. Lots of people do, and that issue is solved if you weigh whatever was removed from the original container.
That's the entire reason why I've started weighing the peanut butter jar rather than what I'm putting it on0 -
hank you or the need information.0
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I adjust every 20 lbs or so or when I have stalled for 3 weeks or more.Do you change your caloric intake as you lose weight because a lower weight shows that you consume less calories. How often should you adjust your calorie requirements since MFP doesn't do it automatically?
Doesn't matter. Whichever method you prefer.with your weighing of condiments... whats the difference between your method and just zero'ing the scale with your food on it then applying? is there a difference in accuracy?
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When counting calories I keep in mind that not all calories are the same. It is important to know what foods fuel my metabolism, so although I am counting calories I need to be sure I am counting the 'right' calories.0
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The last few weeks I've been trying to track more accurately (having a difficult time losing weight). Not sure if these questions have been covered in the 20+ pages...when you have a moment, could you let me know if I'm doing this correctly....
1. The majority of meals I cook are "family style" (3 to 15 people), so I create a large number of recipes. The down side to this, unfortunately, sometimes I have to guestimate the serving size, I try to create the receipts for 4 but soups are more difficult to calculate. Another downside, one serving is not going to be 100% accurate depending on what is included in the serving (example, one might get more vegi than meat). Any suggestions?
2. We grill bone-in steaks, I cut my portion and weigh it. When I first started MFP it was recommended to use cooked nutritional information.
3. My 'go to' is a plain oven roasted rotisserie whole chicken that I purchase at the local supermarket. I use it for the entire week for lunches...salad, sandwiches, etc. The nutritional information is with skin but I remove the skin and use the USDA database (one of my FAV finds on MFP, many thanks!) for the nutrition.
4. When I eat out, I try to deconstruct the meal as you suggested. Must say, searching the database can become a test in patience! I use the generic entries that have the most nutritional information. Then I look for the USDA entries, but noticed that some of those entries are wrong, calories are not the only important! factor – UGH!!!!
@vismal, any comments/suggestions/input is greatly appreciated! I use the digital scale, even purchased measuring cups/spoons to keep at work as a backup. What am I doing right, what am I doing wrong…
If MFP linked to the USDA database, it would make this app indispensable!0 -
One more...
5. I try to stay under 100/150 my total calories to balance out the inaccuracies of my logging.0 -
Foods do not really "fuel your metabolism". Certain foods can make you feel more energetic but they aren't going to cause your body to burn additional calories.georgecarl7 wrote: »When counting calories I keep in mind that not all calories are the same. It is important to know what foods fuel my metabolism, so although I am counting calories I need to be sure I am counting the 'right' calories.
answer in boldThe last few weeks I've been trying to track more accurately (having a difficult time losing weight). Not sure if these questions have been covered in the 20+ pages...when you have a moment, could you let me know if I'm doing this correctly....
1. The majority of meals I cook are "family style" (3 to 15 people), so I create a large number of recipes. The down side to this, unfortunately, sometimes I have to guestimate the serving size, I try to create the receipts for 4 but soups are more difficult to calculate. Another downside, one serving is not going to be 100% accurate depending on what is included in the serving (example, one might get more vegi than meat). Any suggestions?
Things like soups and crockpot recipes can be difficult to weigh accurately. There are 2 ways to handle this. One is to error on the side of caution while estimating. If you made 4 servings and have 1, but can't be exactly sure of how much you are having, log it as 1.25 or something to that effect. If you want to be absolutely accurate, weigh all the ingredients before you cook it, weigh all the ingredients after you cook it, weigh your serving, then take the total before cooked, divide by the total after cooked, then multiply the weight of your personal serving by that number.
3. We grill bone-in steaks, I cut my portion and weigh it. When I first started MFP it was recommended to use cooked nutritional information. I weigh everything raw and use nutritional information for raw food. If it's bone in, just weigh the bone afterwards and substract
4. My 'go to' is a plain oven roasted rotisserie whole chicken that I purchase at the local supermarket. I use it for the entire week for lunches...salad, sandwiches, etc. The nutritional information is with skin but I remove the skin and use the USDA database (one of my FAV finds on MFP, many thanks!) for the nutrition. This approach seems fine
5. When I eat out, I try to deconstruct the meal as you suggested. Must say, searching the database can become a test in patience! I use the generic entries that have the most nutritional information. Then I look for the USDA entries, but noticed that some of those entries are wrong, calories are not the only important! factor – UGH!!!! not much you can do here. The database is what it is, you can only do your best at being as close as you can, and when in doubt overestimate to compensate.
@vismal, any comments/suggestions/input is greatly appreciated! I use the digital scale, even purchased measuring cups/spoons to keep at work as a backup. What am I doing right, what am I doing wrong…
If MFP linked to the USDA database, it would make this app indispensable!
Seems like another good strategy.One more...
5. I try to stay under 100/150 my total calories to balance out the inaccuracies of my logging.
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I have a question, and I would really appreciate it if someone could help me, I don't really have a clear picture of what net calories are and how to increase, reduce or maintain them. All I do know (from doing some research) is that if your net calories are at a negative number, you will lose weight, so does that mean as long as my net calories are at a negative number I will still be losing weight? (or calories)0
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Calorie Counting 101
With the crazy amount of "I'm eating 1200 calories and I'm not losing weight" or "My weight loss has stalled" threads that get posted every day I decided to copy a calorie counting sticky I wrote for another forum. This is a guide to help ensure as much accuracy as possible when counting calories. It may seem OCD to some but for beginners I feel the more accurate they can be, the better. Before you post about how you can't count calories because of an ED, this thread isn't for you. If you have psychological issues with counting calories, simply don't. This thread is to help those who want to use calorie counting as a means to lose weight. It is based on the fact that if you eat less calories then you burn in a day you will lose weight. If you do not believe in this fact then please just don't post here. This thread is also not about how much you should eat and what you should eat. It is simply about how to accurately track what you do eat. Please keep the reply's to things that deal with calorie counting. If you want to talk about any of the aforementioned things, start a new thread.
Logging foods: In the old days, to calorie count, we had to use paper and pencil. This is why programs like weight watchers became so popular. It essentially dumbed down calorie counting to a point system and made things easier to track. With the advent of software like Myfitnesspal, there is no need for the dumbing down. You can track calories, macro nutrients, micro nutrients, and exercise with very little hassle.
To correctly implement calorie counting you must log everything you consume in a day that contains calories. This includes liquids and/or supplements that contain calories. Some people also log calorie free foods (gum, diet soda, black coffee, etc). Since they do not contain any calories, this is optional. They may however contain something that you want to track (vitamins, minerals, sodium).
Weighing foods: You must weigh your foods! Do not estimate! Weigh everything on a kitchen scale. Preferably a digital scale that weighs in grams. Only liquids should be measured by volume (cups tablespoons, etc). On a package of oatmeal the label will usually say that a serving size is ½ cup. It will also have 40g in parentheses. Use a scale to weigh out 40 grams. You will find that if you dump oats into a ½ cup measuring cup that it won’t always equal 40 grams. This becomes more important with calorically dense food such as peanut butter. 1 tablespoon is usually 100 calories, however one can easily put 2-3 “tablespoons” worth of peanut butter on the end of a normal kitchen spoon. Instead weigh the peanut butter according to how many grams are in a serving. The same goes for scoopers found in supplements. One scoop of whey does not always equal 1 serving. Always weigh your whey! Here are some links to a couple of kitchen scales for purchase:
http://www.amazon.com/EatSmart-Precision-Digital-Kitchen-Silver/dp/B001N07KUE/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1391480839&sr=8-5&keywords=eatsmart+scale
http://www.amazon.com/Ozeri-Digital-Multifunction-Kitchen-Elegant/dp/B004164SRA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391480816&sr=8-1&keywords=food+scale
[b[Handling foods with no nutritional information[/b]: Sometimes fruits, vegetables, and meats do not come with nutritional information. The USDA has a comprehensive list of nearly all fruits, vegetables, and many different cuts of meats in grams.
http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list
Using myfitnesspal you can simply search the fruit, vegetable, or meat with “usda” afterwards to obtain the same nutritional information. When weighing meat, ALWAYS WEIGH IT RAW. The nutritional facts are based on the raw weight of meat unless packaging specifically states otherwise. This is true for just about any food you cook. If you are simply searching the database for a food with no nutritional information, be wise at what you pick. Don't pick the one option that is significantly lower in calories then all the others simply because it is. You must also be careful with the bar code scanner. Sometimes the scanner will not give you the correct product. Verify this whenever possible.
Dining out: When dining out, attempt to find nutritional information on the restaurant you are at. Many larger chains have all that information available. Know that this is somewhat of an estimate as they are not weighing things to the gram in the kitchen. They also might be liberal with ingredients like butter and oil which can add up quickly. If the restaurant does not provide nutritional information for their meals, attempt to deconstruct your meal and track it piece by piece. If you want to be 100% accurate you can bring a scale to a restaurant. This not something I do as I don't often eat out, but depending on how accurate you wish to be, it is an option. It's worth considering if you eat out frequently.
Accuracy: Accept the fact that you will never be 100% accurate. The FDA allows for up to a 20% margin of error with nutritional information. You must simply do the best you can possibly do to not let that margin grow any larger by estimating what you have eaten. Along these lines you will find products that claim to be zero calories like mustard, cooking spray, and many others. They actually have somewhere between 0-5 calories per serving. Because of rounding they can claim zero on the label. If you want to be precise, count them as 5 calories a serving. This is increasingly important if you consume these products frequently.
Once you have a solid idea of what your daily/weekly consumption is like, it is easy to manipulate calories to fulfill whatever your goals may be. Before you decide that you need to increase or decrease calories to help accomplish goals, ask yourself “Am I tracking everything correctly?” Are you drinking something with calories and not counting it? Are you weighing everything to the gram? Are you having cheat days/meals that you are not tracking? If you answer yes to any of these then your caloric goals may be correct, you are simply not meeting them. Know that if you eat 1500 calories a day and have a once a week cheat day of 3000 calories you are effectively eating 1714 calories a day. This is why you need to track your cheat days. It's okay to have them but if you track them, you can prevent them from skewing your results.
Tips:Here are some tips that I personally like to use in my own tracking of calories:
When weighing condiments I zero the scale with the container sitting on the scale. I apply the condiments to my food. I then put the container back on the scale. It will read a negative number in grams. That is how much condiment I used. This does not work for aerosols like pam or whip cream.
If my goal is weight loss and am going out to eat at a restaurant with no nutritional information, I reconstruct the meal in myfitnesspal and add 10% to the caloric total. This is in case I underestimated. Research shows humans are notorious at underestimating what they eat. In the rare case I overestimated the calories contained in the meal, I can enjoy a small extra deficit for the day. Even if they do provide nutritional information, this might be worth doing. Again, the chef is going to exercise portion control but he isn't weight his butter or your steak on a food scale and tracking to the gram.
Myfitnesspal lets you enter in your own foods. If something is not in their database you can add it. I get my burritos from Chipotle the same way every time. They have all their nutritional information listed on their website. After I determine the values of my burrito I create the food in MFP and don’t have to bother with it next time. The same goes for Subway.
If you want to weigh liquids, this site will help you based on what liquid you are weighing http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking/
Final thoughts: Counting calories is in my opinion the best thing one can do to help lose weight. This guide was written to help you be as close to 100% accurate as possible. Some of you might not like the idea of bringing a food scale to a restaurant or weighing condiments. These things aren't musts. If you don’t want to do them then you must accept that you will be less accurate than if you had. If you are a bodybuilder preparing for a competition then you will want to be as accurate as humanly possible. 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. Feel free to add your own tips and ask questions! Again, don't turn this into a debate about anything, that isn't the intention of this thread. Make sure your reply's are about calorie counting!
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Excellent help for a noob calorie counter (that would be me).
Thanks for the time in sharing this.0 -
this thread right here legit just saved me so much extra time!
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Thank you so much for writing this. Since reading this I started weighing all my foods instead of guessing. Holy crap I couldn't believe how much peanut butter, butter, etc calories that I was going over!!!
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I keep coming back to this thread. THANKS0
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Thanks for the post, Vismal. Informative, clear and no-nonsense.
I notice you often recommend setting a calorie goal, eating that amount for a few weeks to see if it leads to weight loss, then tweaking it down by 100 calories at a time if it doesn't. Do you see an actual weight loss advantage in eating a consistent number of calories per day, or is the consistent calorie intake mainly to make it easier to figure out how few a person should eat to lose weight?0 -
There is no inherent weight loss advantage to keeping a consistent calorie goal each day. It's strictly for ease of adjusting the number. Really, as long as you average you goal at the end of the week, you should be fine.Thanks for the post, Vismal. Informative, clear and no-nonsense.
I notice you often recommend setting a calorie goal, eating that amount for a few weeks to see if it leads to weight loss, then tweaking it down by 100 calories at a time if it doesn't. Do you see an actual weight loss advantage in eating a consistent number of calories per day, or is the consistent calorie intake mainly to make it easier to figure out how few a person should eat to lose weight?
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I am new to calorie counting. Thanks for these great tips! I didn't even realize I wasn't as accurate as I thought.. Hence slow weight loss! Great post0
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Thanks0
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I want to thank you again. I have been weighing and measuring everything since I read this. Many years ago before Weight Watchers went to 'points'..that is how it was done. You weighed and measured everything.0
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bump for reference0
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Just an FYI for you guys: This thread is pinned so it does not need bumped. It will remain in the top of the General Diet and Weight Loss Help section for as long as MFP keeps it pinned.0
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I guess what I am taking from most of this is calories in<calories out is what works. I'm not sure who said it but if you restrict yourself from eating what you like, your chances of success are going to be much lower. That has been my issue in the past. No carbs, no fat, man you cant eat anything! So far in my 6 weeks, I eat what I like, just less and so far so good!0
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Very interesting, I think this may be my problem as I sometimes measure and sometimes don't. When I do I am always surprized how wrong I am...So I went and bought measuring spoons for my purse ( 0
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This is one of the very first things I read in the MFP forum when I got serious about changing my eating habits in January and it has been invaluable in helping me stay on track. I can eat pretty much anything I want. I (usually) fit it in my daily goals, or at least weekly. Tracking to a detailed level has helped me make better food choices. And I've seen a consistent loss trend over these past five months. The only times I was feeling brutally hungry were those when I was not eating back enough exercise calories. Once I figured that out, back to "normal" loss without intense hunger. I consider a scale absolutely necessary for past success and future weight loss. And probably maintenance some day in the future.
Thank you Vismal!0 -
I'm new to calorie counting. I have been doing my best to enter everything in but sometimes im not sure if i have selected the right option in my diary. If I make a sandwich should I add everything on its own or search the type of sandwich I made?? If I'm cooking should I scan the barcodes of things I have added or just search the meal type?? I want to get the most out of this0
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Calculating individual ingredients will be WAY more accurate. You can make a pot roast and simple search "pot roast" and you'll get plenty of options. None of them can guarantee they were prepared with same ingredients and portions that yours was.bubbles_raver wrote: »I'm new to calorie counting. I have been doing my best to enter everything in but sometimes im not sure if i have selected the right option in my diary. If I make a sandwich should I add everything on its own or search the type of sandwich I made?? If I'm cooking should I scan the barcodes of things I have added or just search the meal type?? I want to get the most out of this
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Awesome post, great information!0
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You seem to be very informative about counting/weighing calories/food. I have a kitchen scale as well; but, I also use a good set of measuring cups and spoons. I agree that someone can definitely get more than an actual Tablespoon of, let's say, peanut butter; I dig in a big scoop in my Tablespoon, and push it against the side of the bottle then level it off; and use my finger to roll it out onto my bread. I'm thinking this is the best way to get your portions correct. When I was in WW, the point system just flabbergasted me - first thing I will admit was . . . at the time, I was not exercising; but staying within my points. Now I am on a Medical Weight Loss program and keeping up with my calories and I will try to figure out what I might eat at a meal, if we go out, to stay within my caloric count. I'm now exercising and was told to increase my water intake. I can see how to keep up with my water; the only thing I have not found on MFP is how to keep up with my weight, whether up or down (hopefully more downward than upward). I'll get to something and then cannot find it again. Found the weight - but it is flat lined. Then tried to go through my profile page and was told it was 'not working'. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.0
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Using a leveled tablespoon is still much less accurate than using a scale. A scale is ALWAYS best for solid foods. As to tracking your weight. From the homepage there is a tab that says "check in". Click it. From there, there is an option to enter your weight and review previous weights.GRITSandSLUTS wrote: »You seem to be very informative about counting/weighing calories/food. I have a kitchen scale as well; but, I also use a good set of measuring cups and spoons. I agree that someone can definitely get more than an actual Tablespoon of, let's say, peanut butter; I dig in a big scoop in my Tablespoon, and push it against the side of the bottle then level it off; and use my finger to roll it out onto my bread. I'm thinking this is the best way to get your portions correct. When I was in WW, the point system just flabbergasted me - first thing I will admit was . . . at the time, I was not exercising; but staying within my points. Now I am on a Medical Weight Loss program and keeping up with my calories and I will try to figure out what I might eat at a meal, if we go out, to stay within my caloric count. I'm now exercising and was told to increase my water intake. I can see how to keep up with my water; the only thing I have not found on MFP is how to keep up with my weight, whether up or down (hopefully more downward than upward). I'll get to something and then cannot find it again. Found the weight - but it is flat lined. Then tried to go through my profile page and was told it was 'not working'. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.
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