Calorie Counting 101

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  • ShanitaMarie85
    ShanitaMarie85 Posts: 44 Member
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    When I cook my cabbage it shrinks and I don't have the same amount after I cook it. (Of course) So when I weigh it and divide up the servings for example 28oz raw 7 servings each servings 4oz. Now when I cook it there is no way I'm getting 7 serving bc the cabbage now weighs 18.5oz cooked. So my question is should i divide my servings up after I cook? With meat I always did it before I cook it.
  • ShanitaMarie85
    ShanitaMarie85 Posts: 44 Member
    edited March 2015
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    A
  • ShanitaMarie85
    ShanitaMarie85 Posts: 44 Member
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    When I cook my cabbage it shrinks and I don't have the same amount after I cook it. (Of course) So when I weigh it and divide up the servings for example 28oz raw 7 servings each servings 4oz. Now when I cook it there is no way I'm getting 7 serving bc the cabbage now weighs 18.5oz cooked. So my question is should i divide my servings up after I cook? With meat I always did it before I cook it
  • ShanitaMarie85
    ShanitaMarie85 Posts: 44 Member
    edited March 2015
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    W
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    shanitame wrote: »
    When I cook my cabbage it shrinks and I don't have the same amount after I cook it. (Of course) So when I weigh it and divide up the servings for example 28oz raw 7 servings each servings 4oz. Now when I cook it there is no way I'm getting 7 serving bc the cabbage now weighs 18.5oz cooked. So my question is should i divide my servings up after I cook? With meat I always did it before I cook it
    Weigh it all raw, weigh it all cooked. Divide those numbers. Weigh the cooked portion you are going to eat, then multiply it be the number you got dividing the total raw and total cooked. This works for any cooked food.
  • marciebrian
    marciebrian Posts: 853 Member
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    Fantastic post! thank you
  • SueTN2
    SueTN2 Posts: 79 Member
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    Thanks for the great info..
  • LiquidSparkle86
    LiquidSparkle86 Posts: 736 Member
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    Great info!
  • lorisavage13
    lorisavage13 Posts: 6 Member
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    vismal wrote: »
    Weigh it all raw, weigh it all cooked. Divide those numbers. Weigh the cooked portion you are going to eat, then multiply it be the number you got dividing the total raw and total cooked. This works for any cooked food.

    Can you please be a little more specific about this. Do you mean divide the raw weight into the cooked weight or the other way around.
    Thanks so much!
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    lorisavage13 wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    Weigh it all raw, weigh it all cooked. Divide those numbers. Weigh the cooked portion you are going to eat, then multiply it be the number you got dividing the total raw and total cooked. This works for any cooked food.

    Can you please be a little more specific about this. Do you mean divide the raw weight into the cooked weight or the other way around.
    Thanks so much!
    Yes, you take the total raw weight and divide it by the total cooked weight. Whatever that number is, you multiply it by the cooked portion you will consume. Suppose you make a steak. It is 300 grams raw, and 250 grams cooked. You then eat 150 grams of cooked steak. To figure out how much raw steak you ate you would divide 300 by 250 which is 1.2 and multiply that by 150. You would end up eating the equivalent of 180 grams of raw steak. That is what you add to MFP.
  • mwebster01
    mwebster01 Posts: 111 Member
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    tracyannk28 wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    Calorie Counting 101

    Dining out: If you want to be 100% accurate you can bring a scale to a restaurant. [

    I couldn't even imagine how embarrassing it would be for my friends and family if I started lugging my food scale with me into restaurants. The day I start doing this is the day I realize that this healthy eating plan gone too far.
    I agree with that.

  • whomycat
    whomycat Posts: 1
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    I'm 35, and amazed at how much I don't know about how to eat. Thank you for this post!
  • jahmanrv
    jahmanrv Posts: 102 Member
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    Okay, so gave in a bought a scale to weigh. I pretty much was accurate with the hand weighing, but it is better to just put in a scale.
  • chanell84
    chanell84 Posts: 41 Member
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    All the research I've done says that it doesn't matter what and when I eat as long as I'm in my calorie deficit I will lose weight no matter what. However I see so many ppl on here very concerned about their macros and making sure they aren't eating too many carbs. Part of me wants to stop worrying about my macros and just worry about my calories but I've always been taught not to eat too many carbs and never eat after 7:00 pm. Is this something I should just let go of or should I be watching my macros and not be eating a snack closer to bed.
  • MiltonAFC
    MiltonAFC Posts: 121 Member
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    chanell84 wrote: »
    All the research I've done says that it doesn't matter what and when I eat as long as I'm in my calorie deficit I will lose weight no matter what. However I see so many ppl on here very concerned about their macros and making sure they aren't eating too many carbs. Part of me wants to stop worrying about my macros and just worry about my calories but I've always been taught not to eat too many carbs and never eat after 7:00 pm. Is this something I should just let go of or should I be watching my macros and not be eating a snack closer to bed.

    If you hit your macros, you will hit your calories.

    You can eat whenever you want, meal timing is irrelevant. Your body isn't going to store food as fat if you eat at 7:01pm.

    Carbs are not the enemy. Excess of calories is the problem.
  • salenamartine
    salenamartine Posts: 16
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    I just started calorie counting 5 days ago and have lost 4 lbs. it's hard to cut back but it's very effective! That's what I mainly use this app for. Calorie counting definitely helps me make better decisions during the day. Thanks for the advice!
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    chanell84 wrote: »
    All the research I've done says that it doesn't matter what and when I eat as long as I'm in my calorie deficit I will lose weight no matter what. However I see so many ppl on here very concerned about their macros and making sure they aren't eating too many carbs. Part of me wants to stop worrying about my macros and just worry about my calories but I've always been taught not to eat too many carbs and never eat after 7:00 pm. Is this something I should just let go of or should I be watching my macros and not be eating a snack closer to bed.
    Calories are king when it comes to weight loss. Macros are king when it comes to fat loss. I'll explain. Eat in a calorie deficit and you will lose weight. Some of it will be fat, some will be lean tissue, some will be other stuff. If you get in adequate protein and fats, you can optimize how much of the weight lost is fat vs lean mass. I usually recommend people initially concentrate on just keeping a calorie deficit and getting in a decent amount of protein. For most people's goals, that's enough. If you have more extreme physique goals, you should try and hit calories as well as protein and fat minimums every day. 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.

  • juliet3455
    juliet3455 Posts: 3,015 Member
    edited March 2015
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    Vismal - good post.
    As a companion to this I would suggest that people read the post " Logging Accurately " .
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
    and visit this link as it has quite a few good posts that supports the Good Information in this post.
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1

    I was using MFP for a good 6 months before I found these posts so it is a bit of a personal mission of mine to pass them on to other people who are just starting.

    My standard suggestion/tip is to do some reading and buy a kitchen scale!!!
    Re-train/calibrate your mind as to what a portion size is..
    You will be surprised how small some portions look when you start to weigh them out. The average cereal bowl I have in my kitchen will hold 2-6 portions.

    The Food Database

    @ arditarose and @ blankiefinder‌ Nailed it when it comes to Logging accurately and selecting food using the search feature.
    arditarose wrote: »
    Weigh your eggs and find the appropriate entry. Two eggs at 50 grams is typically 140 calories. If you cooked them with olive oil, add that as well.
    Don't log 2 eggs as it is a subjective number, where 50 gm. is very concise.
    blankiefinder wrote: »
    if I haven't found an entry that lists the grams, I keep looking for a different entry. This [ Enter Food ] item is already listed a bunch of times. Better to edit and correct one that is already there than add to the database mess that exists now. :)

    When creating or editing a Food item from the existing database my Personal Bias is to Edit an existing Entry and enter the nutritional values based on grams ( 100 gm ) as it makes the portion size math easy. Especially when you use a scale and WEIGH EVERYTHING.

    Rather than creating a completely new entry for a food item and adding to the Disaster/Mess in the Food Database I continue looking through the items until I find one with Grams in it and verify the data against the USDA website.
    HINT if 2000 people have confirmed the nutritional value of an item it's a good choice, if 4 people have its questionable.
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    There are always a range of choices and one inevitably has by weight
    5eatrrxlfipm.jpg

    If I can't find an existing entry with grams I pick one that has Nutritional Values close to the ones based on Manufacture Label - cross referenced to un-biased nutritional information from the USDA web site at and then edit it by adding a 100 gram reference and confirm the nutritional values based on Manufacture Label again cross referenced to USDA database ( MFP seems to automatically add a 1 gm value in the database). My personal Bias is to use grams ( 100 gm) as it makes the math easy especially when you use a scale.

    http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search

    Some of these links will show up in the other Groups and discussions.

    Visit the Eat-Train-Progress group and read the pinned topics. If you click on the little STAR you can bookmark the topic for future reference.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/10118-eat-train-progress

    Read the information at these MFP post. They have links to multiple very good reads.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1069278/acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6/p1

    Visit these links about building Habits.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/ihad/view/the-power-of-habit-part-4-making-good-habits-stick-1-000-days-on-mfp-and-counting-698617

    Its not practical or socially acceptable to carry a scale into restaurants-friends-family homes so that is where we have to fall back on our memory and estimates of what the portions sizes are. Do be careful about eyeballing as many people have posted how surprised at how small some portions are when they started to use a scale and weigh them out. I know I was. We can never be 100% accurate but the rewards of weight loss are worth the effort.

    Keep coming back to this post ( bookmark it ) as I am sure Vismal and others will have lots of little pieces of information that will help you.
  • chanell84
    chanell84 Posts: 41 Member
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    So what your saying Vismal is I really should concentrate on not eating too many carbs? I have my macros set to 40 carbs 30 fat and 30 protein. I'm usually over on carbs and protein. I'm not over in my actual numbers just the pie chart says I'm over.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    chanell84 wrote: »
    So what your saying Vismal is I really should concentrate on not eating too many carbs? I have my macros set to 40 carbs 30 fat and 30 protein. I'm usually over on carbs and protein. I'm not over in my actual numbers just the pie chart says I'm over.
    No, that's not at all what I said. You can eat carbs. I eat 450 a day at the moment. What I said was that it completely depends on your goals. If you are purely interested in weight loss for the sake of weight loss, then calories are all that matters. If you want to do a little more to ensure that you preserve lean mass (which will make your physique more aesthetic when you have lost the weight), then you should try and meet protein goals, and do some weight lifting. If you have more extreme goals (want to run a marathon, want to have a 6 pack, want to climb Mount Everest) then you will have to pay very close attention to your breakdown of carbs, fats, and protein. How those should breakdown will depend on what your goal is, and how you personally respond to certain macro nutrients. As an example, many people doing endurance events need a lot of carbs to fuel training. Many folks who want to get extremely lean need to reduce carbs as time goes on and they get leaner and leaner. Protein is a little less important for the marathon runner than the bodybuilder. There are a million subtleties that go in to training and eating for an extreme goal. Most people with basic goals needn't worry about all that and just really need to eat in a deficit, and get in adequate protein.

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