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The Cookie Metaphor
taso42_DELETED
Posts: 3,394 Member
Weightloss explained in terms of baking cookies.
This post has been brewing in my mind for a little while now. It's mostly just for fun.
Eating exercise calories...
Suppose you are baking up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. But you're heading to a big party with lots of hungry cookie lovers, so you decide you want to double the recipe. The original recipe called for 1.5 cups of sugar. But this is a specially-modified recipe for "diet cookies", where the sugar is reduced down to just 1 cup per batch. So how much sugar should you use for the doubled batch you are about to bake? That's right, 2 cups. If you want the cookies to come out just right, you need to keep the sugar ratio the same as the original. If you use too much or too little, this will throw off the recipe. The sugar ratio represents your calorie deficit, which was already factored in. If you change the ratio, the cookies won't come out right.
Taking too big of a calorie deficit...
The party is coming up fast and you really want these cookies to cook fast. The directions say the oven should be set to 350 degrees. But since you're in a big hurry, you crank it all the way up to 500 degrees. At first it looks like it's working, but next thing you know, the cookies got burnt and the batch is ruined. Cranking up the oven represents using too big of a calorie deficit. Now, maybe tweaking the temperature to 375 instead of 350 would work and the cookies would still come out just fine. Not all ovens are calibrated exactly the same. And neither are all bodies.
Finding your right settings...
The oddest thing is, when you're at your Aunt Betty's house, she always sets her oven to 425 to cook the same cookies, and they come out the same and cook in the same amount of time. What is up with Aunt Betty's oven? Well it's calibrated differently. The temperature setting on the different ovens represents all the numbers we use and log - daily calorie target, calories burned, calories consumed. There are a number of reasons why calorie counting isn't exact science. People's metabolisms all burn differently. On top of that, there are different ways of estimating burn (HRM, online calculator, BodyBugg), and different ways of measuring food (measuring cups, scales, eyeballing). Over time, certain "errors" in our measuring build up and can throw our results off. So if your "cookies" are getting burned or not cooking fast enough, it might be time to "calibrate your oven", and take a look at the numbers and see if some things need to be tweaked. If your "cookies" are coming out consistently delicious, then keep on doing what you're doing.
I think this calibration thing is where a lot of disagreements on the boards come from. Some people claim to always eat their exercise calories back and are succeeding. Other people claim they never eat them back and are also succeeding. Perhaps the latter group might be over-estimating their calorie burn, and perhaps even under-estimating their calories consumed. So, just looking at the numbers, it may look like they're not eating back the calories, but if we had a magic wand and could see the actual numbers, it could very well be that they've been eating them back all along. Or their metabolic rates may be drastically different from the estimate, which would also change how all the numbers look.
If it's time for a calibration, take some time to take an honest look back at what you've been doing for the past several weeks, do a little research, and then try changing a few variables. Make the changes gradually. Changing the plan by about 200 calories per day (in either direction, depending on what kind of "oven" issue you're having) is probably a reasonable start.
Well, I hope your cookies turn out delicious, and when they're baked, please share a few with us :flowerforyou:
This post has been brewing in my mind for a little while now. It's mostly just for fun.
Eating exercise calories...
Suppose you are baking up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. But you're heading to a big party with lots of hungry cookie lovers, so you decide you want to double the recipe. The original recipe called for 1.5 cups of sugar. But this is a specially-modified recipe for "diet cookies", where the sugar is reduced down to just 1 cup per batch. So how much sugar should you use for the doubled batch you are about to bake? That's right, 2 cups. If you want the cookies to come out just right, you need to keep the sugar ratio the same as the original. If you use too much or too little, this will throw off the recipe. The sugar ratio represents your calorie deficit, which was already factored in. If you change the ratio, the cookies won't come out right.
Taking too big of a calorie deficit...
The party is coming up fast and you really want these cookies to cook fast. The directions say the oven should be set to 350 degrees. But since you're in a big hurry, you crank it all the way up to 500 degrees. At first it looks like it's working, but next thing you know, the cookies got burnt and the batch is ruined. Cranking up the oven represents using too big of a calorie deficit. Now, maybe tweaking the temperature to 375 instead of 350 would work and the cookies would still come out just fine. Not all ovens are calibrated exactly the same. And neither are all bodies.
Finding your right settings...
The oddest thing is, when you're at your Aunt Betty's house, she always sets her oven to 425 to cook the same cookies, and they come out the same and cook in the same amount of time. What is up with Aunt Betty's oven? Well it's calibrated differently. The temperature setting on the different ovens represents all the numbers we use and log - daily calorie target, calories burned, calories consumed. There are a number of reasons why calorie counting isn't exact science. People's metabolisms all burn differently. On top of that, there are different ways of estimating burn (HRM, online calculator, BodyBugg), and different ways of measuring food (measuring cups, scales, eyeballing). Over time, certain "errors" in our measuring build up and can throw our results off. So if your "cookies" are getting burned or not cooking fast enough, it might be time to "calibrate your oven", and take a look at the numbers and see if some things need to be tweaked. If your "cookies" are coming out consistently delicious, then keep on doing what you're doing.
I think this calibration thing is where a lot of disagreements on the boards come from. Some people claim to always eat their exercise calories back and are succeeding. Other people claim they never eat them back and are also succeeding. Perhaps the latter group might be over-estimating their calorie burn, and perhaps even under-estimating their calories consumed. So, just looking at the numbers, it may look like they're not eating back the calories, but if we had a magic wand and could see the actual numbers, it could very well be that they've been eating them back all along. Or their metabolic rates may be drastically different from the estimate, which would also change how all the numbers look.
If it's time for a calibration, take some time to take an honest look back at what you've been doing for the past several weeks, do a little research, and then try changing a few variables. Make the changes gradually. Changing the plan by about 200 calories per day (in either direction, depending on what kind of "oven" issue you're having) is probably a reasonable start.
Well, I hope your cookies turn out delicious, and when they're baked, please share a few with us :flowerforyou:
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Replies
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It makes me REALLY want cookies. Semi-counter productive but a good metaphor ha ha. =]0
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To think we read it just because we seen cookies! haha only kidding fantasic post and great metaphor!
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****like***
excellent metaphor0 -
Great Post! I enjoyed reading it
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This was great!! :happy: Thanks!0
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Excellent post! Cooking the cookies too fasts reminds me that weight loss should be slow and steady Two thumbs up! 0
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Genius ! You're such a great support on here, thank you0
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Genius ! You're such a great support on here, thank you
I would like to second this!! Awesome comparison! 0 -
...so when are you bringing over the cookies?0 -
Very good metaphor, being a poet that makes even better thanks for thorowing this thought out there for evceryone great job totally enjoyed reading it0
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Thanks for posting very enjoyable to read!0
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Love it man, very fun!0
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This is what I read: blahblahblahblah cookies blahblahblahblah
Not really. It's a great post. 0 -
Thanks for posting, Taso :-)0
This discussion has been closed.
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