Do you overestimate or underestimate your calories?

georgiag111

I'm very accurate because I weigh almost everything, and what I don't weigh (liquids) I measure.

This is what I do EXACTLY!

auntiebabs

I over estimate.
And then I under estimate calories burned.
Basically to cover the general margin of error.

^ I do this^

wow, I am surprised that so many of you don't weigh and measure. I weigh, measure and read the label for everything I eat unless I am away from home at a party where I can't easily look it up. My best friend once told me after seeing me get out a teaspoon for butter "no wonder you weigh less than me" lol. for me it is too easy to be off by 100's of calories and I know myself and I would say it looked like less than it was, subconciously.

On one hand my goal is to live a life I can enjoy and maintain I don't want to live my life obsessing about food whether it's over eating or dieting. I currently feel bad for my friends because I talk entirely too much about dieting. They're happy that I've done something healthy for myself, but they really don't care that much about the details.

On the other hand I wonder if did start weighing I could do it as an interim step to help me become a better estimator?
(knowing my personality If I started weighing food I would get totally stressed when I couldn't and then once 2 or 3 events came up when I couldn't I'd end up ditching it all togheter)

I've got to be able to estimate and figure it out, because that's the life I want to live. I want to eat healthily, but don't want to create more stress than it relieves. I don't want to exclude myself from social situations. I do know people who have had such strict dietary standards (not allergy or intolerances) that they brought down whole dinner parties. Or not been invite back.

I DO want to learn what the correct portion size FEELS like so that I can judge for myself. I do want to understand what effects my choices have on my body. But I'm doing this so I can live my life better not so that I can spend my life focusing on morsel I put in my mouth.

I'm not there yet. I haven't internalize what enough feels like. Most of the time I don't know when to stop until I see it written down in my log. And I've been doing this for 9 months, so I think I'll be tracking for at least another year or so. Then I'll be able to see how my body reacts and tweak as needed to find out what works for me.