How accurate do you need to be?
srenshaw
Posts: 8
I don't like estimating anything, so I've been trying to be as accurate as possible in counting my calories. For the first few weeks this was fine because this was all new and interesting. Now, I'm starting to lose interest in spending time getting everything accurate. For example, tonight for dinner we're having tacos/burritos. I'd love to just pick some generic burrito and be done, but because there's such a wide variance in all the burritos in the database, I feel the need to itemize (and weigh!) everything I put into my taco shell. Because I'm losing interest, I probably won't do it at all. How do the rest of you do it?
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I don't like estimating anything, so I've been trying to be as accurate as possible in counting my calories. For the first few weeks this was fine because this was all new and interesting. Now, I'm starting to lose interest in spending time getting everything accurate. For example, tonight for dinner we're having tacos/burritos. I'd love to just pick some generic burrito and be done, but because there's such a wide variance in all the burritos in the database, I feel the need to itemize (and weigh!) everything I put into my taco shell. Because I'm losing interest, I probably won't do it at all. How do the rest of you do it?0
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I measure everything. I weigh everything. The 5 extra minutes or so it takes me to do that in a day is completely worth it to me.0
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I. Because I'm losing interest, I probably won't do it at all. How do the rest of you do it?
a sneak look occasionally in the mirror0 -
I don't weigh, but I do my best to get an accurate reading.
If I'm making my own burrito, I would measure the calories for each of my ingrediants, or use this website:
http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
That adds your calories for you per serving.
If I, for example, get a soup from the cafeteria at work, I'll go online and put in the soup name and get an average of all the different calories listed. does that make sense?
When in doubt, round up!0 -
I weigh almost everything. Now and then I guesstimate (like when a local restaurant that doesn't have the info posted, etc.) but I really try to weigh it if I can.
I agree, it's a lot of weighing to start with but once you have your meals in, its super easy. I made taco's, logged it as a meal and now whenever I have taco's I just and follow the same recipe and its just one item to add. Sometimes I use an excel spreadsheet and log my food under 'MJ Delisle - name of food'. Works great for me! Its not like you will be eating 365 different things per year!0 -
I weight and measure everything too. It only takes a few minutes.
The thing is that one more tablespoon of something can add 50 calories. It's hard to know for sure that you aren't pouring on 1/4 a cup instead of 2 TBS of something. Our eyes don't always match reality.
Speaking of tacos...I was surprised to see how much cheese one ounce grated actually was. I think maybe I had been eating 2-3 ounces per taco. It doesn't take much to really blow a diet.0 -
Wow! I'm acutally surprised at the number of people who weigh and measure everything. I started out measuring my basic meals, like a bowl of morning cereal. Once I knew what it looked like in the bowl, that's about how much I serve myself all the time now. Sometimes I finish it, sometimes I don't, but never go back for 2nds. I don't weigh anything ever. I do have a little print out of what basic serving sizes are. For example, the deck of cards compared to a meat serving, which is 3 ozs. That type of thing.0
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I have to check it, or I'll go overboard. But this is new to me. I now know what a cup of cereal looks like in our bowls and how much 1/2 cup of milk is over that cereal, and I don't need to measure that.
I pre-make my lunches and measure out several at once so I don't have to think (lunch time is stressful with little kids!)
I don't count things like - lettuce on my tacos. I may be wrong, but I don't think it matters if I eat a half a cup or a whole cup. But the meat, the refried beans, that I would need to measure because my eyes have always told me I'm taking a lot LESS than I really am.
I don't weigh my chicken breasts. Sure, there's a big difference in size, but chicken breasts aren't high in calories, so at this point, I feel no need to weigh them.
Because I'm lazy, I buy prepackaged stuff - like just bought some 100 cal packs of almonds in single serving containers - and it's also stuff I can send with hubby to work (he will NEVER measure anything himself, or count a serving).0
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