You're probably eating more than you think.
Replies
-
For things that are measured, like soup or such, that serving size figure is many times by volume rather than weight.
But, "about 2 servings per can" for 8 oz serving in a 15.25 oz can is 1.9. Found some stuff the about 2 is really 1.7.
Some soups may not matter much (10 cal) because so low calorie anyway, but the more hearty stuff does add up.
But it's so easy in MFP to select 1 serving size, or select 1 can, in which case the math is wrong, because the entry just does x 2.0 -
I agree! I know a lot of the time I am eating more than I log. I don't always log all components. I don't weigh and measure. Plenty times I think I am down at 1700 calories and wonder why I am not hungry, and try to eat more, only to remember I ate a 200 calorie granola bar I forgot to log. There are so many inaccuracies in logging. I just use it as a guideline of approximately what I ate, give or take a couple hundred. There are other days when I think I ate a lot of calories, but I'm hungry, so I take a closer look and am able to adjust things in such a way that I have 200 more calories or so because it's not accurate, it's just guessing a lot of the time.0
-
I recently bought a scale, and now I keep even keep a measuring cup and tablespoon at the office. So when I can, I measure measure measure....
But what do you do if you go out to eat? I'm young, I'm single, I live in an amazing city with so many awesome restaurants, it would be a shame not to enjoy them once in a while... Do you have any insight? I guess, or sometimes I just say F it and screw up my entire day. The latter I know is not the solution.0 -
I recently bought a scale, and now I keep even keep a measuring cup and tablespoon at the office. So when I can, I measure measure measure....
But what do you do if you go out to eat? I'm young, I'm single, I live in an amazing city with so many awesome restaurants, it would be a shame not to enjoy them once in a while... Do you have any insight? I guess, or sometimes I just say F it and screw up my entire day. The latter I know is not the solution.
Just estimate as best you can. If you have unexpected weight gains/losses or stalls, it is an indication you are over/underestimating. People should not be changing their lifestyle due to not being able to accurately log, they just need to bear it in mind as a factor in the whole process.0 -
I recently bought a scale, and now I keep even keep a measuring cup and tablespoon at the office. So when I can, I measure measure measure....
But what do you do if you go out to eat? I'm young, I'm single, I live in an amazing city with so many awesome restaurants, it would be a shame not to enjoy them once in a while... Do you have any insight? I guess, or sometimes I just say F it and screw up my entire day. The latter I know is not the solution.
I eat out ALL the time so I have a lot of strategies for 'better' estimation.
1) don't just weigh your food at home, challenge yourself to estimate how much it is and then weigh it. This works better for some foods than others. so I'd get a piece of meat or some cheese, for example, that I wanted to eat. Look at it and say "I think this is about an ounce" - then weigh it and see how far off you are. At best you'll become a better estimator. AT worst you'll have an idea of which direction you CONSISTENTLY estimate - like you'll notice you always think its less than it really is, so fine, add 20% to your estimates when you eat out.
2) In restaurant food, fat is the hidden calorie demon. At home I use probably half as much oil as most recipes call for because I don't like an oily mouth feel on my veggies or pasta (unless I'm soaking bread in it, in which case, bring it on). But when I eat out, I assume that they do not skimp the way I do - and I especially watch the bottom of my plate or the food itself to see if I can visually see oil. usually that gives me a decentish idea of how much oil there might be, based on how a similar food looks when I cook it at home and what similar recipes call for. Also watch out for sauces that contain oil, those are very hard to see.
3) I'll ask if something has cream or butter in it, especially stuff like creamy looking sauces and soups which can look similar but have totally wildy varying amounts of cream depending on the other ingredients, whether the soup is blended, etc. In general, if they say yes to cream in the soup, I'll just plain avoid it unless its a really small portion. So I guess "watch out for sauces in general" is a good rule.
4) I look at similar foods posted on chain restaurant websites and also recipes and use those to assist me in guessing.
5) I don't say **** it but I try to limit the foods that I can't estimate well. Fried foods can be hard to estimate. Pizza is night *impossible* because the oil in the crust and sauce can vary wildly and its really hard to judge how much cheese is on there, etc. I might be better at those foods if they were things I cooked at home ever but they aren't so, I don't get them (much) if I'm trying to strictly count.
So I guess the tl;dr version is "when in doubt, assume there's more fat in the meal than you would normally cook with, and add a couple tablespoons of oil to your diary. "0 -
I just eat negative calorie foods...so that makes it simple. :bigsmile:
Seems legit.0 -
I recently bought a scale, and now I keep even keep a measuring cup and tablespoon at the office. So when I can, I measure measure measure....
But what do you do if you go out to eat? I'm young, I'm single, I live in an amazing city with so many awesome restaurants, it would be a shame not to enjoy them once in a while... Do you have any insight? I guess, or sometimes I just say F it and screw up my entire day. The latter I know is not the solution.
Just estimate as best you can. If you have unexpected weight gains/losses or stalls, it is an indication you are over/underestimating. People should not be changing their lifestyle due to not being able to accurately log, they just need to bear it in mind as a factor in the whole process.
^ This needs to be repeated.
I'm not writing this to suggest that everyone needs to change their life in order to be more accurate. It's just that if you're not meeting expectations and you think something is up with your metabolism/etc, THEN you should consider taking a look at intake accuracy because you'll probably find out you're not tracking/measuring/etc properly.0 -
I recently bought a scale, and now I keep even keep a measuring cup and tablespoon at the office. So when I can, I measure measure measure....
But what do you do if you go out to eat? I'm young, I'm single, I live in an amazing city with so many awesome restaurants, it would be a shame not to enjoy them once in a while... Do you have any insight? I guess, or sometimes I just say F it and screw up my entire day. The latter I know is not the solution.
Just estimate as best you can. If you have unexpected weight gains/losses or stalls, it is an indication you are over/underestimating. People should not be changing their lifestyle due to not being able to accurately log, they just need to bear it in mind as a factor in the whole process.
^ This needs to be repeated.
I'm not writing this to suggest that everyone needs to change their life in order to be more accurate. It's just that if you're not meeting expectations and you think something is up with your metabolism/etc, THEN you should consider taking a look at intake accuracy because you'll probably find out you're not tracking/measuring/etc properly.
Every aspect of measuring calories in and calories out borders on wild *kitten* guessing. Still, it's the best thing we've got. I'm steadily adjusting my estimates to ever more conservative numbers (trying to overestimate food, counting only half of what my HRM says I'm burning) till I'm on a fairly consistent downward trajectory with my weight. It's a slow process, made slower by the fact that I want to keep eating more than I should.0 -
I'm one of the odd ones in that even though I've been at this 500+ days, I'm still in love with my food scale and still weigh everything I eat. I freely admit I'm a bit anal about it and it drives my husband nuts. I think cereal and pasta were the most depressing things to learn the true serving size of, lol.
I think another thing to point out is to pay attention to pre-recorded foods in the database ... I've seen some chicken breast entries in there that range from 15 to 60 calories an ounce ... for plain boneless skinless chicken breast. I know I've viewed some people's diaries and saw that the item they chose from the database is no where near the true calorie count of the item. If the calories of an item in the database seem too good to be true, they probably are. When in doubt, look up the nutritional value on a separate site and plug in your own entry if you can't find an accurate one.1 -
I eat out ALL the time so I have a lot of strategies for 'better' estimation.
1) don't just weigh your food at home, challenge yourself to estimate how much it is and then weigh it. This works better for some foods than others. so I'd get a piece of meat or some cheese, for example, that I wanted to eat. Look at it and say "I think this is about an ounce" - then weigh it and see how far off you are. At best you'll become a better estimator. AT worst you'll have an idea of which direction you CONSISTENTLY estimate - like you'll notice you always think its less than it really is, so fine, add 20% to your estimates when you eat out.
2) In restaurant food, fat is the hidden calorie demon. At home I use probably half as much oil as most recipes call for because I don't like an oily mouth feel on my veggies or pasta (unless I'm soaking bread in it, in which case, bring it on). But when I eat out, I assume that they do not skimp the way I do - and I especially watch the bottom of my plate or the food itself to see if I can visually see oil. usually that gives me a decentish idea of how much oil there might be, based on how a similar food looks when I cook it at home and what similar recipes call for. Also watch out for sauces that contain oil, those are very hard to see.
3) I'll ask if something has cream or butter in it, especially stuff like creamy looking sauces and soups which can look similar but have totally wildy varying amounts of cream depending on the other ingredients, whether the soup is blended, etc. In general, if they say yes to cream in the soup, I'll just plain avoid it unless its a really small portion. So I guess "watch out for sauces in general" is a good rule.
4) I look at similar foods posted on chain restaurant websites and also recipes and use those to assist me in guessing.
5) I don't say **** it but I try to limit the foods that I can't estimate well. Fried foods can be hard to estimate. Pizza is night *impossible* because the oil in the crust and sauce can vary wildly and its really hard to judge how much cheese is on there, etc. I might be better at those foods if they were things I cooked at home ever but they aren't so, I don't get them (much) if I'm trying to strictly count.
So I guess the tl;dr version is "when in doubt, assume there's more fat in the meal than you would normally cook with, and add a couple tablespoons of oil to your diary. "
These are great suggestions! When I go out, I usually order foods I don't usually make at home (last week I had thai red curry, tomorrow I'm going to an Indian restaurant), so I often don't even know where to start guessing. So my homework is to look up how some of these dishes are made to get an idea.
I really love this group. Thanks all for your suggestions and being supportive of a sustainable lifestyle change!0 -
These are great suggestions! When I go out, I usually order foods I don't usually make at home (last week I had thai red curry, tomorrow I'm going to an Indian restaurant), so I often don't even know where to start guessing. So my homework is to look up how some of these dishes are made to get an idea.
I really love this group. Thanks all for your suggestions and being supportive of a sustainable lifestyle change!
Those cuisines are unfortunately really great examples of types of food where wild variation in fat means calorie counting them is NUTS *but* in general Indian people will tell you that most Indian food made in restaurants uses a lot more ghee (clarified butter) and coconut milk (the super high cal kind) than home made because its a short cut way to make the food taste good. If you get familiar with those cuisines you'll be better at identifying which places do that more than others, but in general find a home cook's recipe and add fat too it, assume that's a lot closer to accurate than what the home cook makes.
Oh and I don't recommend you pull up entries for things like "thai curry" in the food database because you can't tell what people guessed. I usually add the amount of chicken (or whatever) I think I had, the veggies, and put in the rough ingredients of the sauce (skipping calorie free spices).0 -
I watched this video and my response was "Ah crap". I need to get a scale soon. Until then I'll at least make sure my scoops are below the rim. Currently I don't go over the rim but those oats that were measured out were a good bit below the rim. I been messing up.
![:\](https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\")
Thank you for posting it!0 -
I thought I was calorie counting but in fact I think it was more like “Theoretical Calorie Estimation with Black hole weekends where calories don’t count” counting. Caused me to think I must have a much slower metabolism then all of the calculators say.
I swear you just read my mind!!!0 -
Hope I get the same results you're seeing!0
-
Those cuisines are unfortunately really great examples of types of food where wild variation in fat means calorie counting them is NUTS *but* in general Indian people will tell you that most Indian food made in restaurants uses a lot more ghee (clarified butter) and coconut milk (the super high cal kind) than home made because its a short cut way to make the food taste good. If you get familiar with those cuisines you'll be better at identifying which places do that more than others, but in general find a home cook's recipe and add fat too it, assume that's a lot closer to accurate than what the home cook makes.
Oh and I don't recommend you pull up entries for things like "thai curry" in the food database because you can't tell what people guessed. I usually add the amount of chicken (or whatever) I think I had, the veggies, and put in the rough ingredients of the sauce (skipping calorie free spices).
Makes me think I should avoid these places for now, until I get better at estimating portions. And maybe only eat Indian dishes I prepare myself for now. Do you have any suggestions for cuisines that are perhaps "safer" but still kind of "exotic"?0 -
This is a great reminder, thanks. The video Sara posted is scary. I nibble all the time. And my main problem isn't even at home, it's eating out, where you can't measure. I've been eating back about 75% of exercise calories to account for inaccuracies, but I might go down to 50%.0
-
Those cuisines are unfortunately really great examples of types of food where wild variation in fat means calorie counting them is NUTS *but* in general Indian people will tell you that most Indian food made in restaurants uses a lot more ghee (clarified butter) and coconut milk (the super high cal kind) than home made because its a short cut way to make the food taste good. If you get familiar with those cuisines you'll be better at identifying which places do that more than others, but in general find a home cook's recipe and add fat too it, assume that's a lot closer to accurate than what the home cook makes.
Oh and I don't recommend you pull up entries for things like "thai curry" in the food database because you can't tell what people guessed. I usually add the amount of chicken (or whatever) I think I had, the veggies, and put in the rough ingredients of the sauce (skipping calorie free spices).
Makes me think I should avoid these places for now, until I get better at estimating portions. And maybe only eat Indian dishes I prepare myself for now. Do you have any suggestions for cuisines that are perhaps "safer" but still kind of "exotic"?
I wouldn't avoid eating out based on this.0 -
And it frustrates me how different a serving size often is from what's actually in a package. Like a can will say "serving size 1/2 cup, servings per package 6." This would equal 3 cups. But then I measure the whole container and it's only 2 cups. Like seriously off. What's up with that?!?0
-
Those cuisines are unfortunately really great examples of types of food where wild variation in fat means calorie counting them is NUTS *but* in general Indian people will tell you that most Indian food made in restaurants uses a lot more ghee (clarified butter) and coconut milk (the super high cal kind) than home made because its a short cut way to make the food taste good. If you get familiar with those cuisines you'll be better at identifying which places do that more than others, but in general find a home cook's recipe and add fat too it, assume that's a lot closer to accurate than what the home cook makes.
Oh and I don't recommend you pull up entries for things like "thai curry" in the food database because you can't tell what people guessed. I usually add the amount of chicken (or whatever) I think I had, the veggies, and put in the rough ingredients of the sauce (skipping calorie free spices).
Makes me think I should avoid these places for now, until I get better at estimating portions. And maybe only eat Indian dishes I prepare myself for now. Do you have any suggestions for cuisines that are perhaps "safer" but still kind of "exotic"?
I wouldn't avoid eating out based on this.
I wouldn't either, I just try to account for it. Thai food tastes like thai food, Indian food tastes like Indian food, if I want to taste those flavors then that's what I'm gonna have. (especially thai food). But if you just want to experience other flavors and don't SPECIFICALLY want those, vietnamese and Japanese have some 'safer' options.
I don't wanna hijack this thread anymore, but message me and we can talk.0 -
The package usually has the weight of the serving too which is much more accurate. Also cooking can mess with the volume. Compare 3 cups of raw spinach to what it cooks like after being cook for a hour.And it frustrates me how different a serving size often is from what's actually in a package. Like a can will say "serving size 1/2 cup, servings per package 6." This would equal 3 cups. But then I measure the whole container and it's only 2 cups. Like seriously off. What's up with that?!?0 -
The package usually has the weight of the serving too which is much more accurate. Also cooking can mess with the volume. Compare 3 cups of raw spinach to what it cooks like after being cook for a hour.And it frustrates me how different a serving size often is from what's actually in a package. Like a can will say "serving size 1/2 cup, servings per package 6." This would equal 3 cups. But then I measure the whole container and it's only 2 cups. Like seriously off. What's up with that?!?
I get your point but why would anyone cook spinach for a hour??0 -
The package usually has the weight of the serving too which is much more accurate. Also cooking can mess with the volume. Compare 3 cups of raw spinach to what it cooks like after being cook for a hour.And it frustrates me how different a serving size often is from what's actually in a package. Like a can will say "serving size 1/2 cup, servings per package 6." This would equal 3 cups. But then I measure the whole container and it's only 2 cups. Like seriously off. What's up with that?!?
I get your point but why would anyone cook spinach for a hour??
Wait! What? You shouldn't??
0 -
This is a great reminder, thanks. The video Sara posted is scary. I nibble all the time. And my main problem isn't even at home, it's eating out, where you can't measure. I've been eating back about 75% of exercise calories to account for inaccuracies, but I might go down to 50%.
You should assess how your results are before changing your habits. If you are losing at a reasonable rate, why change?0 -
I was really guilty of this when I started out. When I actually started measuring things I was actually eating 3 more servings that I "eye balled"
It really makes a difference0 -
What do you guys do about alcohol and fruit juice that you cook with? I heard that it burns off when you cook it down? Should it be logged or not?0
-
great topic!
0 -
What do you guys do about alcohol and fruit juice that you cook with? I heard that it burns off when you cook it down? Should it be logged or not?
Ah, count it.
1 oz in a dish serving 8 people. What's 1/8 ounce in the scheme of other inaccuracies. Make it up with the wine during dinner. ;-)0 -
My name is Natalie and I am a condiment-aholic.... I am convinced that much of my past failures fall at the feet of tomato, BBQ, sweet chilli sacues and the villainous egg-mayo. :sad:0
-
Great post. Some of my coworkers and friends think I am weird for weighing and logging everything. I just tell them, goals are not reached accidentally.
here here!0 -
Great post. Some of my coworkers and friends think I am weird for weighing and logging everything. I just tell them, goals are not reached accidentally.
here here!0
This discussion has been closed.