Worst Choice

runnin0nbravado

So, when I can't find what I'm looking for in the food database.. and I have no idea what the nutritional value is for something (for example if I eat out somewhere that isn't listed in the database), I obviously choose the closest thing to what I'm looking for. If there is more than one choice, I choose the worst one there is.. to be safe. I'd rather think I was eating more than think I was eating less.

Is this a good and/or common practice?

Elokyn

That's exactly what I do!

catfan

Me to!!

bbblue92

Yup! Me too!

justann

Me too!

qtpie7603

Me too Glad other people are doing the same thing!

runnin0nbravado

Is anyone else nervous about not actually meeting their calorie goal when you think you are? Everything I've read on here about eating enough calories says scary things like sending your body into starvation mode and stuff. I guess it doesn't happen often enough to worry about that, right?

sniffles

Yeah, I'm not sure it's the best policy. You might be going under your calories OR over, neither of which is very good.

I wouldn't worry about starvation mode but I WOULD worry about the effects of eating too little. Eating too little can cause fatigue, sluggishness, crabbiness... etc. Do you really want to feel miserable while on this journey? Probably not, so it's best to figure out exactly how much you're eating.

andyroy

Those warnings spooked me a bit at first too. Now I worry less. One of the main reasons is that on many days I go a little over, on others under. In the long run, as long as we're in the ballpark, it seems like we should be on track for our goals.

I also think (some biologist might explain why I'm mistaken) that the dividing of our lives into 24-hour increments makes things easy to monitor, plan, and calculate on a website like this. However, that division might be more arbitrary from your body's perspective. It's not like your metabolism stops at midnight, takes inventory, then starts up with a clean slate for the next day. It's a constant ongoing process. So if you have a day where you come up short, but have a good breakfast the next morning, did you really have a "bad day" or did you have a few "bad" hours? Does that make sense? I would love to learn whether I'm on the right track with that. Meanwhile, it makes sense to me and helps me not to sweat the small stuff too too much. Cheers!

oliviarolfe

i fine my problem is when i eat at home. i love to make a lot of hoem cooked meals and i can never fine these online. i also make a lot from scratch and dont no what the nutrional value of my ingredients are... i always fresh whole grain healthy products but it always so difficult to figure it out.

nicolina823

i fine my problem is when i eat at home. i love to make a lot of hoem cooked meals and i can never fine these online. i also make a lot from scratch and dont no what the nutrional value of my ingredients are... i always fresh whole grain healthy products but it always so difficult to figure it out.

You should use Sparkpeople recipe calculator. You can put in full amouts of everything you are cooking with and then divide it by how many servings. Once you have the label you can just record it once on here.

Works like a charm.

lculian

I don't go by worst choice so much as closest match. I also try to be sure that I only have a few things a week that I can not verify. I am a huge advocate of eatting your calories, because for me it has worked in weight lost and inches lost! My suggestion would be don't over think it. Just try to limit your unknown calories to a few times a week(especially if it is the larger part of your meal, a small unknown snack is probably not going to impact you as much as an unknown dinner item). I think overall it sounds like you are trying to be realistic and healthy keep it up!!!!

cardswimmom

I find that if I give myself a meal off a week or even a day off a week it helps me not to feel like I'm depriving myself. It has worked for me, just saying!