Can we really know our calorie intake... really?

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  • Rilke
    Rilke Posts: 1,201 Member
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    No, we can't. Even nutrition facts on packaged foods are not always accurate. And restaurants certainly aren't.

    It's more about mindfulness than exact numbers.
  • benflando
    benflando Posts: 193
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    Yes. Weigh your food.
  • jwesterm
    jwesterm Posts: 6
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    This is a good video to watch in regards to nutritional information and how not-so sure we can be about it.

    http://youtu.be/hE2lna5Wxuo

    In short it is a study about foods using a calorimeter machine and lots of math to best estimate how off the nutritional values are. Keep in mind these values are not heavily monitored by the FDA to be correct only that the product has them.
  • Skrib69
    Skrib69 Posts: 687 Member
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    Short answer - No, we can't.

    Long answer - like finishes on natural products, there is a get-out clause to say that the finish won't be consistent. Food is the same - it's a natural product and won't be consistent. Unless of course you eat mass produced synthetic crap, in which case you wouldn't be reading this......
  • AbbyPDX
    AbbyPDX Posts: 64 Member
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    Thanks all for your thoughts. I do weigh my food but was saying even for "1/2 cup quinoa" I see different calorie counts for dry on here. I guess I need to start taking a pen and paper to the grocery store and writing the content off the bulk section (where I buy the majority of my grains). I do weigh my steak, but my point was that there are different cuts and even within that cut some are fattier/denser than others so you can't know for sure.

    I guess this was a little bit of a sarcastic push at those who tell me they eat "1557 calories a day" and I'm thinking... come on.

    I log everything, tend to over estimate instead of under estimating and generally still presume I'm at least 100 cals over whatever I logged. Thanks!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    I guess I need to start taking a pen and paper to the grocery store and writing the content off the bulk section (where I buy the majority of my grains). I do weigh my steak, but my point was that there are different cuts and even within that cut some are fattier/denser than others so you can't know for sure.

    That's exactly what I do in RE to the grains, etc. For meats I just do my best...I get a lot of my meat at Costco and it has nutritional info on their packages so I just go with that, but it's never going to be exact. None-the-less, I've had a great deal of success. Biggest thing for me was just learning proper portion size and portion control.
  • jukyu
    jukyu Posts: 80 Member
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    Unless you weigh your food to the gram and know precisely what ingredients were used in preparation, no. But there are plenty of food where an estimate is a safe bet.
  • rosemaryhon
    rosemaryhon Posts: 507 Member
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    ...You know why it is so useful though? The act of recording makes us more aware about our choices on a daily basis, which causes us to reduce snacking, exercise better portion control, increase activity and so on...


    I totally agree here ^^.

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