Very nice article...

but I always get out PB with a tablespoon.... what am I supposed to do... put it on a scale everytime...

I do use measuring cups to get cottage cheese out, veggies, and such.. I use the food scale for some things - like I'll put avocado in a plastic bowl and set it on the scale because all the avocados are different sizes and it helps me know the exact calories to log.

It's up to you.

What I do is get a 'feel' for a serving size by weighing it at first. For some food items I will just eyeball it after that. It doesn't really matter. What does matter is if you are not seeing the progress you are expecting - this is the first thing to look at as the culprit.

Also, peanut butter (and others but peanut butter was mentioned and is awesome) is pretty calorie dense. A tablespoon is almost 100 calories so being just a little bit off (like having a heaping tablespoon that's actually two) can have a pretty good impact in your budget.

Such an awesome post. I love my little scale it really shows me how much a serving is. I also stay away from condiments to hard to measure accurately for me. I use a lot of lemon and lime for flavor on salad. I won't let anyone fix my coffee at home because I know they won't measure out my cream. 15 calories a tbsp. Adds up fast!!! Before I started logging my food my husband or son would bring a cup of coffee to me in bed. They laugh at me now because I don't trust them anymore! They just dump it in thinking I worry too much.....I am working too hard to let the hidden calories to sabatoge my goals!

Since this post went up, I've been weighing even more of my food - namely everything that has a weighted serving size on the nutrition label.

Recently I've reintroduced bacon into my diet (YAY BACON!). The nutrition label gives me information for the uncooked amount. For the last week or so I've been logging the full uncooked amount but I decided to see the difference in the cooked weight thereafter. One slice of bacon went from 30g uncooked to 10g cooked.

Would you err on the side of uncooked or use the cooked weight? We're talking 97.5 cals uncooked to 32.5 cals cooked for one slice.

I would think the uncooked weight but, being a vegetarian, I may not be the best person to answer. Does it not say on the packaging?

From this: http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/bacon-cooked it looks like the lower number may be correct (although it does not give the weight).

Since this post went up, I've been weighing even more of my food - namely everything that has a weighted serving size on the nutrition label.

Recently I've reintroduced bacon into my diet (YAY BACON!). The nutrition label gives me information for the uncooked amount. For the last week or so I've been logging the full uncooked amount but I decided to see the difference in the cooked weight thereafter. One slice of bacon went from 30g uncooked to 10g cooked.

Would you err on the side of uncooked or use the cooked weight? We're talking 97.5 cals uncooked to 32.5 cals cooked for one slice.

I would think the uncooked weight but, being a vegetarian, I may not be the best person to answer. Does it not say on the packaging?

From this: http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/bacon-cooked it looks like the lower number may be correct (although it does not give the weight).

Looks like 50-55 cals for 10g cooked is an average estimate. I guess I'll stick with that and see how it affects my overall changes.

Thanks for the info!

Stealing from Sublog's wall:

http://www.fitnessfactreview.com/the-art-science-of-calorie-counting/

Counting Calories: It’s A Science, NOT An Art

Counting Calories Accurately

Counting calories is a tough mindset for people to get into, so usually they just guess. Then they have a tremendously difficult time understanding why they are not losing weight even though they are sure they are “only eating X calories”. They swear up and down that they are counting calories accurately, and then the truth comes out. They are guessing at portion sizes, they are not weighing things, they are using generic brands, etc. Unfortunately, we often see what we want to believe, so you must assume that every estimation you make will be too low, even if you try to overestimate. The only fix for this is to be as precise as possible.

This level of precision is not necessary for everyone. If you are losing fat as expected by guessing or being less precise, then good for you. This advice is meant for those that think they are tracking accurately, but somehow still are not losing fat as measured over at least a 3 week period. If that’s the case, you need to crack down.

Counting Calories: Tips & Methods

First, sign up for MyFitnessPal. It has the largest food database of them all. Others may work, but I will base these instructions off MFP since that’s what I know.

Everything needs to be weighed, so buy a kitchen scale. Find one that is digital and can do both metric and imperial (grams and ounces). Weigh in grams if possible though, it’s more accurate for counting calories.

Free-pouring liquids (milk, juice) and tiny ingredients like spices, baking soda, etc, can be measured by volume, not weight. This means cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc.

Never, ever, use normal silverware to estimate a teaspoon or tablespoon, they are not even close.

Stuff like peanut butter, honey, mayo, mustard, ketchup, etc, are not considered free-pouring, so weigh them. A lot of people become very sad when they weigh their peanut butter for the first time.

Oatmeal is not a free pouring liquid. That means it must be weighed, not measured in a cup. A true 1/2 cup of oatmeal is 40g and 150 calories. When most people use a 1/2 cup measure, they get closer to 60g, which is about 220 calories. Same goes for stuff like rice, broccoli, etc. They are not free-pouring liquids, so get the scale out.

A banana is not a free-pouring liquid, so guess what? That’s right, it’s not “1/2 of a medium banana”, it’s “57g of banana”.

Never record “1 chicken breast” or “1 pork chop”. Use “126g lean white chicken, roasted”, or “227g boneless pork loin, broiled”.

If a food listed in MFP only has a volume measurement and it’s not a free pouring liquid, ignore it, go the label or the producer’s website and find the calories by weight. If this fails, consider not eating that food. I’m not kidding.

Nothing is ever measured as “heaping”, you always level off the tops of measuring cups.

Always weigh things, even meat, raw wherever possible, because food loses or gains water and therefore weight during cooking.

Nutrition labels must specify pre-cooked weight, unless it’s a packaged, cooked food, in which case it lists the cooked weight. Take this into account.

When weighing “sticky” foods like mayo, put your bread on the scale, zero it out. Then apply the mayo and record the net amount. This way you are not guessing about the amount left sticking to the spreader and whatnot.

Similarly, you don’t guess at 1 tbsp of ketchup on those eggs, you put the plate of eggs on the scale, zero it out, squirt on the ketchup, weigh it.

Splenda has calories, 4 per gram. Record it.

Cooking spray has calories, 7 per 1 second of spray (it’s rounded down on the label per 1/4 second spray). Record it.

Cream in your coffee? Weigh it and record it. Don’t assume a “splash” is one tablespoon, it’s usually closer to three.

Do not pick “generic” anything in the database if you know the brand. There are differences in calories between Kraft, Skippy, Hellman’s, etc that really do matter.

If the info on a food looks suspect, check the number of confirmations from MFP users. If it has less than half a dozen, go look it up yourself on the label or website. Do this anyway for foods you eat a lot, it may expose errors when counting calories and macros.

For recipes, set them up in MFP, and record the entire dish size by weight. So you weigh the whole damn casserole, then you weigh your portion of it, and record the number of portions from that. You don’t estimate with crap like “1 bowl” or the like. Yes, this might require that you weigh your casserole dishes and write them down and do some math. It’s a bit of work, but only has to be done once for any given recipe.

If someone else cooks your meals for you, get their recipes and enter them in MFP. If you can’t do this for some reason, stop eating what they make and start cooking for yourself. What’s the alternative? Well, you can keep guessing and stay fat.

Record your frequent meals as food groupings in MFP under the “My Meals” tab for quick recall. This is a huge time saver because you can add your common meals from this list and then adjust portions if need be for that particular meal (like mustard on the sandwich today instead of mayo for example). Recipes are less flexible.

http://www.fitnessfactreview.com/the-art-science-of-calorie-counting/


Note: we are not saying that everyone be this anal - just these are the things that you need to look to if your results are not what you expect

Last comment about not everyone needs to be that anal - but actually, for one week, probably not a bad idea even if you are losing fat. Because eventually it might not be that easy.

Some of those are incredible surprises. And I'm an admitted terrible estimator.

For recipes, set them up in MFP, and record the entire dish size by weight. So you weigh the whole damn casserole, then you weigh your portion of it, and record the number of portions from that. You don’t estimate with crap like “1 bowl” or the like. Yes, this might require that you weigh your casserole dishes and write them down and do some math. It’s a bit of work, but only has to be done once for any given recipe.

Brilliant!

Thanks for posting this. The reason I try to eat at a 500 caloire per day deficit is because I constantly worry about accuracy when logging food. I weigh with a kitchen scale but it can not weight to the accuracy that my lab scales do at work. I try really hard to make sure to use measuring sppons and cups for products where the serving is stated in ml rather than grams. And I weigh everything else.

Still I feel like there could be room for error and there is a huge margin for error allowed on package labeling.

So my 500 calorie deficit is probably more like a 250-350 calorie deficit.

Hence why if I allowed myself a 250/day deficit I'd never lose weight.

Great Post. I’m pretty sure I have made all of the mistakes you mentioned. 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.

After measuring and weighing everything (condiments included, only thing I won’t weigh anymore is pre sliced items like bread where any variance per slice is small and even’s out over time). No going out on weekends and binging and not logging. The weight is falling off (13 lbs in 4 weeks) and is causing me to suspect my metabolism might actually be faster than the calculators and I may need to raise my calories so I’m not losing too fast and compromising muscle mass.

Again good post. I am now a firm believer in the first corrective action a person should take when they are not losing (or gaining if that is their goal) is tightening up there tracking to make sure they are in fact eating the amount they think they are.

awesome!!

Great post, I was guilty for not adding drinks, oj is packed with calories.....

awesome post

Just got my digital scale. Ready to move to the next level now.

Maybe i was over eating a bit...

save

I didn't see it elsewhere but a helpful hint for weighing things like yogurt or peanut butter that stick to the spoon or whatever is to put the whole container on the scale and zero it out. As you take it out you'll have a negative number on the scale which is how much you've actually removed from the container. That way when there's a spoonful for the bowl and a spoonful for me I have a more accurate representation of how much I've actually taken out of the jar.

I use this method, specifically so I can lick the spoon.

My scales don't have negative weights, so I put the container I'm putting the yoghurt into, or the toast I'm putting the peanut butter on, or whatever, on the scale and zero it. I also have a table recorded of the weights of all of my containers like my measuring cups and so on.

I use a combination of cups and weight - and I've measured out the weight that fits into a cup for my foods. So for instance I know I have a 1/2 a cup of oats in the morning, and I know that's x grammes, because I weighed it the other day.