I would love some advice about calories...
Brit999
Posts: 6
Hi all, thank you for reading my thread.
I have never dieted before. I have never even looked at the ingredients of what I have been eating. Anyway, I packed in smoking about 10 weeks ago and I have put weight on. I now feel overweight and feel that I look that way as well. However I have made the first step and started to look for the information I need to help me lose a little weight. That is where I would like to ask your advice.
I cook everything myself. I have been using the Food tools here to make the recipes that I am eating. So the first question I am asking is this:
If I choose an item described as uncooked and then cook it will it be roughly the same calories afterwards?
And secondly:
I have completed the food diary with everything I have eaten, and all of my drinks. The website told me my daily allowance of calories. However I have come in quite a bit under the calorie allowance, is this normal when you first start a diet? (I have eaten quite well, I have just cut out all snacks etc.).
Third:
Will my calorie allowance change when (IF) I lose some weight?
Thank you for reading, and for any help you might be able to give me.
I have never dieted before. I have never even looked at the ingredients of what I have been eating. Anyway, I packed in smoking about 10 weeks ago and I have put weight on. I now feel overweight and feel that I look that way as well. However I have made the first step and started to look for the information I need to help me lose a little weight. That is where I would like to ask your advice.
I cook everything myself. I have been using the Food tools here to make the recipes that I am eating. So the first question I am asking is this:
If I choose an item described as uncooked and then cook it will it be roughly the same calories afterwards?
And secondly:
I have completed the food diary with everything I have eaten, and all of my drinks. The website told me my daily allowance of calories. However I have come in quite a bit under the calorie allowance, is this normal when you first start a diet? (I have eaten quite well, I have just cut out all snacks etc.).
Third:
Will my calorie allowance change when (IF) I lose some weight?
Thank you for reading, and for any help you might be able to give me.
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Replies
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Your daily allowance is taken from the Basal Metabolic Rate (MBR), and part of this calculation is your weight. So therefore losing weight will decrease your daily calorie intake allowance.
I weigh 82kg and required 2,200 a day to maintain my weight, but a colleague who weighs over 140kg needs over 3,300 to maintain his weight (we are both male and of the same height etc). Your heart obviously has to do more work, as well as your legs carrying more weight.
Not sure about the cooking malarkey...
Hope that helps a bit.0 -
I've often wondered about calorie counts changing with cooking too!
Aside from the obvious if you add fat to cook, count that too I don't know the answer but then counting calories is all a bit hit and miss anyway so even with rigorous logging of calories eaten and burned during exercise, it's never 100% accurate so it's probably not going to make that much of a difference in the long run. Just log as best you can, be honest with yourself (ie don't forget the butter for the toast or the dollop of sauce on the bacon sarnie!) and it should work out ok.
Good luck and well done on giving up smoking - best thing I ever did
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Cooking won't change the calories by any negligible amount
Try not to eat too much under your calorie allowance, it's pretty unhealthy which kind of defeats the point
Unless your calorie allowance is 1200 already MFP will prompt you to recalculate every 10 lbs you lose.0 -
It's what you add to an uncooked item of food along with how you cook it that would change it's calorie value - deep frying chips is going add more calories then baking them, for example.
As for how much you're eating, in terms of calories, there are numerous debates on these forums on how much and what you should be eating to lose weight.
I've set my limits using TDEE -20% (TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and used an earlier version of this post as a guidance.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912920-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-20130 -
If you are cooking with other things, then You'd have to add those things as well. So if you have your meat, cooked in olive oil with onions... then you'd have to count the 1 tsp of olive oil, and 1/2 cup of chopped onions with your piece of pork or whatever you used. Nutritionally speaking, they should be relatively the same.
I come in under my Calorie allotment majority of days. I think I have been over only once... So, i wouldn't worry about not eating enough, especially if you are filled and satisfied with what you are eating. That's my opinion though. I'd stay at least within a decent amount of your range and eat snacks or something if you are working out as well.
Like for my example: I am trying to stay within my calorie range 1600-ish and usually eat about 1300-1400 daily. I workout. When i workout, i try to at least eat a snack afterwards to help with the deficit of nutrients and drink plenty of water! So it probably looks better on my calorie count closer to 1500-1600. Honestly, eating 1600 can be difficult, if I'm eating well enough, like I should be! If i'm eating more junky foods, like peanut M&Ms, then i'm a lot closer to 1600 but I really need to not eat those....0 -
i weigh everything that i've cooked onto my plate otherwise i find it impossible to calculate, yes it will ask you to recalculate when you lose enough.
Utterly fabulous and brilliant that you've kicked the *kitten* into touch, I gave up for the final time over a year ago now and will never do it again, I still want one now and again but hey ho!0 -
Thank you so much to everyone for their informative replies. I really truly appreciate every single thing that has been said, it has given me so much food (LOL) for thought!
I am a little under my calories tonight, but I did allow myself a small beer as it is the weekend.
Still not had a cake or any choccy this week 0 -
Cooking (unless you fry) won't change the calorie content, but it may change the weight, so check whether the value per weight is for uncooked or cooked weight. So 100g of dry rice has a different calorie value to 100g of cooked rice.0
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Cooking (unless you fry) won't change the calorie content, but it may change the weight, so check whether the value per weight is for uncooked or cooked weight. So 100g of dry rice has a different calorie value to 100g of cooked rice.
I have been using the recipe maker on this site to find the ingredients, including oils and butter.
I also made apple cinnamon bread today, with sultanas. Covered them with Icing.
They are still on the counter, and I have not been even been tempted!
BTW if anyone is interested they came in just over 150 caleries for each roll (I know because I threw the ingredients into the magic recipe thing on this site!!!).
Thanks to everyone for helping me with answers to my questions.0
