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Calories I don't count

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  • Posts: 153 Member
    I don't count non-stick spray, gum, the lemon that goes in my water, supplements or meds, coffee, (I do count the half and half), bites of food (if it's just one bite). I used to not count non-starchy veggies but since I'm also watching my carbs, I count them now because the carbs really add up when you eat lots of veggies.
  • Posts: 10,161 Member

    Oh man. I once ran a couple of healthfood/supplement stores. I had heard that all the time - "I don't trust doctors, I trust you." I found that very scary, and always politely told them that I most certainly was not a doctor, and that they should in no way consider anything I said as a medical opinion.

    I didn't last long in that job, I just couldn't stand it.

    That's terrifying and so, so sad.
  • Posts: 1,959 Member

    There's a number on the side of the bottle that should resolve this mystery for you.

    guess I've never really looked.
  • Posts: 2,558 Member
    I have researched what I take and know how it affects me. As for doctors I don't trust all of them, one or 2 I like but many are nothing more than med pushers.

    As I just mentioned, I used to run two healthfood stores. You know what my business was? Selling you stuff. You think I ever told people to go away, improve their diet and take exercise (as most doctors do)? Heck no. Didn't make my bonus that way.

    My staff were trained in the 'triple sell' - sell them something to ease the symptoms, something to prevent, and a 'lifestyle' add on (generally some form of dietary alternative to whatever you point out as being evil in this case).

    "High blood pressure? Step this way, sir to the garlic supplements - garlic is naturally reduces BP. Now you're not taking warfarin are you? Good, good can't take garlic with that. Now you'll need to reduce your stress levels, so let's grab a little lavender oil for a relaxing massage, shall we? And I bet your doctor said to reduce sodium, so allow me to take the liberty of dropping this potassium salt alternative into your basket. Now will there be anything else, sir, or straight to the checkout?"
  • Posts: 137 Member
    I log my coffee because it has potassium! Very few calories, yes. But I like to keep track of the other good stuff in it.
  • Posts: 2,485 Member

    As I just mentioned, I used to run two healthfood stores. You know what my business was? Selling you stuff. You think I ever told people to go away, improve their diet and take exercise (as most doctors do)? Heck no. Didn't make my bonus that way.

    My staff were trained in the 'triple sell' - sell them something to ease the symptoms, something to prevent, and a 'lifestyle' add on (generally some form of dietary alternative to whatever you point out as being evil in this case).

    "High blood pressure? Step this way, sir to the garlic supplements - garlic is naturally reduces BP. Now you're not taking warfarin are you? Good, good can't take garlic with that. Now you'll need to reduce your stress levels, so let's grab a little lavender oil for a relaxing massage, shall we? And I bet your doctor said to reduce sodium, so allow me to take the liberty of dropping this potassium salt alternative into your basket. Now will there be anything else, sir, or straight to the checkout?"

    This. All of this.
  • Posts: 34,415 Member

    guess I've never really looked.

    Well, that's your homework assignment for tomorrow: check your supplements for calorie amounts.

    (Honestly, most of them are probably zero or really close to it...but there are some, in sufficient quantity, that will add up quickly.)
  • Posts: 10,161 Member

    As I just mentioned, I used to run two healthfood stores. You know what my business was? Selling you stuff. You think I ever told people to go away, improve their diet and take exercise (as most doctors do)? Heck no. Didn't make my bonus that way.

    My staff were trained in the 'triple sell' - sell them something to ease the symptoms, something to prevent, and a 'lifestyle' add on (generally some form of dietary alternative to whatever you point out as being evil in this case).

    "High blood pressure? Step this way, sir to the garlic supplements - garlic is naturally reduces BP. Now you're not taking warfarin are you? Good, good can't take garlic with that. Now you'll need to reduce your stress levels, so let's grab a little lavender oil for a relaxing massage, shall we? And I bet your doctor said to reduce sodium, so allow me to take the liberty of dropping this potassium salt alternative into your basket. Now will there be anything else, sir, or straight to the checkout?"

    This is a great, great, great post. Perhaps the best post on the topic I've ever seen.

    Physicians don't make money off drugs. They might be more likely to prescribe certain drugs as a result of marketing and so forth, but their take-home pay is not literally tied to whether you decide to take their drugs. You can't even buy the drugs there - you have to go to the pharmacy for that.

    The people telling you to take milk thistle and garlic, though? All of those people have jobs that rely on either directly selling you that stuff, directly selling literature related to that stuff, or otherwise have incomes that rely on you believing them and buying those items. Or they're simply ignorant (such as friends, family, un-trained un-educated "nutritionists" or "wellness coaches" or whatever).
  • Posts: 860 Member

    ... You take 20 grams of fish oil a day?

    not, it's liquid - 6ml twice daily. I bought it for my kids and they hated it, so now on days when I have calories left over I take some with my dinner to basically empty the bottle. I checked it out on the database and it came up as 90 cal for 6 ml. Ultimately I am not convinced it'll actually improve my life dramatically to reduce my already little calorie allowance by another 180 cal to accommodate it. I'd rather have some ice cream :-)
  • Posts: 10,161 Member

    not, it's liquid - 6ml twice daily. I bought it for my kids and they hated it, so now on days when I have calories left over I take some with my dinner to basically empty the bottle. I checked it out on the database and it came up as 90 cal for 6 ml. Ultimately I am not convinced it'll actually improve my life dramatically to reduce my already little calorie allowance by another 180 cal to accommodate it. I'd rather have some ice cream :-)

    180 calories of oil is 20 grams of fat. So that's at least 20 grams of fish oil.

    That's a TON of fish oil. Like, a serious ton. The typical recommendations are on the order of 1.5 to 3 grams a day, and even those recommendations appear to be too high/unnecessary/potentially deleterious for otherwise-healthy individuals. I'm actually phasing fish oil out entirely because it doesn't seem to actually do much of anything positive if you're a healthy person.
  • Posts: 860 Member

    180 calories of oil is 20 grams of fat. So that's at least 20 grams of fish oil.

    That's a TON of fish oil. Like, a serious ton. The typical recommendations are on the order of 1.5 to 3 grams a day, and even those recommendations appear to be too high/unnecessary/potentially deleterious for otherwise-healthy individuals. I'm actually phasing fish oil out entirely because it doesn't seem to actually do much of anything positive if you're a healthy person.

    it's 11g, but the calories are not on the bottle and not on their website, so I am guessing that unless the person entering it in the database emailed the company they were just guessing. So by that calculation it'll 'only' be 90 calories.

    Anyways it hardly matters, because I don't take it regularly enough (less then once a week actually). I am not a great fan of supplements, I mean if you are actually lacking something like iron, by all means, but since the body just excrete stuff it doesn't need, most people just have expensive pee :-)
  • Posts: 10,161 Member

    it's 11g, but the calories are not on the bottle and not on their website, so I am guessing that unless the person entering it in the database emailed the company they were just guessing. So by that calculation it'll 'only' be 90 calories.

    Anyways it hardly matters, because I don't take it regularly enough (less then once a week actually). I am not a great fan of supplements, I mean if you are actually lacking something like iron, by all means, but since the body just excrete stuff it doesn't need, most people just have expensive pee :-)

    11g of something can be no more than 99 calories. Pure fat is the most calorie-dense nutrient, and pure fat is 9 calories per gram. Don't cheat yourself out of 80 calories of ice cream!
  • Posts: 22,281 Member

    Well, I'm kinda in your camp.

    I don't log coffee but then I have black coffee with satanic sweeter (however coffee is worth 10 cals or so? only have 1-2 cups a day). I do log cappucinos etc.

    I also don't log fish oil capsules that I take after lifting (10 cals?). Fing is, if I took 30-40 pills a day at 10 cals a pill, that's ~400 calories you're not logging.

    :huh: :noway: :devil:
  • Posts: 20 Member

    As I just mentioned, I used to run two healthfood stores. You know what my business was? Selling you stuff. You think I ever told people to go away, improve their diet and take exercise (as most doctors do)? Heck no. Didn't make my bonus that way.

    My staff were trained in the 'triple sell' - sell them something to ease the symptoms, something to prevent, and a 'lifestyle' add on (generally some form of dietary alternative to whatever you point out as being evil in this case).

    "High blood pressure? Step this way, sir to the garlic supplements - garlic is naturally reduces BP. Now you're not taking warfarin are you? Good, good can't take garlic with that. Now you'll need to reduce your stress levels, so let's grab a little lavender oil for a relaxing massage, shall we? And I bet your doctor said to reduce sodium, so allow me to take the liberty of dropping this potassium salt alternative into your basket. Now will there be anything else, sir, or straight to the checkout?"

    I don't post often, but this is a great post.

    On topic-I log my vitamins because they're gummies. It's just a multi plus fiber supplement on days when I'm low only. It is only about 20 cals so it won't make a huge difference anyway.
  • Posts: 3,027 Member
    I am so close to maintenance that I don't log non-starchy veggies. I also don't log coffee, but definitely the creamer I use.


    You do know that even those non-starchy vegetables have calories right? you eat enough of them per day/meal & they add up.




    Why do so many people think that it's ok not to log it if it's 'one banana' or 'one apple' ect when in fact they can have a heck of a lot to do with it all & have a heck of a lot of calories in the end?


    No wonder some people are fat. They just think 'it's ok to not count that cause I burn more off eating it' :noway: :explode:
  • Posts: 99 Member
    I was wondering the same thing
  • Posts: 99 Member
    I have read all of these posts with great interest . "designer food" and "health" shops prey on people. We live in a society that wants the easy fix and a pill for everything. I would suggest taking a serious look at the psychology associated with 40 pills a day. It sounds unbalanced to me and it is highly likely that changing diet and exercise mode would do a better job. I don't know what you are eating but reliance on pills is not a healthy outlook.
  • Posts: 189 Member
    I log everything but my drink squash, because it's something stupid like 3calories per litre.
  • Posts: 577 Member
    I don't count my coffee calories. I will be drinking 1-2 cups of coffee everyday without fail the same way day in day out so I don't count them. I also don't count my supplements. I take a LOT of supplements and I noticed one pill could be 10 calories but I need these. I do stained glass so I handle lead and I need to take supplements to detox that lead out and I also take supplements to keep me healthy and prevent colds and infections I probably take close to 30 or 40 pills every morning.
    Am I the only one who does this? Do all of y'all log everything?

    30 or 40 pills every morning? Holy crap! That's a lot.:noway:
  • Posts: 1,293 Member
    Just for what it's worth, if it is the same exact stuff every day, why would logging it matter?
    In the end, it's not something the OP is likely to binge on. So essentially it's part of the lifestyle. If she wasn't losing weight, she'd cut down on food calories, not supplements, right?

    My coffees clock in at 80-90 calories each, seen as they are half milk, half coffee. I drink several a day, and yes, it is something I need to be quite aware of calorie wise.
  • I don't count black coffee but I do count what goes into it such as the almond milk & stevia. Everything else is meticulously logged, right down to the oil I cook my food in.
  • Posts: 66 Member
    I don't count chewing gum.

    Nor do I count milk in cereal or tea. If I was to have a glass of milk or a lot of it I count it though.
    I don't count tea or coffee itself, though I count the sugar I put in it.
    Another thing I don't count that I probably take a lot of is tomato ketchup.

    If I counted all of these I'd starve myself every day! :D

    Not counting them has worked so far anyway :)
  • Posts: 1,959 Member

    Well, that's your homework assignment for tomorrow: check your supplements for calorie amounts.

    (Honestly, most of them are probably zero or really close to it...but there are some, in sufficient quantity, that will add up quickly.)

    I did log my pills this morning, I take 10 different supplements, only one had calories and it was only 10 cals. I should have been logging them anyways, just for the all the other things they contain. I am a log freak with every-thing else I eat/drink, with the exemption of chewing gum. I figure you don't swallow gum, you chew it and trash it, so why log it.
  • Posts: 10,161 Member

    I did log my pills this morning, I take 10 different supplements, only one had calories and it was only 10 cals. I should have been logging them anyways, just for the all the other things they contain. I am a log freak with every-thing else I eat/drink, with the exemption of chewing gum. I figure you don't swallow gum, you chew it and trash it, so why log it.

    The sugar in the gum dissolves into saliva, which you swallow. That's why gum has calories.
  • Posts: 421 Member
    I usually count calories for everything that I take. A cup of coffee (black) is only going to be like 2 calories though, so its probably okay not to count it. The supplements could be adding up though. 10x40 is 400 calories. So if every pill you have to take is 10 calories, you could be eating a whole 400 calories that you haven't been counting. If you put creamer or sugar in your coffee then I would count those as well because creamer/sugar can add up fast.
  • Posts: 421 Member
    I don't count chewing gum.

    Nor do I count milk in cereal or tea. If I was to have a glass of milk or a lot of it I count it though.
    I don't count tea or coffee itself, though I count the sugar I put in it.
    Another thing I don't count that I probably take a lot of is tomato ketchup.

    If I counted all of these I'd starve myself every day! :D

    Not counting them has worked so far anyway :)

    When you have cereal I would think that you are having 1/2 -1 cup of milk in it, so I would log that. Depending on what kind of milk you have that could be 100 calories or so.
  • Posts: 1,907 Member
    I'm sure I miss plenty of things, but I try to log everything I eat and drink just to have an accurate record.
  • Posts: 817 Member
    I don't count tea either because I drink a lit of herbal tea or green tea. Never add milk or sugar to my tea.

    I count coffee because its usually a latte type of coffee.

    Never count water or vitamins.
  • Posts: 4 Member
    I don't count my coffee or my vitamins/supplements. My coffee, while it does have creamer and stevia in it, is something that WILL NOT change. For one, I love it. The taste is something I look forward to every morning and two, I'm full time college and 30+ hours a week in grocery retail management. I need the pick me up. As for my supplements, the 30 calories in my calcium chews are negligible when compared to the long term benefits I think.
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