Does anybody else have trouble measuring food or exercise?

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richymets
richymets Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have some difficulty when trying to measure store bought chicken cutlets out of purdue packaging or deli meats,PB&J,bagel w cream cheese etc..... Also when I strength train with different sets and play basketball it is quite difficult to calculate. I am thinking it may be best to just not calculate some things. What to you think?

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  • Beezil
    Beezil Posts: 1,677 Member
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    For me, I had to invest in a digital food scale pretty quickly after a started counting calories - it's maddening to do without one, honestly. Also, with the scale, you can use one container for weighing all your solids instead of dirtying up a bunch of different cups / measuring spoons etc. and just use the "tare" button to cut off the weight of the container before putting the foods in.

    As for exercise, unless you want to invest in a HRM, you will have to estimate calorie burns. There are some decent ones online that can be more accurate than the MFP estimations, but you will need to check your heart rate at the most intense point of exercise as well as right after you have finished exercise. The online calculators usually ask weight / height / age / sex / activity level, then the time spent exercising and you can input your heart rate too I think.
  • mxmkenney
    mxmkenney Posts: 486 Member
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    The best way to measure your food is by weight. Get yourself a kitchen scale that measures in ounces and grams. Especially for things like peanut butter or cream cheese. Weight your bread/bagel, whatever without and then again with the spread to get the accurate weight. If you can weigh it out you are going to get a much more accurate number than if you measure with measuring cups/spoons.

    As for exercise, I tend to err on the side of estimating to little rather than too much. If I run for 45 minutes at 10-11 mph, I will always go for the 11 mph. And A LOT of the caloric burns from exercise listed on MFP are way too high. For most I subtract by 25%. Like I said, it's better to under-estimate calories burned especially if you plan on eating them back.
  • richymets
    richymets Posts: 2 Member
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    Thanks for the tips. Definitely have to go out and buy a scale.
  • AlysonG2
    AlysonG2 Posts: 713 Member
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    Definitely get a scale. I was overestimating my calories by 300-400 a day and really struggling to lose weight until I bought one.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    Thanks for the tips. Definitely have to go out and buy a scale.

    For exercise many people use a different calculator....one with exercise built in.

    TDEE would include everything.....so you just take a number off the top. 500 calories for 1 pound a week or use a percentage.

    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    As long as you actually do the exercise you're good to go.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Before I started using my food scale I was eating around 400 - 600 calories more per day than I realized due to eyeball a lot of things and miss-measuring lots of others. Definitely a food scale. I still use mine, though not so religiously as I used to...it was a great tool to help me learn how to actually see what actual recommended portions look like.

    As far as figuring out calorie burns from lifting, that's pretty much futile...there are just too many variables involved with lifting, not to mention the after burn. Most people, including myself who make lifting a substantial part of their fitness regimen switch over to the TDEE method. TeaBea gave you a good calculator link. You'll likely have to make some adjustments as per real world results, but it's a whole hell of a lot easier than trying to figure out exactly how much you're burning.
  • Eric_DeCastro
    Eric_DeCastro Posts: 767 Member
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    I have a digital food scale and an HRM. measure food and heart rate/ calories.
  • edalvara
    edalvara Posts: 10
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    use TDEE to calculate your required calories instead of trying to estimate what you used while exercising.

    eat to perform has a good tdee calculator that i have found to be pretty good for my uses.

    Eating about 10-15% below tdee ive managed to lose over 1.5% body fat while gaining small amounts (primarily maintaining) lean muscle mass.

    For food use a scale, read the lables and dont simply estimate...

    i was estimating the pita wrap bread and sandwhich bread from my works gym food selection and it turns out i was off by about 150 calories and 30g of carbs... (underestimated)

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