Feeling the need to whinge about calories for a bit

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2

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  • DoingTheNeedful
    DoingTheNeedful Posts: 23 Member
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    Gosh. Sorry. I guess I'm all amped up over this today, and thank you all for reading this nonsense. If you're not reading it, well, that's okay too.

    Like, I've got the stuff to make breakfast burritos, because the family loves the burritos and I like making them. 12 eggs, a pound of pork breakfast sausage, a package of potatoes o'brien, and some shredded cheese. So I mean, am I going to cook together all the stuff, weigh the stuff (say it comes out to a nice even 48 ounces or whatever, if I'm lucky), and then scoop out the exact same amount into each tortilla?

    If I'm making hamburgers, am I going to make each meat-wad the exact same weight before cooking it?

    If I'm making beef stew in the crock pot, am I going to dump the piping-hot contents of the crock pot into a mixing bowl so I can measure it, get its full weight, and then measure whatever fraction I take from it?

    Y'all get where I'm coming from. I could estimate, make guesses, but people are notoriously bad at doing exactly that, which is why we have scales and things.

    How about a kickstarter for some kinda sonic screwdriver sized device that you can scan a bit of food and it'll tell you everything you need to know about it?
  • tulips_and_tea
    tulips_and_tea Posts: 5,715 Member
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    Thanks everyone. I've been doing this a long time, and you'd think I'd know when I'm overthinking things, and then stop doing that. There's just a lot of elements to life and food that irritate the heck out of me when it comes to calories and macronutrients.

    Like, I mean, if I'm out and about with my family, and we get the kids some churros because they like churros, and one of them offers me a bite? Like, I'm not going to cut off a piece and weigh it before eating it, even if I *did* carry a scale around with me, which I don't. But then I feel bad if I eat it (because how do I even calculate that) and I feel bad if I don't (because the kid sorta feels rejected).

    And literally don't get me started on making family-sized dishes and trying to calculate taking a fraction of that. Just ... argh, I don't know.
    And this is where it is REALLY important to find balance because if something steals your joy, it isn't worth it. Sorry, I know a lot of people here will disagree with me, but if weighing and tracking every morsel interferes with you enjoying said morsel or any experience involving the morsel then maybe it's better to just enjoy it and re-evaluate your plan and what your end-goal really is.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    And I feel like if I can’t do it close to perfect, there’s no point in doing it at all.

    Don't let perfection be the enemy of good enough.

    There is no need for 100% accuracy on the counting side because you don't have 100% accuracy on the expenditure side anyway. You close the lose with the scale - that's what it's there for.
  • wanttolose40lbs
    wanttolose40lbs Posts: 239 Member
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    If I eat a chicken drumstick, I just put the calories in, don't bother weighing the bone, same with the apple I put in the calories the bag says is in an apple, don't weight the core. I don't think the calorie difference is that much unless you eat every calorie MFP says you can have. I just think think if I overestimate thats good for me in the long run
  • BioMechHeretic
    BioMechHeretic Posts: 128 Member
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    You are way overthinking it. I agree with others that overestimating is better than under, but not TOO much over. Slightly over is better than way over or slightly under. After that just be consistent. Decide how you will count it and always do it the same way every single time.

    If you stick to your goals, in a few months x amount of weight will come off. If it doesn't, you either lied to yourself with tracking or you estimated wrong. Adjust as needed and continue on and eventually weight will come off, so it doesn't really matter if your measurements are not scientific.

    Then it gets to the point where you just instantly recognize what is what. Your bacon slices are what the package says x2 for both pieces and then each large egg is 80 cals plus 10 for 2 cups of black coffee and if I had to guess for a slice of watermelon most people would eat about 50. You barely need to even think about it when you log it at that point
  • Early_Riser
    Early_Riser Posts: 127 Member
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    You realllllly are way over thinking it. Just log close and conservatively and move on. over thinking causes people to quit. don't. it works.
  • hj1119
    hj1119 Posts: 173 Member
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    If I'm making hamburgers, am I going to make each meat-wad the exact same weight before cooking it?

    I have been known to do this. And when I can't be bothered to do this, I weigh out MY burger and keep an eye on which one it is while I cook everyone's burger. ;)
  • hj1119
    hj1119 Posts: 173 Member
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    Even with a food scale and accurate database entries, you're never going to be 100% correct. The point isn't to be 100% correct. Get as close as you can, and move on with your life. Your two eggs had 147 calories. How many calories of egg yolk do you really think you left on your plate? 5%? Even if you left 10% of the egg on your plate, which I'd doubt, that's 15 calories. Concentrate on logging to the best of your ability and don't get so caught up in things that don't matter.

    I just want to say.. this post is a little wrong. ;)

    In 2 large eggs, there are 142 calories. 34 of them are actually egg white, leaving 108 calories of yolk. The poster is complaining about leaving just yolk on his plate - his example indicated that he ate the entire white. So if he left 10% of the egg yolk on his plate it's actually only 10.8 - 11 if you round to the nearest whole - calories.

    #justsayin'

    I wanted to point that out, because it allows the OP to have an extra cup of protein enriched, 5 calorie black coffee with his seedless watermelon ;)

    This thread is killing my OCD. Happy Friday errybody ;)
  • hj1119
    hj1119 Posts: 173 Member
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    OP - I'm currently staring at a glass that used to contain 16 ounces of cold Bud Light Lime. There's foam stuck to the side of the glass. How many calories can I shave off my entry?
  • Rhaynestorm
    Rhaynestorm Posts: 62 Member
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    Gosh. Sorry. I guess I'm all amped up over this today, and thank you all for reading this nonsense. If you're not reading it, well, that's okay too.

    Like, I've got the stuff to make breakfast burritos, because the family loves the burritos and I like making them. 12 eggs, a pound of pork breakfast sausage, a package of potatoes o'brien, and some shredded cheese. So I mean, am I going to cook together all the stuff, weigh the stuff (say it comes out to a nice even 48 ounces or whatever, if I'm lucky), and then scoop out the exact same amount into each tortilla?

    Yes. That's what the recipe function is for. I do the same thing with recipes that I make a lot. You could make them on the weekend, measuring each one, freeze them and then they are ready for just heating up to eat every morning.
    If I'm making hamburgers, am I going to make each meat-wad the exact same weight before cooking it?

    Again, yes. You want to try to be as accurate as possible so if you just eyeball the burgers they obviously won't weigh the same. You could use the recipe function again, input all the ingredients, shape out how many hamburgers you want by weighing each one, and then put in the serving amount in your recipe. It only takes a few extra minutes.
    If I'm making beef stew in the crock pot, am I going to dump the piping-hot contents of the crock pot into a mixing bowl so I can measure it, get its full weight, and then measure whatever fraction I take from it?

    This one is a little bit more annoying because it takes extra time but, for me, I would still do it the first time to see how many servings it made. If you stick to the same recipe every time then the next time you already know how much it makes and you won't have to measure the entire thing again.

    Sometimes it takes a little bit of extra time to weigh and measure things but that might be what you have to do to be as accurate as possible. I'm in the same boat. I tend to make the same things a lot and only try new recipes or dishes once in a while because it does take extra time initially to figure out serving sizes and calorie counts.

    You shouldn't obsess too much though. It just makes one crazy. :drinker:
  • hj1119
    hj1119 Posts: 173 Member
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    ^^^ this chick makes it sound so easy.

    I am personally someone who never makes the same thing the same way twice. It all depends on what I have on hand. Once a week I'll do veggies and eggs, but tonight's eggs won't have the same calories per serving as last weeks cause I have more eggs to use, no milk, and different veggies. :)
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    Am I being neurotic? Ridiculous? Am I looking for excuses?
    Yes to all three
  • disasterman
    disasterman Posts: 746 Member
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    I didn't read through all the replies so maybe I'm repeating what others have said but here goes: when I started this I remember having similar thoughts but I got some advice early on to keep it simple. If you have a goal to log every calorie 100% accurately well, you're going to be frustrated because that's going to be nearly impossible. What worked for me to change the goal of logging to be more along the lines of "to be able to understand my calorie intake/expenditure well enough to be able to predict weight loss/gain." Or, in other words, to allow me to reverse engineer my metabolism. This approach requires consistency more than anything else. If I log x calories for 4 ounces of chicken after cooking or before matters less than that I do it the same way every time. If I do that, and I see myself predictably losing weight at a particular rate with a certain calorie intake then, well, SUCCESS. I think this is especially true when you have a lot to lose - the closer you get to your goals you may find that you do have to get more precise. I know when I stalled for a while I bought a food scale and started weighing mostly just the high calorie foods and that helped. I still use rough approximations for lower calorie foods e.g. the difference between 2..and 3 cups of lettuce is probably only about 10 calories so I'm not going to worry much about it and I'm certainly not going to weigh my lettuce.
  • reachingforarainbow
    reachingforarainbow Posts: 224 Member
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    1&2: count all the calories... your not leaving that much behind.
    3: measure watermelon before you chomp on it, rind and all. Then once you've finished measure the left over rind.
    starting grams-rind grams= grams of watermelon you ate
    4: do or don't count your black coffee. its up to you

    Bottom line: most people underestimate the amount of food they eat. So if ya have a few extra calories in there, its not gonna hurt. If you are trying to lose weight, you'll lose it faster. If you are trying to gain weight, and its not at the rate you want, up your daily calories. Shazam!
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    My general rule of thumb is I ALWAYS err in the direction of more calories than not. I log everything before I eat and ALWAYS overestimate when in doubt!
  • ponycyndi
    ponycyndi Posts: 858 Member
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    I read that most people under estimate their calories by 20%… so I just over estimate by the same, or always round up to the nearest amount. Then I under estimate my activity the same.

    In the end, if it's working, then I keep doing it. If it doesn't, then it's time to reevaluate.
  • DoingTheNeedful
    DoingTheNeedful Posts: 23 Member
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    My thanks to you all for your perspectives and insights! The principles are not complex. I had success before using MFP, and I can do it again. Thanks again.
  • rosebette
    rosebette Posts: 1,660 Member
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    And then there will always be someone on a thread -- usually one where someone is also whining (I know -- I've done it) about not losing weight -- saying the reason you are not losing is that you aren't measuring every last morsel. By the way, I microwave my bacon on a paper towel, and I fry my eggs in olivio light so I'm getting less fat. I don't tend to eat bacon or eggs more than once a week, though.
  • kenthepainter
    kenthepainter Posts: 195 Member
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    Logging can be a pain in the butt when some one else cooks, I guess what the calorie count is, lately I get discouraged and don't even bother logging.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,741 Member
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    You make me feel less neurotic, so thank you.

    QFT

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