Feeling the need to whinge about calories for a bit

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  • hj1119
    hj1119 Posts: 173 Member
    ^^^ 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
    Am I being neurotic? Ridiculous? Am I looking for excuses?
    Yes to all three
  • disasterman
    disasterman Posts: 746 Member
    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
    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: 15,151 Member
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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: 10,740 Member
    You make me feel less neurotic, so thank you.

    QFT
  • CkepiJinx
    CkepiJinx Posts: 613 Member
    Your overthinking it.

    Yes weighing and measuring is a drag but it gets easier I promise!

    You know what doesn't get easier carting around all the extra weight. And the older we get the harder it gets to lose so you have a choice quit weighing and measure and quit losing weight or keep weighing and measure, lose some weight and feel good that you persevered long enough for weighing your food to become easy.

    Good luck

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