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have i done the right thing ?

MoveitlikeManda
MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
edited March 3 in Health and Weight Loss
had luch at the pub today, had no idea re calories so searched foods i had and went with highest cal count options, plus added a quick add off 300 cals ......this brought my lunch to 970cals. dont think it was anywhere near that much but thought id be better off over guessing than under guessing. have i dont the right thing? my dad was laughing because i felt stressed i counldnt weigh everything lol
I also had a diet coke with it instead of a bottle of wine.

i think 970 cals seems alot but there was alot of spaghetti (didnt finsh all of it) and i did have a hand full of chips with it too, hence i added the extra cals (although i had nowhere near 300 cals of chips)

would you have rounded up like this or should i have done something different? should i change it? what would be about right to change it to?

(will make diary public so you can have a look if it helps x

Replies

  • disasterman
    disasterman Posts: 746 Member
    I round calories up for food and down for exercise.
  • bluecat145
    bluecat145 Posts: 144 Member
    I've done that before.
    I think going under one time won't hurt you, like how going over one time won't. Just don't make it a habit.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    900 sounds about right for pub bolognese.
  • MoveitlikeManda
    MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
    Maybe it will out weigh friday night,

    we were out for my aunts 40th birthday, even after posting about making good choices i didnt really.
    I have no idea what the cals were in my dinner that night although had a small serving. But i also had a full bottle of wine (which i could count the cals for so added to diary) but have no idea how many s.c and lemonade i had.

    I thought id had about 4, according to my dad and husband it was alot more than that and they were doubles.
    which is why i added a random 1000cals to friday's dinner
  • MoveitlikeManda
    MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
    also to add, although thats two pub meals in a matter of days its not a reg thing, like i say friday was my aunts 40th birthday and today we were at the seaside with my dad.

    there will be no more pub meals until my grans birthday in december
  • Tracey_B_72
    Tracey_B_72 Posts: 1,021 Member
    A while ago I went for a pub lunch with a friend of mine and she had the curry, that was just over 1100 calories, I went for a chilli over a jacket potato 560 calories, the menu had calories on it.
    I reckon you'd be looking at about 650-750 calories for what you ate, don't over estimate wildly over what you've had or you may feel hungry later in the day, be honest with yourself and just round up to the nearest 50 or 100, you don't want to end up sabotaging yourself and remember make good choices and stay in control, think of it as a learning experiance.
  • MoveitlikeManda
    MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
    to be fair, today is my 20th day of being on MFP and although i went a bit mad on friday (without actually realising) on the drinks

    as far as food goes iv been great (imo). at the pub i would usually have a big mixed grill and finish the lot but i think i made better choices than that both on friday and today. and defo today with skipping the wine.

    but i really did think about it, i gave most of my chips away at both meals which id never do before doing this, and i feel so positive with how iv been doing so far i was really worried.

    ETA: i think my biggest problem was the fact i couldnt weight everything before it was cooked after getting in to the habit of weighing EVERYTHING, so having to guess i panic'd and thought "go high and get back to it properly tomorrow "
  • fittyinthemaking
    fittyinthemaking Posts: 126 Member
    If its only one time don't beat your self up because one meal isn't going to make you gain :)
    i tend to go to places where they tell you the calories on the menu or look up the restaurant on the net before i go, lots of places have nutritional info on their web page :smile:
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    I'm cracking up at your dad laughing at you...and at you stressing out because you couldn't weigh your food, lol.

    Do your best, round up when it doubt and forget about it. It won't make that much difference. The rare, occasional overeating will not throw the train off the tracks. :)

    It's good to have a regular, non-dieting person laugh at your silly diet stuff on occasion, IMO. Keeps us grounded, reminds us what the goals are. :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,368 Member
    It's fine, just do your best.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    I round calories up for food and down for exercise.
    ^ This, ALWAYS this!
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
    I think you'd be surprised--970 calories of PUB FOOD? Yeah, that's very likely accurate. If anything it's an underestimation.

    And 300 cals of chips (do you mean French fries to us Americans?) in one handful is entirely possible. Probable, even, if they're the kind of ones I like. :blushing:

    My advice: stop rounding. Avoid foods you cannot log accurately. It's the fastest way to stall your progress, or even backslide and gain weight back. Get a scale. Weigh everything. Stay consistent.
  • RHachicho
    RHachicho Posts: 1,115 Member
    It sounds like you approximated ok. Honestly don't let accuracy stress you out too much. Fact is there are going to be days where you miscalculate or just plain forget to log things. As long as your overall habits are good then you will still lose weight. Getting stressed over weighing and measuring everything is something I had to overcome myself. Because I've been successful with weight loss by being accurate I am hesitant to leave things to guesswork as I have often been surprised at the calories of what I eat when I add things up. I've been on this diet nearly 8 months now. And what has sorted the problem out for me is there have been repeated incidents where I let my hair down a bit logging wise and still lose weight. So know I don't get so stressed if I can't get exactly what is in my food.

    Unless you make a habit of eating out a lot then once or twice a week guesstimation won't really hurt you.
  • MoveitlikeManda
    MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
    chips, like from a fish n chip shop. handfull = I had about 7 chips

    i have got scales, i brought them on day 2 and have used them for everything since

    My dad is a plonker! and the size he is and being diabetic he should probably give it a go too instead of laughing at me lol

    eating out is defo not a reg thing, its usually only for birthdays.
    I was all for a homemade picnic on the beach that way id have know what was going in but i was out numbered.

    It was not a chain pub either, it was a little independant place (middle of nowhere sort of thing) and athough has a website, that nor the menu had an calorie info on it.
  • MoveitlikeManda
    MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
    45l5 62.ar.
    o
    und there also was not actually much to the bolognese and not that much of it either just a wacking big bowl of the spaggheti hen
    half hence i didnt finsh it, i left about half of it.

    the bolognese was not all thick chuncky mince and rich sauce like in a chain put, it was thin and watery........also another reason i didnt finish .

    ANYWAY, its a new day and I am going to stop stressing over one meal

    thanks all for ya comments, has made me feel better about it, although im very happy to be back home with my scales now lol
  • _runnerbean_
    _runnerbean_ Posts: 640 Member
    Don't stress out about it- you will face challenges like this and you need to learn to manage them. Sounds like you did a good job of it- cutting down on chips, choosing an option that was lower cal than your usual mixed grill. Choose a rough guess on calories, log it, move on. If you really want to go for damage limitation then eat a bit less today and do some extra exercise. Keep up the good work, 8lb lost is brill :)
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member

    ANYWAY, its a new day and I am going to stop stressing over one meal

    yep, this!
  • dammitjanet0161
    dammitjanet0161 Posts: 319 Member
    I tend to use Wetherspoons menu as my guide for pub food. Your estimate isn't too far off IMO judging by their menu.

    Hope you've stopped stressing out now!
  • mikeyrp
    mikeyrp Posts: 1,616 Member
    Eating out is always going to create this problem... 970 cals for a pub lunch sounds about right but you are never goign to know for sure so here is the important bit...

    at 970 Cals for lunch are you over your target?

    are you still hungry?

    if you are not hungry - problem solved, don't eat anything else today... there isn't much else you can do anyway.


    I work away lot and have to eat out all the time - its really hard to stay healthy - my rules (which I wish I followed more closely) are:

    Stay away from any sides of bread
    Try not to order anything fried
    If the portion looks too big, work out how much you want to eat, then when you're done spoil the rest (give it away, poor water over i, smoosh it with your napkin....)
    Never order more than one course
  • MoveitlikeManda
    MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
    no, i was still in my daily target ( i did plan breakfast around the fact everyone wanted pub lunch and knowing would be a late lunch so leaving my self plenty of cals for it), was peckish but not hungry last night so had a cereal bar and then just a few glasses of water in the evening.

    we had "lunch" at about 3pm, so eating that late i wouldnt have had dinner last night anyway.

    you have all made me feel much better about it now, and i weighed myself this morning (although not actual weigh in day) and iv not ballooned lol so hopefully come friday and my proper weigh in day all will be ok.

    Also my husband had me doing weights last night so hopefully thats helped burn a few of them calories off :laugh:
  • MoveitlikeManda
    MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
    Also just to blow my own trumpet,

    last friday at weigh in my total loss is 9.9lbs but i put my start weight in wrong when i set up my account so it shows less on my ticker
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I think you'd be surprised--970 calories of PUB FOOD? Yeah, that's very likely accurate. If anything it's an underestimation.

    And 300 cals of chips (do you mean French fries to us Americans?) in one handful is entirely possible. Probable, even, if they're the kind of ones I like. :blushing:

    My advice: stop rounding. Avoid foods you cannot log accurately. It's the fastest way to stall your progress, or even backslide and gain weight back. Get a scale. Weigh everything. Stay consistent.

    So basically your advice is to give up living life? yah no.:noway:

    During weight loss just like maitenance things are gonna happen and you shouldn't have to say no unless you really don't want to go...during my weight loss I went out, ate good food, logged as accurately as possible and wow lookie here at maitenance.

    The fastest way to stall is to not log at all and avoid fun.
  • mikeyrp
    mikeyrp Posts: 1,616 Member
    I think you'd be surprised--970 calories of PUB FOOD? Yeah, that's very likely accurate. If anything it's an underestimation.

    And 300 cals of chips (do you mean French fries to us Americans?) in one handful is entirely possible. Probable, even, if they're the kind of ones I like. :blushing:

    My advice: stop rounding. Avoid foods you cannot log accurately. It's the fastest way to stall your progress, or even backslide and gain weight back. Get a scale. Weigh everything. Stay consistent.

    So basically your advice is to give up living life? yah no.:noway:

    During weight loss just like maintenance things are gonna happen and you shouldn't have to say no unless you really don't want to go...during my weight loss I went out, ate good food, logged as accurately as possible and wow lookie here at maintenance.

    The fastest way to stall is to not log at all and avoid fun.

    The day I stop eating out or seeing friends because I cant scan the bar code or weigh the portions on the food that's being served, please give me a big slap and remind me of my motto "Happy and healthy". Gotta hit both goals!
  • RHachicho
    RHachicho Posts: 1,115 Member
    Also just to blow my own trumpet,

    last friday at weigh in my total loss is 9.9lbs but i put my start weight in wrong when i set up my account so it shows less on my ticker

    9.9lbs in how long? if it's in a month then very good going! =) If it's in a week u might wanna eat more.

    Edit : Unless this is your first week in which case a woosh of water weight is normal.
  • MoveitlikeManda
    MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
    lol, no not in a day. if only it was that easy.

    since i started using MFP and today is day 21
This discussion has been closed.

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