Calorie Counting 101
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livinatthegym wrote: »I agree. Calories listed anywhere cannot be taken as gospel. I'd also like to mention (and I'll keep it brief), that the same goes for calories burned. There are too many intangibles that cannot be accounted for. One of my favorite examples is form. New runners, especially those who are overweight, will often bounce while they walk/ run at speeds they are not used to. They also will often sway from side to side. An experienced runner's form will be tight with deliberate movements. The inexperienced runner with bad form (if running at the same pace) will burn more calories from their form alone. A machine or exercise expert cannot accurately assess your form during every workout. A person could do the same exercise (say running at 5mph on a 5 degree incline) every day for a week and have used varying amounts of energy. This is why I never eat back calories I burn.
Hence I thought I was going the wrong way about
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This is great! I just started weighing my food, but the condiments I never thought of! Will start doing it.0
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Don't know if anyone else has thought of this but it dawned on me the other day when making up dishes to try from scratch I as most chef do taste as I go along, ooops that odd taste here n there soon add up lol. I have also been looking at what my friends are eating many are reduced portion sizes of ready prepared foods, these have all sorts in the salts sugars but most of all chemicals that don't help with weight loss listen folks where possible eat food you prepare and cook yourself most frozen veg nower days are believe it or not more fresh than what you get at the shop as it is frozen soon after it is picked. I have been weighing all my foods since first week of January and lost 1.5 stone so it does work0
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Vismal do think it is a good idea to train on empty stomach? Would this assist the body to use the stored reserved energy (fat) or am I thinking wrong?0
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It's sad that you have to tell people to log everything. I thought that was common sense. Good post though; It's good to see that I'm doing mostly the right thing.0
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Hi, Im new here and i was wondering if anyone could help me? At the moment I've been juicing my food and having one meal a day (it's been working the first wewk i lost 9 1/2 pound the second i lost 2 pound) i juice a lot of veg and some fruit but after reading this you saying to weigh you food/liquids how would i do it before i juice or after and if after how? Thanks in advance.0
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Great info and well said!!!!0
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Vismal do think it is a good idea to train on empty stomach? Would this assist the body to use the stored reserved energy (fat) or am I thinking wrong?It's sad that you have to tell people to log everything. I thought that was common sense. Good post though; It's good to see that I'm doing mostly the right thing.Hi, Im new here and i was wondering if anyone could help me? At the moment I've been juicing my food and having one meal a day (it's been working the first wewk i lost 9 1/2 pound the second i lost 2 pound) i juice a lot of veg and some fruit but after reading this you saying to weigh you food/liquids how would i do it before i juice or after and if after how? Thanks in advance.
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I weigh as I go so I know what is in my portion size is done. Just made a a chilli bake weighed each item individually through to the end of the cook proces then weighed it all together again and then devided in to indevidual portion sizes with the exact amount of calories for each one0
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Please, please, please forgive the redundancy of my question. I've read other answers and my (dull) brain reads to much into it and confuses me. Please respond yes or no. I want to lose the last 5lbs (.5 per week) . I set my activity level to sedentary. I do a lot of cardio about 4-5 days a week, 400 calories expended at a time. (I use a HRM with a chest strap and built in fitness testing to track my calories burned during cardio activities, so assuming expenditure is somewhat accurate.) To lose weight is it alright to include the additional calories burned from cardio in to my total allotment for the day?
Thank you Everyone for contributing overall on these forums.0 -
Please, please, please forgive the redundancy of my question. I've read other answers and my (dull) brain reads to much into it and confuses me. Please respond yes or no. I want to lose the last 5lbs (.5 per week) . I set my activity level to sedentary. I do a lot of cardio about 4-5 days a week, 400 calories expended at a time. (I use a HRM with a chest strap and built in fitness testing to track my calories burned during cardio activities, so assuming expenditure is somewhat accurate.) To lose weight is it alright to include the additional calories burned from cardio in to my total allotment for the day?
Thank you Everyone for contributing overall on these forums.
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I didn't realize I had to weigh condiments I keep getting final calorie intake for the day way under what my goal is. But I think, after reading this, my margin of error is probably close to 30%0
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I'm starting to count my calories and log them really well. I'm recommended to be at 1460, but I feel full and still have 500 calories left. Any suggestions? I'm not sure what else to do. I've had meals and snacks already0
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I'm starting to count my calories and log them really well. I'm recommended to be at 1460, but I feel full and still have 500 calories left. Any suggestions? I'm not sure what else to do. I've had meals and snacks already
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I'm starting to count my calories and log them really well. I'm recommended to be at 1460, but I feel full and still have 500 calories left. Any suggestions? I'm not sure what else to do. I've had meals and snacks already
Thanks! I do love peanut butter. I can't have lactose though, and I don't like any of those substitutes.0 -
[/quote]This isn't really a yes or no question. In a perfect world, where your calories were 100% accurate (they aren't) and your heart monitor was 100% accurate (it isn't) and your body burned exactly the number of calories mfp give to someone who is sedentary (it doesn't), you would be fine eating back exactly what you burned. Unfortunately in the real world, these are all estimations. They all have margins of error and for that reason, you'll just have to try it and see what happens. Start by trying to eat back the calories, if you don't lose, eat half of them back, if you still don't lose, don't eat any of them back. Trial and error will eventually get you there.
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Thank you. Your explanation made sense and I will try this approach. I'm very new to counting calories after only relying on exercise in the past to maintain weight. I like the data this provides and the systematic approach to finding out what will work for me. Thanks again.
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This was fantastic and very helpful! What if I don't have a scale? Will measuring my peanut butter in a measuring cup be okay?0
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Wow this is extremely useful! I'm going to do my best to follow along. I'm totally printing this out, Thanks!0
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AvidAdrienne wrote: »This was fantastic and very helpful! What if I don't have a scale? Will measuring my peanut butter in a measuring cup be okay?
Here's a little story about me and peanut butter. I used to eat 1 serving (2 tbsp or 32g) every day. I used a measuring table spoon and had 2 spoonfuls. I started weighing my peanut butter on a scale. I found I was actually eating 3 tablespoons worth of peanut butter. That's 100 unaccounted for calories a day. Seems somewhat insignificant, but that's 700 calories a week, and 2800 calories a month. That's nearly a lb a month I wasn't losing. And that's just 1 food! Combine that same kind on inaccuracy across a bunch of different foods and it adds up quite a bit!
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AvidAdrienne wrote: »This was fantastic and very helpful! What if I don't have a scale? Will measuring my peanut butter in a measuring cup be okay?
Thanks for such an informative response! I thought scales were in the $100-200 range, I will certainly be getting one now. An extra tbsp of peanut butter is a BIG deal! Thank you for your knowledge & help.0
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