Calories?? Kilojoules?? etc.
StrawberrySofia
Posts: 12 Member
Call me dumb, but I'm having trouble with calorie counting, etc. It kind of seems complicated to me. I don't really understand the nutritional labels. Like, how much of what is too much etc. Please help!
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Replies
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It's a learning process but it's not hard once you get the hang of it.
Ultimately, for weight loss, all that really matters is calories or kilojoules. Those are just different units for the amount of energy in food. Start there (with the calorie or kilojoule goal that MFP gave you) and then you can expand later as you learn.
Where do you live? What country? Nutritional labels vary depending upon where you live.0 -
It's a learning process but it's not hard once you get the hang of it.
Ultimately, for weight loss, all that really matters is calories or kilojoules. Those are just different units for the amount of energy in food. Start there (with the calorie or kilojoule goal that MFP gave you) and then you can expand later as you learn.
Where do you live? What country? Nutritional labels vary depending upon where you live.
Thank you for your answer.
I like in Australia.0 -
Here's some basic info:
Protein, carbohydrates, and fats are the macronutrients. They are the parts of food that have calories.
You may want to get a book about nutrition so that you can read through it and then you'll see which parts need clarification.0 -
On top of those basics - the nutrition label is usually supposed to be most accurate by weight, any volume or items sizes is merely for convenience - and hence usually far from accurate.
Even package size may not be that accurate - but packagers care a little more about not giving away too much product, so.....
So ease of use for most accurate method, using above example with some extra figures not shown.
Package weighs say 250 grams, you weigh the product inside and indeed that is correct within a few grams.
So that means there is NOT actually 8 servings per package if you ate the whole thing.
250 eaten / 33 = 7.6 servings.
Find that entry in the database with correct nutrition label stats - that's what you'd enter.
Say you weighed out 100 g eaten.
100 / 33 = 3 servings logged.
Perhaps the label could have said serving size 33 g and 2 items.
Don't count by items - go by weight. Even if the database says per items, you have the label and now the math per grams - so you enter say the 3 servings.
As to how much of what is too much - that depends on how much you burn daily, take some off to lose weight, like 500 calories or 2095 kj, and eat that much.
Then that depends on how much you want to eat per meal.
I'd suggest learn about this before trying to diet - by logging everything you do indeed eat for 2 weeks.
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I'm in Australia too and it's hard - some packages only have calorie information and some only have kilojules.
I like to think of calorie counting like a budget.
Calories are like dollars and kilojules are like cents. 1 calorie is roughly 4 kilojules.
I have an app on my phone that converts calories to kilojules and vice versa - it's very handy.0 -
Start by getting your total daily calories under control... while feeling the least amount of hunger that you can!
The rest you can tinker with later.
Set MFP for your age group, perceived activity level, weight, height and to maintain... and start recording the food that you normally eat using green check mark verified entries as best you can.
Don't worry about anything else at this point.
After you've done that for a week come back to the newsgroups and discuss.
In terms of goals: Your perceived vs actual activity level. Whether you need to lose weight at all or whether what you need to do is increase your strength and tone up instead. If you do need to lose weight, what kind of caloric deficit and rate of loss is appropriate for you given your current degree of over-weightness and general activity level.
In terms of how: How you can improve your food and activity logging (I am going to assume that after a week it will not yet be beyond improvement
)
After a little bit of logging people can also help you have a look and see the relative quantities and types of carbohydrates, fat, and protein that you eat, and might be able to offer relevant suggestions.
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Just get started, don't overthink this!
As an overall principle, I think these guidelines might be a good start:
https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines/australian-dietary-guidelines-1-5
Be aware that the default label on Aussie products is going to be kilojoules, but you will often see calories as well.
These are just different form of measurement (like inches v centimetres). There is no right or wrong here, you just need to pick one and stick with it.
I think the best way to get going is just to start:
What did you have for breakfast today?
I had weetbix with skim milk and frozen berries. Ok, so I look for weetbix in the mfp database and add it to my diary. Then the milk, then the berries. If you have a smartphone, you can use the app to scan the barcode on the packets so it makes it even quicker to enter. You just have to check the quantity (if the default serve for berries is 100g but I only had 70g, then I enter it as as 0.7 of a serve).
Dinner will be chicken casserole (I cooked it myself, so I used the MFP recipe tool) and 100g brown rice (I search for brown rice cooked, and enter 100g).
I know the weights of these foods because i weigh them using a food scale. I don't weigh my weetbix, I just enter 2 biscuits. And I measure 250ml milk in measuring cup.
If you track what you are eating for a week or so, you will soon see where most of your calories are coming from and you can decide if you want to make changes to fit better with your calorie allowance.
And have a look at the sticky posts in the top of the getting started pages here... there is lots of great info there.
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StrawberrySofia wrote: »It's a learning process but it's not hard once you get the hang of it.
Ultimately, for weight loss, all that really matters is calories or kilojoules. Those are just different units for the amount of energy in food. Start there (with the calorie or kilojoule goal that MFP gave you) and then you can expand later as you learn.
Where do you live? What country? Nutritional labels vary depending upon where you live.
Thank you for your answer.
I like in Australia.
I'm a Canadian, used to calories, who moved to Australia a few years ago where it's all kilojoules.
A quick conversion method I use is to divide the kilojoules by 4. If the label says 1200 kj ... divide by 4 = 300 calories. When you do the real conversion 1200 kj = 287 cal, but I figure the divide by 4 estimate of 300 is close enough when making selections in the grocery store.
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Sorry everyone, I meant to say "I live in Australia."
Thank you all so much for your comments
They are all very helpful. 0 -
I'm in Australia too, and i will never come to grips with stupid kilojoules!! Calories all the way for me. I have a simple kj to calorie converter app that I use regularly, and i get unrationally excited when food labels have calories in brackets next to the kjs
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I live in Norway, and those pesky kilojoules crop up on our labels as well. But calories are always stated too, sometimes in brackets, but never omitted. Kilojoules and "servings" are just too much information. More helpful if the manufacturers can to stick to one unit for energy, and always give the values in an amount of the item that makes conversions stupidly easy.0
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Christine_72 wrote: »I'm in Australia too, and i will never come to grips with stupid kilojoules!! Calories all the way for me. I have a simple kj to calorie converter app that I use regularly, and i get unrationally excited when food labels have calories in brackets next to the kjs
They are the same arent they, calories and kilojules, just like pounds and kilograms. measuring the same thing on a different scale.
But yeah like others said, start with calories/kilojules first, get that sorted first.
Then start adding to it, watching your protein, fat, carbs, salts, sugars, etc etc.
Dont try to do everything at once, small steps.1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I'm in Australia too, and i will never come to grips with stupid kilojoules!! Calories all the way for me. I have a simple kj to calorie converter app that I use regularly, and i get unrationally excited when food labels have calories in brackets next to the kjs
They are the same arent they, calories and kilojules, just like pounds and kilograms. measuring the same thing on a different scale.
But yeah like others said, start with calories/kilojules first, get that sorted first.
Then start adding to it, watching your protein, fat, carbs, salts, sugars, etc etc.
Dont try to do everything at once, small steps.
Yes, but I know what 110 calories of something means, no idea how much 656kjs or whatever is. I also have a kgs to lbs converter app
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I didn't know some places only listed in kilojoules, how annoying. Here they always list both. is there a setting where you can set mfp up to work in kilojoules, like how you can change the units for weight and height?0
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CattOfTheGarage wrote: »I didn't know some places only listed in kilojoules, how annoying. Here they always list both. is there a setting where you can set mfp up to work in kilojoules, like how you can change the units for weight and height?
Yeah there is an option for both calories and kjs. I've had a few Aussie pals who's diaries said they were eating 6000-8000 .... everyday. It took me a while to realise they were counting in kjs!0
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