Shocking first day of food tracking
mlh2018
Posts: 11 Member
I have never tracked food in any way. No calorie counting or macros. So today I started tracking and let me tell you. I set up my account and the app recommends me on a 1400 calorie diet. I think alright that’s do able for now. I grab my breakfast sandwich and bam 700 calories!
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Replies
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It is an eye opener, isn't it? Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy17
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Yep! So true. I used to be a Starbucks latte every day kind of girl. 500 calories for a drink. Then I’d have a biscuit sandwich and then a hamburger for lunch with fries. A bunch of chocolate for a snack and then dinner on top of that. And i wondered why I gained 80 pounds....
If i can do it, You can do this too!37 -
Absolutely! I’ve been tracking for several years now and am still occasionally shocked when I figure out how many calories are in some foods, particularly at restaurants whether fast food or not.
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hahahahaha...yeah totally didn't go over 2000 calories the other day what my recommended amount was
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How shocking! Bet you’d never look at your breakfast sandwich the same again. This app is brilliant, reallly saves lives13
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Even people who have been tracking calories for years like myself can so easily lose sight of what we're actually eating when we stop actually counting and weighting. It can so easily creep back up and under estimate things.18
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Jimmy Dean has some light breakfast sandwiches. Little changes add up!13
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I must say I feel for you smaller folks with that small daily calorie limit. The one thing I do like having my fitbit sync'd with MFP is that when you gets steps or exercise if gives you more calories to work with during the day.
Yeh safeway has them breakfast burritos and boy check out the calories on them. they have a bacon and a sausage and of course they are STUFFED with other things. I think the sausage is 850 calories so yeh they are off limits for me.
You always see people post something like why can't I lose weight and if they are honest and describe what and how they eat you can see it. Most dont log or weigh their foods.
Try to find a balance of foods that are filling so that you can stay in that 1400 daily range and if you dont have a fitness tracker like a fitbit, make sure you log your exercise as well. Dont eat back all the calories, but hey if you have eat back calories and feel hungry have a snack.10 -
Are you using a food scale yet? If not, wait until the first time you see how small a "serving" of peanut butter actually is.37
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Are you using a food scale yet? If not, wait until the first time you see how small a "serving" of peanut butter actually is.
Makes me cry just thinking about it.
OP...don't be too discouraged. Over time you will find foods that satisfy you and are within your calorie goals. You will find ways to modify foods to get the most bang for your calorie buck. The first month or so is hard when you actually mourn certain foods and the overeating lifestyle. Hopefully you will find ways to enjoy the foods you love within your calories, rather than cutting anything out altogether.12 -
It's SHOCKING! Thank god for mfp!2
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It’s shocking and eye opening. 25g of cheese looked tiny at first. Like others say use a food scale, it’s surprising how much of other foods you can eat (esp veg, salad, fruit). I find it really helpful to plan meals out using the restaurant website nutritional info now too.1
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DancingMoosie wrote: »Jimmy Dean has some light breakfast sandwiches. Little changes add up!
They aren't terrible either. Certainly not diner-quality breakfast, but pretty dang good for microwavable on-the-go.3 -
slimbyjune18 wrote: »It’s shocking and eye opening. 25g of cheese looked tiny at first. Like others say use a food scale, it’s surprising how much of other foods you can eat (esp veg, salad, fruit). I find it really helpful to plan meals out using the restaurant website nutritional info now too.
This was eye opening for me too, seeing how much more of the lower calorie foods I could eat when I weighed them out. I will say this much, stuff adds up. I broke my intermittent fasting yesterday by eating a bacon cheddar burger with a loaded baked potato. 1100 calories!7 -
It's worse when you convert that breakfast sandwich into the exercise it will take to burn off!18
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fitoverfortymom wrote: »Are you using a food scale yet? If not, wait until the first time you see how small a "serving" of peanut butter actually is.
Makes me cry just thinking about it.
OP...don't be too discouraged. Over time you will find foods that satisfy you and are within your calorie goals. You will find ways to modify foods to get the most bang for your calorie buck. The first month or so is hard when you actually mourn certain foods and the overeating lifestyle. Hopefully you will find ways to enjoy the foods you love within your calories, rather than cutting anything out altogether.
I think that’s the nail on the head, the first few weeks are hard. It’s getting used to lower calories, so you can still enjoy those foods. I had a week or so off for Christmas and the last couple of days I feel hungry, but it’s that readjustment to not overeating. It definitely gets easier and once you see the results it’s worth it!7 -
I have never tracked food in any way. No calorie counting or macros. So today I started tracking and let me tell you. I set up my account and the app recommends me on a 1400 calorie diet. I think alright that’s do able for now. I grab my breakfast sandwich and bam 700 calories!
It's all about different choices. It's less than half the 700 calories if you make your own sandwich as follows using reduced calorie options:
Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Sausage Patty 80 cal
Thomas Light English Muffin 100 cal
Large Egg 70 cal
Sargento Reduced Fat Cheddar Slice 60 cal
Total: 310 cal
You can make up a few of them and put them in the refrigerator, and pop one in the microwave in the morning. The Morningstar Farms fake sausage and fake bacon options are very good, by the way.
Think of your 1400 cals as a budget. You can choose what to spend your calories on each day, and you can choose when to spend them during the day. For example, I like to have a snack in the evening, so I replaced lunch with mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks so I could save calories to spend later.17 -
Very eye opening! There's a shredded chicken salad I adore at Cafe Rio,I was eyeballing it at around 400-500 calories cuz lean chicken,lettuce,pico,etc,,after I started tracking and realized it actually has 1200-1400 I was floored! Still eat it but have 1/2 for lunch then 1/2 for dinner2
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It was a huge eye-opener for me too. It made me realize how much mindless eating I was doing...even when I wasn't hungry. And, I made my mental list of foods that I really don't like enough to justify spending the calories on them.7
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I started counting calories off and on at the age of 14.. I'm now 56. And I still groan and am surprised with some things! Biscuits and other baked goods have an enormous amount of fat and calories, perhaps that's why they are so delicious.
Try to make your own version. Swap the biscuit for a wrap or fiber rich toast. Try turkey bacon or chicken sausage. Add spices and salsas to up the flavor. And you'll likely save a few bucks and calories.4 -
When I first started here, I just tracked my food, without trying to restrict. But seeing what some of the calorie costs for food I was eating made it easy to drop those foods really quickly, especially when it's just mindless snacking.7
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It's the BASIC reason why the average American is overweight. Many have NO IDEA how many calories they eat a day and always claim they don't eat that much.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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slimbyjune18 wrote: »It’s shocking and eye opening. 25g of cheese looked tiny at first. Like others say use a food scale, it’s surprising how much of other foods you can eat (esp veg, salad, fruit). I find it really helpful to plan meals out using the restaurant website nutritional info now too.
I know I found a recapie for a salad that called for 1 oz of cheese but it was 115 calories so trying to keep my calories lower today I just cut the cheese out. That’s one good and bad thing about me. I don’t follow a specific restricting diet but I’m not much of a dairy or meat eater. So it makes my diet naturally high carb low protein which I’m trying to change.
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I switch out my breakfast sandwich for some grapes today. So instead of 700 calories my breakfast was only 65 today.12
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How shocking! Bet you’d never look at your breakfast sandwich the same again. This app is brilliant, reallly saves lives
Thankfully the sandwich is not an everyday thing for me. It was one of those times I needed something quick on my way to work. But next time I decided to go for all the calories in one meal I’m choosing a doughnut haha
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Are you using a food scale yet? If not, wait until the first time you see how small a "serving" of peanut butter actually is.
I am not using a food scale yet. Just trying to stick to measuring cups because that is what I have already. I Might have to invest in a food scale soon though.6 -
wait until you log that first double whopper with cheese and large fry3
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