Don't Trust Labels. Weigh your protein bars.
Replies
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I started a thread a while back which wasnt that interesting to others judging by the lack of replies about why so many 'basic' foods ( I think I was trying to search for raw salmon) are different according to different supermarkets. So I think Tesco was different to Sainsburys, was different to Aldi, to Lidl, to Morrison and so on and so on.
How can this be when this is not a processed food?
Most posters advised to use the label and the manufacturers calculation but quite honestly I dont know if I can trust them
Atlantic, Pacific, sockey, coho, pink, chum (keta), king (Chinook), farmed, wild, skin on, skin off, raw, frozen, with solution or without?3 -
I'm pretty relaxed. I just trust labels. I only weigh when I'm not eating the precise serving size recommended by the packet or I need to figure out if I'm eating the right serving size. I figure a few erroneous calories here and there won't really matter in the scheme of things5
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koalathebear wrote: »I'm pretty relaxed. I just trust labels. I only weigh when I'm not eating the precise serving size recommended by the packet or I need to figure out if I'm eating the right serving size. I figure a few erroneous calories here and there won't really matter in the scheme of things
That's the kicker though. And only mentioning this because it sounds like a misunderstanding.
The precise serving size IS by weight, not volume (except liquids).
The volume sizes you say you are using are purely estimates from a weighed serving to supposedly make it easier for consumer.
Read through this thread and discover how badly that estimate can be for volume or quantity compared to the actual precise weighted serving.
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Teabythesea_ wrote: »Watched an interesting documentary a couple of weeks ago. A random food calorie test. The label said 474 calories. Turns out it actually tested at over 1700 calories in the lab. Can't trust any calorie count but hey..it's all we have.
God almighty, what was the food?
I started a thread a while back which wasnt that interesting to others judging by the lack of replies about why so many 'basic' foods ( I think I was trying to search for raw salmon) are different according to different supermarkets. So I think Tesco was different to Sainsburys, was different to Aldi, to Lidl, to Morrison and so on and so on.
How can this be when this is not a processed food?
Most posters advised to use the label and the manufacturers calculation but quite honestly I dont know if I can trust them
When in doubt look on the USDA standard reference database, that will be most accurate. Personally I dont notice too much of a difference on fresh or frozen produce or meats. Even salmon is around the same, typically its 100-110 calories for 112 grams or so. It also depends on whether its skin on or skin off.
I just looked it up and 100g is 142 calories
Oh, I just double checked, I had obviously done it wrong and put wild, in the UK we mostly eat farmed, its cheaper (and I actually prefer it) and that is 208 per 100g0 -
I started a thread a while back which wasnt that interesting to others judging by the lack of replies about why so many 'basic' foods ( I think I was trying to search for raw salmon) are different according to different supermarkets. So I think Tesco was different to Sainsburys, was different to Aldi, to Lidl, to Morrison and so on and so on.
How can this be when this is not a processed food?
Most posters advised to use the label and the manufacturers calculation but quite honestly I dont know if I can trust them
Atlantic, Pacific, sockey, coho, pink, chum (keta), king (Chinook), farmed, wild, skin on, skin off, raw, frozen, with solution or without?
I dont know, we really only have the criteria of atlantic farmed in the UK. Skin off and raw. But sockeye, coho, pink, chum, king, I have no idea what those words mean.1 -
Mm, more labels not to trust. Mrs. Freshley's stuff. I love their frosted mini donuts - but weighing it out, one package is not a delicious 480 calories. Noooo, it ended up being 527 calories. Nearly 50 calories over. Nom.3
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RelCanonical wrote: »For me, every banana was 121 calories, lol. That also wasn't accurate. I stick my blender on the scale now for convenience.
A scale with a tare function that subtracts the weight of the container works.0 -
Mm, more labels not to trust. Mrs. Freshley's stuff. I love their frosted mini donuts - but weighing it out, one package is not a delicious 480 calories. Noooo, it ended up being 527 calories. Nearly 50 calories over. Nom.
Since that is per package - curious how many servings stated per package - and how many mini donuts is that?
50 cal per a package of several servings isn't that bad at all per serving then.
And considering those have moisture in them which could vary - I'd consider that one of those food items that would be hard to have exact. Or actually, the machines do squirt out exactly the same amount of ingredients per donut, but the moisture content can change, and some powder can fall off - creating potentially non-calorie differences. If not less, unless the package is licked clean for the frosted dust.3 -
RelCanonical wrote: »For me, every banana was 121 calories, lol. That also wasn't accurate. I stick my blender on the scale now for convenience.
A scale with a tare function that subtracts the weight of the container works.
Mine tares, but is less dishes to just stick the blender on the scale, haha. To clarify, I don't put the whole thing on, just the container.1 -
The worst offender I've ever had was the Amy's Organic Chinese Noodles & Veggies in a Cashew Cream Sauce meal. It's supposed to be 480 calories and by weight my meal was actually 630 calories. Glad I had a lot of calories to play with that day because wow. I also had a Kind Bar that was 60 calories more than the label stated.4
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I started a thread a while back which wasnt that interesting to others judging by the lack of replies about why so many 'basic' foods ( I think I was trying to search for raw salmon) are different according to different supermarkets. So I think Tesco was different to Sainsburys, was different to Aldi, to Lidl, to Morrison and so on and so on.
How can this be when this is not a processed food?
Most posters advised to use the label and the manufacturers calculation but quite honestly I dont know if I can trust them
Atlantic, Pacific, sockey, coho, pink, chum (keta), king (Chinook), farmed, wild, skin on, skin off, raw, frozen, with solution or without?
I dont know, we really only have the criteria of atlantic farmed in the UK. Skin off and raw. But sockeye, coho, pink, chum, king, I have no idea what those words mean.
They are different types of salmon. Some can be fattier than others, just as farmed and wild caught will have more or less fat. One reason why different brands of a whole food can have different calories.2 -
Just had this issue with Vans waffles (this is your PSA in case you eat them regularly too!). I've been eating them for weeks with peanut butter and bananas. Never thought to weigh them. One felt heavy today which prompted me to check the serving size by weight. Turns out each waffle is about 40-50 cals more than it says. 150 cals instead of 100 cals. And I've been eating 2 for breakfast lately.
100 extra calories isn't a big deal normally but I am trying to work with a small deficit. It also makes accurate tracking difficult when you realize you've been eating 700 more calories/week than you thought, just in waffle. haha.
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I like to be accurate, but I've found that sometimes perfect can be the enemy of good. If it's no trouble to weigh a pre-packaged item, I will, but I try not to stress out if I don't as long as I'm seeing the scale go in the right direction.4
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Another thing to watch out for is companies changing/updating the nutrition values on items without any noticeable change in the product or packaging. Last year I found that 2 things I eat regularly changed pretty significantly. A frozen burrito that I eat for breakfast suddenly changed from 190 calories to 280. Then a few months later a frozen meal I sometimes eat for lunch (or used to) changed inexplicably from 460 calories per meal to 620.
If I ate both of those things in the same day I would wipe out my deficit without even realizing it happened. Moral of the story is check your labels even if it is something you eat often. 3 -
Even at maintenance, I weigh as much as possible. Having often lost and then regained weight in the past. It's this that has finally helped keep me around maintenance.
As I've found calorie cycling and keeping my average about 1,600 calories, I can maintain. Feels great. But over this period I have also come to realise how much products weight varies, even when pre packaged.
As previously mentioned bananas vary greatly. I have them on a fairly regular basis and the size fluctuates. I weigh them as often as possible, and they have ranged from 60 calories to 180 calories per bananna. Over time this (along with other similar products) that would make a big difference to my success at maintenance.
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I am learning to read labels and actually understand them. It never in a 100 years would have occurred to me not to trust the labels. Which is ridiculous when you take in to the account how many things are marketed as "healthy". Thanks for the info!2
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When I started and lost before, I weighed everything. Now that I'm having to start again, I'm only weighing things I've found vary significantly from the label or to create an appropriate portion size. Then if I lose too fast or too slow I'll adjust how many calories I eat instead of getting picky about weighing everything to avoid becoming too obsessive.0
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I've never weighed packaged foods that are proportioned like bread because I figured that it evens out in the end somewhere. I weigh items that are calorie dense, but eyeball most low calorie items like fruit or non-starchy veggies. I get not wanting to be off my hundreds of calories and people that have never weighed food usually have no concept of the size of a serving, but overall 100 calories here or there is not going to make a difference.
My calorie burn each day varies soooo much and I use TDEE method for calories, so I will never have a mathematically certainty with my deficit. Some days I burn 450 calories working out and some days I burn 250 and some days are a rest day. Some days I'm a couch potato and some days I have a million errands and I'm on my feet all day. So eating an extra hundred one day but burning an extra 200 just all washes out. No one can ever have it as precise as they would like to think it is (even with fitbits and watches).3
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