Help! Calorie Counting

[ladeejoi]

I'm having a really hard time counting calories. It's not keeping the calorie count low when i eat, it's only the actual counting. I just think it's too much work to measure the exact amount of cereal and milk i put into the bowl. Any tips? Or do i just have to suck it up and measure everything?

Also, what about eating out? If i'm going to Red Lobster or Outback, how do i know how many calories I'm eating?

[dillbreaker]

I love My Fitness Pal. Ive used it along with my fitbit zip for some time now. It really is much more than a calorie counter, since it also tracks every aspect of your nutrition (daily intake of cholesterol, sodium, sugars..ect) and even gives you pie graphs of you daily/weekly fat vs. protien vs. card intake. It also has a upc scanner, so you can simply scan the barcode of what your eating (if it isn't aready in their massive food database) and it loads the usual serving size (which you can adjust) & all nutritional value. Their database also includes meals from tons of resturants. I was pretty impressed. I actually started using MyFitnessPal first, and out of frustration of trying to stay under my calorie goal without subtracting the calories I burned throughout the day, I found out about FitBit though the "devices" tab on MyFitness Pal. I researched, bought it, and now the rest is sweaty, step counting history. Bottom Line: Try it! It's great..it goes with the FitBit like peas & carrots, and the best part? It's FREE!

[Consumerman]

All that you say, I absolutely have no problem.  I am not totally in love with it, but I like it a lot, the food information input at Diet Power.  My wife is a wonderful cook and always doing different recipes, not a single serving dish always.  I like the way I can write the recipes and note the number of servings to tell me how much each serving has in calories and other data like sodium, fat, etc.

It took me a long time to get to the point where I note what I eat and use that information to keep me on track.  I accept that this a kind of addiction, but I will call it nothing but a positive addiction in that case.

Take care.

[Susanna]

Yes, use MFT as a tool to easily enter food, but you bought your expensive Fitbit, it's rated as one of the most accurate, use Fitbit's numbers, because Fitbit pulls it all together!

[vivace]

The morning stuff is easy. I eat oatmeal because it lowers blood sugar,   

increases fiber and provides satiety  for at least two and a half hours.  My doc 

wants me to be gluten free so I buy a gluten free variety at the health food store

and these  packets are 190 calories each.  I also drinik plain kefir which is 90 calories per 8 0z cup. It is the rest of the day when ever i see food and I have to make my brain say "No."

[Susanna]

No, it's not easy. And you know what? When you feel like binging that's because you just lost some weight and your body is trying to balance out. It gets me sometimes and all the walking and calorie counting I did all week is for nothing!

You must measure out and have available *** at all times *** your food for the day. I love my foods and every week or so get tired of my choices and create new foods. If you don't have your foods around, nothing edible is safe around you.

I make my own gaspacho, measure how many cups it makes, and then you'll know how many calories per cup. I pour a cup over a 1/4 head of iceberg lettuce and really enjoy it. Do this with any recipe.

"Rolled Gold" stick pretzels are about 110/calories for 55 pieces. Eat them slowly and enjoy the crunch. Celery sticks, Queso is 45 calories for 2 tablespoons, good with the pretzels. 5 saltines and 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, sugar free jello, ruby red grapefruit, cherries, smoked oysters, tuna in olive oil (hate tuna in water), buy a Soda Stream for fizzy water - the bubbles fill me up. I've made artichoke/spinach dip with Greek yogurt/cream cheese (hate the low fat cream cheese) which is good with celery sticks. Whatever you want, have it and measure it out the night before. Count those calories and exercise so you can have more.

Use the scale, but more importantly, get a FULL LENGTH MIRROR!!! This will help you get real. Get used to looking at your body in your underwear, no more lying. Helps to keep me on track.

I'm on 1000 calories a day, but manage to walk 8000-10000 steps a day which usually gives me another 300 calories. If you count with My FitnessPal, it has a feature so you can see how many calories you've had in the last 7 days. If you have too many in one day, make up for it. I find that some days it's easy to not eat much, other days it's harder, but that's because I'm loosing weight and my body wants it back.

This isn't easy, every morning remember "this is the first day of the rest of my life!"

[madmaz]

Hi Susanna,

Why would you eat as low as 1000 calories a day since the recommended calorie allowance for a woman is approx. 2000 calories a day. So with a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day to lose 1 pound a week, you should still be eating 1500 calories a day.

It's not healthy to try to lose weight quickly, unless you have more than 50 pounds to lose you shouldn't be trying to lose more than 1 pound a week - otherwise you will compromise your metabolism (TDEE) and this will reduce the amount of calories you can eat at your goal weight.


Sent from my iPhone

[vivace]

Own calorie intake. The question is does creating a large deficit (-1000) make it more difficult to loose weight? I dunno.
Steve aka vivace
Right now molto lento.

Sent from my iPhone

[madmaz]

Eventually your weight loss will stall with a large deficit.

People who have 50 pounds or more to lose can get away with a large deficit in the beginning. But if you want to retain lean muscle, which is what burns calories at rest, in your body then it's best to lose weight slowly.

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[vivace]

Mark Bitmann did a piece on gazpacho and variations for the NYT.
vivace as molto lento

[Susanna]

2000 is a generic number. Based on height, weight, activity level and age, mine is 1200. I'm easily eating that. I'm high energy, healthy and loose about 1-2 lbs a week. Then go back up a bit then down. Overall about #20 since the beginning of the year. But it's a good solid 20#. Your skin has time to shrink when you go slow too. No one ever talks about the skin.

I just turned 65 and walk and bus everywhere.

[vivace]

I eat diet food and walk everywhere in Brooklyn. I walk five to ten thousand steps a day .
The system says I need to do aerobic and steps; after a month of staying at 207 I
have to do more. vivace aka molto lento

[Susanna]

About the 2000 calories a day . . .

This doesn't work for me on an app, so go to Fitbit on your computer and log in. Select LOG, then Food Plan.

It says "Today I can eat . . . calories". Click on the arrow to the right and now you'll see "Calories In vs Out". Click on the arrow to the right and now you see "Plan Summary" and below is an "Edit Plan" button.

Enter your weight and how much you want to weigh. Then click NEXT. Then pick your PLAN INTENSITY. Select NEXT.

Let Fitbit tell you how many calories you can have per day, they have a good reputation. That's what I do, I'm on medium, intensity at a -500 calorie deficit per day. So you get your calorie count and then earn more calories by walking. I never count exercise like yardwork, painting the house, etc. as I want it to be easy. I use my Fitbit, walk when ever I can, use MyFitnessPal for calorie counting because it has a great food base and syncs with Fitbit. I am not loosing too fast because I pig out when I shouldn't and waste my  good efforts from the past 7 days. Everyday I get up and try harder to stick to the plan. But I have lost 20#, and feel and look so much better all ready. Fitbit and MyFitness Pal keep me constantly aware of my goal.

It gets easier and easier to not sabotage myself, and I thank my mirror for that.

[madmaz]

Hi Susanna,

How can your TDEE be 1200?
You do realise you burn calories whilst sleeping?

Do you know what your BMR is? I get you it's somewhere between 600-1000.

Your TDEE is your BMR + daily activity.

All I know is that when people do very low calorie dieting, they mess up their metabolism because when they eat their normal allowance they regain the weight very easily or they have to permanently 'diet'.

I know what I prefer to do once I reach my goal weight - that is to be able to eat as many calories as possible whilst maintaining my weight.

Google 'increase metabolism' and you'll find that none if the results say 'eat 1000 calories a day'. A lot of the results will say more exercise and increase muscle, which is why I lift weights.

By the way, I'm 5'8"... eat 2000 calories a day and lose 1-1.5 pounds a week.

Sent from my iPhone

[Susanna]

I follow Fitbit's recommendations.

[ltspector]

I agree it will stall, if you calorie deficit is to large, you body will start to burn muscle along with fat.  As it gets larger, it will burn more muscle trying to stay with in the calorie intake you are trying to maintain.  Why, cause fat takes less calories to mantain.  I would suggest when looking to loss any weight, or gain, that you consult a physcian or trainer to make sure you are doing it safelty.

[SaltyElephants]

I use this photo guide to help me determine portion sizes.  It has pictures of various foods and tells you how many ounces or cups the food is in.  In general, a handful of any food is a serving (so a cup).  

[mrolling03]

If you're really struggling to physically count calories then I would suggest either buying special kitchen utensils that have pre-determined portion sizes (like glasses for wine- some will say how many ounces/# of calories), or you even have the device you stick on your plate to help ensure you're not going over what an average portion size should be. 

If that's not an option then become really familiar with the bowls and plates you use and when you measure a cup of milk or whatever you're trying to measure, then either memorize it or find a way to mark it on the dish (in a safe and sanitary way) so that way you don't have to keep doing it for every meal.

It was a pain for me when I firsted started counting calories, but then it became a habit. Hopefully these tips help you!

[vivace]

Me too.  Food is everywhere.  The time I go over is when at night.  Last night my spouse 

coerced me to go to an awful restaurant where we shared diet food.  I was in no mood to eat but one I eat it is hard to stop.  I half a fresh turkey sandwhich.  I also ate a key lime yogurt when I got home.  

[Kibbles314]

I agree with the majority of posters on here, that getting a mix of measuring cups and a small kitchen scale would be best. I would also suggest looking up the calories for basic ingredients (like one average sweet potato or apple, etc) then track how many you put into your meals. Add all the calories to them divide by the serving sizes you create when you make meals at home. This helps me a lot. Planning out your meals for the week, or taking a day to cut up some of your veggies ahead of time to use the rest of the week is useful too.

When I go out, I like to order foods that have the portions listed on the menu (such as an 8 oz cut of steak) then divide the whole plate in half. I prefer to get 8 oz of steak (in this example) because it's easy to cut in half to the recommended service size, and when I divide the sides with it, it's like I get two meals since I can bring the other half home.