Am I doing this right?

Ok, here's the deal. When I wake up in the morning I have a bowl of grapenuts cereal with soy milk for breakfast and 1 cup of coffee with splenda sweetener and 2% milk for cream. Before lunch, I walk briskly on my treadmill with 2 lb weights in my hands for 30 minutes. Then I have a low calorie lunch (today was steamed veggies with shredded parmessan cheese). For a snack, I'll choose either a piece of fruit or if I don't want that, I'll have maybe a boiled egg. For dinner, it's usually higher calories than anything but I try to keep it under 400. And I also try not to eat anything after 7 pm. At night for wind-down time, I'll have a couple of glasses of red wine. I'm not writing anything down, I just try to make mental notes on what goes in my body throughout the day and I do the walking everyday. You see, I've never had to do this before, so I'm confused on the counting calories thing. For example, let's say a product has 50 calories per serving. On some products, it will say "calories from fat" underneath. Do I add the two together, or is the calories from fat included in the calorie count? If I could get that straight, I think I could get a handle on this. Oh, one more thing. If there are any typos in this post, you'll just have to forgive me. I do try. Thank you.

Tue. Jan 16, 12:26pm

Yes, the main calories number is the total, and the calories from fat is a subsection of the total. Looks like you are doing some good work getting a handle on your food intake. As far as typos, I think most of us are forgiving. The most important thing is that you asked the question!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007, 12:44 PM

here is a link to the usda website describing how to read a nutritional label. good question! i'm sure you are not alone in your quest for more info about this topic!

Link

Tuesday, January 16, 2007, 12:45 PM

It actually sounds like you may not be eating enough calories!

The bowl of Grapenuts w/ soy, depending on how big it is, is probably 200-300 cals. The coffee is probably 30 cals. The hardboiled egg is 80 cals. The veggies with cheese is maybe 100 cals, depending on how much cheese you use. Dinner at 400 cals, for a total of 810-910 cals of food per day. The red wine is probably around 100 cals a glass, but I'm really not sure, particularly because I don't know how big of glasses you pour. Anyway, I don't know your situation or what calories you're trying to stick to, but generally, people don't aim for less than 1200 calories, especially since you're working out too. Too few calories will shut down your metabolism, and you won't lose weight. Totally confusing and annoying - too few or too many and you can't lose!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007, 2:46 PM

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