Calorie counting

Maybe I'm OCD, but I toyed with the idea of calorie counting recently, and have rejected it. How do you calorie counters do it?? How do you guage with any kind of accuracy how much chicken fat went into the gravy you make to put on your easter turkey? How do you add up all the calories of the ingredients to make muffins, then divide by however many muffins you made (and even assume the muffins are all the same size...) and all the weighing of things like bananas and strawberries and meat to try and get an idea? Don't even get me started on the discrepancy between machine calorie counters, websites, and the fact that I know the intensity of my workout varies, so I know I can't have burned X calories in an hour as it says I did cuz my output wasn't consistent...

So is it just that I'm OCD, or how have you made it work?

Tue. Apr 10, 11:08pm

Measuirng spoons, cups, and scales...along with cross checking cal content from lots of sources to be sure you're right...
and some cal counters swear by pre-packaged dinners, others count each ingredient and make the meal themselves.
Either way, over time you get to know the count by sight, since you get so used to cal counting. I take a break every 2 weeks and don't count cals at all one day.
I also aim for 1200 cals daily, just in case some counts are off. They're usually not off by much, and if I stick to that number, no matter what the content is (although that DOES matter), I lose weight.
Some people think 1200 is too low, so you'll have to play with what feels right for you.
But before restricting you should get an idea of what you're eating now and work from there.
Cal counting is a PITA at first, but it's been invaluable to me in my weight loss journey (30 down and counting).
Good luck

Tuesday, April 10, 2007, 11:39 PM

I do calculate recipes and divide by how many cookies or muffins or whatever i made, if i make a soup or a casserole or whatever, I weigh it and calculate how many calories are in 100 g portions. It's not as bad as you think! I keep a calculator in the kitchen with a notebook and quickly jot down what goes into whatever i'm making. If i don't know the calorie count off the top of my head, i look it up on the internet and save it in the notebook so the next time i make the dish i don't have to do all that work. there are some things i just estimate best i can, and i'm sure i'm over or under my totals on most days, but i think it evens out over time. i've had no problem losing weight doing this and it hasn't taken up too much of my time.

i enjoy that i can eat whatever i want by doing this. it's just a matter of how much!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007, 11:40 PM

I have a computer recipe program that calculates calories on recipes I add, so if I don't know the calorie content - I put it in my program.

Plus, like the 1st poster said, you get so you just know. You don't have to be exact - to the calorie. Measure once and pay attention to how it looks in the bowl or on the plate. The next time, you know that when the bowl is 1/2 full or whatever, you are eating about XX calories.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 1:48 AM

A good quality food scale (I use metric) and NutritionData.com. You can search from their database of thousands of foods or do custom entries for things they may not have. You save all of them in a virtual "pantry" and just plug in the numbers. And it gives you a whole lot more than just calorie info. You can also enter the ingredients for a recipe, save it, and get it to divide up the values by portion. It takes a little while to set up your pantry and figure out everything the site has to offer, but it's free, has virually no ads, and gives you a lot of info. Others like calorieking.com but I prefer ND. (I don't even use calories rather kilojoules so it's no use to me.). I don't think it's OCD at all. It can become very automatic, quick and painless and I don't stick tooooo rigidly to a certain number. Best of luck whatever you decide to incorporate.

Hussy

Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 2:14 AM

2:14 AM

very cool site! thanks for the info

I was just think about calorie counting this morning. I follow weight watchers and already weigh and measure my foods. I dont know how many calories my points add up to. I have considered switching to calorie counting but I dont know where I am at the moment..

Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 10:16 AM

I guess and try to round up. I don't weigh food but I do count (e.g. 10 almonds, 7 strawberries, etc.). I know I'm rounding up so as long as I stay within my target calorie range I'm okay. If you get too nitpicky about it, it will drive you crazy. For me it's more about being aware of what's going into my body. For example, a serving of brown rice is 150 calories which I never would have guessed because it's so gross.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 1:40 PM

A good start to learning portion control is to simply learn to eyeball what a "sensible" portion is.

This page contains a guide that will give you some good ways of understanding this:

PEERtrainer Guide To Learning Portion Control

Wednesday, March 2, 2011, 5:32 PM

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