Calories counting

Food & Drink, Events and Entertainment
1
'morning guys!

I am trying really hard to get my body back in shape and with the Hypo and the water retention, it does make it a bit of a challenge.

I am also trying to figure out what I eat during the day and how much it is in calories. When you know that, you can make better choices.

So, for those of you who does / did count it to get a general idea of what is your daily intake, I will love to get some tips.

This morning I looked at my breakfast and did the calculation. I came up at 300 kcal. for my sandwich. Considering the fact the day just began, how will I handle the rest of the day?

I got a big shock to see the amount of kcal in the mayonnaise. I will have to change it for something else. It is such a waste of calories...

2
Hi, Nil-- I agree about the mayonnaise. I was going to make a tuna salad this weekend and when I glanced at the package I noticed that one tablespoon of mayo has as many calories as the whole can of tuna! So instead I used a spoonful of sour cream (the whole container of sour cream has about as many calories as a spoonful of mayo, even though it was full fat sour cream) with some chopped fresh dill. Gives you the creaminess without the worry.

3

Mayo is 80% fat.

Use yogurt.

Breakfast doesn't matter - you can eat anything, any amount.

Eat normal for lunch.

Cancel dinner, or just some yogurt with some fruits.

Also good: 30 minutes of sports (biking, running) before breakfast. Burns calories like hell ;-)

But only do it once or twice a week.

4
More important than counting calories is the exercise. If you exercise at least 30 minutes to one hour a day, this will definitely get your metabolism up and going and you will be burning calories.

From the science/math side, there are 3500 calories in a pound of body mass, and healthy women usually require around 2000 calories a day. When I went to a nutritionist a while back, she said to restrict my calorie intake to 1200-1500 a day for healthy weight loss of about a pound to two pounds a week. This is really hard to do when you are exercising because your bodies requires more calories (because you are expending more). But if you do the math and think about what you used to eat and what you are trying to eat now, if you can reduce your calorie intake by 3500/week (or 500/day), you are going to lose about a pound a week. We don't realize how many calories are in what we consume, so once you start paying attention, you can get an idea for what you used to intake and what you are wanting to intake to lose weight.

Good luck Nil. But don't go overboard. Losing weight takes time and it is better to do it safely than to become extreme about it. Too many women worry too much about this. Skinny doesn't necessarily mean healthy... If you feel good, that is all that matters.

5
I don't need to lose weight but my hubby does. So.... in general I've almost abolished extra fat from our kitchen - there's enough fat in our regular, everyday food to keep us going and fat is just crammed full of surplus calories which you can use otherwise.

This means that: no mayo, olive oil measured by the teaspoon, dry marinade for meat and so on. Otherwise I'm cooking normally:

Breakfast: Muesli with fruit and plain joghurt, sweetened with some maple syrup, 1 egg

Lunch: Salad with chicken or similar, dressing = balsamic vinegar, chives, 1 tsp olive oil, salt & pepper

Dinner: the only meal we eat together during the week, so I cook totally normally, just taking care to cut down on fats. Pasta is allowed, rice is allowed, eggs are allowed, NOTHING EVER deep-fried, veggies like zucchetti, tomatoes, fennel, mushrooms, peppers etc. seasoned and then popped under the grill. The possibilities are almost endless!

If I want to fry meat, I heat the pan really really hot, put in just a little olive oil, then the seasoned meat, if it looks like it's becoming too dry before it's cooked, then I'll add some bouillon to give the "sauna effect".

6
Agreeing with JLF - the ideal way to lose weight is through a combination of controlled calorie intake and exercise. I went through this routine a couple of years ago and am doing it again, just to get myself to eat healthier. I currently use an Iphone app called "Lose It" where you can keep track of what you ate and how many calories you consumed. You can also record how many calories you burned exercising, and see how much over or under you are of your allowed limit. A good website to get the calorie information in different foods is www.calorie-count.com .

In order to avoid "using up" all your allowed calories by noon, I recommend the following approach:

- Have a protein and fiber rich breakfast (egg whites, whole wheat toast, yogurt, etc). The calorie intake may be around 300 but your fat intake is quite low and you feel full longer as it takes longer to digest protein and fiber.

- Have a big lunch, but make sure you have a good balance of carbs, fat (some fat is required!), fiber and protein. When I was writing down what I ate, I immediately started noticing a trend - I tended to eat carb heavy lunches. So I cut down on some bread and added beans and tofu (I'm a vegetarian) to the mix.

- Have at least 2-3 fruits in between meals. I'm like a kid; I get hungry every 2-3 hours, and I can't starve myself, so I ended up having an apple and either a bunch of strawberries or papaya or any other fruit available in between meals. The calorie intake in fruits isn't very high, and it is also very good for you. I would also have a small yogurt at around 4ish, when hunger levels peaked.

- By controlling my calorie intake until the evening, I always had enough leftover for a big dinner and even some dessert if I wanted. The key is to not use all your calories by lunch. I wrote down what I ate and worked out 6x a week for 4 months and lost 30lb. I can't diet, it isn't for me, but writing down what I ate made me aware of my not-so-good eating habits and I was gradually able to alter them on a permanent basis.

Hope this helps - good luck!

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what s/he said, and this website:

http://caloriecount.about.com/

And get a decent scale that shows you 100gm increments.

under "my account" you can log your weight, and food consumed.

8
The basic rule, is that women need 2000 calories per day and men 2500. If you indulge in a lot of physical activity, then you add around 500. I figure on burning around 750-900 calories for a one hour run at a decent pace and then plan to increase my carb intake accordingly. Although avoiding fatty foods including sauces seems like a good idea, you do need a certain amount of fat to burn the other foods you digest. Avoiding mayonnaise, sauces and sugary additives is always a good way to start. Fresh fruit intake never killed anyone either IMO.

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ooooo.. be careful..

according to this thread , if you eat too much, you can die of starvation

10
Water is also very important BUT I hate the taste of water here. So we bought a Soda Stream machine and I drink water with a bit of syrop in. (much lower then written. Just enough to hide the water taste.)

I can now drink easily 2-3 liter of water per day beside other drinks (coffee) with a minimum of calorie intake.

11
I find water too boring sometimes, and I substitute herbal tea. I find that carbonated drinks emphasise the bloating problem women seem to be prone to

When I need to shape up, I basically eliminate all junk food (I never keep it around the house because if it's there, it calls to me ); eat normally but no butter or mayonnaise--just good vegetable oils, and if I eat out I ask for the sauce on the side; and generally follow a 'mediterranean' diet. But as other people have said, increased physical activity is the key.

Once I had an amzing book called The Food Bible and it said that the calories in a small handful of nuts are equal to those in a big turkey sandwich (without butter and mayo of course)! If you have an iphone, I heard there are really effective calorie-counting apps.

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I used to have a bad habit of only drinking soda (thought it was okay since it was always Coke Zero). After having to have my very first cap on my teeth, and multiple smaller cavities, I decided to drink more water.

I used to hate drinking water, but after consistently drinking only water for about 2 weeks I finally developed a taste for it (I tried once before to limit myself to one soda a day and water the rest of the time but found that I would still be craving soda quite a bit).

Anyway, that's my advice for the water issue...when you compare water with any other drink it won't seem very appealing, but if you have it, and only it, on a consistent basis, then you might begin to actually like it (like I did).

As far as dieting goes, my only advice is to just remember that what works for one person may not work for another. Personally I can't do the calorie counting thing because I hate obsessing over it; I just try to make good decisions about what I eat in general (doesn't help though that the hubby has a sweet tooth that rivals my own and is always bringing home chocolate, haha).

I have found it much easier to be healthy here in CH than back in the US...where I lived, I had 5 fast food restaurants, 3 different pizza places, and 2 ice cream shops just on my street alone. Since coming here I have already lost a little weight without even trying

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exactly! you can definitely acquire a taste for water when you slowly take out the sugary things you're drinking. i add lemon and a few mint leaves to my water and it helps me drink a lot more, and i like the taste.

in terms of counting calories, i have no idea, i 've never done it, i just focus on what i'm eating when i need to- amen to the yogurt and muesli for breakfast, a bigbig lunch, and even though i cook a big dinner for the boys, i usually don't eat much for dinner- usually a big salad and a bit of meat/veggie because i have already eaten a big lunch. i try not to eat after 18h, and then maybe just a few nuts or fruit.

most importantly, when i wasn't working i would find a moment i was on the computer or watching tv with not much to do and i'd take about 25 minutes for exercise. it ended up i was do this 25 minutes 4-5 times a day when i got used to it and it made the biggest difference!

14
Here I have 40g of mueslix for 146 kcal.

250g of yogourt with fruits for 118 kcal.

= 264 kcal

I hope that will keep me a bit more full, 'cause my sandwich with whole wheat didn't do the job...

15
1. Train yourself to like water - there is no alternative and never will be.

2. Find an excercise you really enjoy, whether it's rock climbing or tennis or whatever. If you don't enjoy it, you'll never do it.

3. Study. Study yourself and study foods around you. Calories are not created equal. Try and get your carbs from things like quinoa and lentils and study how your body responds to different foods. We're all different, some of us can eat a square of chocolate, some of us need the rest of the bar.

4. Excercise is important, but only one-third for the calories it burns while you do it. The other third is the increased metabolism for the following 24 hours, and finally for appetite supression - it takes away your hunger and regulates your blood sugar.

5. Realise that losing weight/getting into shape isn't supposed to be fun. It's meant to be painful like quitting heroin/giving up smoking. If you're not feeling a little bit of hunger/pain you aren't doing it right.

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You were excercising 25 mins per day 7 days a week? What sort of excercise? What difference did you notice?

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I don't like dry sandwiches, you can easily get a fat reduced mayo or put fat reduced Philadelphia on, it's nice and creamy without the junk fat of mayo, and I would always add mustard for flavor, it's works fabulous, gradually replacing the processed fake mayo. It's not the fat we miss but the flavor, so one can easily trick the taste buds while using healthier alternatives - add mustard to sandwiches, tiny bit of roasted pine nuts and tangy vinegar or tangerins to light salads, shred parmazan on pasta and salads, add curry spice to stews, cumin to veggies, etc. So, basically, spice up when you cut down on the heavy foods.

If you calorie count and do not know the rough value by heart, you will know it after a few days of logging it, then it is smooth. A lot of it is common sense.

Beware, though, of not excluding fats and oils completely, if will make you store fats in your body to stock up. I read people turn chubby when they consume either too much or not enough good oils and fats. I would concentrate on lean protein, some moderate amount of carbs to not feel completely deprived, some healthy fats and ton of juicy and yummy fruits and grilled or baked veggies. Stewing veggies in light chicken broth with cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, tiny bit of fennel seeds is great, salt well and serve over couscous, it's quick and light...

Also, if you over-concentrate on calorie counting, it might make you want to eat ton, happens to some peeps. Brush your teeth every single time after you eat, it might want to beat the cravings. Wholewheat bread will not fill you up on it's own, pack it with a hard boiled egg, some lean turkey and olives, tomatoes and lettuce, black pepper, you will feel full for longer, I'd have that for breakfast, not evening or afternoon, since that's a big boy to digest.

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No Sweety, she said 25 minutes X 4-5 times per day.

Or lets say, 4 to 5 times a day, each time 25 minutes

19

I believe Miracle Whip also has fewer calories than Mayonaise... and I have seen it for sale at Coop. (Not my favorite stuff tbh BUT I really like it in tuna salad.)

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Agree - I hate doing exercise for the sake of exercise. I would rather do a sport where you also have support from team members. It doesn't have to be at an elite level.

I would add that you should try to eat soon after exercise.

In the example of blood sugar regulation Economisto mentions, exercise really increases your insulin sensitivity. So if you are going to eat carbs, do it then as you'll get more sugar being stored as glycogen (quick release energy). This has two immediate benefits: 1) less excess carb being transfered to fat; and, 2) you'll feel more energetic as a result (remember that old saying that doing exercise gives you energy?).

This meal needs to be within 15-60 minutes post exercise (ideally within 45 minutes), so you should have it ready in advance.

However, don't overburden your meal with carbs, you should include a good load of protein to help build/repair muscle.