Counting Calories For Weight Loss

I’ve been very truthful in that my diet is horrible. Have I tried to eat better? Sure but I always have problems with eating too much and eating the wrong stuff. I knew it was a problem but was too lazy to fix it. I made some half-heart attempts but never put anything permanently in place to correct the problem.

This is further mind-boggling because I knew that I needed to be counting, or tracking, my calories in order to solve my weight problems. So why don’t I do it?

Why Don’t We Count Calories?

Is it because we’re lazy? Maybe but I think the biggest problem is because we think it’s too hard. We’ve all seen the books available that show nutritional information for particular foods (calories, fat, carbohydrates, etc.). You have to look up your food, figure out how much you ate, and then write it down in whatever you were tracking it in (legal pad, moleskin, or perhaps excel). Then you had to add up everything and see how you were doing. Now you needed to figure out your balance of carbs, fats, and proteins. Good luck!

It Doesn’t Have To Be Hard

These days there are online tools (both free and paid) that let you do all this. They have big databases of pre-loaded foods with all the nutritional information already entered. All you have to do is figure out how much you consumed and the rest is done for you. Some of these online tools even track goals (weight loss per week, total weight loss, goal weight, etc.) as well as your exercise. They’ve taken all the hard work and made it easy.

I’ve used Fit Day in the past but was never really sold on it. Their database had a lot of food in it but you still had to enter a lot of stuff manually. Maybe that’s why I quit using it. Two days ago I was on Livestrong.com and found The Daily Plate. I looked at it but didn’t sign up. Then I read over on Jason Kearney’s blog, Out Here In The Middle, that he used The Daily Plate. so I headed back over there today to sign up (for free) and see what it was like.

I’ve only experimented with it a little bit but already love it. It pulled up my brand of oatmeal right away so I started putting in the rest of the things I’d eaten for the day. It tells you how many calories you’ve eaten for the day, how many calories you have left to eat based on your goal (for me it’s losing 2 pounds per week), and a nutritional breakdown. It also lets you add how many glasses of water you’ve consumed for the day. It’s got a ton of features I haven’t even explored yet.

Needless to say, I like it a lot. I’m going to give it a go, see how it works, and write a more detailed review later.

You Still Have To Measure

These online tools are great but in order to make them work we still have to measure how much we’re eating and exercising. For those of us cycling we have our trusty cyclocomputers to tell us how far and how fast we’ve ridden. What about food? We guess right? Wrong!

I’m just as guilty as the next person when it comes to measuring food intake. Some items are easy (1 packet of artificial sweetner has this many calories). What about that big bowl of noodles last night? Or that container of chicken I had for lunch? Or the taco dinner at your favorite taco joint. When left to do our own guesswork we always underestimate. Especially when it comes to food and counting caloric intake!

How can we, I, take our weight loss seriously if we can’t be honest with ourselves on how much we’re eating? The answer is that we can’t. Period.

That’s why I’m buying a food scale today.

Are You Counting Calories?

I’ve included a small poll below to see how many of my readers are counting their calories. Do you do it manually using the old book method or do you use one of the online tools?

Leave us a comment below if you have any good tips or recommendations for counting calories. Or maybe leave me a comment because you love my blog so much.

Vote Now! I guarantee there will be no hanging chads!

Do You Count Calories(polls)

Feature image courtesy of Alan Cleaver.

http://mildstallion.wordpress.com/ Al

Great post. I don't count my calories, but I do pay attention to what I'm taking in. I've said in the past that being an active person concerned with my overall health, that I now have better knowledge to feel guilty about what I'm eating.

I remember a stat for some years back that was about car pollution, but it applies to your post as well. It was “50% of the problem was caused by the worst 20% of the offenders”. I believe that the biggest hits our caloric intake gets are from relatively few sources.

I try not to over think my diet, but I very much try to limit the worst offenders.

bdewberry

Al, I think that's good advice. With me still new to trying to control my weight and intake, I'm going to need to count calories so I can see what those worst offenders are and cut'em out. The obvious one is fast food but there may be other things that aren't so obvious.

jodycb

I put yes-fit day but to be honest I don't do it every single day. I've used daily plate, fit day, nutrition data, etc.

I think the food scale is a great idea. It always made it easier to get your numbers down and forces you to be honest with yourself.

The other thing I would say is that it's far more effective if you plan your whole day's meals ahead of time. I know I can eat 1500 calories a day & if I plan ahead I can keep under but if I just enter stuff after it's more of an exercise in guilt because I always go over. Guilt doesn't actually burn calories so that route is pointless.

If you have a plan for the day you can stick to it. If you have no plan you will almost always go astray. (and I do. often)

http://mildstallion.wordpress.com/ Al

Planning the day's meals works great for me on workdays. I have a good routine going that way; I know exactly what I will have 95% of the time. On those rare days where extra stuff comes in I take it in stride because I know that I am on the right path the rest of the time.

It worth my coworkers occasional snarky remarks about my habits, but I'll get the last laugh when I outlive them by 20 years

bdewberry

Would you be willing to share your routine?

A couple of my coworkers give me a hard time because I'm a banana freak. I've always got 3 or 4 on my desk to snack on throughout the day.

bdewberry

I try to plan my meals out especially for lunch at work. It forces me to cook something in the evening in order to have leftover for lunch the next day. Guilt doesn't burn calories. So true.

http://twitter.com/lovingthebike Loving The Bike

Keep us posted on how you're liking the Daily Plate. I'm not a calorie counter myself because I feel like I've got a pretty decent nutritional background and am very cognizant of what's going into my body. But I am happy that you are using a good tool to assist you in your goals.
As you know, we can cycle our butts off but if we're not eating the right foods and eating too much of the wrong foods….the weight will still come on.
You've definitely got the right idea, Bryan….you have to be completely honest with yourself and face up to what's going into your body. If you ever need anyone to keep you accountable, I'd love to be there for you.

bdewberry

Thanks and I will keep you posted on The Daily Plate. I plan on starting with it in earnest on Monday (2/22) because I'm out of town for the weekend and because I turn 39 on Tuesday.

http://mildstallion.wordpress.com/ Al

diregard this comment – please delete?
http://www.weiland.net/ Weiland

I count calories in phases, it depends upon at what point I'm at in my training plan. There's 2 phases that I count calories, during a recovery period and a heavy build period. During recovery I need to make sure I pull back on my calorie consumption as not too over do it while not being as active. During a heavy build phase I need to make sure I'm getting enough calories and the right mix of carbs and protein for the heavy training that I'm doing.

My tip to you, cut out eating out. It wasn't until I did this was I able to really lose weight. I wasn't able to do it cold turkey either. It took several months if not an entire year, at first only eating out twice a week. Then once a week, then every two weeks down to once a month. Now we eat out on special occasions only and it's never fast food.

One other cravat, as you pointed out people estimate their caloric intake low while heart rate monitors and work out software will estimate on the high side. So this gives a false representation of where you are at, you can think oh that Chicken Alfredo I had for lunch at Olive Garden was 400 calories and my HR monitor said I burned 1,000 calories on my 40 minute ride today so I'm doing good. When in fact the Chicken Alfredo is 1440 calories (not including bread sticks and Coke) and the ride only burned 400 calories. Yes the HR monitor can be that far off on the calorie expenditure! You want true calorie expenditure for a ride you'll need a power meter so you can see how many kJ you expend in a ride, kJ is almost 1:1 to calorie.

bdewberry

Mike, thanks for the detailed response. I know you take your training very seriously (hence my good-natured poke at you regarding the language of Weiland in 50 Reasons to Start Cycling – #45) have a very well laid out plan. I really think I need that kind of plan.

Cutting out the eating out. You told me that before and I didn't listen. It's something I need to do.

I don't even have a HR monitor so I can't even measure using that. On The Daily Plate you can enter the speed range you rode, and for how long, and it gives you how much you burned (I'm hoping this is tied to the my weight). You also have the option of entering HR and miles (I'm guessing you could enter an average HR over the total length of a ride). It also allows you to enter manually. As you say, it looks like a lot of guess work. I do need to get a HR monitor though to at least make sure I'm training in the right zones. A power meter would be nice but one of those would cost more than my bike did.

What I need is for a company like Garmin and/or Saris (Power Tap) to step up and provide a setup for long term review. I can dream.

Seriously, though, a HR monitor is on my short list of items to purchase.

http://www.nomeatathlete.com/ Matt

Hi Bryan, found your blog via the TT message board. Great post!

I've always found counting calories to be a very unnatural way of eating, one that takes the joy out of it. I've never dealt with weight problems, but I have attempted to follow endurance training diets with specific calorie requirements. I found that it was just not a sustainable way of living for me, someone that loves food and cooking.

I've found that if you eat high net-gain, plant-based whole foods, it's not as easy to overeat, because your body responds to the high nutrient content by becoming satiated quickly. I realize that for some people it will never be this easy, and that for many, calorie-counting is the only way. But just wanted to throw the vegetarian/vegan thing out there as an option!

Looking forward to reading more.

bdewberry

Matt, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

I don't know if I could go that route because, honestly, I love a good steak every now and then. Would I be willing to try it? If I can't make counting calories work then yes.

http://www.wirewd.com/bike/ Wirehead

I think counting calories is a good way to drive yourself nuts. Too many dependencies and approximations and ways it could go wrong.

I use the Hackers Diet weight tracker and use the trend to calibrate my sense of what I'm eating… so I can know if I'm eating too much or too little as an overall trend.

I've also looked up the nutritional contents of foods and done various interesting figuring. Like realizing which veggies are not especially calorie-dense such that I can eat them until I get full without eating that many calories.
lillyadams

This is a great article. I think it is important to know how many calories in each meal you eat throughout the day. That way you will be able to monitor your low calorie diet. Along with a lot of daily exercise I am sure you will see fantastic results rather quickly. I found this site that allows you to track your calories for free and also gives you many other cool ideas for your weight loss journey. I hope this helps you along the way. http://www.fitclick.com/howmanycaloriesin

bdewberry

Lilly, thanks for stopping by. That's an interesting site that I'll have to check out. Thanks for posting it.
lillyadams

Correction to my above comment. The correct website is http://www.fitclick.com/how_many_calories