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How do you measure calories in food? It takes a herculean effort to know exactly what ingredients are in food and weigh exactly how much of each you're consumin

by soheil 5y ago

How do you measure calories in food? It takes a herculean effort to know exactly what ingredients are in food and weigh exactly how much of each you're consuming with every meal. Seems like a lot of work to manually keep track of all that every single day and not make a mistake.

yupper32 5y ago
1. Count your calories the best you can. Apps like MyFitnessPal help. 2. Weigh yourself every day. 3. After 2 weeks, raise or lower your calorie budget depending on how much weight you've lost. Look at averages, not daily weight. 4. Repeat. The 2 week adjustment takes care of most mistakes you make with calorie counting. I am usually consistent with the direction I'm over or under counting.
agentwiggles 5y ago
Weighing food is not really a "herculean effort," but in my experience it is certainly fair to call it a "pain in the ass". That said, dealing with the "knowing exactly what ingredients" part is actually easy enough, if you're cooking your own food. If not, most places have some kind of nutrition information available, and if they don't, a rough guess is definitely better than nothing. Calorie tracking is not much fun, but it is definitely effective. Getting it perfectly right isn't as important as consistency.
awb 5y ago
Yeah, that's why a lot of people don't do it, or just ballpark it. If you want to be more exact, some ways to make it easier are: 1) eat prepared food that has caloric info on it, like a pre-made salad 2) cook recipes that provide caloric info 3) make very simple meals (ex. 1 cup yogurt + 1 tbsp peanut butter + 1 banana) where you can do the math yourself But yeah, for most people they'd rather ballpark it and have less stress. Maybe that means a 4-pack instead of a 6-pack, but you're still going to look good.
nezaj 5y ago
I've personally been tracking my diet publicly for over a year now. You can see my public record here -- www.joelogs.com Over the years I've been on/off with tracking. But I've been able to stick with it over a year now, the longest I ever have. The big difference between now and then is that I'm okay with being 80% accurate if it means easy consistency. Previously it was very important for me to be 100% accurate. This is especially difficult to do when you eat out. By allowing myself to be imperfect in my logging, it eases the burden to track. Here's what I do now. 1) Take a photo of everything I eat 2) Log right after eating if I feel like it, but usually I log at the end of the day Sometimes I underestimate. Sometimes I overestimate. I think it washes out in the net. If my logging is really off it will show in my scale and progress pics. Doing the above has given me lots of visibility into my diet and unlocked optimizations. Consistency > Accuracy
nimos 5y ago
I can't recommend fasting enough. I do rolling 72-100 hour fasts to lose weight and its by far the easiest thing to do. Are you familiar with water? Yeah. Good to go. (You probably want to add in a bit of sodium/magnesium/potassium) Yes the first day and last bit suck, especially the first time. But its also ~3-5x more time efficient than most calorie reduction diets and you save time and money.
- soheil 5y ago
  What is a rolling 72-100 hour fast? You don't eat for 72 hours and then allowed to eat for 100 hours before the cycle starts? How do you source your magnesium/potassium?
  - nimos 5y ago
    Fast for 72-100 hours. Eat normally for 1 day then fast again. Works better with WFH (you want to be near a toilet after breaking a fast). But you can also just time it so your fast ends on Sunday and do it once a week. You do have to be a bit careful about not binge eating after a fast. I don't count the calories on my eating days but I am also conscious about not stuffing my face all day. Magnesium from random supplement I got at target, potassium from no-salt salt alternative.
    - yupper32 5y ago
      Wait so you basically eat once a week? Fast 3 days, eat 1 day, fast 3 days? There's no way that's healthy, especially longer term.
      - nimos 5y ago
        Well on average it's eating closer to twice a week. People fast for much longer. I think at most I've done 3 in a almost a row - doing stuff with friends will mess stuff up - I fit them in where I can. You can look into it if you want but there are a lot of people that think its actively good for you. I'm more in it for the weight loss and take anything else as a bonus.
johnchristopher 5y ago
You'll always only get a rough estimate. That's why the first week or two your weight yourself everyday, chart it and note everything you eat. If your weight doesn't change then you can start reducing calorie intake by reducing portions.
naasking 5y ago
> How do you measure calories in food? Plan sets of meals with known calories and macronutrients, make them all on Sunday and eat them throughout the week. Easiest is obviously eating the same thing every day, but if that's too monotonous, then choose two or three varieties and make them in big batches. Then you're not weighing grams of ingredients for a single meal at a time, you're weighing X times that for X meals at a time. Also easy to split them up into the right serving size in a container in the fridge, and you don't even have to think about meals, just grab from fridge and pop in microwave or oven to hear. That gets you 90% of the way without having to micromanage every meal. The odd meal out on weekends is not a big deal as long as you don't go crazy.

by soheil 5y ago

yupper32 5y ago

1. Count your calories the best you can. Apps like MyFitnessPal help. 2. Weigh yourself every day. 3. After 2 weeks, raise or lower your calorie budget depending on how much weight you've lost. Look at averages, not daily weight. 4. Repeat. The 2 week adjustment takes care of most mistakes you make with calorie counting. I am usually consistent with the direction I'm over or under counting.

agentwiggles 5y ago

Weighing food is not really a "herculean effort," but in my experience it is certainly fair to call it a "pain in the ass". That said, dealing with the "knowing exactly what ingredients" part is actually easy enough, if you're cooking your own food. If not, most places have some kind of nutrition information available, and if they don't, a rough guess is definitely better than nothing. Calorie tracking is not much fun, but it is definitely effective. Getting it perfectly right isn't as important as consistency.

awb 5y ago

Yeah, that's why a lot of people don't do it, or just ballpark it. If you want to be more exact, some ways to make it easier are: 1) eat prepared food that has caloric info on it, like a pre-made salad 2) cook recipes that provide caloric info 3) make very simple meals (ex. 1 cup yogurt + 1 tbsp peanut butter + 1 banana) where you can do the math yourself But yeah, for most people they'd rather ballpark it and have less stress. Maybe that means a 4-pack instead of a 6-pack, but you're still going to look good.

nezaj 5y ago

I've personally been tracking my diet publicly for over a year now. You can see my public record here -- www.joelogs.com Over the years I've been on/off with tracking. But I've been able to stick with it over a year now, the longest I ever have. The big difference between now and then is that I'm okay with being 80% accurate if it means easy consistency. Previously it was very important for me to be 100% accurate. This is especially difficult to do when you eat out. By allowing myself to be imperfect in my logging, it eases the burden to track. Here's what I do now. 1) Take a photo of everything I eat 2) Log right after eating if I feel like it, but usually I log at the end of the day Sometimes I underestimate. Sometimes I overestimate. I think it washes out in the net. If my logging is really off it will show in my scale and progress pics. Doing the above has given me lots of visibility into my diet and unlocked optimizations. Consistency > Accuracy

nimos 5y ago

I can't recommend fasting enough. I do rolling 72-100 hour fasts to lose weight and its by far the easiest thing to do. Are you familiar with water? Yeah. Good to go. (You probably want to add in a bit of sodium/magnesium/potassium) Yes the first day and last bit suck, especially the first time. But its also ~3-5x more time efficient than most calorie reduction diets and you save time and money.

soheil 5y ago
What is a rolling 72-100 hour fast? You don't eat for 72 hours and then allowed to eat for 100 hours before the cycle starts? How do you source your magnesium/potassium?
- nimos 5y ago
  Fast for 72-100 hours. Eat normally for 1 day then fast again. Works better with WFH (you want to be near a toilet after breaking a fast). But you can also just time it so your fast ends on Sunday and do it once a week. You do have to be a bit careful about not binge eating after a fast. I don't count the calories on my eating days but I am also conscious about not stuffing my face all day. Magnesium from random supplement I got at target, potassium from no-salt salt alternative.
  - yupper32 5y ago
    Wait so you basically eat once a week? Fast 3 days, eat 1 day, fast 3 days? There's no way that's healthy, especially longer term.
    - nimos 5y ago
      Well on average it's eating closer to twice a week. People fast for much longer. I think at most I've done 3 in a almost a row - doing stuff with friends will mess stuff up - I fit them in where I can. You can look into it if you want but there are a lot of people that think its actively good for you. I'm more in it for the weight loss and take anything else as a bonus.

johnchristopher 5y ago

You'll always only get a rough estimate. That's why the first week or two your weight yourself everyday, chart it and note everything you eat. If your weight doesn't change then you can start reducing calorie intake by reducing portions.

naasking 5y ago

> How do you measure calories in food? Plan sets of meals with known calories and macronutrients, make them all on Sunday and eat them throughout the week. Easiest is obviously eating the same thing every day, but if that's too monotonous, then choose two or three varieties and make them in big batches. Then you're not weighing grams of ingredients for a single meal at a time, you're weighing X times that for X meals at a time. Also easy to split them up into the right serving size in a container in the fridge, and you don't even have to think about meals, just grab from fridge and pop in microwave or oven to hear. That gets you 90% of the way without having to micromanage every meal. The odd meal out on weekends is not a big deal as long as you don't go crazy.