Here’s a question I received about Calorie Counting.

"One thing I always wonder about calorie counting:
how do you account for cooked foods or whole meals?
For example, an apple is easy: it's so & so calories.

However if... (like we did today for dinner)... your meal consists of
a) potato salad b) cucumber salad and c) cheese pie

How would you go about counting all that?
Would you have to input all recipes & divide by helpings
to know what you've eaten?"

And Here’s my Answer to that Question.

DietPower, the software food journal I use,
has a simple function that allows me
to input label info from new foods into its food dictionary.
It also has a simple function that allows me to input new recipes,
using foods that are in its food dictionary.

I would use the search function in its food dictionary,
and find potato salad,
then input how much I ate (1/2 cup?)
Same thing with cucmber salad and cheese pie.
Each of the 3 specialized foods could be as easy for me to input as an apple.

During the past six and a half years,
the DietPower program has been extremely helpful to me.
After I've input a food or a recipe once,
it becomes part of the program and is forever in my software dictionary.

As part of the process of entering a recipe the first time,
I have to determine how many servings are in it.
The program then immediately responds
with correct nutritional values, including calories.

When I first started using the program,
I'd put in one of my favorite recipes
and divide it so that one serving was the amount I usually ate.

SURPRISE... sometimes I found my chosen serving
was TWO or THREE times more than the calories I thought I was eating....
so then... (during the initial input process)... I adjusted the recipe
to a more reasonable number of servings
such as 12 servings, not 6 servings.
This taught me how much I should be eating,
and served as a Forever reminder as to just what size
my serving of that particular food should be.

When I log my food for each day, I just use DietPower's search function
Up comes my food or recipe,

I put the amount I ate...1 serving, or 1/2 serving or whatever,
and instantly I have all the nutritional values of what I ate...
or what I PLAN to eat... because sometimes,
when I see the total calories in advance, I alter my plan.

I've now been using DietPower a very long time
so most of my standard recipes are now in its Dictionary.
When I cook a new recipe, I just add it in.
I also enter as a Recipe,
frequent combinations of foods I eat,
such as a particular Sandwich or even a complete standard meal.
That way I am able to log an entire meal as easily as I could log an apple.

If I am going to eat in a restaurant,
I plan approximately what I will eat in advance.
I Look online and find that item or a similiar item,
and put the restaurant nutritional info for that food item into DietPower.
Then, after my meal, I make minor changes to reflect what I actually ate.

Anytime I eat something I haven't prepared, I can always find
something similiar in the DietPower food dictionary, 
or find the nutritional values of a similiar food somewhere online.
Once I put that food into the DietPower dictionary, it is there for future use.

Most people eat about the same foods month after month,
so once the initial work is done, tracking food is very easy,
and takes only a few minutes each day.

I find doing this a very enjoyable and extremely valuable HABIT.
Any Skill or Habit takes work to estabish in the beginning,
but the payoff can be remarkable.

 

Personal Diet Modifications have their place,
but making any Food Plan into a Habit,
requires Consistency and Patience.

It is impossible to successfully make a Food Plan into a Habit,
if one changes the Plan every time one fails to meet its Guidelines.
No one is successful all of the time.

 To build a successful eating Habit it is necessary to:

Recognize a failure,
Accept that failure,
Resolve to reduce future failures,
Continue working to follow that Food Plan.

We have to overcome obstacles one at a time
Goals don't come easily,
but there is no accomplishment without work,
and no "win" without something to beat.

It's natural to get discouraged when roadblocks appear.
We invest time and emotion into creating the perfect plan,
and then something comes along and screws it up.

  Sometimes all we have to do
is to get back up and move forward again.
Obstacles are like that Wizard behind the curtain—
--once we see them up close they are much less intimidating.

Next time we take a step backwards,
let's not pile up guilt.
All we have to do is take two steps forward
and we'll still be further along than we were before.

It doesn't matter how many obstacles we face.
We only have to beat the most recent one.

                           
DENIAL:  "If I don't know it, it isn't true",
is a big problem in weight-control,
and many people prefer ignorance,
in order to avoid facing unpleasant facts.

Here's a news quote concerning
the implementation of that New York city law
which requires chain restaurants to post calorie information.

It points out the truth that many people are not happy to learn
that their food choices are extremely high-calorie.

‘Take off the labels’

“Some people actually tell us we should take off the labels,
because it discourages them from ordering what they want,” he said,

Despite the eye-opening revelations, whether New Yorkers will switch
to lower calorie meals remains to be seen. They may just switch menus.

That’s what Fowler, the woman who was dining recently with her friends
at T.G.I. Friday's, decided to do.

“I’m so upset,” she said, noting some entrees — like the Jack Daniels ribs
and shrimp dinner — contain almost 2,000 calories, and the desserts were
more of the same (the brownie obsession is 1,500 calories).
“I wish they wouldn’t have done this.”

But then Fowler noticed that the waiter had handed her friend an old menu,
which didn’t have calorie counts on it.

“You got a menu without anything on it?” she asked her friend.
“Can I have yours?”

The mentality of the woman mentioned above is a common one.
She would like to feel guilt-free while eating high-calorie foods.

It does feel great not to be responsible for our poor food choices.
and
It is difficult to be Accountable for the food choices we make.

However, Calories always count,

whether one consciously chooses to control calorie intake
by actually counting them,

OR

whether one chooses to unconsciously control calorie intake
by limiting the amount of food they eat,
........through counting points or food exchanges;
........by the nutritional content of their food; or
........by the frequency of their eating events.

The fact that Calories always count
is an unpopular, rather unpleasant, Truth that many would like to forget,
and I sometimes experience hostility from people for the reminder.

There are some people whose bodies allow them to control their calorie input
by the implementation of a few rules.
and within those simple rules or guidelines, their bodies show them what to eat.
One of these ways is commonly known as "intuitive eating".

Some people think everyone is born with that ability, however,
there are a great many adults whose bodies lack that capability.
Those people need to exercise more conscious control of their food intake.

There are many ways to limit calories without counting them,
and some of those ways can bring great success.
I personally have found a way to make calorie counting an enjoyable Habit.

I keep a food journal in my computer.
Every day I click a few buttons to enter all my food, and my software program
DietPower, tells me my calories and other nutritional values.
In this way I become aware of my eating Truth.

I am Accountable for all my food choices.
I've been on many different "diets" or "food plans",
but for the past six and on-half years, I have detailed records of exactly what I've done,
and the choices I've made.  This is what I've done to be successful.

To be Accountable is a difficult, adult thing.
But whether we count calories, or limit the calories of our food intake in some other way,
Calorie Accountability is necessary for successful weight-control.
 

Some of you might be interested in the above
 detailed nutritional information chart which is based on
my daily food-intake data over the past  six years.

Around the middle of 2010,
I became interested in experimenting with low-carb issues,
primarily due to Taubes’ Good Calories Bad Calories,
as well as my own weight-maintenance difficulties.
I made several brief (failed) efforts during 2010.
At the beginning of 2011, I started a Low-Carb Experiment-of-One
In the years prior to that time, I did not consciously try to restrict carbs.

Calorie Restriction has always been
my primary method of weight-loss and maintenance.

While reducing my calories, I made a conscious effort to eat a reasonable amount of protein.
Even though I primarily ate low-fat, fat is in just about everything.
So, due to my calorie restriction,
there were simply less calories available to take in as carbohydrates.

Taubes’ writing has made me aware of the fact that
in every diet throughout my lifetime….and there have been a lot of them….
my calorie restriction has also inadvertently resulted in a reduction of carbohydrates.

I remember that in years prior to the end of 2004,
during the times when I wasn’t restricting calories,
my primary food was carbs
…sugars, simple and complex carbs, and fat.
I believe that, at that time, I ate about the same amount of protein that I do now.

 I have detailed daily records of my food-intake from 9/20/2004 through today.
For the past 2398 consecutive days, I have entered all my food into my DietPower log.
The DietPower program stores that data, and makes it readily accessible to me.
I can easily access my data in “averages” for specific time periods,
or for exact amounts within individual days.
This gives me the ability to make an accurate personal analysis of my own behavior.
which is limited of course, by my own insufficient skills of analysis.

I began maintaining my current weight in January 2006,
and have now done so for the past 5 years.

During that 5 year period, I have experimented with a number of different issues,
involving food-intake and exercise,
by using a number of different methods and ways-of-eating.
Eating more, eating less; exercising more, exercising less etc.

Leaving the issue of ongoing Hunger and Cravings aside,
I’ve been concerned about the fact that..
..….independent of any exercise or ageing issues…..
my calorie requirement to maintain my current weight has dropped over time.

It is impossible for anyone outside a lab to ever accurately count calories,
because all calorie counting involves estimates along with a reliance on food labels.
Therefore, the ACTUAL CALORIE NUMBER, can be inaccurate.
However, my focus is on my personal Calorie deviations over time.
I weigh/measure foods and count the calories in them
the same manner, and by the same methods
so...Over Time... I am actually measuring my own behavior BY my own behavior…
…which I believe is as accurate as anyone can ever be in real life.

The FACTS are:

To maintain at or near my current weight:….
1st year of Maintenance: 2006 – Calorie intake 1505
2nd year of Maintenance: 2007 – Calorie intake 1408
3rd year of Maintenance: 2008 - Calorie intake 1179
4th year of Maintenance: 2009 – Calorie intake 1045
5th year of Maintenance: 2010 – Calorie intake 1076

This calorie deviation is not explainable by exercise or aging…
and probably not even by carbohydrate intake.

During my 16 months of weight-loss my calorie intake averaged around 1200 calories,
and I lost from 190 to 115, which is 75 lbs.

During the first two years after that, I maintained around 115 lbs
while eating about a 1450 average calorie intake.

During the 3rd year, in order to maintain close to that same weight,
it was necessary to drop my calories about 250 calories a day.

During the 4th and 5th years, in order to maintain close to that same weight,
it was necessary to drop my calories an additional 120….
which is about 370 less a day than I ate during the first two years,
and about 150 daily calories less than I ate during my 16 month weight-loss period.
There simply don’t appear to be any factors….
….outside my body’s own desire to regain lost weight….
that adequately explain this to me.

As a result of the above-information, I have come to the personal conclusion that
the simple Calories-in/Calories-out, together with the Theory – 3500 calories = 1 fat lb,
just don’t adequately explain what is going on inside my own body.

I feel certain that this is PARTIALLY due to the fact
that I am maintaining  in a "normal" weight-range LONG-TERM,
after many years of obesity,
which puts me into the category of a "reduced obese" person,
No Scientific Research Study Results exist in that area,
for many obvious reasons.

However, I am also personally very interested in the fact
that "The GREAT CALORIE THEORY" i.e. 3500 calories = 1 fat lb.
doesn't actually seem to accurately apply for many people
who are at the height of their morbid obesity,
or for formerly "reduced morbidly obese"  people
who are maintaining in a "normal" weight range.

I am becoming convinced that there are unknown factors regarding this issue
that have not yet been discovered by Science.
However, I'm not waiting for that discovery to determine my personal eating behavior,
because it might never happen....Not in my lifetime anyway,
and I have really grown fond of  living inside a normal size body.
My plan is to continue to engage in whatever eating behavior it takes
for me to maintain my current body size.