To feel so stupid over hidden calories

[Cheeseandlobster]

I have been trying to be healthier for ages. I follow a lowish carb diet combined with intermittent fasting, do hiit exercises daily, drink loads of water and get on average 9 portions of fruit n veg a day (usually 7 veg 2 fruit). Yet the weight keeps piling on

My go to healthy lunch is veggie scramble. Mushrooms, peppers, courgette, spinach and jalapeño with 1 egg. My pan is shit and the mushrooms stick to the pan or burn so I have been adding more splashes of rape seed oil when this happens. I looked at the bottle yesterday and 1 table spoon is 124 calories so I reckon I have been consuming on average 300 - 400 calories extra in oil. Maybe more. That's another meal! And I feel like an absolute idiot for not realising sooner.

So out goes the pan and I have bought a new pan where you can dry fry and some spray oil with 1 calorie per spray just in case.

I thought I was being food savvy but now I just feel stupid. Does anyone else have any hidden calorie warnings or done something similar?

The obvious one is drinks. I have some little carons of orange juice, 150ml, 75calories. Thats a small glass of juice. I'd happily pour a tall glass and drink it in seconds...

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

The obvious one is drinks. I have some little carons of orange juice, 150ml, 75calories. Thats a small glass of juice. I'd happily pour a tall glass and drink it in seconds...

Oh god same. I have, in the past, drunk a litre in a day. I just don't buy it now because it's too nice.

I cannot see how even with the extra calories in the oil how you are "piling" weight on whilst intermittent fasting, low carving and exercising

Easily done OP. Lots of people don’t realise how calorific some foods are and drinks especially don’t register.
Some foods are marketed as healthy - nuts, avocado, olive oil but of course they need to be counted and measured if you are wanting to lose weight.
Hidden sugars catch people out eg onken flavoured 0% fat yoghurt is full of sugar.
Porridge pots - think oats must be healthy but don’t realise pots have sugar in.
Your lunch sounds nice.

I wouldn't ditch the oil but maybe have a bit less. Also I think it's better to make your own spray oil from any old spray container, rather than use the proprietary ones as they have additives - but yeah convenience for the Fry Lite or whatever.

I guess the obvious things which are high fat I have to be careful of - butter, avocado, cheese. I definitely eat and enjoy them but make sure my portions are accurate. Also not high fat but milk I was getting quite wrong in my milky coffee - it all adds up over time. I also measure alcohol when I have it at home. Sad but necessary both for general health and weight reasons.

surely you haven't actually been tipping a couple of tablespoons worth of oil on to your plate to eat with the mushrooms though? You might have put it in the pan but most of it probably stayed there!

If the weight is piling on still its unlikely to be just because of the oil you are frying your mushrooms in ( although the fact that your 'go to healthy lunch' is a load of fried stuff suggests perhaps you are coming at this from the wrong mindset in the first place).

Does your 'low carb diet' contain much processed food/ sugar? How much stuff are you frying in vegetable oil/ shite spray oil, how much protein are you eating?

What are your portion sizes like?

Do you drink alcohol?

If you are concerned about weight gain. Work out your TDEE and put everything you use/eat into my fitness Pal. Weights are more effective than cardio.

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Nuts - yes also. Ten cashew nuts, not a huge handful. So easy to eat tons of them.

400 cals a day though is difference between lose and maintain. Op has been logging say 1500 cals but having 1900 without realising. I bet you soon notice a difference in losses. A decent pan you won’t need oil or only a spray or two.

Quite a lot of fruit has loads of sugar in it!
As do some vegetables.... tomatoes, parsnips, potatoes, carrots the list goes on

Join a low carb group, or get the low carb app really useful

@Dixiechickonhols

400 cals a day though is difference between lose and maintain. Op has been logging say 1500 cals but having 1900 without realising. I bet you soon notice a difference in losses. A decent pan you won’t need oil or only a spray or two.

She said she was piling the weight on though

I think that's why most people's calories default to 1200 on apps and so on. Because people under record or inaccurately, so if you record 1200 and eat 1500 it doesn't matter so much.

I also pay a lot more attention to fibre, fat, protein and carbs these days, as much as I pay to the calories.

Just a warning, fry light absolutely ruins a non stick pan! If something particularly needed oil I found the tiniest drizzle or spray of oil, brushed around with a pastry brush to get good coverage was far better. I've gone through SO many pans because of fry light!

You won’t be piling weight on with an extra 300-400 cals of oil in a veggie scramble - the veg and eggs won’t be more than another 200 cals. So the whole meal will be approx 600 cals. Eating 3 meals that size plus exercising would give you a net calorie intake of 1500-1600 which is what is recommended for weight loss!!

to track properly you need to weigh everything, use a calorie tracker I use calorie counter. Add every drink including any additional sugar you add to teas, coffees. Any ketchup or sauces.

@ponkydonkey which low carb app do you use?

Good fat in the right amount is generally now considered good for weight loss.

We should be eating more good fats, more good proteins, hardly any refined/ processed carbs and as little sugar as possible.

Avoid anything 'low fat', processed, and anything that has added sugar to it. Use extra virgin olive oil and butter for cooking, for example.

Avocado is definitely another. I used to have a small whole one on a salad up until relatively recently.

I used to use My Fitness Pal and the calories soon mount up. Ias definitely "more aware" when I used it so I thinkI need to go back to that too.

I do drink alcohol. It's probably my only vice though I try to limit it just to weekends. I am also peri menopausal so this probably doesn't help either

Avocado is the one for me -
It’s healthy and lovely but is high in calories.

Other things that I know are not healthy but are high in calories are lattes / smoothies.

My fitness pal is really good for just double checking everything!

Comedycook missed the piling it on! Yes there’s something else you are missing counting if you are gaining each week. Just oil wouldn’t explain that.
Nutracheck is cheap - if you log everything for a few weeks you’ll see exactly what cals you are having (obviously need to weigh and measure everything) Have you done a few tdee calculators to see how many cals they recommend a day.

Low carb diets don't help any more or less than high carb diets. All that matters is calories in vs calories out. However, carbs don't fill you up for long whereas high protein will keep you satiated for longer.

Adding oil unfortunately can add massive amounts of calories. Get one of those little oil spray things (but don't overuse it) or just a non-stick pan. Drink water only. You can get zero calorie water flavourings if you really want. Drinks add heaps of calories and salt.

Vegetables are not calorie free either. Avocados for example are pretty high in calories. If you like eggs, you can try having egg whites only, which gets rid of most calories.

You could also replace some of the HIIT with weight training. The more muscle you have, the more calories you can eat without gaining weight.

It's call
Carb manager

And it's free to use! A lot of uk food tescos and the like
So much easier to add things daily, and it keeps your preferences, as people tend to eat the same thing.

I found it really useful as low carb/ keto requires very low carb and good fats
Sugar is the worst carb

cheeseandlobster I’m finding weight loss in peri menopause much harder. I lost 5 stone in 8 months in my early 40s. Now in peri menopause I’m lucky to lose half a pound a week even if fully on it. I definitely find lower carb suits me. Good luck.

I think the problem might be more the mish mash of diets. Fruit is actually pretty high in carbs so it so it sort if undoes a lot if the low carbing work. If you were low carbing/ketoing extra having extra fatty products like avocado/oil wouldn't ve so much if a problem