I’m starting to calorie count. Anyone want to join me?

[Bookaholic73]

I’m going to be starting calorie counting from tomorrow, with the aim of losing around 2st (28lbs).

Would anyone else like to join me and hold each other accountable here on this thread?

I’ve tried so many ways of losing weight (Keto, Vegan, Low Carb etc) and none of it works long term.
So I’m quitting the fad diets and starting something that I can stick to.

I’m 5,5 and 12st. My aim is 10st, and I’ll be eating 1600 cals a day.

Hello.
I dont want to read 18 pages.
The calorie counting - do you all work it out from an app?
I am old school. I do have an old book somewhere. But wondering how everyone is managing to be accurate, particularly with home made meals.

Hi @lightand
A few of us have worked it out or picked a number that suits us.
There's various online calculators that can help- if you Google tdee calculator or BMR calculator there's usually a way to work out your number for weight loss.
I posted a few weeks ago that a PT I follow said the easiest way to work out your daily calories for weight loss is to take your weight in lbs and multiply by 10.
So for example I weigh 143lbs, so my calorie allowance would be 1430 per day for weight loss.
I follow a slightly different plan, but a few on here said when they worked it out, it sounded about right.
Hope that helps!

Sorry @lightand I think I misread your question.
In terms of working out calories in meals, I use My Fitness Pal (free app) or use the nutritional information on food packets. Once you get a rough idea of what's in food you commonly eat, it gets much easier, though it feels quite laborious at first for me!
I've heard good things about NutraCheck (app) but you have to pay a subscription and I'm not ready to commit to that!

@lightand i use nutracheck, I think it’s £3.99 a month but it is good and it gives me graphs and other data to feed my inner geek. There’s usually offers and offer codes available if you buy eg. 6 months in one go. If you have a Fitbit I think there’s a food tracker available in the app which is free?
for homemade meals nutracheck allows you to create a meal by adding all the ingredients and then dividing by the portions. I always weigh the total amount I make and then divide it so a portion is 100g (does that make sense?) - so eg, make a chilli, it weighs 800g, I call it 8 portions but I might eat 2.5 portions as a meal. I just find it easier and it means I can eat smaller or bigger depending on appetite. I just weigh what I want into my plate.

Oh and to work out my calorie allowance I ignored common advice and went low. I cut down to 1300 and if I exercise I do allow myself to eat a bit more, and I usually end up on 1400-1600 a day. I should be able to eat much more, I just ran a 900 calorie run ffs but for some reason my metabolism is incredibly slow. My resting heart rate is super low as well so I wonder if it’s that or if years of dieting have decimated my metabolic rate 🤷‍♀️ anyhoo. I end the week in deficit every week and loose 1-2 lbs a week at the moment so it will have to do!

I use my fitness pal. Its free and easy because you can scan barcodes. Anything without a barcode can be easily found in their database. Anything I'm making with multiple ingredients e.g a tagine - ill just add all the ingredients then portion the sizes down to show calories per portion. It's really easy and you get all your daily/weekly macros on the free app as well to show protein/carb etc breakdowns and calories for the week. It also let's you add on your exercise and adjusts calories accordingly but I tend not to do this as I don't eat my exercise calories.

There's a lot of sites that give you your tdee and calories for weight loss. I've gone for 1400 and have stuck with it. I'm never hungry, allows for treats and am consistently losing weight. 4 weeks in.

Good Afternoon

I've been to the gym this morning and had such a great workout. I tried a new routine and really enjoyed it so much more than my usual routine!
My food today has been good, and dinner tonight will be chicken stir fry. Minus the noodles for me. I love noodles, but I think this will probably help with the weight loss.

@lightand I use My Fitness Pal to track my daily calories. It's easy enough to work out homemade meals, you just input all of the ingredients and how many portions it makes.

I haven't been on here all week, been so hectic I haven't picked up the tablet!
Hope everyone is getting on ok. I'm 9.5lb down since 3rd April which I'm pleased about. Jeans are getting loose already... Which makes me wonder how I'm going to manage that awkward in-between stages when my old clothes are still too small but these ones are too big, the in between sizes were few and cheap and didn't last!!

For anyone interested that doesn't already use it, Nutracheck is on offer for 23.99 a year until Tuesday. It has gone up to about £35 I believe otherwise. I'd still pay that though, so much nicer to use than others I've tried. I have spent £50ish a month on take aways before and I am buying a lot less of them now, so my health has to be worth this small investment!

If you edit your meal after you've typed it all in, you can enter the entire weight of it. Then you can weigh out how much your portion is - handy if you're all serving yourselves out of one big pot of something!

@AuntMarch thanks, I can’t see how to add total weight to the whole recipe?
9.5lbs since April is great, that’s pretty much what I’ve lost all year… you must be doing something right!

It’s ok, I found it!

I didn't do great yesterday, we went out with my in-laws as they wanted to take our children to get shoes for the upcoming wedding. We went out to eat in a really neat place, old market, lots of different vendors around the edge, so you could all pick what you wanted, then you get a buzzer and pick it up when it's done.

Could have absolutely done without the relentless food shaming by my FIL, you'd think he's learnt it's rude as my even 4 year old knows after I embarrassed him when he called a menu choice "piggy" last year and I stated that was what I was having and I wasn't a piggy.
So fu**ing tired of his comments. I am going to really flip one day. Makes me so angry he says it all on front of my girls, and not like he is in the slightest the peak of fitness either.
And ashamed of myself for not calling it out yesterday. I should have when he called my burger massive.

I didn't have icecream when everybody else did, I genuinely didn't want it. Something combined with the driving there and too much sweet stuff seems to give me sore gassy stomach, so skipped it.

And walked over 10,000 steps, so not all bad.

I really like that function as even if it is all for me and going in the freezer, I can easily do some "hungrier" portions and some normal ones.

Thanks :)
I do have a fair bit to lose which always helps with initial good losses, I'm still a stone or so away from being "overweight" according to my BMI. I'm under no illusion that every month will see such a loss but I'm enjoying seeing them while they're here lol.

@weirdpookah
I look at my calorie allowance over the week as a whole and it has shifted me from feeling like I didn't do great, when I have something higher calorie, to feeling a bit chuffed I can fit it in and still be in deficit for the week.

(Totally wasted about 400 at the end of my week yesterday though, I'd saved to go out for lunch and then it didn't happen and I genuinely didn't have anything to make such an indulgent meal at home so only went slightly over what I'd have had normally anyway!)

Also, sorry your FIL is a dick.

Sorry I’ve been AWOL. Still been tracking and exercising all week. I thought that I’d share this graph of my weight over the past 5 years to show how much of a yo-yo dieter I am. Started at 204lb in 2017, got down as far as 156lb with lots of CrossFit and calorie counting. All fell apart, put weight back on, Covid hit and I ended up the heaviest ever at 216lb. Effectively I am now back to my start. Since tracking for the last 3 weeks I’ve lost 5.5lb. I have been exercising 4-5x week at home using the Peloton app (I can’t afford to go back to spending £85 on CrossFit and the class times done fit in with family/ work anymore).

Food highlights- I made a lamb kebab with mince and served it in the 99cal fajita wraps from old El Paso with tahini and yogurt dressing and loads of salad. I bought a miso dressing/marinade and coated a salmon fillet in it and made a salad with more miso dressing and rice wine vinegar.

Your fil sounds intolerable WeirdPookah. I'd ask him flat out why he feels the need to comment on my food. Hope you still managed to enjoy your lunch!

I'm loving your food highlights ForSaleChesterDraws . Am going to try miso salmon, sounds delicious

@Sisisimone I used this marinade/ dressing. It’s more expensive than I world usually spend, but I’ve realised I give up on calorie counting as good starts to taste bland. I am investing in things that add big flavour to stop me getting bored and giving up.

Wow @WeirdPookah your FIL is so rude! I'm so sorry you had to endure that nastiness. Have you ever called him out on it before?
It's not easy to do in the moment though, is it.

@ForSaleChesterDraws it's great that you can look at your weight journey over the last 5 years. Did you do that on your phone?

I am really hungry today, I cant stop eating. But I've had a nice big lunch and hopefully that will tide me over til dinner time. I had some sushi rolls. Yum!

Dinner tonight is pizza for the kids and hubby. No idea what I'll have. I only have 450 calories left for the day. Maybe some chicken salad.

@Bookaholic73 it’s from MyFitnessPal app. I don’t actually track calories using it since they made you pay for the barcode scanner, but I add weights to it every so often so I can keep the graph going.

@WeirdPookah your FIL sounds rude. Does your spouse recognise how distressing the comments are to you.

@ForSaleChesterDraws I'm not sure why, but I have the barcode scanner on MFP and haven't paid for it. I have heard so many people say you have to pay for it, but I've never paid.

Yes the barcode scanner is free, I use it daily on mfp. It's only the QR scanner that's premium.

Thanks for this, will give it a try

Ah thanks @Sisisimone , I never use the QR code thing anyway.

Im just prepping dinner tonight. Meatballs & spaghetti for everyone else. I’m having 2 meatballs in a wrap with salad, light mayo and BBQ sauce.
Managed to end today with 30 cals leftover!

Had a bit of a day off today, we went out for a meal. I had a good workout this morning, and then had fruit salad and protein yoghurt; lunch was sizzling chicken fajitas and wraps with some pub chips and a pudding. I haven’t had any alcohol yet, I don’t actually fancy anything right now as I have a bit of a headache and feel really tired. I’ve decided that I’m just not going to track any cals today, I know I’ve gone over but realistically now wildly over, and I’m just going to enjoy my day and get back on it tomorrow.