[Palestrina]

I've been counting calories since the beginning of June and I'm getting better at it. But I have a hard time finding information for certain foods.

I look on the internet, usually at thecaloriecounter.com and other similar sites only to find varying information about simple things like rice or eggs. And then don't get me started on complex meals I like to cook like baked pasta dishes or pizza, or even salad! How can I find out accurate information about calorie content? I feel like I'm drowning in math.

I have a scale and I get very frustrated because all foods are weighed differently, some are in cups or tsp, or tbsp, while others are in ounces, and others in grams! I'm having a hard time making sense of it all.

Tonight (since it's a holiday) for dinner I had 6oz prime rib and about a cup of pasta with bolognese and bechamel. How on earth do I go about measuring that? Of course I cut off any fatty bits and only picked at the pasta. Sorry to rant but I'm very confused!

[Niecy]

I sometimes have the same problem! Like tonight; I had one cup of white rice which ON THE BOX says that one cup is 170 calories. When I logged it into SparkPeople, it said 205 calories. So which one is right? If I went at that rate all day, those 25 extra calories here and there add up. I decided I am going with what is on the box. I also made sure I added the bits of peppers in the cup with the rice which replaced SOME of that rice and so took away some of the calories.

As for the measurements, I have a VERY cheap food scale. It is a little white scale with a clear plastic cup that sits on top. There is a little turn dial in the back to set everything back if it gets out of whack. It measures gram, oz, and cups. My potatoes for instance measure out in grams on the label, something like 148. Apparently I no longer have 20/20 vision because I just can't see that tiny little line, so I end up eating just a little less but still counting the calories as if I ate 148 grams. I am not sure if I could trust a digital scale at this point, seeing as how my digital weight scale is a little crazy.

In the end, I guess it is all good because I am losing. Don't sweat it too much. You are doing everything right and it is probably difficult for most of us to get PERFECT measurements each time unless we are dealing with some type of fluid.