I started by just counting calories. But as I got used to using fitday.com, I learned more about foods and their content and then started to fool with lower fat, moderate carbs and higher protein.
You soon learn how many calories you've wasted in a day if you have butter, sugar and candy!
Ditto.
I try to keep my calories between 1200 and 1400 and keep it low fat with high protein. I don't really care about carbs as long as the majority of them come from whole foods (like the fruit I am munching for lunch right now!)
Hi All
Do you count calories only or do you also count fat and carbs?
I count calories, but I am also very interested in how food can improve my long term health. I do pay attention to fat (to make sure I'm eating enough healthy fat) and protein (to try to meet my daily protein goals). I pay attention to fat and protein and the carbs just pretty much fall in line. I try to only eat whole grains, complex carbohydrates (whole grain bread, brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes, beans, etc). I also pay attention to stuff like how many servings of fruit, vegetables I eat a day and limiting processed foods. It's a big picture thing for me, really, counting calories is just a small component.
Calorie King tracks protein, fat, carbs and fiber for me. I usually don't pay too much attention to making sure I get a certain % of each, but I do look at the overall picture.
I read an article by Jack LaLanne this morning -- he's 91 and still going strong. His philosophy is that if man makes it, don't eat it! I have found that I do much better when I stick to natural rather than processed foods.
I started out by counting calories only...but after a while I started adding "goals" to my daily calorie intake...like aiming to have 5 servings of fruit and/or vegetables each day, eating baked/grilled lean meats instead of fattier cuts or preparation methods, drinking a certain amount of water each day, and so forth.
These little nutrition goals that I set for myself make it so that the fat, fiber, and other things sort of "work itself out". If I am naturally eating foods like oatmeal, fruit, veggies, and grilled chicken-then I find that I don't *need* to count the fat grams...because I am naturally eating a lower fat diet. If I am eating 5 servings of fruits/veggies each day...and I choose whole grains instead of refined-then my fiber intake is always where it should be, simply because I am making healthier choices.
I just count calories, but I think that restricting myself to a lower calorie diet has naturally forced me to also eat a lower fat, lower sugar diet. I am always looking for foods that are filling but low in calories. It's non-fat and low-fat products for me all the way now and I've cut out a lot of the high calorie snacks that I used eat, especially baked goods.
I eat way more fruit than I did before and lately have been adding a lot of veggies to my diet. I also eat very lean meats, mostly chicken and lean ground turkey, with some lean pork, some fish, and some lean ground beef. It is not unusual for me to prepare some type of chicken dish every night of the week. My SO and I eat so much chicken I'm surprised we don't start clucking.
Eventually I hope to get to where Aphil and Glory are at, where I am paying attention to other nutritional info and setting goals for myself around that, but I'm not there yet. This has been a pretty big change for me and I'm just not ready for the next step yet. I also think it might be a little easier to do this once I am at maintanence and have a couple hundred more calories to work with in my diet. There are several foods on the "superfoods" list that I have trouble fitting into my diet right now because they are so high in calories. For example, I love yogurt but I only recently added it back to my diet, when I upped my daily calories by 100. Before then, even non-fat plain yogurt had more calories than I was willing to sacrifice.
I use the WW point system which doesn't calculate fat and fiber directly, but are used to determine the points. It's sort of a shorthand form of counting calories, and you get to eat a few more calories if the foods are high in fiber and fewer calories if the foods are high in fat. On average, 1 point is about 50 calories., but for example, 1 teaspoon of butter is 1 points though only about 35-40 calories. A small apple is also 1 point, and about 50 calories. A WW yougurt is like 90 calories, and is also 1 point. There's a psychological incentive to lower fat intake and increase fiber to make the most of your point allotment.
I'm in love with Fitday. I actually look at the nutrition levels for the day and eat my food according to that. It also helps me balance my carbs/fats/protein. im still strugling with getting enough protein. But it really helps you make better food choices that will help in the long run after you dont have to count calories to maintain.
When shopping, I only look at the calories and protein. I track everything on fitday and I seem to balance out pretty well. I always try to make sure a minimum of 30% of my calories come from protein. I have been doing really well so far. I do need to up my calories a little though. I had set a goal for myself to have between 1200-1500 calories per day. I have been eating 5-6 mini meals consisting of 100-300 calories a piece. The problem is most of my meals are 100-200 range for calories. I have only been averaging around 1000-1100 calories per day. I feel stuffed all the time, I don't know how I am going to fit the extra food in. I just need to find more higher calorie foods to replace the lower ones. But it is hard for me to just go ahead and eat something higher in calories when something I like of lower calories is available to me.
Any suggestions for some 250 calorie mini-meals?
Calories only?
