I've thought about doing this, along the lines of my keep the change dealy at Bank of America (they round up and transfer to savings).
But my only plan to dieting (besides exercise) is counting calories. I eat so many small meals throughout the day and already keep my calories consistent and fairly low, so I'd be scared of too big a deficit. I'm also reluctant to try this great idea because I'm scared of jinxing myself, things are going well right now and I have such a long way to go.
However, I think it's a brilliant idea and something I'll do when the loss slows down or whenever I get to maintain someday!
Is it working pretty well for you? Congrats on your 3 pounds!

Yes, that's EXACTLY what I do and have always done.

As for figuring out the calories in a homemade recipe, you might want to try calorie-count.com. Click on recipe analyzer. Plug in your items, the servings and it should tell you the amount of calories per serving.

I always round up my calories. I make a lot of stuff from scratch and counting the exact calories of what I eat is difficult. I enter the ingredients in either Calorie Counts recipe analyzer or into Fitday and I try to accurately divide what is my portion, but mostly I just round up to make sure I covered everything, including the tasting I do as I cook.

I don't do this cuz I would always be thinking " I only ate 1100 calories , not the 1200 I counted", I don't set my clock ahead for the same reason.

I try very hard not to. I'm a 1200 calorie a day girl and if I rounded things up then I wouldn't be getting enough calories. Which is a really weird problem to have, now that I think about it.

I round up but not to the level that the first poster does.

If something comes in at 292 calories, I'll round up to 300. Or if it comes in at 67 (like my afternoon apple), I'll round up to 70. It just makes it easier to add in my head.

But I don't round up to the nearest 100 or nearest 50 or whatever. I'd wind up making myself crazy that way! And I am one of those poeple who sets the clock forward 10 minutes and then lies in bed an tries to calculate how many minutes I *really* have to hit the snooze alarm!

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Well, I'm hoping so! I'll take whatever loss my body wants to give me. There are so many times that I try to lose weight but it just keeps on finding me. I'm aiming for about 1500 cals/day so I figure my 'rounding' method of mathematics will keep me close, cause I sometimes nibble a bit more than I should.
I make most stuff from scratch too. (and whenever I am watching what I eat I inevitably end up baking brownies and cookies and such for everyone else. No, I don't eat it but I bake it. Doesn't make much sense, I know!! ) I can take the time to plug it into Fitday but . . . alas, I am lazy this way. I have a very old calorie counting book that gives cals, fat, % fat and sodium. Its got tons of stuff in it, including prepackaged foods. I generally use it as my guide along w/the labels on stuff. I am quite opposed to this whole 'daylight savings time' thing myself. Just let it be! My dog follows my thoughts on this; she got used to eating at DST time and refuses to wait. Guess she'll be glad when the clocks move forward . . . again.

The only reason I round to the nearest 50 or 100 is because it's easier for me to keep track of in my head. I've tried plugging my food into Fitday or writing it down but once the novelty was gone, I just blew it off. I just keep in all in my head and when you're not scarfing down mass quantities of food, its alot easier to do.

I used to do this w/the clocks too. I'd end up spending too much mental energy trying to figure out what time it really was, so I quit. But I do set my alarm about 1/2 hr early 'cause I need to hit the snooze 3 or 4 times b/4 I actually become semi-conscious.

I use Fitday, so no...it just totals for me. I can see how it'd make things easier to add, but you have to be pretty careful with it, because being 100 calories under your target at the end of the day might make a difference to your body...not to mention your hunger level!

I suppose if I were just 'guesstimating', I would round up. However, I'm not one to leave such things to chance!

If you make a particular recipe from scratch or combine particular foods (e.g. cereal, milk, and coffee) over and over, it may be worth figuring out the calories. You'd only have to do it once.

I think the only time I do that is if I am making something that makes a lot of servings...then when I enter the recipe I usually round DOWN the number of servings so that the amt per serving is a bit higher. Like I make turkey meatballs sometimes and a package of turkey usually makes about 53-54 meatballs, so I say I made 50. Or cookies if the recipe makes 28 I say it made 24. Soup is another one where I tend to say it made a little less than it did

I do that because a) I dont want to have to change the "per meatball" value in fitday every time I make meatballs so this way I am safe b) I am not that good at being consistant so this way if I happen to eat the 5 biggest meatballs at this meal I am still safe

Otherwise I dont round up - never purposefully anyway.

I do tend to try to overestimate though with stuff like eating out. Like I always say I had 2T of salad dressing, but I rarely use more than about 1. Because I know eating out...the calories are more than you could possibly imagine

I pretty much add it ALL up. At least in the beginning of my diet. The only time I can't is when I go out to eat. Pretty much everything is either online or on a package. So, I count every little calorie. However, like my breakfast I made baked oatmeal but I changed it up from the recipe to I was not 100% sure of the cals so I stuck with what the original cals were on the recipe even thought I changed it to be a little less fat.

sometimes i round up sometimes i don't. if i'm feeling particularly hungry that day i don't round up...some days i squeeze every little calorie out of the day that i can.

You know ... the thing about rounding up the *food* not the calories is more accurate for me.

I'm more liable to estimate high on what I eat (i.e. 2 T of dressing, vs. a little over 1, or whatever), than I am to estimate calories high.

But then again, there's no fear that I'll go below 1200 *grin*

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Yup, I do this. It's funny, I've read article after article about how almost all Americans underestimate their calorie intake. But I think I OVERestimate my intake because I round everything! lolol.