Hi! I was thinking about starting a calorie/kilojoule controlled diet, but I didn't realise that it comes down to measuring you rpeanut butter! Hats off to you ladies, I don't think I have that much patience!
Kylie
I am the laziest calorie counter around. I call all salads "salad" all eggbeater omelets the same. Basically if a low calorie food like veggies are involved I have a custom fitday of the most common ones i use combined in one food and just go with that and figure it averages out
I only weigh/measure high caloric foods or foods I havent had in awhile just to reacquaint myself with what a portion looks like.
I'm a scale fiend and weigh my pb too. Though I have to say, I seem to be pretty accurate knowing what 1 tbsp is. I still weigh it when I'm at home though.
You know you weigh your food when you wish recipes would give you weights and not volumes for ingredients!
OMG, Meg, you learned something from US! That is so cool!! I guess I think of you as the wisdom dispenser. It's good to be reminded there's always something new to learn.
If I felt like I had to weigh everything or use a knife to level off a tablespoon to make sure I'm getting 90 calories instead of 95... I think I'd hang myself. Or at the very least, give up and just be fat the rest of my life.
I want to feel like a normal human being who's just making good food choices. So, I eyeball. And I eyeball *honestly*. If you need to measure a tablespoon, I'd think doing it once or twice would give you the idea of what it should look like... I'm curious as to why someone would need to measure it that way every single time? Reminds me of a show I saw about an anorexic who would count out and weigh every single thing she put in her mouth. It became a weird obsession.
Not that y'all are anorexic, it was just a weird similarity.
smartbutt, I weigh periodically because I have found that tablesoons tend to grow on me over time if I am not careful. Its also why I weigh instead of measure. I dig out what I think is the right portion and spread it on my bread and then check. I dont correct it if I am wrong, I just log the amount. Then I see what it looks like both on the bread and on a knife, but it moves me away from reliance on measuring devices.
for a lot of people pb is a trigger food. It is a useful technique to control trigger foods if you measure every time. I weigh icecream most of the time because of that.
Smartbutt -- it's not a bad question. I weigh when I can, because as ennay said, portions tend to grow in my mind when not matched by reality from time to time.
I get what you're saying. I calorie count to try to make healthier choices and make myself accountable. I know I'm not 100% accurate in many situations, and I'm okay with that.
But I know that when I let myself get complacent, my portions grow.
I eat peanut butter every day, and have done so for about 6 months. It was only a month ago that I stopped measuring it almost every day. It kind of just became a routine more than an obesession...I didn't really focus on it all that much. I did measure one more time a few days ago, just to see if I was still on track. However, I no longer feel the need to measure it out daily...the bread and the appearance of the amount of the peanut butter is enough for me now. However, I'm not trying to lose any more weight, so I may have more leway that those who are seriously trying to lose, particulary since peanut butter is so calorie dense.
I do measure a couple other things out, and to some extent it's because I want to enter them into fitday. However, it also just helps me to get the right amount of food that I want. I measure my cream of wheat and milk in the morning so that the ratios of the ingredients are pretty consistent. In this way, I know exactly how much time it needs in the microwave...I avoid an "overflow" situation that way! I also get exactly the amount that I need to stay satisfied until lunch. I also know exactly how long a bottle of Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce will last because I use 1/3 of a cup every day. I measure my rice that I cook for dinner, and each time, I get exactly what I need to satisfy me.
So...I do like measuring. Though it may seem like it's a little neurotic at times, it also helps to make sure you cook the perfect amount of food to keep you well fed!
I don't own a food scale, so I've never weighed anything -- I estimate weights in my mind unless it's provided for me on the package.
Don't get me wrong, I measure and weigh certain things, because it is hard to guesstimate something you don't eat all the time. I guess I was just a little startled by the "use a knife to level off your tablespoon" accuracy. To be 100% honest, that scares me
I guess if it is a trigger food, using strict discipline would help in some cases.
I just worry that talk like that will scare off new people, like the person who posted earlier. I don't want anyone thinking that calorie counting must entail keeping a ruler, measuring tape, and scale with you at all times.
I'm another one who only measures/weighs from time to time. I do it the once to get an idea and then I kinda eyeball it. But I do find it beneficial to "remind" myself every now and then of what a TBS of peanut butter looks like, or a 4 oz. chicken cutlet, a 1/2 cup of grapes etc., etc. Portion control was/is/was a very big issue for me and I never want to fall in that trap again of eating more then I "should".
For dense calorie foods like PB, I almost always measure or weigh them when I'm eating at home, but I will just eyeball it if I'm eating outside my home. (and try to estimate high). I am much less vigilent even at home for things that are pretty calorie-friendly (lettuce, veggies, etc.) or that aren't trigger foods.
Thought about this discussion again today. Like I mentioned above, I don't own a food scale. I haven't purchased one at this point, because on some deeper level, I do fear that I might be going a little over the edge into obsession if I buy one. Still, I can't help but to think about getting one. I continue to use my measuring cup and spoons, but on some level, I do understand the trepidation that some people have about getting into the habit of measuring everything.
At this point, I've been calorie counting officially for about 6 months, and things haven't gone badly without a food scale. I think about buying one to be more precise, but then I have to stop and think about what the point of that is. If my weight is doing fairly ok without one, it's makes me wonder if it's mental and not physical need for a food scale. It might make me a little less "normal" in my approach to eating, I guess.
The interesting thing about my story is that I never strictly counted calories until after I was pretty much done losing weight. For me, it was more about maintaining my weight in a situation where my daily life had changed drastically from what it was when I lost my weight (I had a pretty involved work schedule at that time). I've been basically unemployed for the last 6 months (with studying for some board exams in there somewhere), and I was worried about the eating getting out of hand while home so much. Now, I'm starting work very soon. I wonder if I'll stop calorie counting as precisely as I am now once I'm more busy with work.
Tara, I can completely understand why you started counting calories. It makes perfect sense to me.
Like I mentioned earlier, I DON'T measure everything. Although I do from time to time. I have never measured vegetables. I don't even measure oil, I think I know what a teaspoon of oil looks like. I approximate my calories. I always count up, figuring it's better to err on the side of caution. So far I'm steadily losing. If that were to stop, I think it's a real possibility that I might measure A LOT more often. Or always. I really hope it doesn't come to that. But I am willing at this point to do whatever it takes to keep on losing. That didn't come out right. I'm not willing to do WHATEVER it takes. I'm only willing to do what is healthy.
