how to begin
 

New to calorie counting but def. not diets or weightloss but again im this is not a diet but a lifestyle overhaul so anyway how do i get started calorie counting any tips or sites that have helped you along the way? thanks

I personally make a point of journaling everything I eat. I use fitday.com to track my food and weight. The other thing I do is try to limit temptations (as in not taking 'just one bite' of something I know that triggers me. I also try to keep snacks and water around so I don't have an excuse to eat something off plan. Also remember not to be too strict all the time... I let myself relax on weekends and have a meal or two off plan so I don't feel totally deprived. I'm finding I'm starting to lean toward smaller portions and the healthier options now even when I allow myself to go off plan. Good luck!

For me, the no-brainer approach is 6 small meals a day. So I took my cap of calories for the day, divided it by 6, and that is how many calories I consume per meal.

I chose a protein shake for breakfast. I know how many calories it has and I don't like breakfast anyway.

My first snack is a protein bar.

My lunch is usually a lean cuisine or something pre-portioned from dinner that week.

Second snack is usually an apple and 100 cal yogurt or something.

Dinner is difficult. I weigh my meat and add a vegetable, measuring the amount with a measuring cup. I don't trust my eye yet.

My snack is usually popcorn!! :dizzy: I love popcorn! But I could have a small bowl of ice cream if I wanted to. I use this snack as my buffer depending on how much I had already eaten through the day.

My biggest tip: Plan ahead. Know what's coming. If you're going out to eat, research the menu and know what you're going to eat before going.

My advice when starting out is to check out a few of the different calorie counter sites. Pick just one or two meals to enter, or maybe one whole day's worth, and enter them on all of the sites to see which one you like best. (If you really want to test them out, try entering recipes/groups of foods, restaurant foods, custom foods, and logging exercise. Some of these are more or less confusing on different sites.) These are all free:

www.fitday.com
www.sparkpeople.com (this is what I use)
www.thedailyplate.com (I also like this one)
www.thecaloriecounter.com
www.my-calorie-counter.com
www.myfitnesspal.com

It's totally up to you, but some people like to start out just eating like they have been, but logging it all for a while. After a few days, you can look at where most of your calories are coming from, and start making changes where necessary.

Ditto! I am very strict during the week, journaling everything I eat into fitday.com. But I also cut myself some slack on the weekends. So far it's working. I also started incorporating cardio a few times a week and it seems to be helping. Good luck!

I journal everything I eat, it keeps me on track. Also, my main tip is don't eat things you don't like. During past diets, I've forced myself to eat things I didn't like because they were really healthy. This time around, I eat what I like. There's almost always low fat, lower calorie, lower something versions of all foods!

For instance, I LOVE snickers. Absolutely addicted. Obviously, I can't eat them if I want to lose weight. Instead, I found snickers kudos bars...and there only 100 calories each! Yeah, they might be small and not taste quite as good, but they do the trick ;)

What helped for me is to make a list of what to eat each day at work. I have the same list every day - for example I have a sandwich every day, but I just change the type, penaut butter, ham, tuna whatever, they all end up around the same average calories. So if you do this, come up with a list of foods you really like (with a few varieties) - mine even has chips soda etc on it - but I also make sure to eat 4 to 5 servings of fruit and a veggie in there too. Doesn't matter what's on your list as long as you have SOME good healthy things on there and the total calories is about 2/3 of what your goal is for the day.

So with my list I make it thru the day, and because I am at work, and I bring everything myself for the day, very easy not to cheat. If I didn't bring it in my lunch bag, I don't eat it.

Then when I get home all I have to do is make it to bedtime and I still have at least 1/3 of my calories still to eat.

Works for me. You'll find that certain bad foods will disappear from your list because they are too 'expensive' in terms of calories for how much they fill you up. Milk for example is almost gone from my diet when before I drank a quart a day.

Good luck - most important thing is the TOTAL calories and like said above, only eat what you REALLY like.

"Expensive"! That's a great way to describe it! That's how I feel too. Milk has wandered off my list too, and this 2%-only-please-and-whole-for-a-treat uses only Skim to make protein shakes! Also too "expensive" to me are chips, but chocolate chips are worth the "price"!

I agree with journaling/tracking all your food. I also recommend setting up a blog/journal its good to take out 10 minutes a day to write in and just think about your journey. I would also slowly make changes dont take on too much at once or it will overwhelm you.


kazz =]

I find that keeping up with journaling is VERY difficult. I have fitday and I quit using it after about a week. I think I like a 'hardcopy' better so I handwrite all of my stuff, but then I run into the problem of finding the calories to everything myself. Does anyone have any advice on how to keep up with the journaling if it's not really your thing????

I like to write down everything in my journal. - food & calories, water, exercise, feelings, putting my fork down between bites, aware eating, etc. ( a place to check things off I am trying to do.)

If I have it in my pretty spiral journal then I can flip back and forth and compare days, etc.

I know that most people like to use sparkpeople, fitday, etc - but, old fashioned paper and pencil in a pretty journal works for me.

I keep my journal on the table in front of my recliner. No avoiding the thing.

Hello proudmommy,

Lots of good advice given here. I've been doing this a while and I still appreciated reading what everyone said.

I think the hardest thing for me to grasp, is how slow my progress seems. I know how to do all the numbers. I am learning how to stay motivated. I am trying to learn to like exercise AND do it whether I want to do so, or not. But, in my mind, there should be more progress made for the amount of work that I put into it.

So. Now that I've said that part. I guess the next thing to say is that if you were my best friend, I'd suggest that you take that knowledge inside you and find a way to know it and keep going any way. I can't say I've got this one down yet. I'm trying. I'm working hard. But, it's still one of the more difficult aspects of this for me.

Keeping on when the progress is slow. Find a way to do that and I think we'll be okay. :-)

Best wishes, proudmommy, and to every one else, too!

I am just starting out too and wanted to wish you the best! This is going to be SO worth it! I've been looking around here at the before/after pictures and seeing others progress is so motivating.

I use the daily plate. It's really user friendly, and since I eat a lot of the same things every day, after a week or so it's just a few clicks and I'm done. Every meal I prepare is set up in saved meals, I have probably 50 or so in there now. When I make something new, it only takes a few minutes to add it.

It seems like a lot at first, but keep at it. It gets much, much easier. I can journal a typical day in under 5 minutes, and I do it before I log onto 3FC after work, so I make sure it gets done every day.