So, after calorie counting for awhile, we realize that it takes some time.... the weighing, the math, etc. It can become quite annoying, actually.
Just curious, what are your tricks for speeding up calorie counting?
I've found, for example, that calorie counting works better for me if I split the day into two parts: 700 before 7pm and 700 after 7pm. It helps me remember. I get to "reset" the clock, instead of adding together calories from lunch, etc.
Or, if you are eating a dish with tons of ingredients, how do you track calories? I usually weigh the food and, depending on content, multiply the total grams by 1.5 - 2.5. It is a guess, but it is better than nothing.
I just need some new ideas for making calorie counting as easy as possible (beyond eating the exact same foods everyday!) Thanks!
I'm really impressed with how many foods are already in the system at livestrong. That saves a lot of time.
I did find that I needed a recipe calculator for home made cooking. So I joined sparkpeople & can save nutrition information for recipes. That's a nice tool.
I do have to estimate some times, but I try to google it & make an informed decision.
When I'm cooking, I just enter the ingredients into Fitday one at a time. I've saved recipes I make often. So tonight, for instance, I had 2 5/8 oz pasta (dry weight), 1/3 medium onion, 1 cup aubergine, 1/3 bulb fennel, 0.03tbsp olive oil, 67g chopped tomatoes (1/3 of a 200g tin), 1/3 clove garlic, 3 leaves fresh basil, and salt. I just had to copy and paste it from when I made up three portions' worth yesterday, and edited the pasta as I had wholewheat yesterday and white today.
I am on MyFitnessPal which has a huge food database. It is quick and calculates for you.
Recipes with lots of ingredients I usually run through this one: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
Especially when it is a new one and I am not sure if I want to try it. I calculate the calories first and then see if I think it is worth trying out.
I make something once and painstakingly count the calories for a portion, then I make a recipe card with exact amounts of ingredients and the total calories. That way I can make it the same each time.
I use the custom recipe settings in FitDay all the time. I have the PC software so I can use it offline. I have lots of custom recipes, for example my one minute muffin from low-carb friends . com is in there, as well as low-carb cheesecake. I also have a recipe for the way I prepare my coffee so I don't have to enter three ingredients every time I have a cuppa joe or tea.
I find the myfitnesspal app for my iPhone faster then anything else. All the websites are painfully slow in comparison. But I usually eat a lot of similar foods. It stores my recent and top foods in different lists so most of the things I eat are easy to find. I just have to click multi add - select them all off down the list and add them all in one go. I made have to manually search for 2-3 items a day. I can also bar code scan lots of things. I can add my day in less then 5 minutes - but I have been at this for year.
You just need to type our your recipe, rather then search and add everything. It doesn't always pick up what you are typing so you might have to edit it but I find it way easier then trying to recipe on another website.
I am also guilty of not entering things into my day. For example, last night I made a sandwich but left the hot sauce out of my day because it has like 2 calories and i was too lazy to add it. Sometimes I just add the high calorie ingredients and out things like a slice of tomato or a leaf of lettuce. Maybe not the best idea - but I figure something else is probably 10 calories high to make up for it.
Everyday I plan my meals for the day usually the night before or early in the morning. It takes me about 5 minutes to plan my days menu staying within my calorie allottment. I eat a lot of the same foods over and over so I don't need to look them up each time,occaisionally I have to look something up or figure out a home made dish, it really doesn't take long once you get used to it. I think of it as kind of like balancing my check book, I have just so much I can use.
Well, I'm just a couple of weeks into this, but I've found that it gets easier as I go along. I cook a lot of my own food (I love it), and it is a super pain to fiddle with recipes to reduce calories. I do it though, and my trusty calculator and postal scale and calorieking help me along.
After I've cooked a recipe once, I write all of my modifications out in the margins in meticulous detail, then I write the exact serving size and the calories per serving and in the entire recipe in really big print right there on the recipe/in the cookbook/etc... That way, when it comes time to make that recipe again I won't have to calculate anything.
Also, I've been starting to cook in bulk. I recently made a double batch of a black bean soup I love (15 170-cal servings), and I froze them in individual servings with the cal count written on it in Sharpie. That helps a lot.
Last but not least, I've got a jumbo sticky note on my fridge where I keep track of the calorie count and serving size of proteins, so I never have to go look up how many calories in an ounce of rotisserie chicken breast or beef tenderloin again. For some reason, it's the proteins that never seem to have the cal count on the bag.
I'll be doing a lot more of the bulk cooking and freezing in the future, because once you've got a recipe you know you like, it's so easy just to pull out a home-cooked meal with the cals written right on the package and pop it in the microwave. I'm going to try to have multiple servings of four or five different meals in the freezer at all times.
I track at calorie count, and plenty of the stuff is in there--easy peasy--and you can make any food a favorite that you eat often. I've added custom foods. Sometimes if its packaged, I just choose a food like it and customize the serving size until it is what the package states, and save it as a favorite.
It isn't the time so much as the repetitive monotony, right? What are the alternatives? LOL This week, I've simplified my diet very much so--and I found myself tracking it anyhow. Go figure!
Last edited by 124chicksinger; 11-03-2011 at 06:56 PM.
I do agree that it is time consuming at first to get used to calorie counting. I also have an additional issue with playing the "how low can I go?" game when I use something like Fitday. I always seem to play games with myself, looking at the totals and saying, "now, let's see... if I replace these canned peaches with canned pineapple, will that bring my calorie count down?" This happens even when my calorie count is just fine (which it usually is).
So I tend to use a basic eating plan, put in a sample in Fitday, and let that be a guide. I don't put in my menu every single day because I don't want to get obsessed with calories. It's enough for me to know the calorie range I'm in.
But I also have a pretty stable menu plan per day. It's easier for me because I live alone and I don't cook for anyone but me. I also have this thing about leftovers - I have a hard time eating leftovers. I like fresh cooked foods and I'm lucky enough to work from home so I can prepare each meal fresh every day.
So, for example, my basic lunch is 3 oz tofu in a marinade that I make myself in the morning (with no fat added, since I add oil in cooking), 2-3 cups of veggies (anything that I have on hand - today it's going to be cabbage and broccolini) and 1/2 cup cooked grain (today it's brown rice). So if one day I have 1/2 cup cooked couscous and 3 cups mixed frozen veggies, then I consider that to be about the same calories.
I eat a lot of the same foods every day, which saves time on researching calorie counts It's boring, but I can usually wake up and say "Alright, am I eating my 100 cal, 200 cal or 250 cal breakfast today?" I always prepare my lunch before breakfast (during the week anyway), so I know how many calories I'll be eating for breakfast and lunch (and once again, it's a lot of the same things). I usually save about half (or more) of my day's calories for dinner.
It's a total pain when I add something new, but I do add new things all the time so I just have to research, figure out the portion, etc. and pretty soon I can just add it without a second thought.
I'm also good at mental math, so I don't need to write anything down. I can keep an accurate count of my calories in my head.
In the grand scheme of things, I don't find that it takes that long to count my calories. Weighing an ingredient before putting it on my plate or into a pan takes about 10 seconds longer than not weighing it. As long as I use a helpful tool like MyFitnessPal (or any of a number of others), entering my food takes at most 5 minutes per meal, and actually considerably less for meals or ingredients I eat frequently (not necessarily every day - you don't have to eat the same thing every day to start developing a repertoire over time).
Compared to how much time I spend on the real work of losing weight - time spent planning and preparing meals, time spent exercising, time spent organizing my day so that I don't get caught up hungry with "no choice" but to eat an off-plan snack - the time I spend tracking my calories is really negligible.
I don't mean any disrespect, but complaining that calorie counting takes too long sounds dangerously like looking for excuses to give up the hard work of losing weight. If you have time to read and post to 3FC, you have time to count your calories.
So try not to focus on how time-consuming counting calories is. Instead, think of it as a very small but essential part of your process, one that (once you get into the swing of it) will take less time each day than you already spend washing your face and brushing your teeth - activities I am sure you do not give a second thought to spending time on.
I'm actually not finding a way to give up calorie counting - I think everyone wants to find ways to make calorie counting more efficient. Keeping track of my calories makes me feel optimal. But, in my opinion, something that you want to do can still be annoying. You love your children, but they can still annoy the heck out of you, for example.
Maybe the difference between you and I = my body/ weight loss is not the center of my life - I am not constantly planning and preparing meals or organizing my day around food. I did that once when I was younger, but I've realized that the amount of time I spend on weight loss has to be moderate with other things I do. It is not the center of my life.
So, I'm just tryin' to get ideas of how other people are managing their time with calorie counting.
Calorie Counting and Time
It's boring, but I can usually wake up and say "Alright, am I eating my 100 cal, 200 cal or 250 cal breakfast today?" I always prepare my lunch before breakfast (during the week anyway), so I know how many calories I'll be eating for breakfast and lunch (and once again, it's a lot of the same things). I usually save about half (or more) of my day's calories for dinner. 
so I just have to research, figure out the portion, etc. and pretty soon I can just add it without a second thought.
