Hi Everyone!

I'm new here and have never really "dieted". I've attempted Atkins and wasn't really into it. That's about it really. I've browsed the forum to try to see what diet works for people, and from what I can see, it's calorie counting.

So, where does one start? I LOVE my food. I'm a rice/pasta eater. I LOVE sauces and gravy's. I'll take crackers over sweets on most days, but I do love my ice cream. There are things that I am willing to part with but others I am not. I will NOT do diet/low fat mayo. Hellman's all the way. I could do light or diet ice cream and I'd even be willing to switch to sherbert (I think). But really, where do I start? We make our dinners at home generally and throw ingedients into a pan. How do I know how many calories my plate of cheesy Jambalaya is? What about my coffee???? I DID (proudly!!) switch from sugar to equal a year or so ago. I prefer it over sugar now. But I have to have my half and half. Drink more water? Yeah...I know. I need to. And I don't really mind it so much, I just don't drink much of anything at all! My coffee in the morning and maybe one other glass of something at the end of the day? That's bad huh? So...more water in my diet.

I HATE veggies. Everyone says "what do you hate about them". Well, the smell first of all. BLECH - stinky feet. Then when I say that, people say that I haven't had properly cooked veggies. Yeah you're probably right. I would LOVE to LOVE vegetables. I'm not going to smother them in cheese or ranch dressing which was what my husband suggested to get me to like them. That kinda defeats the purpose, huh? So cook them in butter? Sigh. Salt, pepper, garlic and olive oil is probably best right?

So, with all this in mind, how do I know how many calories I should limit myself to? And again, how do I know how many calories are in a plate of food I just made? I know there's a lot and I rambled through most of it, but ANY help you all can offer would be greatly appreciated!!

First of all, congratulations on deciding to make a change- that's the first step. To start off- figuring out how many calories a day you'll need isn't just a one size fits all- there are lots of calorie needs calculators online where you can plug in your age, height, weight, and gender to get a rough estimate of how many calories you'll need to limit yourself to. Another way you can try is to continue eating as you normally would, for about a week but track every single bite of food you eat, figure out the calories, and subtract about 500 calories per day from that to get your allotment of daily calories.

As far as how to figure out how many calories are in the foods you eat, there are also lots of online tools. Livestrong.com seems to be pretty popular, as well as caloriecount.about.com-- again, you can google around to find some good websites.

As far as eating goes- the beauty of calorie counting is that you can eat the types of foods you want, just maybe not the quantities that you want. For example, 1 tbs of mayo is going to cost you about 100 calories. Is it worth it...? For me- not even close. But that's something you'll have to decide. Switching out ice cream for sorbet may help, but read you nutrition facts. Lots of sorbets and ice creams are pretty similar- you'll have to watch portion sizes really closely.

For me- I'm all about eating more bulk and less calories. Sure, someone could eat 1,200 calories of Oreos each day and probably lose weight for a while. But they'd sure be sick and miserable and hungry all the time. I would much rather eat a big bowl of soup- which will fill me up and KEEP me fill- than a small cookie that's only going to spike my blood sugar and leave me feeling more hungry 10 minutes later.

Veggies are a lifesaver for me in that aspect. What about using a low- fat dressing or hiding them in a casserolle? This sound weird but I LOVE to eat veggies with salsa. I get the crunchy that I might be craving and there are so many tasty salsas out there- it's one of my favorite low-cal snacks.

I hope you can find something helpful in there! These boards are full of awesome information and even better people. ;-) good luck!

if you don't want to handle veggies and be immersed in the veg "smell" (LOL)..maybe consider frozen veg? i do this because it is so convenient. and i also read that frozen veggies could possibly be more nutritious than fresh in certain seasons! a lot of companies have the weight watcher points and cals per serving right on the front. and lots come with seasoning and sauces combined in them. give it a shot!

as far as coffee..i'm trying to get accustomed to drinking it black. two years ago i would have been queasy at the notion..but i kind of like it now. before that, i was using coffee creamers. some are fat free. most weigh in at about 30 cals per serving. not too bad. and i don't need to add sugar because they're sweet.

i looove mayo, too. but i also really like dijon mustard. have you ever tried swapping the two out? dijon gives everything such a zing..or maybe try doing half/half to cut some calories?

good luck!

i forgot to add -- i'm using this calorie counter app on my phone and it's a big help. you can scan barcodes on food items and it plugs in the nutrition information for you! its not perfect and it doesn't list eeeverything that i might eat, but it has opened my eyes to what i put in my mouth. and being at hand, there is no excuse to NOT use it. i found it under "top free" in the android market.

I rarely eat any "diet" or "low fat" products. It's mainly because I prefer the taste of full-fat products. Also, my husband refuses to eat anything low fat (& has never had a weight problem), and I don't want to buy two of everything. So, I've learned to buy the full-fat foods & moderate my portions. Start cutting down slowly, and it will be easier (I'm with you on the Hellman's, btw. What I usually do is use 1 tsp Hellmans along with some mustard or other lower cal sandwich topping).

I like www.freedieting.org as a site to figure out daily calorie requirements to lose. That site is automatically set up for the Mifflin-St.Jeor formula, which has been found to be the most accurate from what I've read. You can start with the calories recommended on that site (or any other) and see how that goes.

As for veggies, it often is a matter of experimentation with cooking techniques and with different veggies. I say do what you need to do at first to get used to eating veggies. So, if you want to sautee some broccoli or green beans or whatever in butter, do it! It may cost you 100 calories more, but overall, that 100 calories along w/ the calories for the veggies will still be fewer calories than other side dishes (e.g., mashed potatoes). I like to sautee broccoli in olive oil w/ some garlic & sprinkle it w/ parmesan cheese.

Good luck to you!

Congrats on committing to change!

Like others have said, there are plenty of websites that will help you track your calories. I use MyFitnessPal because they make a free app for my smartphone, so I can track what I'm eating on the go or track on the computer at home. I've used Livestrong in the past, and it has a pretty good database of food.

As for estimating how many calories you need, I would suggest googling a website that calulates you Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) that also takes into account your physical activity, and then subtract anywhere from 250 to 500 calories, depending on how much you want to lose. There are also lots of calculators that you can just input your height, weight, gender, and activity level and it will suggest a level to eat at. My best advice is to pick one method and try it for a week. If you're too hungry, you can add more calories, or if you're aren't losing, you can cut back.

I also highly recommend substituting diet versions of cheese, milk, and sauces/dressings if you use them a lot. Making homemade sauces helps you cut back on calories, too. For example, I have a great alfredo sauce recipe that uses milk, cream cheese, and parmesan cheese. I can make a low calorie version using unsweetened almond milk and fat free cream cheese, and I cut back on the butter, too. It tastes just as good as the full calorie version, but it cuts out over half the calories.

Veggies are tricky to deal with. If you really don't like them, you aren't going to eat them unless you cover them with cheese and dressing. I would recommend trying V8 or a "green smoothie" to get your vegetables in. If all else fails, sneak veggies into your sauces or mix it with meat.

-Find your target calorie count
-Invest in a food scale (may be my favorite item I've ever bought)
-Start weighing/measuring your food when you cook, especially one pot meals. -Pay attention to serving sizes by weighing/measuring and reading labels

As far as vegetables, they always taste best to me plainly roasted (olive oil, fresh cracked salt and pepper).

Congrats on your choice! I was doing WW for a while but had more success counting calories. I track all my food and exercise with myfitnesspal. It asks questions and gets you set up with the correct target and goals. It's really helpful and the database is great.

As for the verggies, I am in the same boat. I mostly like: peas, carrots, corn, beans, artichokes, celery, and potatoes. I do most frozen, although I have beans in the can. Artichokes are fresh and steamed, then eaten with 1 TBS of Hellman's (love the full fat mayo). I found a recipe for roasted carrots that is done with olive oil, honey and cumin/salt/pepper and it was really good!

Check out skinnytaste for recipes. I haven't had one that was bad! Good luck!