Originally Posted by girl4christ:
Hi guys! This is my first time on here and I've decided to count calories. I have tried everything from Atkins, South Beach, Mayo Clinic, Grapefruit, just to name a few for th epast four years. Now Im tired of the yo-yo dietng and ready for a lifestyle change. I'm supposed to get between 1200-1400 calories a day. But I was wondering. Should I keep count of my sugar intake as well?What exactly should be counted? Im a little confused. :)

Good morning. I have done most of the different plans you mentioned as well. Welcome to 3FC. You will get a lot of information here. I use www.fitday.com to help count my calories and exercise each day. It is a free online program. I count EVERYTHING! You need to county everything you put into your mouth. It is not sugar persay.... but it adds more calories to your daily intake. You can look at different peoples fitday journals (if they provide a link in there signiture area) and see how each food adds up, as well as exercise. Splenda costs way less in calories!! You might want to try that to make for less waisted calories. It doesn't taste bad at all. You have to be sure to count everything that you put in your mouth though. Even if it is just one bite. Healthier choices tend to give you better calories that have you feeling fuller or longer or just gives you less calories per serving. If you can't tally up the nutritional information for something you can go to www.calorieking.com and find some of the information there sometimes too. If you check out my web site (link below) you will find several different web sites they maybe of good use. But do make sure to count everything. :) Watch the nutritional information areas of each food and measure things and then you will have accurate counts each day. Again welcome, and good luck!

the slim me...

What are you talking "na"? I am not awake yet and can't seem to figure that out lol.

Girl4Christ-

I am going to make this easy on you. :) Count the calories that you eat each day, and eat the 1200-1400 that you are supposed to each day. I wouldn't worry about counting your "sugar intake" as in counting sugar grams or anything-just make smarter choices, such as avoiding sweets and having fruit instead, eating baked or grilled chicken instead of fried, and those basic choices.
While you are just learning calorie counting-just count CALORIES. At first don't worry about counting how many protein grams vs. carbohydrates or anything else.

Girl4Christ,

Aphil came in here!! Now you have a great person with great knowledge here to help you! She is awesome! She has helped me more then I know! She is right too! If you do have a craving for something sweet... eat some strawberries!! I found them to be an awesome "sweet" treat and the calories were not bad for those.

And please do take her advice about ONLY counting calories!!! If you worry about counting everything else to you are just going to confuse yourself and make things harder. It took me a couple of weeks to finally hear/read that!! Aphil was great at opening my eyes to this as well.

Mmmmm..... fried chicken.... I am drueling lol. I used to eat this A LOT thinking its chicken.. it has to be good for me!!! Man, I am learning that if it tastes that good it ain't that good for me hahaha. It took me a while to slow down on this.. but now I am down and don't have it as much. I can't say that I don't have it at all because that just is not true. But I try not to have it to often.

If you look on my web site there are some recipes on there that might help you. I have included the nutritional information with each recipe.

A good book on calorie counting is: The American Heart Association No-Fad Diet. It is very good! I also bought the cookbook to go with it. I learned a bit from that book about calorie counting though too. There is a lot of information in there and recipes too.

Anyway, good luck!!! :)

HI, NA is sodium. Sorry for the confusion. I know I do tend to talk "nurse" talk sometimes, unaawarre.

Counting calories is just that, calories. Anything you eat has a calorie value. Chosing to use those calories for healthy food is another thing. Yes, you will lose weight eating anything as long as the calorie count is below what you need to maintain your weight, but you won't feel good or be healthy. There are plenty of think people out there that are not healthy.

the slim me,

Thanks! You can speak "nurse" lol. It is intersting! If we get confused we will ask lol. ;)

Tmunday
 

Good Morning Tmunday, I Just Ran Across Your Post This Morning And Was Quite Interested In Your Calorie Count. I Have A Problem Meeting My Daily Calorie Goal Since I'm Such A Big Vegetable Eater. I Would Be Very Interested In What You're Eating, Could You Copy/paste Your Daily Menu, How Much You Eat And What You Eat On This Site. We Could All Help You Stay Within Your Calorie Goal By Seeing What You Eat!
Bobbi

Originally Posted by Bobbolink:
Good Morning Tmunday, I Just Ran Across Your Post This Morning And Was Quite Interested In Your Calorie Count. I Have A Problem Meeting My Daily Calorie Goal Since I'm Such A Big Vegetable Eater. I Would Be Very Interested In What You're Eating, Could You Copy/paste Your Daily Menu, How Much You Eat And What You Eat On This Site. We Could All Help You Stay Within Your Calorie Goal By Seeing What You Eat!
Bobbi

Thanks Bobbi. I stay between 1400 to 1600 calories a day pretty well now. I had learn that some of my food choices (fried chicken, pizza, etc) were not great choices!

If you would like to look at my food intake click the link below in my signiture titled "My Fitday Journal". In there you can see what I have eaten each day and also see my exercise too.

I am doing better now I think then I was when I first started this board. Like someone on these boards told me, I worry to much about everything. I need to stop that and just concentrate on healthier eating. I have realized that it takes time to see results. I have to just keep going.

You can look at my food journals and stuff though if you want. I do have some bad choices in there lol. But it is hard to cut everything out. But I am trying to keep everything in moderation.. which I think helps too.

I Didn't Know About The Fitday Site, Haven't Had The Time To Look Into Everything Yet. I Would Love To Use It Myself.
But I Am Dying To Critique Your Menus, I See Places Where You Can Cut Calories Even More, Using Lower Calories Replacements. Would You Be Offended If I Made Some Suggestions? Are You A Stay At Home Person? What Does Ns Mean? What Does Basal In Calorie Breakdown Mean? I Have More Questions, I'll Get Back To You.
Bobbi

Originally Posted by Bobbolink:
I Didn't Know About The Fitday Site, Haven't Had The Time To Look Into Everything Yet. I Would Love To Use It Myself.
But I Am Dying To Critique Your Menus, I See Places Where You Can Cut Calories Even More, Using Lower Calories Replacements. Would You Be Offended If I Made Some Suggestions? Are You A Stay At Home Person? What Does Ns Mean? What Does Basal In Calorie Breakdown Mean? I Have More Questions, I'll Get Back To You.
Bobbi

Hi again. No, I don't mind at all. I am always open to suggestions and to learn more. ;)

Yes, I am a stay at home mom. NS in fitday I am not sure on... but I always thought it was for not sure. As for Basal... I have no idea. Some of the stuff in fitday is still quite confusing to me. I just started using it not to long ago so I still have a lot of learning to do. But I try to focus more on my calories then anything at the moment.

Feel free to ask away. If I can't answer something maybe someone else can on here. I am always open to learning new things. :)

Originally Posted by :
Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day

There is a definition here....Hope this helps...

Originally Posted by Ilene:
There is a definition here....Hope this helps...

Thanks Ilene! That is very interesting.

We just need to keep eating less calories then the Basal says then. Am I correct in thinking that way? My Basal is 1630. I try to stay at 1600 or below. This is good right?

Tracy -- If you are losing weight at this amount of calories, it's good for YOU. I don't put much confidence in those calculators...

Originally Posted by Ilene:
Tracy -- If you are losing weight at this amount of calories, it's good for YOU. I don't put much confidence in those calculators...

Right. I have been warned about the calculators a few times. I never payed much attention to the basal numbers or anything till today really lol.

I haven't really lost any weight (that I documented anyway) yet. But I am hoping tomorrows weigh in goes better. If not, I think I am going to try to cut more calories or something. I did a lot of working out until I had a problem in my house last week. I didn't get lazy, I just got busy fixing my house and stuff since then. But I am still hoping for some good results tomorrow.