I have been doing Weight Watchers for almost 18 months and have lost over 100lbs but I can't seem to stay on track with the plan. I decided to try calorie counting for a while to see if it may help because I've been gaining and losing, gaining and losing for months now. My goal weight was originally 150 but it seems my body is comfortable with 160 because every time I hit the 150's, I go right back up to the 160's. It's frustrating!
I've never calorie counted before and am curious how to go about counting my fruits and veggies? I know if I buy frozen veggies, I can go by the nutrition label and weigh everything out but fruit is tricky!
Good morning.
There are quite a few sites that will tell you how many calories is in fresh fruit or fresh veggies. There are even sites that will allow you to plug in ingredients in your favorite dishes and give you the calorie counts on those as well. Some suggestions: Spark People and Live Strong are ones that I use. I also use my loseit app on my iPod touch. Just google some sites and see what you come up with.
Kimberly, I have read many of your posts here...your weight loss is amazing.. There is a site you can go to called caloriecounterdotcom
You can put in your info and it will give you the info according to you. You can also put in info of how much you weigh now and how much you want to weigh...the results will be how long it will take you and how much a week.
Give it a try, I may not be explaining extactly, but you'll see.
Best of luck to you.
What about the list right here on 3FC for calorie counts. I think if you go to the home page you will find it...it's very informative..hope that helps.
Congrats on your awesome weight loss!! Like jiggle said, there are many sites online that will give you calorie counts. I like to look at a few to make sure they are all pretty close to each other.
I use FitDay and I find neither fruit nor veggies "tricky" to count. As others have said, there are MANY calorie counting tools on the internet - try one, try them all, like weight loss efforts, find the one that works best for you.
Welcome to the CC side Kim I use Sparkpeople and LOVE IT! I track EVERYTHING I eat, weigh it, measure it....I've found that site to be very helpful. Best wishes!
Thanks so much for all of your wonderful replies! Now my only issue is trying to figure out exactly how many calorie I need to consume everyday. I downloaded an app on my phone called MyFitnessPal and it says in order to lose 1lb a week, I need to stay within 1620 calories.
Welcome to the CC side Kim I use Sparkpeople and LOVE IT! I track EVERYTHING I eat, weigh it, measure it....I've found that site to be very helpful. Best wishes!
Thank!
This is going to be tricky at first because I'm not used to counting calories. I'm used to weighing everything because I've done that since day one. I just hope I can stick to this..
Thanks so much for all of your wonderful replies! Now my only issue is trying to figure out exactly how many calorie I need to consume everyday. I downloaded an app on my phone called MyFitnessPal and it says in order to lose 1lb a week, I need to stay within 1620 calories.
Do many of you stick to 1200 a day?
Wow! Congrats on the weight loss so far!
I stick to 1200 calories 5 days a week and I have 2 cheat days where I go up to about 1800 calories a week... and that works for me... But it is about how many calories you work off too, so it almost matters more how many calories you burn over how many you consume. Like many others have said, you'll have to find what works for you, and websites such as sparkpeople and livestrong are a huge help and you can input calories burnt too... so you could always just aim to have an overall net calorie goal, which I sometimes do as well and can be a bit easier.
Personally, I think 1200 calories is quite low and I think you'll find, after talking with a lot of women on this board, who are at goal weight and maintain their loss at around 1400-1600 calories a day. Some cycle, some do not. I stick to 1600 cals a day and that seems to work for me (for the most part). I think it's mostly trial and error (as frustrating as that is, believe me I know).
You'll get the hang of it. The people here are very helpful. Don't hesitate to ask questions!
Kimberly - I love the myfitnesspal app for my phone when I am out and about or want to scan a barcode (I love this feature). When I am home I usually use my laptop to input foods. The only thing I do not like about myfitnesspal is when I complete my meal for the day and they estimate how much weight I will lose in 5 weeks...I find that it is WAY off for me, I lose at faster pace.
I average 1500 cals a day. Some days I go as high as 1800 and some as low as 1200, but at the end of the week it averages out to be right around 1500 cals. per day.
I also stick to around 1200. Sometimes I have more and sometimes I have less (especially weekends when I tend to not be hungry and eat less bc I have no appetite). But that's my average. I'll have a high day and go up to 1600 once a week. But last week my high day was 1900. I don't usually go that high if I can avoid it. 1200 is a low daily average but I am not that active so I don't think I would lose well if my average was higher. I really enjoy my weekly high day.
You know what I do for fruit? 100 calories. A large apple, a large banana, a large orange, a grapefruit they're all around 100 calories. Even if you grabbed a small specimen of a particular fruit, you can't gain weight if you're overestimating. 100 calories per fruit is a pretty safe bet! The obvious exception here is avocado, watermelon...can't think of any others offhand.
For berries you can find calories-per-berry online! I go for the 'large' sized berry calorie count as a baseline...again, overestimating is better than underestimating. You're always going to have some wiggle room +/- whatever you think the calories are when it comes to stuff you need to measure.
Hi Kim! I love the MyFitnessPal app. I lost the majority of my weight at about 1600-1800 calories but now that I am in the 160's I have to eat less. I am aiming for about 1400 calories average with a couple high days at about 1600. I am hoping the scale will begin moving down so I can lose the last 20 lbs!
Switching Over
Like jiggle said, there are many sites online that will give you calorie counts. I like to look at a few to make sure they are all pretty close to each other.
I use Sparkpeople and LOVE IT! I track EVERYTHING I eat, weigh it, measure it....I've found that site to be very helpful. Best wishes!
