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Saturday, October 2, 2010

Calories in calories out

Again all the good stuff I want to blog about has to wait because of something that just happened.

We've all heard losing weight is all about calories in calories out. Makes sense to me. I buy it.

I belong to Weight Watchers as most of you know. Love it. Love the program. Love the freedom. Love the balance of it. Yes, it's a fabulous program.

My friend Becky started using My Fitness Pal to track her calories. I decided to shimmy on over there and check that site out. Went to register and found I already had an account. Go figure. If you're a calorie counter, it's a great site. So far it's had every food in it's bank I added to my daily menu. It also seems to be pretty user friendly which is a big plus in my book.

OK, so here's why I needed to blog about this tonight instead of something else. I figure I should be on about a 1200 calorie diet to lose me some fat. Weight Watchers thinks the same. I'm allowed a certain number of points on Weight Watchers and that's supposed to pretty much equal the amount of calories I should have to shed weight safely. With me still?

So far today I've had 982 calories. Not too bad you say? According to Weight Watchers, I still have 11.5 points left! Now generally a point is pretty much equal to 50 calories...so we're talking another 550 cals. Well over the 1200 I was shooting for.

Here's where it gets trickier. Depending on the fiber in the food, or even the type of food, the points don't really reflect the calories in the food. Some foods, like my whole wheat bread for example, have 100 calories, but only 1 point because of the fiber in it. Veg, most of them, are 0 points, but they still have calories. This has been a real eye opener for me. For example, my 1/2 sandwich at lunch time had tomato, cukes, and romaine on it...0 WW points, but 30 calories. No biggie? That was just a few of each thing. So you can see how a large salad could potentially have a lot of calories, but 0 points. A bit more WW math. I had 1 T Miracle Whip Light for 0 points, but again, it had 15 calories. Marcy, no aspartame in mine, but drat it's got HFCS and I don't eat that...so in the trash mine goes too! It really does add up!

As long as I'm losing weight at a steady rate, I'll keep on doing WW the way it's intended. If my weight loss slows down, I'll start taking a good hard look at the calories in what I'm eating.

I never get over how I keep learning things!

Peace be the journey

:-)

6 comments:

  1. i tried a calorie counter for a while online, I also am on WW, it was eye opening, also kind of a pain.

    I like the point system, works for me

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  2. I came across your blog on Dr. Fatty's and thought I would check it out. I am also on weight watchers, but I am at week 14. I have lost 24 lbs in 14 weeks so I am happy with that. You have just picked up another follower.. Have a great weekend.

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  3. Actually i'm doing the points and tracking calories and i'm really low in calories!

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  4. I know that I also say a point is approx. 50 calories, but really it can be anywhere from 30 to 110 cal depending on the Fat and Fiber. So yes, you're going to have some 1 point foods that are 100 calories, but by the same token, you'll be eating 120 calorie foods that are 2 points, so it all pretty much evens out in the end. Also, I read or heard somewhere that WW acounts for about 250 calories worth of "free" veggies every day when setting the point targets.

    From personal experience, I think 1200 calories is a little low for losing. I'm only 5'2", and I'm 43 years old and most calculators give me from 1300 to 1700 calories per day for losing weight, depending on my activity level. I get 19 WW pts a day, eat all my WPs every week and all of my earned APs (about 30). That averages out to about 1400 per day, not including 0 point foods. I lose slowly, about 1 lb a week for the first year and about 1/2 lb a week for the past 2 years, but I'm down 110 lbs over the past 3 years. I'll take the slow as a snail weight loss because I'd rather eat more points, than less!

    I think calorie counting is a fine way to go, but I find points to be much easier to keep track of. I've heard that there will be some changes to the point system soon, so I'm interested to see what they are.

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  5. I think 1 200 is way too low....I like 1 600 calories a day for myself...I don't like feeling I am starving and on 1 200 I do, trust me I have also tried that, and do have a calorie site as well...

    Am so pleased to hear your mayo has NO aspartame in it...crumbs that stuff is creeping in everywhere...and one reason why i am eating from the organic shop...(hubby moans as pricey ) but at least I know theres now added stuff....
    I stopped all Aspartame and sweeteners in May so only 4 months free of that stuff....and feeling so much better, no more swaying, feeling like I'm on a ship, walking into things....now want to find out why I have a new lesion!!!

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  6. On second thought....ya I do that. I realize now that I typed 1200 calories. That is what WW used to think. 1200 for women and 1500 for men. Now it's according to weight and I forgot to adjust my thinking. Oops! My calorie count would be about 1400 a day if using the 50 calorie = 1 point rule of thumb.

    My bad.

    Just wanted to get across that a calorie isn't always a calorie when compared to a WW point.

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