No, I meant my food scale counts calories.
Best calorie counter
- Thread starter Korrie
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No, I meant my food scale counts calories.
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SweatPea
Guest
I like sparkpeople. I use it quite often since fitday went down for like a whole week at one point!
I don't remember having to weigh anything, because they have different measurements to choose from.
I don't remember having to weigh anything, because they have different measurements to choose from.
So if you have a piece of chicken, how do you know how much of it you ate without weighing it?
Just curious.
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SweatPea
Guest
I only eat chicken breast, but I do the eye test - you know a deck of cards is 3 oz. The palm of your hand is 3 oz . It's the way my husband's dietitian showed my husband how to "measure" without a scale, so I figured it would work for the rest of us too.
I do believe on sparkpeople, they have other measurements too - like a 1lb chicken deboned (or something like that).
For me, I buy my chicken in packages - so the package might be a 1lb package (give or take) and I will divide the package up into serving sizes (for the 4 of us.)
As far as measuring other things I will use a measuring cup, or a tablespoon, just so I know exactly how much I'm getting (like for cereal or peanut butter, etc.)
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fitday and sparkpeople both access the same database for nutritional values, daily plate and a few others also go back to the same database...
The palm test I've never bought as an accurate means of measuring - I have big hands.. so I get bigger portions
the deck of cards test is pretty accurate though...
The palm test I've never bought as an accurate means of measuring - I have big hands.. so I get bigger portions
the deck of cards test is pretty accurate though...
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SweatPea
Guest
fitday and sparkpeople both access the same database for nutritional values, daily plate and a few others also go back to the same database...
The palm test I've never bought as an accurate means of measuring - I have big hands.. so I get bigger portions
My dh's hands are bigger than, mine too. I usually just "eye" it. It might be off, but I'm not eating gargantuan sizes of chicken. Blech!
At least for us (especially dh) he would eat a huge steak for dinner, now he knows he should stick with a serving size and just because it is one steak, doesn't mean it's only one serving of meat.
I was using fitday, but then they went down for a week or so, so I just continued with sparkpeople.
Yea, I only use the real database for my tracking if I'm not being lazy and using my scale.
And I like weighing my food b/c not doing so can lead to you being pretty 'off' in your caloric estimations.
I mean, be off by 1 oz. in your chicken and you are off approx. 50 calories.
For someone eating 1500 calories or so, that's a 3% deviation. And that's only one unit of food throughout the day.
Don't get me wrong... eyeballing it works for a lot of people. When I'm bulking, I eyeball a lot.
When I'm cutting down, or working with someone who is locked into a smaller intake limit..... measuring becomes more critical IMO. Necessary? Certainly not.
Just to give my perspective for others who might be trying to figure out their intakes.
And I like weighing my food b/c not doing so can lead to you being pretty 'off' in your caloric estimations.
I mean, be off by 1 oz. in your chicken and you are off approx. 50 calories.
For someone eating 1500 calories or so, that's a 3% deviation. And that's only one unit of food throughout the day.
Don't get me wrong... eyeballing it works for a lot of people. When I'm bulking, I eyeball a lot.
When I'm cutting down, or working with someone who is locked into a smaller intake limit..... measuring becomes more critical IMO. Necessary? Certainly not.
Just to give my perspective for others who might be trying to figure out their intakes.
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SweatPea
Guest
That database definitely breaks the food all the way down.... I never even though of how much Ash was in my food before.
brunettegoddess
New member
Not to be a thorn among the roses, but has anyone noticed that Fitday can be off? I hadn't had a chance to enter all of the nutritional info off the packages from home, but I finally got some time to do it last night and well, Fitday had me off by a whopping 300 calories more than I had actually consumed. I went back through some days before and took out the Fitday content and put in the correct info (correct meaning the actual info that came with the product), and it was off like this a few days before, too. Also, Fitday seems to think that I burn 3000 cals a day, which I can say that if I was, I'd be losing weight. I tend to think that ppl who need 3000 cals a day are morbidly obese or HIGHLY active. I am neither. I'd say my activity level is light to moderate. I need to do what Steve does and weigh my foods. Then I will put that info into Fitday and let it do the calculations.
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SweatPea
Guest
Need2BSmaller
New member
Yeah I am morbidly obese and just doing nothing fitday says I burn 4500 cals but I have been not working out and keeping my cals at 3500 according to fitday and the fast food nutrition guides (don't yell at me its a long story lol) and I have gained back 20 of the 50lbs I lost so I am looking for a new system to. I think I am going to go with the wieghing your food thing. Which leads me to my question. When you put your food on this scale it literally tells you how many cals are in it? Or you figure it out by weight?
My scale is programable and it 'feeds' off the database I linked to earlier in this thread. I rarely use that though. I simly calculate my foods on a spreadsheet majority of the time.
What's your weight? You shouldn't be gaining significant amounts of weight on 3500 cals, IMO.
Need2BSmaller
New member
450lbs
I use to weigh 488lbs and I lost over 50lb but have become really inactive the last 3 months due to attending school and working full time (both are sit down situations and I literally have been only eating fast food for 3 months with a real meal here and there. The other thing is I use fitday but I use the nutrition info from McDonalds ect and I think they are full of crap so the 3500cals if the info is wrong maybe 5000cals for all I know.
I am going shopping tonight though I am going to get a ton of tupperware and make my meals for the week tommorow cause I have to lose this weight. I can not and will not gain weight.
p.s. I think alot of it is water too because I was drinking a gallon a day but have stopped as I am not able to go to the restroom 20 times a day in school
The water is good. You should be drinking a good bit of it.
If you are gaining at your size, I'd be willing to bet you are eating more than 3500 cals.
Pre-planning and preparing your meals in advance will go a long way. I can say that with confidence. What types of foods do you find yourself eating mostly?
And what's with the fast food?
If you are gaining at your size, I'd be willing to bet you are eating more than 3500 cals.
Pre-planning and preparing your meals in advance will go a long way. I can say that with confidence. What types of foods do you find yourself eating mostly?
And what's with the fast food?
Need2BSmaller
New member
I have been eating mostly fast food cause I started going to school full time as well as working full time but I have to find the time somewhere I am going to try and do it on the weekends.
I go to school from 8am to 2pm and then I work from 3pm to midnight go home sleep and do it again
I think like I said the weight gain is from stopping walking and working out while at the same time eating a bunch of crap food and yeah I am sure I am eating more then 3500 cals but I have been trying to keep track of what I eat on fitday. I think the fast food nutrition guides are way off though. Like a double cheesburg at Mc.Donals says 420cals I am betting its more.
Calorie Tracking Websites
I want to try and find a good site to use to track and monitor my calorie intake. Primarily, I need a good food database to work with, that's the most important part, but I'm also really interested in a good exercise database (calories burned), and body tracking for measurements and body fat %. Bonuses would be on-site recipes, exercise listings/guidance, and free or very inexpensive. Community isn't a big deal because I got you guys As a side note - it is really frustrating how few weight-loss communities use a forum/BB system that I can stand to use, with some measure of organization *and* good design. I used to admin websites, and I will take vBulletin over most any proprietary scripting. But I digress, it's neither here nor there!
I found on my own, but they don't let you look around, they just give you screenshots of what your $110/yr buys. If someone has used it could let me know if it's worth the money, they have me interested but I just don't want to drop more money than I should.
I'm still looking around the internet, but I'd welcome suggestions to help me in my search!
I want to try and find a good site to use to track and monitor my calorie intake. Primarily, I need a good food database to work with, that's the most important part, but I'm also really interested in a good exercise database (calories burned), and body tracking for measurements and body fat %. Bonuses would be on-site recipes, exercise listings/guidance, and free or very inexpensive. Community isn't a big deal because I got you guys
As a side note - it is really frustrating how few weight-loss communities use a forum/BB system that I can stand to use, with some measure of organization *and* good design. I used to admin websites, and I will take vBulletin over most any proprietary scripting. But I digress, it's neither here nor there!I found on my own, but they don't let you look around, they just give you screenshots of what your $110/yr buys. If someone has used it could let me know if it's worth the money, they have me interested but I just don't want to drop more money than I should.
I'm still looking around the internet, but I'd welcome suggestions to help me in my search!
SpookyMulder
New member
. It's free.
most every online food tracker, like , sparkpeople.com, dailyplate.com, and the 100s of others out there are free and all access the same USDA database...
Find one that makes it easy for you to enter custom foods... and you're all set..
Find one that makes it easy for you to enter custom foods... and you're all set..