After my post Friday about trying to figure out why I’m not losing tons of weight I decided to start counting calories. I figure it’s the only way to find out if something in my diet needs to be revamped or if I’m where I should be and it’s just going to take time. Here is the calorie counter I’m using for items I can’t look at the package to find the calories.
I had my typical Sunday breakfast which included:
1 1/2 scrambled eggs- 150 (shared some with daughter)
1 1/2 slices of toast with Country Crock Margarine – 140 calories (did0)
coffee with fat free french vanilla creamer – 32 calories
Total for bkft – 322 calories
Lunch-
We were out so we went to Qdoba’s. I got the calories off of their website.
3 pork tacos – 600 calories (wow! thought I was being healthy. Guess not.)
sweet tea – 130 calories
Total for lunch – 730
Dinner -
Pizza leftovers 1 slice – 310 calories
salad – 53 calories (spinach, tomato, broccoli, carrots, fat free Italian dressing)
water with crystal light – 10 calories
Total for Dinner – 373 calories
Total for Day – 1425
What I liked about this calories counter was that once you plug in all of your food for the day you can click the analysis tab and it tells you if you were to high or to low in a nutrient. It also let’s you know which meal was the problem. For example, it states my sodium level was way to high; which I suspected. It said that I had used 2554 mg of sodium out of a 1500 mg allowance. I didn’t think it was that much so that’s good to know.
You can also track your activity level and weight log. It all interacts with eachother. It looks like you can also interact with other members in the community. My name on there is racingandsavingmama if you want to look me up.
They have a weight loss ticker that can track your progress. It gives you the code if you want to add it to your blog or website. I’m not sure if it automatically updates but I guess it should. Maybe? It’s at the bottom right hand side of my blog if you want to keep up with my progress. I’m only trying to loose 10-15 lbs at the most so I’m not sure why it goes to 100.
So there you have it. I’m tracking my calories now. I will say, eating is a lot less fun when I have to think about how many calories everything has but I guess that’s just what you have to do.
Diet is a LOT more than calories! Counting calories is only one of many ways to find out how you could improve. Nutrition Action Healthletter is my favorite resource.
Your calorie count for the day is very low for an active person. Are you really short? I’m 5’8″ and active, and I need about 2,500 calories a day to maintain my weight at about 135. I did a nutrition program through my health insurance a couple of years ago that told me this. Of course when you’re trying to LOSE weight you should eat fewer calories than for maintenance.
Looking at this one day as all I know about your diet, I think you need to eat MORE FIBER and LESS CHEESE. The only high-fiber food you had all day was in the salad, unless you had whole-grain toast or beans in your tacos. Try replacing meat with beans (saves money, too!), eating a piece of fresh fruit at breakfast, and choosing whole-grain versions of every bread product possible. At Qdoba, the grilled veggies are delicious! Those with beans, pico de gallo and/or corn salsa (did you know they’ll give you 2 salsas at no extra charge?), and no cheese or sour cream gives you more fiber and vitamins with lower calories, sodium, and cholesterol–although all their cooked food is somewhat salty and fatty. Too much sodium may be causing you to retain water, which adds to your weight.
Cheese is high in sodium as well as fat. I love cheese, but I feel better and digest better when I eat less of it. Yogurt gives you more calcium and protein without the salt. A lot of flavored yogurts have tons of sugar (or fake sugar, which may be bad for you) and food coloring, gelatin, other crap. I buy plain yogurt (big size is a better value) and eat it with real fruit, like frozen blueberries–if I don’t want them cold, I microwave them before adding the yogurt. One way of getting a rich, yummy flavor kind of like cheese is nutritional yeast flakes dissolved in heart-healthy olive oil.
Some research is showing that people who drink artificially sweetened drinks have more trouble losing weight than people who drink unsweetened drinks, possibly because the sweet taste fools the body into grabbing calories. Instead of Crystal Light, sweet tea, etc., try herbal teas. I love the fruit and mint ones from Celestial Seasonings. They don’t need sweetening!
I hope some of this lengthy rambling is helpful to you! Good luck with your diet!
Thank you so much for your “rambling” comment. I didn’t find it rambling but really helpful. You’re absolutely right about counting calories not being the only or even best way to get a healthy diet. I’m kind of using it as an indicator at where I need to start. To answer your question and to be uncomfortably honest – I weigh 140lb, and am 5’4″. Whew. That was hard. It’s funny you said my calories were too low b/c the calorie counter said I needed to be around 2000; which shocked me. I’ve always heard 1200 for women trying to loose weight and 1800 for men. That’s kind of what I was aiming for but maybe that is old school thinking.
You’re right again that I need more fiber in my diet. I’m not sure if I eat to much cheese or if that was just a cheesy day. I’ll have to take a look at that. It’s another reason I’m starting this log. It’s kind of neat b/c it tells me which nutrients I’m to high in and which I’m too low. I def need to reduce the sodium. I really retain water so it’s something to look at.
I looked at your 2 links at found both really useful. I looked at your website the longest. I liked your Grilled Cheese recipe. I never thought of using marinara sauce but that sounds really good. Uh-uh that’s another cheese recipe. Maybe you’re right about too much cheese. I will look into the yeast flakes. Sounds interesting and I have a Whole Foods store nearby that might carry them.
Thanks again for your great comment and information!