how accurate do you know calories?

[Bethie]

I’ve been using a diet tracker over the last while and I’m starting to discover that I thought I had a general idea of how many calories in things but I don’t have a freaking clue! I thought a brownie had way more and that eggs had way more calories than they do, but I thought a tomato had way less. I feel like I’m learning life all over again!

[TroyBurger]

Yeah, tell me about it Bethie! It's actually freaky when you look at the calories of certain foods. Sometimes I find the calories are exactly what I expect while other times I find that they're the complete opposite. Something that's healthy for you can actually have more calories than something that is bad for you, which can lead to people making unhealthy choices because they're trying to watch their calorie limits and want the junk over the good stuff. Sometimes it really feels like you need to go to weight loss school or something hahaha.

[Speeddemon]

It does get confusing, Bethie. It makes you realize there is so much more to the food you eat than their calorie count. That's why it's not necessarily a good idea to follow a diet that's strictly based on restricting calories. It's easy to make stupid choices and be very unhealthy.

[Bethie]

@TroyBurger - haha weight loss school. It's funny but you're sort of right. It would be really good if I did learn this in school or if they did teach this in a kind of class that you could take. I'd feel a lot better about being able to actually make stuff make the right choices, exercise and all that if I felt i knew what I was doing. I think half my motivation problems is that part of me doubts that I'm doign it right in the first place, so I don't know how hard I actually want to try for it.

@Speeddemon - you're right, too. THere is a lot more to food than counting calories. It just sucks that calories do play a role, too since it's so hard to keep track of them sometimes. I'm getting the hang of it but only because I'm leaning on a tracker like a crutch!

[Speeddemon]

Glad you're figuring it out Bethie. Soon you'll be a master and I'll be able to consult you as my person calorie tracker

[KittyKatt]

For most of the foods you eat on a regular basis, you start to really get the hang of it in a few weeks. After 3 months, you start to feel like na expert haha

[JokerzWild]

For most of the foods you eat on a regular basis, you start to really get the hang of it in a few weeks. After 3 months, you start to feel like na expert haha

Exactly KittyKatt. When you're first learning most things it takes a while to get the hang of it, but once you've got it down pat, it comes more naturally to you, like everything else.

[JennyR]

I've always been confused about food and calories. I would think that a raw apple would have less calories than 10 jelly beans...but, nope, 10 small jelly beans have 41 calories and a raw apple has about 116! How does that even make sense???

[Bean]

I've always been confused about food and calories. I would think that a raw apple would have less calories than 10 jelly beans...but, nope, 10 small jelly beans have 41 calories and a raw apple has about 116! How does that even make sense???

That makes sense to me, for some reason. I mean, it's referring to the tiny jelly beans, not the full sized ones. Compare the size of mini jelly beans vs an apple!