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No Deposit, No Return …
When I was in the eleventh grade, I had the privilege of serving as a US Congressional Page representing Washington, DC. It was truly an interesting job for a high school student, and going to a school that started at 5:30am in the morning was something really new for me. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good paying gig for a 16 year-old.
I opened my first checking and savings account at the Congressional Credit Union, and even had my own ATM card. Well, this was a big thing for me because the whole concept of walking up and getting money from a machine always fascinated me. So, having my own card, with my own name on it, made getting money out that much sweeter.
The only problem was that I didn’t think too much about how I needed to budget my money or periodically check my account’s balance. All I knew was that I go to the little machine, put in my card, and cross my fingers that it would give me money. You can only imagine how many times my account was overdrawn.
Many Big Dawgs everyday go through a similar process of mindless eating. Listen, not having a clue of how many calories you are consuming on a daily basis will always leave you in limbo, especially if you’re trying to lose fat. I correspond with guys from all over, and many of them tell me the same thing, “But, I don’t eat that much”. There was a time when I would simply dismiss their statements as these guys are clearly just lying to themselves.
Well, this all changed when I saw the TLC (The Learning Channel) special, I Eat 33,000 Calories A Day. This was a documentary that followed around four morbidly obese folks, two men and two women, living in the UK. The two men were too heavy to leave their rooms, while the same was true for one of the women too. However, there was one woman who was on her way to being in the same boat, but she was still mobile.
One feature of the documentary was to show a table full of food that each person would consume in a day. It was just unreal how much food the one guy who consumed 33K calories a day had to consume; however, the still mobile woman’s table didn’t look as if it was about to topple over from the weight of the food. Actually it was really the opposite.
Although she was taking in over 5000 calories a day, her table of daily food didn’t really look as if it would be more than 3500 calories. I was a little confused at first, until they started to calculate how many calories was in each candy bar, scone, or the other extremely calorie dense food she would consume.
Listen Big Dawgs, you simply can’t go simply by how much food you think that you’ve eaten for the day. You must be conscious of how many calories you’re eating, and with our society’s fascination with processed calorie dense food, there’s no wonder why I keep getting the “I don’t eat that much” emails.
Please, make no mistake about it. When I say that at the start of your journey you should focus more on the quantity of food that you eat, rather than the quality, I’m talking about how many calories you’re eating. You’re body doesn’t care if your calories comes in ten 100 calorie snack packs or a 1000 calorie triple thick shake from McDonalds.
So, if you haven’t done so already, start a food journal/log, so you can stop guessing at how many calories you’re eating.
Recently, I stopped using Fitday.com because it just seemed outdated compared to the newer online calorie counters. I’ve been using caloriecount.about.com for the past couple of weeks, and I’m really happy with it so far. Check it out and let me know what you think …
February 4th, 2010 at 6:35 am
Great Blog….
I have been keeping a log/journal every day….I have a lot of Business Lunches…
I thought I was doing well by eating Chicken Ceaser Salads…Wrong! 1100 calories! I almost passed out! I would have been better eating the burger and fries!
Keep up the good work!
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Muata Reply:
February 4th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Thanks Jim, and you’re right about the “healthy” options that are out there. Many times they have more calories than, like you said, simply going ahead and getting a sensible sized burger and fries. Thanks for leaving a comment.
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February 4th, 2010 at 8:06 am
Precisely! I don’t know how many times I’ve used that same line. What I have also found is that in order to be totally accountable, every morsel needs to be quantified. That means weighing or measuring each food item consumed. Believe me when I say, a person’s eyeball measurement is nowhere as accurate as measuring cups and/or a scale. In order to be honest with yourself and actually know how many calories you’re really consuming, it has to be accurately weighed and/or measured.
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Muata Reply:
February 4th, 2010 at 8:50 am
ICT, you’re right about the whole “eye-balling” thing. I’ve not reached my goal on a couple of occasions because I felt that I didn’t have to weigh out everything because I had a “good eye” …. yeah right! LOL! Thanks for your comment …
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February 4th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
It’s absolutely true. I remember shortly after I started making my changes, I calculated how much I was eating every day and was really shocked by it. It didn’t SEEM like I was eating that much and really, volume-wise, I wasn’t. But CALORIE wise, I definitely was!
People don’t want to count calories and they end up eyeballing things, or thinking that since they aren’t full all the time, they aren’t eating too much. But they don’t have any clue how many calories their body even needs in a day just to maintain their weight, let alone how many they should be eating/burning to lose fat.
It’s all too easy to let things slide and figure you’ll be okay, but if you add up all those things you let slide during a week, you may find that you blew a chance at a 1-2 pound fat loss due to the excess calories. Good post, Muata…we big dogs salute you
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Muata Reply:
February 7th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Thanks KevinD, and I’m glad that you like the post. I’m just a former Big Dawg passing along information that was given to me
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February 6th, 2010 at 12:45 am
Interesting calorie website. I think you are right about eating more than we realize. My major gains have always been when I calculate and write down every calorie. It is kind of a pain to do but I’ve noticed whenever I’ve done that – I’ve lost weight.
Maybe it is time to use my excel spread sheet again.
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Muata Reply:
February 7th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
I’m in the same boat John! What I’ve been doing is using a tip I got from Tom Venuto’s book (and he did create it) — menu planning. When you plan out your weekly meals and do the calories for them, you only do number crunching once a week. I’m finding it better than writing down and calculating on a daily basis. Hey, go ahead and crack out that spreadsheet again
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September 4th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I agree completely.
I’ve eaten different ‘diets’ in my adult life (high carb/low fat semi-vegetarian for many years, and now more of a “Paleo” approach), but it has ALWAYS been about the calories. I’ve managed to stay within a few lbs of my ideal weight because of that. And I’ve tested this many times, seeing what happened when I didn’t count calories (yes, I gained fat!
). And even though I got scary good at eye balling thanks to being so well trained with scales (I would test by weighing the food on my digital scale after eye balling to see how close I was), it wasn’t reliable enough. With some foods, I would be off by a bit, so if *I* could be off with my freaky good abilities (and yes, I was using a very good scale, calibrated properly) then I know that others can be off, and often by a LOT.
I do find that certain foods that I’m allergic to lead to edema, but now it’s obvious to me so I avoid them. The Paleo type diet works best for my energy levels and is the most satieting for me, and it’s very easy to count calories with it (because I focus on whole foods, not packaged ones). But back in my high carb/low fat days when I ate more processed foods, I was very careful and managed fine. The difference was that back then I had to do various things to help keep my appetite in check that I don’t have to do now that I eat a more satieting diet (for me, anyway).
I know that there are other careful calorie counters are out there, especially in the pro body building world, but the people I have met who have problems with their weight have, so far, NOT been good about counting calories. They have been quite terrible at it, actually. When I go over in detail what they eat with them, it’s clear within minutes what the problem is.
Digital scales rock.
I recommend MyWeigh scales if you are a stickler for accuracy like I am. I love counting because it works so well. My food just makes a small trip to the scale then it gets cooked. No big deal at all, once you get used to that. Freeing really.
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