HM Health & Well-being

According to research, people underestimate their calorie intake by up to one third.

ONE THIRD!! That’s a whole lot of calories that aren’t being accounted for.

It also makes it understandable as to why people who THINK they are eating the correct amount of calories for their weight loss aren’t actually losing any weight at all – they may be stuck at a certain weight or even gaining depending on how badly their intake is being incorrectly logged.

I’m not having a go here, I just need everyone to understand that you have to be accepting of everything you are consuming and know exactly how much you are having. It can be all too easy to forget about the caramel latte you had on the way to work, the couple of bourbon biscuits you sneaked into your gob in the tea room, the lashings of tomato sauce you had on that smoked bacon butty this morning… You get the picture.

It can also be super easy to incorrectly guestimate the weight of the foods you are eating and be WAY off. Say for example you have a roasted chicken breast, jacket potato and steam veg for your tea – great choices, lots of nutrient in this meal along with a variety of vitamins and minerals, fibre and satifying to boot BUT, how much have you had? How big was the chicken breast, was it cooked skin on or skin off, did you cook it in any oil or with any marinade? How big was the jacket potato, small, medium, or large, is your “medium” the same as someone else’s medium size. What were your steam veg? Did you have a pre-prepared pack? Did you eat a whole portion? Did you check what a recommended portion is? Have you just gone on MyFitnessPal and picked the options you WANT your food consumption to fit in to (Trust me, soooo many people do this; the only person you;re kidding is yourself). This isn’t even everything to consider and you can see there are already a list of things you need to be aware of.

If this is the case then what can we do to make sure we know what we are eating and that we are recording accurately?

It may sound super anal and a total faff to begin with but, the only way to really know exactly what you are eating is to WEIGH YOUR FOOD.

Ok, so I fully accept that I may have lost some of you at this point, and that’s ok, maybe you’re just not ready for the accountability it takes to make the changes you really need….

For those of you who are still here, well done. You accept that there’s a problem and that this is the solution. It’s not as much of a ball ache as it sounds and once you get into the habit of doing it, it becomes quicker and second nature to do so. All you need is a set of kitchen scales like these. Just remember if you are weighing your food raw or cooked and then select the correct option from MyFitnessPal when logging them.

You can do this to add recipes to MyFitnessPal too – just log all the weights of all the ingredients and then select how many portions it makes et voila, you have your portion calories (and macros – more about this at a later date).

Note: Links taking you to products are via amazon associates. I may earn a small commission should you purchase items following these links.