Home Chat General Chat

Calorie Counting

Hi all, I just had a question for all your combined wisdom. I find that being in a sport that requires basic management of weight, whilst maintaining adequate calories for exercise, its important to ensure that you get approximately the right amount of calories in in a day.



I always try and keep a rough count of what I consume using real laymans estimates and in the 100's to try and ensure I am hitting the right amount. I have no idea if its accurate though so just wondered what anyone else thought how accurate I am, here is an example of today



Hotel Breakfast:

Little box of rice crispies and semi skimmed milk - 150

2 Poached eggs on a slice of brown toast - 250

2 slices of brown toast with jam - 300

Glass of orange juice - 100

Black coffee - 0

800 total



Snack (couldn't get lunch)

Twix - 250



Late lunch on train:

Egg sandwich - 200

Yoghurt and Nut bar - 200

400



Snack

2 slices of brown toast with jam - 300



Dinner

Palm sized jacket potato with cottage cheese - 350

Palm sized tuna steak - 250

2 Carrots - 100

4 things of broccli - 100

4 pieces of dark chocolate - 100

900



The thing is I am just a bit amazed at how much that equals, would work out as approximately 2650. I wouldn't really consider that an excessive days eating either....



I am 90kg and so have a BMR of about 2500, and then did 50 mins swimming as well - so I figure that this should be almost perfectly 500 calories short of my daily target - so a safe undercut for basic weight loss whilst maintaining decent energy.



What say ye board regulars?!

Comments

  • Hi there



    Minefield this one.... in theory a 500 cal deficit per day should give you a 1lb weight loss per week, as long as your BMR is a reasonable approximation.. but it ain't quite as easy as that, a lot to do with how hard you train, how often you train etc (thats why sometimes you train really hard and seem to put weight on or have a hard race and gain weight... all to do with fluid retention) but realistically weight management is about 20% training and 80% what goes in in the first place... everybodies comments welcome on that one!!!



    One observation from the info you gave is that you seem to be be having quite a lot of bread and mid to high GI foods... but great that you are eating little and often!!!



    But at at the end of the day, in this fantastic sport of ours the last thing we want is to gain weight and so if what you are doing is maintaining your weight or you are losing a few pounds ( if this is your aim) then you're doing it right.



    As I have stated already this area is a minefield and these are just my views and I'm sure there will be some great advice out there from everyone else, cos this forum offers some top tips and advice



    hope this helps



    Cheers



    PiP
  • stevedavis82stevedavis82 Posts: 110
    Since starting tri in October ihave lost 15kg (was 105kg - Rugby player) and amnow down to a 90kg weight. Still 10 kg to go to my perfect weight.



    My typical day -



    Breakfast - Porridge with organic honey or Yogurt with raisins/fresh fruit.

    snack - Banana/Mango

    Lunch - Soup Tom and Basil or Leek&Pot

    Snack - Handful of raisins or piece of fruit.

    Dinner - Meat or Fish (grilled) with roasted vegetables (sweet potato, sweetcorn, green beans, mushrooms, cheery toms etc)

    Snack - Natural yogurt with raspberries/strawberries.



    Exercise - 1-2 hrs per day of either Run, Weights, Cycle, Swim , 5-a-side or Squash.



    Worked for me!!!

  • RocksteadyRocksteady Posts: 47
    I come from a similar background to Steve having been a rugby player. I haven't done any calorie counting yet, though I do plan to pay more attention to it in the near future. I was 102kg at the beginning of the year I'm now down to 91kg.



    A typical day for me is:



    Breakfast: Porridge with soya milk and piece of fruit

    Snack: fruit or malt loaf

    Lunch: tuna salad + quinoa or some brown rice

    Snack: yogurt and piece of fruit

    Dinner: Chicken and veg



    This seems to have worked for me and I tend to have one meal out every couple of weeks and don't deny myself a few treats along the way and a few beers in the pub [:D]



    As I've been injured for the last 3 weeks and unable to run, I've stopped losing the weight so I'm going to try cutting down my portion sizes until I'm back training fully again. I've also just purchased the Triathletes Training Bible which looks like it has some info on nutrition and calories so going to give that a read and try and be a bit more scientific about my food intake.



    Cheers,



    Ed
  • TommiTriTommiTri Posts: 879
    I think the best point I can put forward on this one is that calories were not all created equal!



    Sounds overall like you have a pretty good diet, although I would agree with PiP that maybe you cut down the bread in particular, I think I count 7 slices? should aim to be less than 4 although it is great that it is wholemeal rather than white.



    I think overall the amount of calories you are having is fine, because you are doing the training to burn them off.

    On your list I would personally cut down slightly on the lunch, not have the yoghurt and nut bar, and have the yoghurt and nuts (the actual things[;)]) as a snack around 3ish!



    My basic guide is



    Breakfast - lots of carbs + good amount of protein - fire up the metabolism etc.

    snack - yoghurt/fruit/nuts - perfect midmorning snack

    Lunch - sandwich/soup - again complex carbs + protein esp

    snack - same as above

    dinner - lean meats/veg/salads etc.
  • BARNYBARNY Posts: 157
    I reakon you coudl have spread the eggs over two peieces of toast rather than have both on just one.... missed a trick there mate.
  • lowther76lowther76 Posts: 74
    Error whilst Doing a Replacement, Error in srv_convert.
  • BritspinBritspin Posts: 1,655
    Weight loss will always taper off, regardless of starting weight, partly due to a fair amount of the initial loss being water...bound & stored in the body with fat & glycogen which gets mobilised & depleted by exercise. evidence seems to be emerging for a natural 'set point' that an individual has that is an ideal weight as far as body systems etc is concerned, & that the body will do what it can to conserve weight to remain around this weight. Only extreme events such as illness, anorexia etc will punch thru this set point. as has been mentioned all calories are not equal..'processed' calories (trans fats etc) are not recognised by our stone age digestion system & that is some of the reason that they are so harmful to us, the body sees them as harmful & unnatural (because they are) & has problems with their digestion & what to do with the end products of digestion.

    Any how...all this will affect what you lose & when, I believe a constant manipulation & experimentation will yield more results.

    The mention of bread made me smile...just to prove we are all different I eat plenty of bread..home made..& remain at a stable weight Lady Britspin has cut down & lost a fair bit (other things have changed I hasten to add) similarly most nutrition books tell you to leave out potatos, now we eat way more tatties than we used to & much less pasta...& the weight has dropped off..go figure.
  • stevsterstevster Posts: 73
    Since stepping up my training to roughly 6 - 10 hours of training a week my weight has dropped from 12' 5 to 11' 3.

    I have found that I need to be taking in aout 3000 - 3200 calories a day to maintain my weight and therefore needed to find the right foods for getting the right nutrients and also the amount of calories.

    After looking on the internet for a site to record food eaten I found fitday.com (note no www. before the address).

    I am able to log on a daily basis all the foods and activity I have eaten/done.

    You are also able to report on the percentage of vitamins/minerals received from the food.

    As the site has a lot of foods already recorded (although very americanised) you dont need to record the calorific values before using the site. You are however able to setup your own foods.



    Im sure the site is meant to be used for loosing weight but it does seem to work in reverse as well.

Sign In or Register to comment.