Dieting newbie – calories question!

This topic contains 11 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by snorks 9 years, 11 months ago.

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snorks

11:53 pm
9 Jan 15
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Hi guys,

So I’m totally new to dieting and counting calories. I’ve been looking through the Fast Diet Recipe Book for ideas of what to eat…

So, for a start there were a couple of suggestions of porridge for breakfast, which is what I already have every day. In fact I have the exact same amount of oats suggested. But then it suggests trim milk and some fruit. I can’t stand trim milk, but I also use a lot less than the suggestion – 30g oats, 100mL fill cream milk. That comes to 155 calories…

My question is – is it OK to switch things around like that?

Or is 100 mL of full cream milk actually going to be far worse for me than the 250mL of trim milk because full cream has more fat for less goodness, so I should just not consider drinking it at all on my diet days?

simcoeluv

12:12 am
10 Jan 15
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Hi snorks and welcome:

It does not matter what you eat, or what the ingredients are. Just make sure your caloric intake on your diet days is 500 cal. or less.

Here are some tips: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

Stinger

1:46 pm
10 Jan 15
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Simcoluv just to clarify, Mike says 600cals for men, 500 for women.

Another thing to be careful of is not to try too many fast days along in one go. It is to easy to get fed up with it if you go to many consecutive days. Just stay on two days a week and see how it goes, you can always change up or down later. Important thing to note is that you are only dieting 2 days in 7 which is only 28% of a week. 72% of the time you just eat normally. One word of caution, do not gorge on the other 5 days!

Good luck.

Amazon

3:44 pm
10 Jan 15
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Nothing wrong with using whole milk, skimmed milk is watery and tasteless IMO, but DO get yourself an accurate calorie counter. In the UK 100ml of whole milk has 67 calories, and while 12 calories might not make much difference, if every item you eat is also underestimated by the same amount, you’ll be over your recommended calories for the day.

snorks

6:54 pm
10 Jan 15
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I was calculating the calories from the kilojoules printed on the packets. They don’t print calories on food over here (New Zealand). So I guess I just have to trust to manufacturer’s honesty D:

Although, I gather from my complaining relatives that a lot of food is actually inferior quality over here, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the calorie count of the same product is generally lower.

Amazon

7:09 pm
10 Jan 15
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Maybe you should try an app like myfitnesspal where you can enter everything you eat. 20% difference is a huge amount if you can only have a few 100 calories on a FD.
I doubt that food in NZ is of inferior quality, and I’m sure that NZ milk is as good as it it in the UK.
I hope it goes well for you.

snorks

7:44 pm
10 Jan 15
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Where do these apps get their calorie information from? Isn’t it better to get it directly from the product if possible?

Also, hahaha, you should talk to the expats over here. Apparently even our flour is rubbish for baking with because it’s not fine enough, or not the particles aren’t the same size or something weird like that. Seriously, I have to wonder why they ever came here given they seem to hate everything here.

Amazon

8:48 pm
10 Jan 15
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Where did you get the calorie info for the milk from? Was it the carton? If so then NZ cows produce milk with less fat in it than UK cows.
All I’m saying is that underestimating calories can lead to disappointment as it will slow down weight loss.

dlroseberry

8:50 pm
10 Jan 15
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I think you are wise to be suspicious of calorie counts, wherever they come from. I always add 20%. Vendors want to keep the number low, and like drivers going over the speed limit, they know they have a cushion before any possibility of the “cops” stopping them. Here in the US, fruits are sweeter than they used to be and bigger so you need to weigh. If they slip in some milk fat into skim milk, who’s going to complain or catch that unless it’s egregious? Broccoli and celery are about the only things I trust on the count.

Bigger flour particle size should be healthier since it should take longer to digest and, hopefully, satiate longer. I use a very course flour on this idea, and just allow extra time for it to absorb water, and I make fabulous baked goods, if I do say so myself. But there could be other things wrong with the flour, like weak gluten or too high or too low a level of gluten for what you,re trying to bake.

Stinger

1:11 am
11 Jan 15
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Snorks 1kcal = 4.2kJ

E.g. if your packet says 420kJ it is equal to 100kcal
Note 100 cal on some packets actually means 100kcal

To convert kJ to kcal just divide 4.2

Re the expats from UK, don’t worry, see who will be defending you when things get rough… I.E. god bless the queen… Let’s not fall out, seeing what’s been happening recently we all need to stick together!

snorks

5:30 am
11 Jan 15
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I was converting kJs on the carton to (kilo) calories by multiplying by .239

Probably the breed of cow and climate and different feed make the difference in calories.

snorks

7:59 am
11 Jan 15
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Think I have it sorted!

I can eat my normal breakfast of porridge. I’ll have to turn my two sandwiches into one club sandwich for lunch. And then I can fill up on a carrot and a plum if I’m hungry in the evening. YIKES!