Tag Archives: calorie

Day 231: Shaken and stirred

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Day 231 - front

  • Weight: 139.0 lbs.
  • No workout today; next: Workout C, April 20 (makeup for today)
  • Total inches: 124.5
  • Protein: 131 g (0 g over target)
  • Calories: 2,100

The numbers from the last 220 or so days are all lies. Lies, I tell ya!

I screwed up royally.

I bragged about my daily protein shake to a friend last week: “Three cups 2 percent milk, a banana, 3 tablespoons of peanut butter, one scoop of protein powder …”

Friend (who happens to know a lot about building muscles and changing weight): “Just one scoop? Really? That doesn’t sound like enough.”

Me: “Oh, sure it is. I’ve been using that recipe since Day 1.”

Friend: “Are you sure?”

I was. And then the next day, I was not.

I checked.

Recipe version Protein (g) Calories
“The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon | iTunes aff. links] 75 970
My screwed-up version 48 880
My corrected version 74 1,180

Yikes. The actual recipe calls for “30 g whey protein isolate,” which I thought meant 30 g of protein powder or about one scoop. I really needed four scoops of protein powder to yield 30 g of protein.

Sigh. 

The scary repercussions …

  • I overcounted for each of the first 225 days by 90 calories and a whopping 27 g protein.
  • That means I took in 20 percent less protein than I thought, slowing my muscle growth by a possible 20 percent.
  • My measurements for protein and calories are inaccurate from Sept. 1 to April 13.

Using four times as much protein powder per shake means …

  • The cost of protein powder has quadrupled, since I’ll use it up four times faster.
  • The shake tastes much more chocolatey.

Sunday, I started using four scoops in the shake. I didn’t even think about the additional calories. I am that stupid.

After noticing the 1.2-pound gain in the last 7 days, I needed to double-check all of the recipe’s nutritional stats. I realized today, after running the numbers, that I had accidentally consumed 300 extra calories a day, a 15 percent jump from the 2,000-calorie target.

Sigh again.

I am extremely grateful my knowledgeable friend raised the red flag. It allows me to make the corrections and have more accurate numbers.

The first decision is to leave the pre-April 14 numbers alone. I’ll add a note to the spreadsheet, but trying to revise all the numbers in all the posts will be too much work for me.

The second decision is to revise my daily calorie target immediately. Because the protein shake costs 210 more calories than previously assumed, I am dropping from 2,300 calories a day to 2,100. We’ll see if my weight remains steady (as it has been for the past 3 months) or goes up with more muscle growth from sufficient protein.

It’s tough to face a mistake like this, a simple miscalculation that I could’ve caught months ago. But I feel better knowing that I might actually be on the right track, even if I can’t follow a simple recipe.

I can’t lie to myself.

Day 231 - side

Day 175: The myth that is the Nutrition Facts label

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Day 175 - front

  • Weight: 137.0 lbs.
  • Workout C: 22 minutes, 40 seconds; next: Workout C, Feb. 25
  • Total inches: 123.3
  • Protein: 145 g (16 g over target)
  • Calories: 2,308

Reading the Nutrition Facts label on food is a waste of time. Unless you’re looking for a lovely fairy tale.

Video: New York filmmaker Casey Neistat investigates
calorie data on foods for the New York Times.

As we’ve explored before, counting calories is more art than science. You must estimate the calories in cooking a recipe, or evaluating portion size. You must, with every bite, guess.

How woefully inadequate, whether trying to gain or lose weight.

Casey Neistat, a filmmaker based in New York, looked at foods he ate on a typical day in a report for the New York Times. The city requires restaurants to post calories on their menus.

Neistat bought five things from both stores and restaurants. With the Times’ journalistic resources at his disposal, he had those foods analyzed at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center in a bomb calorimeter.

(You could do it yourself, after spending several thousand dollars on the equipment, not to mention the training needed.)

Four of the five foods tested had more calories than reported on the Nutrition Facts label. Of the four, two were packaged items, while the other two were made at restaurants upon ordering.

Yikes.

He would’ve accidentally consumed 20 percent more calories than expected, some 549 calories.

Neistat asks in conclusion, “If the requirement to post the information (on caloric content) is going to be enforced, why not also enforce its accuracy?”

Oy, I may have wasted 6 months counting calories, when at best, I was counting pixies.

Day 175 - side

Day 25: Calorie cavalcade

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Day 25

  • Weight: 127.4 lbs.
  • No workout today
  • Total inches: 118.6
  • Protein: 127 g (7 g over target)
  • Calories: 2,824

I have never worked so hard to put things in my mouth. Hmm, that didn’t come out right …

In starting calorie counts 10 days ago, I’ve had to calculate twice as much before when just counting protein. But I have found two ways to make the chore more bearable.

1. Show it. As much as I love numbers, a visual component helps me a lot. With protein, my spreadsheet cell lights up green once I hit the minimum for the day. (Nerd alert!)

The first few days of calorie tracking, I winged it. I knew my basic maintenance requirement for my age and my size was around 1,700 to 2,000 calories a day. My gut (ha!) tells me I probably used to hit the low end of that figure (ha!) when eating normally.

As my weight gain stalled, I looked at the calories and saw they were inconsistent. I made a chart and realized I should shoot for 2,500 to 3,000 a day to put on pounds.

Calories Sept. 25, 2012

Chart: Calories through Sept. 25.
Note the target zone of at least 2,500 a day. 

Easy enough: Make sure the blue line hits at least 2,500 by day’s end.

2. Use an online recipe calorie calculator. Calories are an imperfect science. An approximation is what you get, but it’s still better than flying blind.

This wonderful calorie calculator allows me to copy and paste recipe ingredients and generate an official-looking nutrition facts label.

For example, I’m making the Pioneer Woman’s excellent macaroni and cheese this week. But instead of looking up the data for each ingredient, I can do it much more quickly with this tool.

recipe calorie calculator

Paste in the ingredients, tweak them for analysis
and receive your nutrition facts chart.

Tip: Food bloggers, include nutritional info with your recipes. Bonus points if you style it so it looks like the official label but uses text instead of an image, as I did above.

I can spend less time crunching numbers and more time crunching nuts. Still didn’t come out right …

•

Macaroni and Cheese
from the Pioneer Woman

  • 4 cups dried macaroni
  • 1 whole egg beaten
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2-1/2 cups whole milk
  • 2 teaspoons (heaping) dry mustard, more if desired
  • 1 pound cheese, grated
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt, more to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • (optional) Cayenne pepper, paprika, thyme

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook macaroni until very firm. Macaroni should be too firm to eat right out of the pot. Drain.

In a small bowl, beat egg.

In a large pot, melt butter and sprinkle in flour. Whisk together over medium-low heat. Cook mixture for 5 minutes, whisking constantly. Don’t let it burn.

Pour in milk, add mustard, and whisk until smooth. Cook for 5 minutes until very thick. Reduce heat to low.

Take 1/4 cup of the sauce and slowly pour it into beaten egg, whisking constantly to avoid cooking eggs. Whisk together till smooth.

Pour egg mixture into sauce, whisking constantly. Stir until smooth.

Add in cheese and stir to melt.

Add salt and pepper. Taste sauce and add more salt and seasoned salt as needed! Do not under-salt.

Pour in drained, cooked macaroni and stir to combine.

Serve immediately (very creamy) or pour into a buttered baking dish, top with extra cheese, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly and golden on top.

Wade’s tip: I like to make this spicy, so I use pepper jack and extra sharp cheddar, along with generous amounts of paprika and cayenne spices. Also, be sure to read The Pioneer Woman’s post and admire her step-by-step photos.

Day 15: When in doubt, bake

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day 15

  • Weight: 123.2 lbs.
  • Workout A: 20 min., 42 sec.
  • Total inches: 117.4
  • Protein: 140 g (22 g over target)
  • Calories: 2,799

If this project is about vanity, the biggest concern I have is having a gut. (Not guts. Gut.)

I’ve always had a small pot belly, which doesn’t jump out when the first thing people notice is how skinny I am.

So besides looking foolish, my bigger concern is coming away from all of this with nothing more than a giant gut. That little nagging voice in the back of my mind may be my built-in appetite suppressant. And for me, it’s always worked.

Having never counted calories in my life, I started checking today. To maintain current weight (given my height and gender) requires roughly 1,700 to 2,100 calories a day.

“The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon | iTunes aff. links] assures the reader that one won’t transform from average human to muscle-bound freak overnight. It is implied that one won’t also explode around the waistline either. But the fear lingers.

The obvious answer for my workout Saturday: Bake.

I’ve made Nestlé Toll House chocolate chip cookies all my life. They’re easy, and I rarely vary the recipe. I’m always trying to get the perfect finish, chewy and moist.

I don’t have that many out-and-out sweets in the house, so baking some fresh temptations should make it easier to indulge. Each standard cookie has 110 calories and 2 g protein.

I had four with my protein shake for breakfast dessert, if that’s what you want to call it.

I never imagined 2 weeks in that I’d be struggling with putting on the pounds. The tiny voice is laughing.

•

Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups (12-oz. package) semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 5 dozen cookies

Note: 1 cookie has 110 calories, 2 g protein.

Day 14: Down for the count

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day 14 front

  • Weight: 122.6 lbs.
  • No workout today
  • Total inches: 117.6
  • Protein: 172 g (54 g over target)

I apparently have a superpower.

Like Peter Parker waking up to stick to walls and shoot webbing, I now know I have a gift. I am immune to calories.

Ta da.

At heart, this isn’t true. While I’ve focused on protein consumption, I’m pretty sure my overall food/caloric intake has been roughly the same. I haven’t stayed at 120 pounds for decades without becoming steady in my habits.

I don’t eat a lot. The few hours of exercise I’ve done these past 14 days haven’t radically increased my appetite.

The next step is to count calories. As much as I love numbers, it’s a minor inconvenience to calculate protein in every bite. And now, I gotta add up the calories, too.

I’ll get used to it. I know this is the standard operating procedure for dieters, so it’s new to me.

In addition to counting those calories, I will continue to eat more. I might burst.

Probably not. But we’re going to find out.

Maybe that can be my superpower.

day 14 siade