I’ll just start off with saying that I’m not on a diet. I saw a friend had a calorie tracker, and I was naturally curious so I got the same tracker myself. It’s called Fat Secret. It has all sorts of neat functions like being able to scan barcodes to having all sorts of restaurant dishes in the database. It’s awesome.
The first day I used it, I had actually eaten out for every meal. Despite having a salad for one meal, I was 30% over my daily calorie allowance. That shocked me into wondering if that was always over my caloric intake. Turns out, of course I’m not. Going out to eat has a ridiculous number of calories. Normally, I stay in and make my own food. On those days, I’m no where near my necessary calorie intake.
This whole calorie counting thing was confusing to me. I had multiple days where I wasn’t close to my necessary calorie intake. I didn’t change my eating habits so I was rather confused. But wait. I did change my eating habits, a lot. When I stopped drinking caffeine, I cut out drinking 2-3 cans of coke a day (~15-20%/calories). I also stopped eating excessive amounts of candy (~10%) and cookies (~10%). I could go on, but needless to say, those unfulfilling foods really added up. Turns out, I should be eating an extra meal now!
Dude. Bonus meal. This calorie counting thing means that I win. Seriously though, it does make me think twice about what I’m eating when I go out to restaurants and the such. I can still justify a Wisconsin buttery burger and fries from Steak ‘n Shake (~55%) but not as an every day thing. And I might go home and work out a bit. Hey now, I said a bit. I’m not going to pretend I run marathons or can actually do a pull up. But, I try. That’s the first step!