So I started using myFItnessPal when I got home from the hospital 3 weeks ago (had surgery 5/26) and I'm a bit of a perfectionist...I'm having trouble with measuring and estimating the calories in my food. Sometimes I do well with measuring, especially when it's only a few ingredients (like the refried Beans, salsa, cilantro combo I do for pureed), but I'm normally the type of cook who doesn't follow a recipe and just throws things in and estimates amounts.

The only problem I have with MyFitnessPal is that searching for some foods will give you several different results and it's hard to know which to use.

So my question is, for those of you who do track calories/everything, how accurate would you say you are? Do you just make educated guesses or do you really try to get it exact? How do you do it for home-cooked meals?

It's not too hard to track right now in the pureed stage, but I'm worried about when I get to normal food that it's going to very hard for me to keep tracking, so any advice now would be greatly appreciated! I've heard of people who religiously bring a measuring cup with them and measure things everywhere so they don't overeat. Anybody do that?

This thread got me interested in further research on the subject, I found this article and the references fascinating...

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/10/cocktail-science-do-alcohol-calories-count-digesting-spirits.html

And add to it the problems of figuring out your caloric set point that HBO highlighted in their documentary on the weight of the nation special...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_cmltmQ6A

It is made even more complicated by the changes in hormone levels due to surgery and weight loss changes our body and makes us more efficient metabolic machines. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/grp/2013/528450/

This all points to one important thing, we don't know everything. So to the point of this thread, don't go nuts trying to figure out each calorie, but, it is a guide to help you lose and a good tool to aid you. But we are very complex critters. So eat well, just less of it and hang on as we keep learning new things.

And keep listening to the many successful people on this site and their advise, I do.

Edited July 12, 201511 yr by OKCPirate