How can I measure or estimate calorie intake

[kilkenny]

I am a 49 y. o. male and my Doctor has suggested I should loose 14lbs in weight. I have adjusted my diet, however, trying to calculate how many calories I intake in a day is a really hard - such as trying to read minute print on labels.

So a challenge

How many calories do you people in AB estimate in total would be in my average diet per day.
A typical day would be::::

Breakfast

2 Weetabix with semi skimmed milk

Lunch
Sandwich (say one slice of ham and some mayo) an apple and an orange.

Evening Supper
Spag: Bol: and pasta - and I promise this would be a reasonable size bowl

Three mugs of tea a day with semi skimmed milk

I do not drink booze very often and bisuits and cakes do not feature very often in my intake

Thanks


Kilkenny

[Androcles]

Best thinkg is to buy a book or look online see: http://www.weightloss...s/calorie_counter.htm

[cazzz1975]

quite often its the hazy reports of snacks that are the diet killers, for a man you dont look to eat too much, do you eat snacks? if yes why not list them, all the foods will have calorific values on the packaging.

[R1Geezer]

that's not enough calories to be putting on weight unless you are very small and barely move! Can you give us weight/Height activty levels. Have you been getting heavier over time? Has this quickly gone on recently or are you just reacting to the Doctor? Is that diet a long term general amount of intake? Do you have any idea of fat percentage? Calories couning is not the answer believe me. I make that an absolute max of 1800cals a day but that's just an estimate.

[R1Geezer]

oh and most important, male or female?

[R1Geezer]

sorry scratch that, just read the first line again, doh!

[Old_Geezer]

I trust that is the reducing diet then.

A lot depends on some of the vague descriptions you give. How much skimmed milk, a paint, a ¼ pint ?
How much mayo on the sandwich, and is it full fat or reduced like the Hellmann's Light ?
What is a reasonable sized bowl ? How much pasta, and more importantly how much high fat sauce ?

The problem is that a calorie counting diet needs to be calculated with reasonable accuracy as it is surprising how much one can put away without realising, if one is just guessing. Most packet stuff has nutrition info on it. Where it doesn't you can probably Goggle the answer for the individual item. Weigh stuff you pour freely, and be honest.

Guess, and you'll fail to keep the figure down, and will then feel hard done by when you think you've stuck to the diet and yet not lost anything.

Aim for about 2000 calories a day.. Too few and you'll keep wanting to cheat, and your body might go into starvation mode anyway, and store away a greater portion of the energy you eat. Too much and your not going to have a larger output then input, so won't lose. Slow but sure is the way.

Ideally you want to develop habits you can continue with afterwards as the worst thing to do is lose then regain then lose etc.