Calorie Question

spaceylou

Sorry if this has been answered somewhere else but I couldn't find it. I have a fairly healthy diet but I would like to improve it a wee bit further. At my current weight and activity level I need to consume about 2200 calories a day which is fine if you are eating stuff that comes in packets that tells you how many calories per 100g etc but where can I find an accurate source for the amount of calories in things like fruit and veg, or I often buy lentils and similar at a store where they are in large sacks and you buy how much or little as you want but as a result there is no nutritional value on your bag.

So if anyone knows of any reliable site, or cheap book with this kind of info that would be super, thanks

Dolbert

Fitday is great for this kind of thing

EileenG

You can also buy pocket sized books with lists of foods all calories counted.

Fitday is useful for an overview, but it has some very strange figures. Irish meat, for instance is usually a lot leaner and higher protein than the meat they list.

I've got a little handheld gadget called a Robi Nutrition Assistant which I absolutely love. It logs everything and keeps totals.

spaceylou

thanks for the tips folks - just have another question....so I know how many calories I should be eatting but what proportion should come from carbs, protein and fats? I've looked at the stickies but I couldn't find anything that gave proportions for the day.

For example today, I exceeded the calories by almost 100 but it wasn't a very typical dinner because we had visitors so think normally I'd be okay although do plan to log everything I eat for the next week or so to see if that is true. Anyway I worked out the proportion of carbs/fats/protein etc and 72% of what I ate was carbs, 13% protein and 15% fats (22.58% of which was saturated fats) - to me that seems that the fats and proteins are a bit wrong but no clue about the carbs....and does it matter where they come from? So for example porridge, a pita bread and 3 boiled potatoes are the only startchy kinda carbs I had, the rest were from fruit or veg...anyway knowledgable thoughts would be appriciated

totoal

From the stickie in Fitness (Fitness; the Basics (inc. Diet & Nutrition))

Dragan wrote: »

40,40,20 - for the majority of people, this is the ideal diet. Your calorific intake each day should be made up of 40% Proteins, 40% Carbs and 20% Healthy Fats. This is a perfect formula for the physically active, as it gives you exactly what you need to support weight training and muscle gains.

spaceylou

Thanks, I had seen that but seen as I am not weight training I wasn't sure if it was still relevant! I am rather aiming to maintain current weight or at best loose a kilo or three.

Sapsorrow

Are you sure this is the way you need to go about maintaining your weight? calorie counting can become very tedious, demotivational and unsustainable as a lifestyle measure. If you're eating well enough and just keeping track of your weight you should be okay to just focus on eating as well as you can and educating yourself as much as you can regarding nutrition. In this way your weight should normalise naturally and you can meet your requirements by thinking about what foods you should be eating and what improvements you can work into your diet rather than trying to calculate specific quantities of various nutritients. Obviousoly this approach only works when you eat out of hunger when you need to rather than out of any emotional need, boredom or force of habit. It also requires the effort to learn enough to be able to judge the adequacy of your diet just by looking at the foods themeselves and the cooking mehods etc.. but can be a far more valauble skill in the long run.

Sapsorrow

spaceylou wrote: »

and does it matter where they come from? So for example porridge, a pita bread and 3 boiled potatoes are the only startchy kinda carbs I had, the rest were from fruit or veg...anyway knowledgable thoughts would be appriciated

It does matter, wholegrain is always best for example but I wouldn't bother thinking so deeply on these details. Basically variety is the best thing you can incorporate into your diet (as long as the foods are healthy). This way the more variety you incorporate the more likely your needs are to being met.
Try and make wholegrains the basis of your diet followed by loads of fruit and veg and water. Then try get low saturated fat protein sources in too, often our fat needs are met simultaneously when are protein needs are met. General guidelines like these are designed to help people understand their dietary needs and adjust their diets appropraitely so calculation of individual nutritional intakes isn't necessary.
Another good tip is to try and tune into yourself and just question how you feel generally/daily and try to lok for links between how you feel and what you've been doing, eating, how you'v been sleeping etc.. This allows for a much more intuitive and flexible method of judging what you need and what you need to improve in your diet. In nutrition one hat never fits everyone, there will always be subtle differences in what you need compared to another and the only way you'll ever find out those differences is by continual self observation
A food diary where you jot down your mood changes and physical feelings aswell as your food intake is a good way of getting into this way of thinking.
you could add in your weight changes and/or body measurements also to keep track of them also.