my Calorie Counting essentials

RachBlue

Full Member
This is my CC-ing kit, in case anyone's new to the idea & interested - please add your own if you have other "tools of the trade"!

Salter digital scales that add in 1g increments - important to be that detailed for things like butter, oils etc where going 3g out could be 24cals;

scrap paper held with a bulldog clip to note cals on foods as I'm cooking, plus its own pen - I use the back of letters and printed waste, torn into A6 size, this pad gets the occasional food/damp stain because I use it while cooking;

binder for noting my daily cals, lives in my front room, I got an A5 binder with a solar-powered calculator included, and added an A5 graph paper book, with a column for "Name:" (ie what I eat/drink) and a column for "N°s:" - the calories. I keep a 15cm ruler & a seperate pen in the binder so I never can't find one and let something slip, and I have columns for 3 days a page so I can see how I'm doing in general;

a couple of cal-counting books + (sorry to keep mentioning it! :D) The Calorie, Carb & Fat Bible book, which is huge and comprehensive;

a list of weights measured dry & empty for all the plates, bowls, saucepans etc I use - useful for things like canned toms, I can just empty them straight into a pan, pick out the stalks & skin etc, then weigh the pan and subtract it from the total, it felt a bit obsessive doing it but it actually saves faff in the long run;

bookmarks for other info, eg USDA food database, it has a lot of American-centric foods and offers measurement by "cups" but also thankfully by 100g, and it's useful to know amino acid breakdowns as well if you're into that;

a Word doc on my PC's desktop with cals & other info for things where I had to write to the manufacturer, eg Sainsbury's bakery loose jam doughnuts, a once-in-a-blue-moon thing if I have an early start, and also a quick-view of things I can have for under 100cals, eg a Milky Way bar or how many crackers & cheese, etc;

list of my winning recipes, or plans for certain types of days that have stood the test, in a nice A4 display book (with the clear pockets) from Rymans... :eek:

I think that's all my "must haves", of these only the scales & daily note book are essential I guess, but I get inspired when stuff looks great and love fancy notebooks etc, other people might be less into that stuff! :8855:

Also, I plan to keep CC-ing throughout maintenance, ie potentially permanently, so these are things I want to really work long term... ;)
 
Nice kit. I agree with the scales. I use the tare button a lot so I don't need to worry about bowl weight etc.

A lot of your kit is negated for me because I use myfitnesspal which has an awful lot of info on there. Apart from that, I don't have much stuff to do with calorie counting. Over the past few months I've learnt lots of counts off the top of my heads.
 
My fitness pal, oh it is amazing! I dont know where I'd be without it. I used to have a spreadsheet with calories and was reluctant to move over but now I have I love it!

It's also good because even though I'm not, or wasn't, watching carbs, fat, protein etc it gives you the breakdown, so if you do want a better nutritional balance you have the possibility of being able to adjust it, rather than just calories. I only did this when my losses completely slowed down, well stopped.
 
Rachblue fantastic post x

My ESSENTIALS kit.

Salter digital kitchen scales.
- self explanatory.

Pen and scraps of paper in the kitchen.
- for jotting down qty of ingredients as I make a family meal, I am a 'lob it in' cook so pointless setting exact recipes up with calorie content etc.... The same dish could be made a thousand ways in my kitchen lol.

My mobile phone with my fitness pal app.
- I record EVERYTHING on this app... I also use my phone as a calculator for adding up cals in a meal or dividing it by how many portions i need. Plus using my phone to google anything like recipes, calorie contents IF not on myfitness pal and to access minimins for support and inspiration.

They are my three essentials x
 
MFP app; HRM; water :)
Simples :)
I do agree with the scales, obviously, but could MUCH easier go without scales than go without MFP :D
 
MFP - love it, couldn't cc without it
Kitchen scales - I don't religiously weigh everything, but couldn't do without them.
Minimins - the support is priceless, have some great friends.
 
This is my CC-ing kit, in case anyone's new to the idea & interested - please add your own if you have other "tools of the trade"!

Salter digital scales that add in 1g increments - important to be that detailed for things like butter, oils etc where going 3g out could be 24cals;

scrap paper held with a bulldog clip to note cals on foods as I'm cooking, plus its own pen - I use the back of letters and printed waste, torn into A6 size, this pad gets the occasional food/damp stain because I use it while cooking;

binder for noting my daily cals, lives in my front room, I got an A5 binder with a solar-powered calculator included, and added an A5 graph paper book, with a column for "Name:" (ie what I eat/drink) and a column for "N°s:" - the calories. I keep a 15cm ruler & a seperate pen in the binder so I never can't find one and let something slip, and I have columns for 3 days a page so I can see how I'm doing in general;

a couple of cal-counting books + (sorry to keep mentioning it! :D) The Calorie, Carb & Fat Bible book, which is huge and comprehensive;

a list of weights measured dry & empty for all the plates, bowls, saucepans etc I use - useful for things like canned toms, I can just empty them straight into a pan, pick out the stalks & skin etc, then weigh the pan and subtract it from the total, it felt a bit obsessive doing it but it actually saves faff in the long run;

bookmarks for other info, eg USDA food database, it has a lot of American-centric foods and offers measurement by "cups" but also thankfully by 100g, and it's useful to know amino acid breakdowns as well if you're into that;

a Word doc on my PC's desktop with cals & other info for things where I had to write to the manufacturer, eg Sainsbury's bakery loose jam doughnuts, a once-in-a-blue-moon thing if I have an early start, and also a quick-view of things I can have for under 100cals, eg a Milky Way bar or how many crackers & cheese, etc;

list of my winning recipes, or plans for certain types of days that have stood the test, in a nice A4 display book (with the clear pockets) from Rymans... :eek:

I think that's all my "must haves", of these only the scales & daily note book are essential I guess, but I get inspired when stuff looks great and love fancy notebooks etc, other people might be less into that stuff! :8855:

Also, I plan to keep CC-ing throughout maintenance, ie potentially permanently, so these are things I want to really work long term... ;)

Wow ! we could be long lost twins! ha ha!

i use lots of pretty notebooks and nice pens to write down my favourite healthy recipes....i have a thing for stationary!

i also calculate my calories in the kitchen...and i find it easier to use my little white board and marker pen on the back on my cupboard door!

that way i can erase all my calculations after every meal! saves paper i guess!

i also keep a file on my laptop with pre-calculated calories of snacks and small meals to save me recalculating every time or looking stuff up in my calorie data base!

i also keep a separate list of pre-calculated calories for things that have to be made up...for example x amount of gravy granules in x amount of water = x amount of calories!

my other essential items are...

my digital weighing scales to measure precisely per gram

my actifry cooker - i cook most all my veggies and oven chips in it without any kind of oil or spray

my hallogen oven...great for cooking chicken and other meats from frozen...which saves me from having to choose a less healthy option if i forget to take meat out to defrost in the morning!

my i-phone - great for looking up calories on mfp while out and about....great for using the calculator to add up what i am eating when on the go...i even have an app for the harvester restaurants so that if one of my friends suggests a ladies lunch i can work out what i can have within my calorie allowance before we even get to the restaurant!

i think thats it!!! these are the main pieces of my calorie counting kit anyway!
 
MFP
Kitchen Scales
Exercise Bike
BMI Scales
 
My lifesavers mfp, minimins, kitchen scales,weighing scales, calorie counter books, e.g rosemary conly or the food bible
 
I just came online to ask if you guys have any tips on how to calorie count and not lose track of what you have eaten. Have now signed up for MyFitnessPal! Thank you for sharing this info!

:thankyou:
 
What are BMI scles? Just calculate your bmi for you?


Yeah the scales I have give me my weight, height, BMI, water content, fat content, bone density:cool:
 
Yeah the scales I have give me my weight, height, BMI, water content, fat content, bone density:cool:

That sounds fascinating - can you tell me what make they are please, or anything about where you got them? :)
 
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