Counting Calories

I've never before been on a diet where I so assiduously count calories. This is unique to Nan's Miracle Diet, 2010 edition.  Most diets I know about focus on food lists.  "Eat this, not that."  For example, the Carbohydrate Addict's diet doesn't discuss calories at all. It focuses on eliminating most carbs except once a day. It does talk about grams of carbohydrates, but only in the most general way - any food that lists more than five grams of carbs in a serving is too carb loaded except for the one meal a day where they can be consumed.  Portion sizes for the one carb meal are based on a plate: equal portions (to the eye) of protein, vegetable, and carb. Including dessert. If you want more carbs, ok, but add in equal portions of the other two as well.

Atkins ignores calories. He flaunts his ignoring of calories, as he glories in having fats. But, he does specifically count carb grams. They are maximums, starting at practically none in the first phase (all meat and fat) and gradually adding them back in five gram increments.

Weight Watchers famously doesn't count calories, they do exchanges or points. You still need to log and count every bite, but in their own system.  When I last did WW, I did the logging on-line which helped a lot. It also helps to stick to their packaged foods which provide a label for counting. There are also third party calculators of WW points which try to guess their secret system.

The technique of logging all meals is commonly urged in many diets. I was never good about writing it down, but technology has helped me enormously.  Starting with my first palm pilot, I have had runs at logging using various food databases in different applications.  I've rarely stuck with it for longer than a couple of weeks.  Nan's Miracle Diet has me doing it every day, sometimes in advance, for at least the next several weeks.  I can't be trusted to estimate and do it mentally. Every morsel counts and is logged.

In order for any calorie planning / logging discipline to work, it has to be done as real time as possible (or in advance and then followed religiously).  Portions should be measured, not estimated.  Every study ever done says dieters underestimate their portion sizes substantially.  I've been doing this, since before Thanksgiving intermittently, and since Christmas faithfully. I have three different apps on the iPhone to facilitate this. I have a scale sitting on the kitchen counter, and I've bought new, nice, measuring cups and spoons.  I am a fanatic at reading labels of prepared foods.  I am often surprised at what I find.

Because I have a calorie budget each day, I've started to look for the lower calorie fill me ups. I've always known vegetables are the way to go, but I'm now a major convert. I've never been a big fruit fan, but Nan's Miracle Diet often gives me a nice piece of fresh fruit at the end of the day for less than 100 calories.  And every day I've saved around a 100 calories for a purely sweet treat, most often Dove's Darks.

Right now I'm in a sweet spot of not having a huge appetite. The last two days have been very low calorie counts, without my wanting more. This may be related to feeling under the weather, but it really works out. Ultimately, the real goal is not so much to reduce my calorie intake, but to create a calorie deficit - take in less than I use up. Since feeling poorly has also led to a drop off in exercise, the deficit has stayed relatively constant.

Goal for the next few days - get the calorie burning going again!