Leigh - Understanding nutritional labels

[bacardio]

Leigh - I had a bunch of questions I was going to ask at the Summit, but I will ask them if that's OK..

I am really confused by nutrition labels and food preparation, maybe you can shed some light on the topics

1) Looking at a bag of frozen turkey burgers, the give a serving size of 151g/patty (didn't weigh) with 200 calories/patty. After cooking (on a George Forman grill), the weight of 1 patty is between (85g and 100g). So if I have one patty (weight 85g) is it 200 calories or 200 x (151g/85g) or roughly 115 calories?????

2) package of frozen chicken breasts roughly 30 calories/oz, check most nutritional data sites (www.nutritiondata.com), you get the same numbers for the raw breast, but frying the breast increases the calories per oz to 52 calories per oz, and even roasted increases it to 46 calories per oz.

If you don't add anything to the food, (cook in butter and pan spray, etc), how do you add more energy(calories to the food by just cooking????

3) I am pretty good M-F of tracking my caloires (1400-1700), but some weekends, I am just to busy, I know blow my calories by 500-600 calories, come Monday, my weight may be up 2-3 lbs.. If I only blow my caloires by 1200 calories in 2 days, how could I put on weight that would constitue a 7000-10500 calorie overage???

I realize that some may be water weight, but why then does it take 2-3 days to burn off that water. This was a big issue last Halloween, when after 3 days, I was up 10 lbs, that I am still trying to shake off . I know I ate bad that weekend, but 35000 calories in excess?????

For the moment, thats all I can think of. I am sure I will come up with more later.

Thanks, and just wanted to add, I was dissappointed you didn't make the Summit, but I can completely understand. I have had a couple rotten flights myself.

[Aoife]

Their caloric count is for the patty raw, before cooking. So you'd have to know your raw weight, and raw weight of 151g=200kcal. Not after.

Yes, as you cook food you lose water (no calories) and the food becomes more dense, so the caloric content of the food increases per weight amount. As in, your food shrinks in size and weight, but it contains the same calories per whole unit, so the individual weight units "increase" in caloric content.

It's water and the weight of the extra food still in your system. Some of it may be water in glycogen, so it'll take a bit to deplete. It's rather individual, how long you'll retain water, prolly based a lot on A) what you ate and what your "normal" diet looks like (for instance, big or small difference in something like sodium or potassium) B) your individual reaction to such… et. Like I don't actually take long to drop down, I don't seem to so much retain water as need to get the excess weight of food out of me, but other people will balloon up and take nearly a week to come back down. *shrug*

[LisaS]

what she said.

[Leigh P.]

That's what she said.

I have a really in depth article coming out about scale flucs but in the mean time this is an old article/mini version of that.

http://avidityfitness.net/2008/05/26...-clean-eating/

[Eat Smart Age Smart]

BACardio,

Do you find that you are successful at counting calories?

I've maintained the same dress size for MANY-MANY-MANY years without ever counting calories.

I'm curious to know more to see how this works for you.

[bacardio]

Originally Posted by LisaS

what she said.

Originally Posted by Leigh P.

That's what she said.

I have a really in depth article coming out about scale flucs but in the mean time this is an old article/mini version of that.

http://avidityfitness.net/2008/05/26...-clean-eating/

Originally Posted by Aoife

Their caloric count is for the patty raw, before cooking. So you'd have to know your raw weight, and raw weight of 151g=200kcal. Not after.

Yes, as you cook food you lose water (no calories) and the food becomes more dense, so the caloric content of the food increases per weight amount. As in, your food shrinks in size and weight, but it contains the same calories per whole unit, so the individual weight units "increase" in caloric content.

It's water and the weight of the extra food still in your system. Some of it may be water in glycogen, so it'll take a bit to deplete. It's rather individual, how long you'll retain water, prolly based a lot on A) what you ate and what your "normal" diet looks like (for instance, big or small difference in something like sodium or potassium) B) your individual reaction to such… et. Like I don't actually take long to drop down, I don't seem to so much retain water as need to get the excess weight of food out of me, but other people will balloon up and take nearly a week to come back down. *shrug*

Thanks, in hindsight, that seems pretty obvious now

Gues I am one of the lucky ones that balloons and retains... lucky me

[scribess]

Originally Posted by bacardio

Gues I am one of the lucky ones that balloons and retains... lucky me

I sympathize. I can go up 3 lbs overnight and it seems it takes me at least a week to go down again. I think my sodium/potassium levels are a huge factor, but as yet I've not been motivated to make sure everything's correct.