{"id":161199,"date":"2017-09-14T14:20:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T14:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=161199"},"modified":"2017-09-26T12:19:27","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T12:19:27","slug":"calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/","title":{"rendered":"Calorie Counting Doesn&#8217;t Work &#8211; You&#8217;re Fooling Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Are you counting calories? How accurate do you think you are? It\u2019s hard enough estimating caloric values of foods in a lab, let alone in the real world. The average person goes to restaurants, cinema, barbecues, and doesn\u2019t always have detailed info about what they eat. Counting calories might be harder than it seems if you live an active lifestyle.<\/strong><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>From the previous article we know that counting calories is not a precise science and there are a lot of potential errors to be made. But that\u2019s not the only obstacle. People who want to count calories with any sort of accuracy need to contend with the imperfections of real life.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>You are bad at eyeballing food<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Do you cook at home to have a better idea of how many calories you\u2019re taking in? Unless you\u2019re measuring every single ingredient on a scale, you might be setting yourself up to fail. Studies show that people mis-measure food two thirds of the time and even trained nutritionists underestimate calories in meals by an average of 30 %. Did you add a tablespoon of olive oil more than you thought? That\u2019s 130 kcal unaccounted for. Especially while cooking larger meals, mistakes similar to these do happen and the extra calories pile up quickly.<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode-ys-post-pinup\"><article class=\"loop-simple post-161145 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-health-and-training tag-calorie-counting tag-calories\" data-postid=\"161145\" role=\"article\" data-post-id=\"161145\" data-word-count=\"397\" data-headline-length=\"55\" data-category=\"Health &amp; Training\" data-author=\"Jiri Kaloc\" data-published=\"2017-09-07T14:23:44+00:00\" data-published-day=\"Thursday\">\n    <div class=\"entry-thumbnail article-thumbnail\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0087180091-01-150x150.webp\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/07\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-calories\/\" class=\"image-holder\" target=\"_self\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0087180091-01.webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0087180091-01.webp 900w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0087180091-01-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0087180091-01-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0087180091-01-272x182.webp 272w\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 1200px) 300px, (min-width: 768px) 25vw, 100vw\" alt=\"calorie-counting-doesnt-work-calories\"\/><\/a><\/div>    <div class=\"entry-meta\">\n        <a class=\"label label-secondary post-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/category\/health-and-training\/\" title=\"Health &amp; Training\">Health &amp; Training<\/a>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"entry-details\">\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/07\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-calories\/\" class='entry-title-wrapper'>\n            <h3 class=\"entry-title\"><span>Calorie Counting Doesn&#8217;t Work &#8211; Calories-In<\/span><\/h3>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n    <\/article>\n<\/div>\n<h2><strong>Hidden calories while eating out<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Eyeballing the weight of meat, potatoes, and other clearly visible ingredients in restaurant meals is a hard task in itself and then there are the sauces, marinades, and fillings that you just can\u2019t estimate precisely. Sometimes you can see caloric values on the menu but studies have shown that most restaurants undervalue the caloric contents of their meals. And don\u2019t forget about that splash of cream in your coffee. One tablespoon of cream is 70 kcal. How much did they put in?<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BVX93v3jlOW\/<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Your memory is not perfect<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Do you remember what you had for breakfast? If you ever forget to note down a given meal right away, it can be very tricky to remember. We subconsciously underestimate the quantity or mistake meals from previous days. And that\u2019s if you do remember at all. Do you keep healthy snacks at your office desk? Has it ever happened to you that a whole bag of nuts just disappears without you even knowing when you ate them? A 100g bag of Brazil Nuts is 656 kcal. This type of mindless eating is unfortunately very common these days and doesn\u2019t go well with calorie counting.<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode-ys-post-pinup\"><article class=\"loop-simple post-160875 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-health-and-training tag-eat-to-ride tag-fresh-spring-rolls tag-kristin-armstrong tag-nutrition\" data-postid=\"160875\" role=\"article\" data-post-id=\"160875\" data-word-count=\"454\" data-headline-length=\"49\" data-category=\"Health &amp; Training\" data-author=\"Jiri Kaloc\" data-published=\"2017-08-22T07:58:10+00:00\" data-published-day=\"Tuesday\">\n    <div class=\"entry-thumbnail article-thumbnail\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/08\/fresh-150x150.webp\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/08\/22\/famous-cyclists-recipes-fresh-spring-rolls\/\" class=\"image-holder\" target=\"_self\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/08\/fresh.webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/08\/fresh.webp 900w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/08\/fresh-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/08\/fresh-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/08\/fresh-272x182.webp 272w\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 1200px) 300px, (min-width: 768px) 25vw, 100vw\" alt=\"famous-cyclists-recipes-fresh-spring-rolls\"\/><\/a><\/div>    <div class=\"entry-meta\">\n        <a class=\"label label-secondary post-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/category\/health-and-training\/\" title=\"Health &amp; Training\">Health &amp; Training<\/a>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"entry-details\">\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/08\/22\/famous-cyclists-recipes-fresh-spring-rolls\/\" class='entry-title-wrapper'>\n            <h3 class=\"entry-title\"><span>Famous Cyclist\u2019s Recipes \u2013 Fresh Spring Rolls<\/span><\/h3>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n    <\/article>\n<\/div>\n<p>If you consider how hard it is to be precise and keep track of all the foods you eat, and add the inherent errors of calorie math described in the previous article, you can clearly see how far away from the reality can one get even with the best intentions. And this is just one side of the equation, next time we will look at how hard it is to estimate calories out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you counting calories? How accurate do you think you are? It\u2019s hard enough estimating caloric values of foods in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":161200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[332],"tags":[1306,1307],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-161199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-training","tag-calorie-counting","tag-calories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Calorie Counting Doesn&#039;t Work - You&#039;re Fooling Yourself - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Are you counting calories? How accurate do you think you are? It\u2019s hard enough estimating caloric values of foods in a lab, let alone in the real world.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Calorie Counting Doesn&#039;t Work - You&#039;re Fooling Yourself\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Are you counting calories? How accurate do you think you are? It\u2019s hard enough estimating caloric values of foods in a lab, let alone in the real world.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-14T14:20:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-26T12:19:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0195841283.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jiri Kaloc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/\",\"name\":\"Calorie Counting Doesn't Work - You're Fooling Yourself - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0195841283.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-14T14:20:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-26T12:19:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"Are you counting calories? How accurate do you think you are? It\u2019s hard enough estimating caloric values of foods in a lab, let alone in the real world.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0195841283.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0195841283.webp\",\"width\":900,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Calorie Counting Doesn&#8217;t Work &#8211; You&#8217;re Fooling Yourself\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Calorie Counting Doesn't Work - You're Fooling Yourself - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"Are you counting calories? How accurate do you think you are? It\u2019s hard enough estimating caloric values of foods in a lab, let alone in the real world.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Calorie Counting Doesn't Work - You're Fooling Yourself","og_description":"Are you counting calories? How accurate do you think you are? It\u2019s hard enough estimating caloric values of foods in a lab, let alone in the real world.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2017-09-14T14:20:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-26T12:19:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0195841283.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jiri Kaloc","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/","name":"Calorie Counting Doesn't Work - You're Fooling Yourself - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0195841283.webp","datePublished":"2017-09-14T14:20:44+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-26T12:19:27+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"Are you counting calories? How accurate do you think you are? It\u2019s hard enough estimating caloric values of foods in a lab, let alone in the real world.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0195841283.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2017\/09\/profimedia-0195841283.webp","width":900,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/09\/14\/calorie-counting-doesnt-work-youre-fooling\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Calorie Counting Doesn&#8217;t Work &#8211; You&#8217;re Fooling Yourself"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161199"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170930,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161199\/revisions\/170930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161199"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=161199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}