Counting calories
 

I was walking back to my apartment the other day and started wondering about the estimated "required" calories one should eat in order to maintain or lose weight. They say you should eat X amount of calories, but what I'm wondering is, do they take into account how much you don't digest? For instance (and this might gross some people out), a few weeks ago I bought shrimp from the supermarket. And I cooked it and ate it. Now apparently the shrimp was either bad, or I didn't cook it enough, and it came all back out (the other end). How does that factor into how many calories you have intaked that day? Also what about when you get the Taco Bell effect (use your imagination to figure what that is)?

Just wondering.

In most cases the average person should eat 2000 calories or less a day in order to lose weight so that the metabolism of the body burns off all your calories while all your exercise burns off the rest (standing, jumping, running, lifting, whatever you do burns calories that go to the weight loss attempt)

Honetsly, I cant say how much of the shrimp or whatever is digested really depends how long it was in your stomach before you puked it up (less solid = more calories since the acids would digest it faster)

There is no real way to determine exact calories on things like that however if you eat 1500 - 2000 calories a day and exercise you WILL lose weight as long as you eat right (veges etc)

just a little side note, its always much better to overcook any fish/sea products than undercook it. unless you're good at cleaning fish to make raw seafood, then you will make yourself sick. but im sure youve learned that now with shrimp

-alec

Yeah. If I only knew that beforehand. I eat a lot of fish, and I have never had any problems with that. But I decided to try some shrimp for once, since I seldom eat it. The problem was, I wasn't sure how to cook it. I decided to grill it on the foreman. The shrimp was completely defrosted and the shell was charred, but I guess that's not a good indication.

yah man, shrimp are tricky as hell to cook. some people deshell them beforehand so that it cooks better all around, but its so easy to burn them if you do that. but if you leave the shell on, its hard to cook the middle properly (if i do this, the middle is always a bright pink!). anyway, good luck on further ventures with them, and give me a PM if you find out a good way to cook them

-alec

I think I'll stay away from them for a while.

My mom used to make shrimp gumbo. I'm not exactly sure how she made it, but I think she boiled them for a while, and then when they were either partially cooked, or fully cooked, added it to the simmering "stew" and let it finish cooking. It sure tasted good, but I certainly don't have the patience to do so much work for one meal. I'm a foreman/microwave type of guy :)

First of all, counting calories is not a way to live your life! Eat whatever you want but not TOO much fat. Just exercise, its that easy.

Did read the posts or just the title? :p

Counting calories isn't hard, I've got a basic diet I can switch around and consistantly end up around the 2.3k calories I need for my fat loss program. You just need to figure out what you need and when, why, what things do and what to stay away from and from there it's a cake walk.

I only started eating this way like a week ago too, it's a great way to live your life if you can read nutrition facts at the grocery. Healthy and easy, can't imagine why anyone would object buttt.

That said, if it came out your ass I guess your body digested the nutrients/calories. If it came out the front door, I guess it didn't. That's just an assumption though. I sure as hell wouldn't worry about picking up the extra calories for that day when I've got food poisoning though.

Re: Counting calories
 

If this is a egular occurrence for you, I'd suggest that you might have other problems besides just trying to count calories.

As far as food that passes through you, ah, quickly, you should count all the calories. If it's food that's getting thrown up, well...I wouldn't worry too much about that particular day. Just like if you get the flu, you should eat when you're hungry and not worry so much about the calories until you get better.

record everything you eat. it's tedious in the beginning, but it becomes a habit. get a little journal and don't put anything into your mouth until you right it down...with the coresponding calories as well.