Calorie Counting in Wisconsin

Today is day #100 of my “Average Advantage” diet. Reaching this day is monumental. I have been tempted too often to indulge my hunger in gluttonous ways. A few times a week I still awake midway through the night with hunger pangs. I’m guessing all of us who diet experience that. I still resort to eating my 4-minute crackers, and somehow Betsie always knows I’m doing so and she joins me for her share. I suppose that means I'm actually eating 7 calories fewer than I'm counting.

My most recent weigh-in of May 6 showed a weight loss of 22 pounds, but that was 11 days ago. Going by my average weight loss of one pound every four days, it is likely that I now have lost close to 25 pounds. My average calorie count as of yesterday is 1555 per day. It jumped up after a Mother's Day buffet, but it is slowly going down again. 

Yesterday I went to a meeting of one of my art groups, and people who had not seen me for a while noted that I lost weight. My shirts and pants are looking a bit baggy. That makes me feel good. I gave my art buddies my blog address. I’m also taking my older, smaller clothing out of storage because I’ll be able to wear it again soon! (I’m not a fashion maven.) To show you the power of positive thinking, I’ve been holding on to smaller clothing that I have not worn for decades, thinking that some day I would lose the weight I packed on. Now I can look retro right out of my storage boxes.

One might feel that it’s useless to count calories since various sources report different calorie counts on the same foods. However, you need to make a decision on which you will follow and then stick to it rather than change the count according to your feelings. An example is skim milk. That’s the only kind I’ve drunk for several decades and at this point, even 1% milk is too rich for my taste.

• On most of my boxes of dry cereal, ½ cup of skim milk is valued at 40 calories, making it 80 calories a cup.   
• The skim milk I buy from a Wisconsin-based gas station, Kwik Trip, is valued at 90 calories a cup.
• Another milk distributor values it at 100 calories a cup.
• The Nutrition Facts reference book values skim milk at 86 calories a cup.
• Caloriecounter.com values skim milk at 83 calories a cup, and so does newcaloriecounter.com.
• Various other web sources value skim milk at 85.75 calories, 90 calories, 91 calories, etc., per cup.

So, should you count the calories according to whichever you feel like counting for the day? That would increase insecurities about the inaccuracy of your daily totals. I simply always count skim milk as having 100 calories a cup, no matter which brand I drink. Although that is a relatively small overestimation, I would much rather overestimate than underestimate my calories. I think that makes it seem like I’m losing too much weight—I’m probably eating fewer calories than I am accounting for.

Another thing you’ll notice is when a calorie counter gives you three different counts for the same food, as when you see that pears are graded as small, medium, or large, with mildly differing counts. You may feel confused by the size of the pear, so it may be good to just go for the medium count in any case. It will even out in the end. That’s the “Average Advantage” again. However, if you feel that overestimating is the way to go, always use the largest calorie count. There is a definite advantage to that as well. 

According to the calendar, spring has been here for nearly two months. Even my bulbs are saying it's here; nevertheless, the last two nights have seen frost, and I've had to take many potted plants back into the house for frost-free nights.