Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

[MCunningham]

Hello, all.

I just bought this book after a few weeks of back-and-forth... really it was the glowing reviews here on the Cathe forums that pushed me over the edge (well, that and my month-long derailment from decent nutrition into bad-food hell!)

Anyway, while scanning through some of the chapters, I see that the book recommends using a calorie book for determining calories, and I was wondering (for those of you who do this program or something similar), what do you use, or what do you recommend?

Up to this point, I've just been following Weight Watchers, which works on points and not calories, so none of my literature is good for that.

Also, I'm kind of conflicted as to whether I should continue to follow Weight Watchers... in light of the fact that I have very little time in a day (I have an extremely long commute-- 140 miles roundtrip-- and work 9-10 hours per day), WW is just much more convenient than counting calories and worrying about "percentages" sounds. Any ideas on this?

Help!

MC-

 

[LeanneM]

Hi MC,

I think that the best answer is to use whatever works well for you! If you figure out what kinds of macronutrient ratios work best for you, you could probably plan out some meals and ideas that would translate easily to the WW system.

I still use the general guidelines of BFFM on a daily basis, but when I was following BFFM more closely, I would track my calories and macronutrients on a free on-line website. (I used the one from Self magazine, but I know that many people like Sparkpeople.com, which is also free.) A lot of these programs are very quick and simple to use, and you can even enter your customized food lists. They're actually very quick to use, and on days when I knew work would be really busy and I wouldn't be able to log my food from work, I would just plan out and log the next day's meals the night before.

If you decide to stick with WW, then can you just apply the principles of BFFM when planning your points? I'm not familiar with how the points system works in detail, but could you maybe use BFFM's meal planning ideas to organize your meals and still track points?

The most eye-opening part of BFFM for me was just that I needed to add more protein into my diet and eat some protein with every meal and mini-meal. Doing that made a huge difference for me!

Glad you decided to get the book! Isn't it great?!

 

[Nadja Z]

I have the "Calorie King Calorie, Fat, & Carbohydrate Counter" 2004 ed. It's really tiny, about 6"x4", but packed with everything. If you look up steak for instance, you'll get an entire page with every combination of cut, cooking method, amount of fat trim and marbling, etc. On the same page, it'll give you info for "extras". For example on the roast beef page, you get a little box with "roast dinner extras", like gravy, different veggies, and potatoes. It also has info for almost every restaurant chain in the u.s. (half of them I've never even heard of).

I've never tried WW, so to me that sounds more confusing than just adding calories, but apparently it's the other way around for a lot of folks.

 

[divagirl]

I use the calorie king too and a food journal I got at Barnes & Noble. BFFM is great to get an understanding on how many fats, carbs and proteins you are eating in a day. Once you get a grasp on your meals and how to work in your macronutrients then its very easy to transfer them to WW points. I just figure 2 points for every 100 calories but WW doesn't doesn't tell you whether you are eating enough protein and carbs or fats.

 

[laura35]

what exactly are macronutrients?and how do you know how many you need?