I count calories. I read food labels, and I weigh and measure my food. My calorie counting method is to record all of food in a computer food journal, which provides me with nutritional values for that food, and does the daily calorie math for me. The food journal that I use, DietPower, has an enormous food dictionary, and it also allows me to input food information from the labels of the food I actually use.

However, all of this carefully calculated calorie number is only an estimate.

We cannot be exactly certain of the amount of calories contained in the food we eat. This is partially because of labeling inaccuracies, partially because of measuring inaccuracies, and partially because of other things affecting calories, such as the the fact that even two pieces of the same fruit which are exactly the same size, can have small calorie differences due to the fruit’s ripeness etc.

Calories In:
      The amount of calories going into a body are estimates, 
                                 
Calories Out: 
       How many calories a body burns once those foods are inside that body is also an estimate.

It is an undisputed fact that different bodies burn different amounts of calories. All of the charts and graphs and formulas for BMR and RMR, are merely based on AVERAGES. Different people, even those who are the same sex, the same age and the same size, with similar activity levels, will burn calories at a lower level or a higher level than the BMR and RMR average calculations which these formulas provide.

We cannot exactly KNOW how many calories we are taking in, or how many calories our bodies are using. However, even though this information is inaccurate, It provides us with useful Guidelines, which makes it well worth the effort. Calorie Counting has helped me achieve a large weight-loss, and it is helping me to maintain that weight-loss.

Many long-term, Low-Carb people seem to be coming around to an understanding that Calorie Intake matters. Although the Low-carb position continues to be “that it’s not a simple matter of calories in, calories out”, many long-term low-carb “experts” are now speaking out in support of the fact that calories do matter -- in that calories have a strong influence within a carbohydrate restricted context, and that low-carb eating is not a license for eating large and unlimited amounts of food.

This is based on the position that although “a calorie is a calorie” going into the body, calories are handled differently within a body, “downstream”, and while the basic process is the same for everyone, not all bodies handle the same number of calories in exactly the same way.

Regina Wilshire of Weight of the Evidence Blog, who defines herself as “Low-Carb Health Examiner”, states this position in the following way.

“while those who initially follow a low-carb diet do not need to count ca...

While researching some recent history on the timeline of food events,
I ran across the fact that the Food Pyramid wasn’t even created until 1992.

 This surprised me, because somehow in the vague recesses of my mind, it was something taught to me during the early 1950s in the lower grades of elementry school, and I thought I recalled it being the subject of discussion in an undergraduate sociology college class in the late 1970s. However, after a bit more research I learned the following information.

USDA Food Pyramid History

The USDA Food Pyramid has its origins in the practice of agricultural chemistry in the late 1800s. Wilbur Olin Atwater, Ph.D., an agricultural chemist who founded and directed the Office of Experiment Stations (OES) for the USDA, wrote the first dietary guideline,

Atwater was a researcher, and received government funds to build a large respiration calorimeter for studying human metabolism,

In 1902, Atwater published a USDA Farmer’s Bulletin which emphasized the importance of variety, proportionality, and moderation in healthful eating in the diets of American males. In his research, he determined that the calorie was a means to measure the efficiency of a diet. He calculated that different types of food produced different amounts of energy, and he stressed the importance of a cheap and efficient diet that included more proteins, beans, and vegetables, and to limit the intake of fat, sugar and other starchy carbohydrates.

1917, the first USDA food guide appeared. It was titled How to Select Foods and was written by Caroline Hunt, a nutritionist for the USDA. It ignored Dr. Atwater’s advice to limit fat and sugar intake, and instead emphasized newly discovered vitamins and minerals. Foods recommended came in 5 groups:

milk and meat
cereals
vegetables and fruit
fats and fatty foods
sugars and sugary foods

There were changes to this basic guide to help families during the wartime rationing, but it wasn’t until 1940, when the first "Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA)" was released from the National Academy of Sciences, that the USDA changed its recommendations again.

In 1943, it created the National Wartime Nutrition Guide, and then revised it in 1946 as the National Nutrition Guide. This guide offered 7 food groups which supported the RDA requirements:

Milk and milk products
Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, peas and nuts
Bread,...

FOOD HISTORY TIMELINE

Here’s more history of food events between 1950 and 1982.

1951 The first Jack-in-the-Box opens in San Diego

1951 Swanson introduces beef, chicken, turkey pot pies.

1952 The first sugar free no calorie soft drinks are introduced.

1952 Lipton's dry Onion Soup Mix is introduced.

1952 Sugar Frosted Flakes, 29 percent sugar, are introduced by Kelloggs.

1952 Clarence Birdseye introduces the first frozen peas.

1952 Mrs. Paul's introduces frozen fish sticks.

1952 Colonel Harland Sanders begins to franchise KFC restaurants. Pete Harman of Salt Lake City gets the first franchise, and agrees to pay 5 cents for each chicken sold.

1953 USDA Agricultural Research Service created.

1953 John H. Kraft received a patent for the manufacture of soft surface cured cheese.

1953 Dow Chemical creates Saran Wrap

1953 The French Sardine Co. (since 1917) becomes Star-Kist Foods. Charlie the Tuna comes on board in 1961.

1953 Kraft Cheez Whiz is introduced. Originally created as an easy way to make Welsh rarebit, this stable cheese sauce comes in a jar with Worcestershire sauce, mustard flour and orange coloring added. A survey of American housewives reveals more than 1,300 possible uses for the product.

1953 Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks are introduced - they contained 56% sugar.

1953 Simplot introduced frozen french-fried potatoes on a commercial basis.

1953 There were more than 15,000 pizzerias in the U.S.

1953 The first Danny's Donuts opened in Lakewood California. The name will change to Danny's Coffee Shops, and finally in 1959 to Denny's Restaurants.

1954 TV dinners are introduced. C.A. Swanson & Sons introduced the first TV dinner: roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes and peas. It sold for 98 cents and came in an aluminum tray, so you could just open the box and heat the dinner in the oven. (No microwave ovens back then). Supposedly executive Gerald Thomas came up with the idea when the company had tons of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. The idea for the aluminum trays came from the trays used for airline food.. They were an immediate success, and Turkey dinners are still the most popular Swanson frozen dinner. Swanson stopped calling them TV dinners in 1962.

1954 Carnation introduced instant nonfat dry milk.

1954 Kraft introduced Cracker Barrel brand natural cheese.

1954 Process for making instant potato flakes developed.

1954 The Butterball brand and the self-basting turkey are introduced. Through genetics, Swift develops a broad-breasted bird without the tough tendons and uses a hot-water bath to remove feathers.

1954 M&M's Peanut Chocolate Candies were introduced. Also, the the famous slogan, 'The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand,' slogan is introduced.

1954 Trix cereal is introduced by General Mills. It is more than 46% sugar.

1955 First franchised McDonald's was opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, by Ray Kroc, who bought the hamburger restaurant owned by the McDonald brothers. On opening day a 2 patty hamburger was 15 cents and French Fries were 10 cents.

1955 Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California.

1955 The U.S. minimum wage was raised from 75 cents to $1.00

1955 The first microwave oven for home use was introduced by the Tappan Stove Compan...

Check out McDonald's original prices.



Here are a few food-related-events occuring over a past 50 year period.

1950’s – USDA creates four basic food groups: milk, meat, fruits and vegetables, and breads and cereals.

1954 – Swanson unveils the first TV dinners.

1955 – Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald’s franchise.

1963 – Weight Watchers is incorporated and the first public meeting is held in a loft in Queens.

1967 – Amana introduces the first domestic Radarange microwave oven.

1977 – Portion sizes start to swell. Hamburgers expand by 23% in the next 20 years; a plate of Mexican food gets 27% bigger; soft drinks increase by 52%; snacks (potato chips, pretzels, crackers) grow 60%.

1989 – February is declared National Snack Food Month by the Snack Food Association. A month-long campaign results in a 41% increase in snack food consumption.

1990s – Foods labeled “Low-Fat” and “Lite” hit their stride.

1991 – The World Wide Web is born.

1992 – USDA Food Pyramid is created.

1998 – Olestra, a non-digestible, nutritionless fat substitute is approved by the FDA for use in no-fat snacks.

What IS a good Diet (or Lifestyle or Way-of-Eating)?
What’s the criteria we use when making this judgment call?

Is it the amount of weight we lose, when we’re following it?
Is it the amount or the kind of food we eat, when we’re following it?
Is it the physical feeling our body has, when we’re following it?
Is it the emotional satisfaction we feel, when we’re following it?
Is it the length of time we can follow it?

 Here’s one answer:

How do you know you're on a "good" diet?

Simple. You like it.

What do I mean?

Tolerating a diet's not good enough.
If you're only tolerating your new lifestyle you're certainly not likely to keep living it.

Food wise - you can't be regularly battling hunger, it can't be making you feel unwell
and your life has to be "normal" meaning you should be able to include food
for comfort, food for celebration, with no forbidden foods.

Fitness wise -
you can't be running out of time, running out of energy, hurting yourself, or hating it.

Ultimately you're aiming for a lifestyle where you can't happily eat any less
and you can't happily exercise any more.

Sure we can all improve our lifestyles but to use an extreme example,
... do you really think you can be a tee-totaling vegan, shut-in, marathon runner forever?

If you can't happily eat less, you're not going to eat less.
If you can't happily exercise more, you're not going to exercise more.

Your goal should be your personal best
recognizing that the best lifestyle you can enjoy
and the best lifestyle that you can tolerate
are two very different things.

            Yoni Freedhoff, MD, Canadian obesity doctor, weightymatters .com