Dear DOCTOR Owen:
I want to balance my calorie intake. Do you have any recommendations for calorie books? Most of the diet books I’ve looked at recently do not concentrate on calories. They seem to concentrate on grams of fat, sugar content, or types of food. I know that calories are important. Any advice?
Calorie Counter
Dear “Counter”:
Calories aren’t just important—they are everything! People who either do not know about calories or think that their readers are too stupid or too lazy to learn about them write books that ignore calories. So here is my advice:
- Throw away any calorie book(s) you already have.
Don’t waste your money on buying another book because books on calories often do not take into account the weights and volumes of foods. Therefore, their examples are frequently erroneous and confusing. For example, muffins are typically listed at 90–160 calories each. Well, . . . which is it? Bakery or store bought muffins are 100 calories/ounce. When did you last see a 1–2 ounce muffin? The average muffin is now 6–8 ounces, or 600–800 calories. That’s a 500-calorie error!
Different calorie books give different values for the same foods. For example, one book lists white cake without icing as 260 calories and another book, as 360 calories. Recipes also vary for the same foods.
Not all foods or mixtures of foods are listed in calorie books, so it is impossible to separate items for analysis. Most importantly, most calorie books do not teach a system for making estimates, nor do they problem-solve the calories in a particular food. Dieters know that “if it’s not listed, the calories don’t count!” For example, have you ever seen listings in a calorie book for pork fried rice, chocolate mousse, tuna noodle casserole, carrot cake, a bran muffin, and so on?
- Become expert at estimating the weights and volumes of the foods you eat.
The calories in food are determined by both the amount (ounces, cups, and tablespoons) and the number of calories/unit of measure (calories/ounce). Most mistakes are made in estimating the amount rather than the number of calories/unit of measure. For example, mistaking steak as 8 ounces instead of 12 ounces is a 4-ounce mistake. At 125 calories, that is a 500-calorie mistake!
Estimating weights and volumes is essential for problem-solving the total number of calories in any food. Do not rely on labels of packaged food for calorie values because that information is often inaccurate or misleading. And you are not likely to take a scale into a restaurant to weigh your food! For information on calorie counting, see “Meats,” “Baked Goods,” “Condiments,” “Fruits and Vegetables,” “Beverages,” and “Physical Activity” in the calorie tables in the Appendix in the back of this book.
At my clinic, we diet and health counselors find that it takes 8 hours of practice to master this system (called Making Calories Count™, which can be purchased online at drdiet.com). Using this system takes seconds—the same amount of time it takes you to decide to eat something!
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