Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Some Comparisons...

Just for fun (and YES, this was actually fun for me, I'm a nerd), I decided to compare three tracking methods of what I ate yesterday. 

And just in case any of you are as nerdy as I am when it comes to this stuff (and chances are if you follow/read my blog, you are), I thought that I would share my findings on here.  :-)

Here's my hunger journal with Intuitive Eating for a day-
time- (hunger level before eating) food (hunger level after eating)

8:00am- (3) 1 Lara bar, 1 banana (5)

10:00am- (3) 1 Lara bar, 1 packet of craisins (5) -YES, I ate 2 Lara Bars in one morning!  I was in a hurry and didn't have time to make the oatmeal that I usually eat for breakfast. 

12:30pm- (3) refried beans mixed with salsa, with Wasa flatbread crackers (5)

3:30pm- (2) apple (5)

5:30pm- (3) beans, rice, steamed veggies, EVOO (6)

8:00pm- (3) peanut butter with karo (5)

10:00pm- (4) boca burger (6)

Okay, so there you have it- one random day of Intuitive Eating for me.  Lots of healthy stuff, some sweetness (If you haven't tried PB & karo, do it!  It's creamy deliciousness!), and tons of satisfaction.

I went to plug in all this good food on both Sparkpeople and Weight Watchers.

According to Sparkpeople, here are the stats for the day:

Daily Goals- 1720-2070 calories, no carb goal (I took that away), 44-77 grams of fat, and 60-172 grams of protein.

Daily Totals- 1804 calories, 291 carbs, 52 grams of fat, and 68 grams of protein.

Pretty good stats, if I do say so myself!


According to Weight Watchers, here are the stats for the day:

Daily Goals- 35 Daily PointsPlus, 49 Weekly PoinstPlus

Daily Totals- 39 PointsPlus used (all 35 daily plus 4 weeklies)

Again, NOT BAD.

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This isn't something that I'm planning to do often, as it pretty much would be detrimental to my progress with Intuitive Eating.

However, I'm glad that I did this.  It proves that IE can be a healthy and balanced way to eat that does not have to cause weight gain.

If I plugged in any days from last week, the numbers on both SP and WW would probably be laughable.  I was going through a food rebellion phase last week, eating lots of junk foods "because I could". 

Now, I'm approaching IE in a more balanced way.  There is no need to overeat on cookies and chips every day, because they will always be there as an option for me.

I simply choose to eat more filling foods the majority of the time.

5 comments:

Megan said...

First of all, I have to say thanks for the traffic that you sent to my blog!

Secondly, I love that you compared all 3 ways of tracking food, and I love that they all matched up. When I did SP last year, it was hard to balance WW and SP, so I did SP for a while and then switched back to WW. Now I'm back to calories, and wouldn't have it any other way.

Rachel Parker said...

It's really good to see that intuitive eating is working for you! I thought long and hard recently about doing it after reading the book, but I've been in food rebellion mode on and off for weeks and need a lot of structure right now. I'm still gauging my hunger before and after I ate, and I hope that eventually I go from WW to intuitive eating. I think you HAVE to at some point or you're going to be "on a program" your entire life, which is certainly not my idea of health.

Vanessa @ Gourmet Runner said...

Very cool! Interesting to see how a day measures up. Do you find that since you KNOW the calories counts of many foods, you're adding it up unintentionally throughout the day? I feel like that happens to me, even though I really try to avoid counting calories!

Rachael said...

That is great that you did this comparison. Been starting to do IE also, mostly inspired by your journey into this and how I do not want to be in a dieting mindset the rest of my life. As someone who struggled with disordered eating and sometimes does still, I find IE to be a good solution as long as I am mindful of my hunger levels and make mostly healthier choices.

MYVON said...

I just found your site and am on my way to lose my weight -- started WW 3 weeks ago and have lost 8 pounds so far, only about 40 to go...Was just using calorie counting and exercising... but had to pay before I really lost any weight :-). Also am trying to learn to like exercising -- not sure if it will ever happen but we will see ~~ have made good progress for this internet potatoe...