SS 201 – (Most) Humans Are Hilariously Terrible At Counting Macros

Episode 201 Show Notes

Grant and Heavey discuss how people often really suck at estimating their calories, both in calories they burn and calories in their food. Heavey starts off with giving Grant a quiz by letting him estimate calories burned from certain physical activities as well as the number of calories present in certain food. Although Grant’s doing a pretty great job at estimating those (he’s superhuman!), Heavey is trying to make a point that there are certain things you have to pay attention to when it comes to counting calories.

 

 

[01:30] Coffee + Naps

 

Grant says the problem with taking naps is that you end up feeling more tired after the nap than before you laid down. Heavey says though that it depends on the duration of the nap. Now, what if you combined coffee and naps? (Grant found an article about this.)

 

Caffeine takes roughly 20-30 minutes to affect your brain chemistry and gives you that “pick me up.” If you were to take a shot or two of espresso right before napping when you’re tired and take that 20 to 30-minute nap, as soon you’re waking up, that coffee kicks in and you don’t have that half-asleep feeling. You’re ready to go! Grant actually tried this and claims it actually works

 

 

[04:46] Is the Military Fattening Up Their Personnel?

 

The army doesn’t intentionally fatten their personnel up before deployment but the abundance of care packages from patriots across the country make it hard to not gain weight while you’re gone. They become surrounded by unhealthy food all the time. The takeaway here for patriots out there? Send the healthy stuff!

 

 

[06:00]  How Much Are Your Burning for Different Activities?

 

Heavey explains how people will often try to count macros and calories, but end up giving up and become frustrated because they’re not seeing any changes and think it’s not working for them. One of the primary reasons this happens is the fact that humans are terrible at estimating calories.

 

Grant estimates burning 300 calories for 30-minute running and burning 220 calories for 30 minutes of lifting; and 125 calories for a half hour of walking; 550 calories for swimming laps for half an hour.

 

The truth is you’d burn about 450 calories for 30 minutes of running, 250 calories for 30 minutes of lifting, 200 calories for 30 minutes walking, and 450 for half an hour of swimming laps. An average person (of about Grant’s size) will be burning 175 calories for half an hour of yoga.

 

 

[10:00] How Many Calories Are There in Food (and Scotch)?

 

For an average restaurant meal, Grant estimates there are 1200 calories (and it’s true!). For a medium apple, he estimates 80 calories (actual: 75 cal). Grant’s estimate for a typical beer is 210 calories (actual: 150 cal). Grant estimates there are 300 calories contained in 2 tablespoons of peanut butter but there’s actually 180 cal. He estimates there are 275 calories for 1 cup of cooked white rice and actual is 205 cal. For one cup of almonds, he estimates 750 calories (actual is 530 cal). Lastly, for 1.5 oz. pour of 80 proof scotch, Grant estimates there 110 cal, and he nailed it!

 

Heavey says that scotch is one of the lowest calorie per alcohol beverages you can have. Why some scotches have different calories than others is because of the alcohol content since most of the calories you’re getting in scotch come from the alcohol.

 

 

[15:13] Study on Estimating Calories

 

Heavey came across this fun study that highlights the human calorie estimation struggle. They took 16 men and women and put them through a short workout. At the end of the workout, they asked them to estimate how many calories they burned. The average estimate was a little over 800 calories. In this case, the actual calories burned was 200. HUGE difference.

 

They then went on to a Chinese buffet for lunch to try to eat the equivalent amount of what they thought they burned. They ended up eating about 600 calories worth of food at the buffet. Although they underestimated the number of calories they’re eating (as they’re trying to eat 800), it goes to show how poorly we are at estimating calories.

 

 

[17:25] Count the Sauces In Too!

 

Grant actually assumed they’d overeat Chinese food since there are sauces. A lot of people really miss the boat when it comes to estimating calories in sauces. In fact, Heavey is looking for calories in sauces when reviewing food blogs because even if they’re included in the tracking, they usually still fall short of measuring the right amount.

 

If you’re trying to track the calories you consume and feel like you should be losing fat and you’re not, Heavey came up with a list of things you need to pay attention to:

 

 

[18:42] Track Everything You Eat

 

Make sure you track everything you eat. Even if an item seems trivial, a lot of small-calorie items definitely add up. For instance, eating a handful of nuts a couple times of the day could end up being 500 calories you’re not accounting for. At least, do this over a short period of time to gain insight into what’s going on. Make sure you track every single thing you’re having because some of items might surprise you. Even if they are small items, but if you do them enough throughout the day, it still can add up.

 

[19:30] Make Sure Your Quantities Are Correct

 

Again, be sure to count the calories for the sauce, as well as rice or nuts. You may need to weigh and measure your food for a little while to better refine your ability to estimate quantities because these small errors can add up to very big amounts over time.

 

Additionally, tools like MyFitnessPal used to regulate, track, and log food are riddled with errors. Heavey explains that many of the food entries in those tools are submitted by users. For instance, he looks at a lot of food logs since he coaches people on nutrition remotely. Recently, he saw an entry that caught his eye, which was chicken breast that showed 112 grams of protein (while it should only have had 31 grams of protein. Although this was one of the more extreme examples. But even if they’re smaller errors, they can add up over time.

 

If you can, preferentially select ‘verified entries’ so that you know that someone’s actually taking a look at the food you’re picking. Otherwise, there’s almost always tons of entries for any given item so look at a couple the first time and make sure the one you pick is within the realm of where the others are falling as well.

 

Moreover, Grant mentions that MyFitnessPal has got verified stuff for restaurants as well. For instance, these restaurants will upload verified calories and they’d even have the whole menu. This is what Grant uses for restaurants like Chipotle or Panda Express, however, there’s a person standing behind the food bar that scoops it into your plate that can be the variable to its accuracy. Heavey finds that the bowl he ends up with at Chipotle, even though he orders the exact same thing, can vary in size dramatically from time to time. So use your head when you’re trying to figure out these errors or leaks in your calorie count.

 

 

[23:24] Be Honest with Yourself

 

Grant wants to point out that honesty is important when it comes to counting calories. Figure out your goals and know what it takes to actually follow through. If you still find yourself hungry or you feel like you need to eat more, work with someone who can help figure out what’s causing that and what’s going on.

 

 

[24:40] Be Careful, Things Could Add Up

 

A lot of times when you’re hungry or cooking and snack around, figure out what’s a good thing to have to snack on. Snacking while you’re preparing your food counts too. So pay attention to this. Heavey has also observed that some people end up eating as much food while they’re cooking than what they eat during mealtime. As far as snacks go, think about the negative calorie food idea. When in reality, there really aren’t any negative calorie foods but there are some that pretty much balance out to zero calories. (Check out Episode 182 to find out more about this)

 

Moreover, picking snacks that are dominant in protein and don’t have much of the other macros (carbs/fats) are the most satiating and you get the most bang for your buck. Protein shakes are a good idea for snacks.

 

 

[27:33] Does It Matter What Kind of Protein Shakes You’re Drinking?

 

Grant raise this valid question as to whether there should be a certain type of protein shake on which time of day. Heavey explains that historically, people would recommend casein for overnight or intermittent fasting, and whey for post-workout since it’s much more quickly absorbed compared to casein. Research shows that what we once thought, isn’t necessarily the case anymore. If you look at larger time scales and post-workout, you take whey, sure you absorb it more quickly and you get a spike in muscle protein synthesis. But instead of just looking directly after a workout, if you look at it over a 24-hour window and you have the casein shake instead of the whey, the response that your body gets is similar.

 

 

[29:25] Using a Meal Delivery Service

 

You can also try out this thing Heavey does with clients where he’d have them do a meal delivery service for a short period of time (1-2 weeks) and all of their meals would have to have very well-defined portions and macros and calories and no snacks. This would give them complete control over what they’re eating throughout the day. So this is one way you’d know everything is weighed and measured.

 

Links:

MyFitnessPal

Episode 182: Are There Really Negative Calorie Foods