INCORRECT CALORIES

Since my last journal entry, I’ve lost 3.8 pounds (1.72 kg). It’s not as much as past weeks, but it’s still great and I’m progressing along well. To date, I’ve lost a total of 41.9 pounds (19.01 kg) and I have 18.1 pounds (8.21 kg) until I reach my goal. I’m almost there!

Incorrect Calories

It turns out that I’ve been counting some calories incorrectly. I’ve seen websites that claim 100 grams of chicken breast is 165 calories. I assumed that was the raw weight, but it turns out that’s the cooked weight. Clicking on the little U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) link at the bottom of the image I posted takes you to the description, where it shows that it’s the cooked weight.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this mistake, actually. In fairness, myfitnesspal’s website says 100 grams of raw chicken breast is 165 calories. Also, everyone always says to assume it’s the raw weight unless otherwise noted. Nothing was specified, raw or otherwise, so I blindly assumed this was raw weight. I like to pride myself of my research abilities, but this was a major oversight in the beginning that I continued to use until today. Literally today, the day I’m posting this journal entry.

You may be thinking, “Why does it even matter? Cooked vs raw weight isn’t going to change anything.”

It actually makes quite a lot of difference. Cooked chicken is much lighter than raw, so eating the same weight in cooked chicken actually increases the calories. According to the USDA, 100 grams of raw chicken is 114 calories.

In my case, I’ve been eating less calories than I had calculated, which is better than the alternative. However, I take great effort to count every calorie I eat to be as accurate as possible and I’ve been off by around 80 calories (based on the quantity I consume) every time I eat chicken. That’s not a ton, and realistically I’ll still be within my target range even without those 80 calories, but I want to be accurate, dammit!

This is the problem with attempting to use the internet to find calories for meat and produce. I’ve been going through multiple websites and literally every single one provides a different number.

Calories in Meats

I apologize to any vegetarian or vegan readers; you may want to skip this section.

Since we’re on the topic of meat calories, I thought I’d search for the calorie content of different types of meats that I’ve eaten or enjoyed in the past to see how they all compare. I rarely eat meats other than chicken, but I really do miss a good steak or smoked salmon (consequently, this is literally the only type of smoked meat I like other than bacon).

It’s an arbitrary number, but I decided to base the calories on 4 ounces of uncooked meat. Some of the numbers may be different based on the brand or fat content, but these are fairly accurate representations. Hopefully they’re correct. I’m telling you, every single damn website claims a different number.

Meat	Calories in 4 ounces uncooked
Chicken Breast, boneless	130
New York Strip Steak	253
Ribeye Steak	331
Filet Mignon	303
Ground Beef 80/20	288
Ground Beef 85/15	242
Ground Beef 90/10	198
Bround Bison	190
Ground Turkey	170
Pork Tenderloin	162
Bacon	473
Italian Sausage	351
Tilapia	147
Smoked Salmon	204

Drinks

You’ll see at the bottom of this page that my daily calories were higher than usual on two days. I can’t really explain September 18th. It was a bad day. I ate a lot of food I shouldn’t have eaten.

The following day, I drank wine. It was the third time since June that I’ve consumed any alcohol. As much as I’d like it more often, I can’t justify the number of calories.

I wrote about this when I began my health journal, but I’d like to note again that I’ve never had an alcohol problem. The only reason I mostly quit drinking was due to the high number of empty calories in alcohol.

Speaking of drinks that I’ve mostly quit, I had coffee for the first time in weeks on the 24th. I also drank it after midday, which I never do anymore. My reasons are twofold:

1. Caffeine affects me more than it ever has, and I already have enough trouble falling asleep as it is. Caffeine has a half-life of 6 hours in the human body, so any significant amount consumed later in the day can disrupt sleep.
2. There are a lot of calories in creamer. I put 3 tablespoons in 12 ounces of coffee, which ends up working out to 110 calories for one cup of coffee.

*gasp* “That’s blasphemous! How dare you desecrate the sacred black liquid that is coffee!”

I know, I know. But I don’t like black coffee and I do like it with creamer. Don’t yuck my yum! How I drink my coffee doesn’t affect you. Also, before counting calories, I put a crap ton of creamer in my coffee. There was pretty much no coffee flavor left. Now I measure and have found the perfect balance between sweetness and coffee flavor. I still very rarely drink it, but I enjoy it immensely.

I still avoid soda altogether. I haven’t had any since June and I don’t really miss it at all. You know what I do miss? A Frappuccino at Starbucks or Ice Blended Mocha at Coffee Bean. That’s more because they’re practically shakes and I have the sweet tooth of a 5 year-old, but I can’t remember the last time I had one and it sounds so good!

Recipes

We’ve arrived at the recipe section! Before I begin, I wanted to make a note about certain words that people in other countries may be confused by.

When I say broil anywhere in this journal, that means the same thing as grill in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia (and I’m sure many other English-speaking countries). When I say grill, I mean to cook on a barbeque, as in over an open flame.

We just have to have our own words here in the states, am I right? We’re crazy.

Tandoori-Style Chicken

Tandoori chicken is generally made with chicken thighs or legs, but I clearly like to go against tradition in my cooking. It’s not really that I don’t want it to be more authentic, rather I only ever buy boneless chicken breasts.

So I have to make do with what I have. Besides, chicken breasts are healthier and I’ve always preferred them to dark chicken meat.

You’re welcome to make this meal with bone-in chicken (legs, thighs, breasts, etc), but you’ll need to adjust the cooking time. When I do eat chicken on the bone, I like it grilled more than any other method. I don’t have a grill, so there’s no other option for me. I’m sure this meal would be kicked up a notch if you do grill the chicken, although I’d be careful about not leaving too much marinade on because it’s kind of liquidy and might cause some flare-ups on the grill.

I should also mention that this is a pretty simple recipe in the world of tandoori chicken. That’s one of the things that attracted me to the recipe to begin with, in addition to the positive ratings. My local store isn’t the most culturally diverse in the world, so certain ingredients that I’d love to use are impossible to find, such as garam masala. Heck, even ground coriander/cilantro doesn’t exist here.

Also, this chicken has no spice. I love spicy food. In fact, I’m a little obsessed with making everything exceptionally spicy lately. However, the first time I made this meal was for a child, so I never even considered adding any kind of additional spice. The cumin and ginger worried me enough as it was. She ended up loving it, by the way.

You may want to kick up the seasonings and add additional spice (such as cayenne pepper) if you’re not serving it to children, but I do still enjoy it as is.

Lastly, tandoori chicken is traditionally made in a tandoori oven, hence the name. If I don’t have a grill, I certainly don’t have a tandoori oven! There’s really no substitute for true tandoori chicken, but this is enjoyable and I can make it whenever I want!

The original recipe can be found here: Fast Tandoori Chicken. I changed it slightly, namely cutting down on the amount of yogurt used and increasing the cooking time. I also cut it down to use with only one boneless, skinless chicken breast, since I generally eat half for a meal and save the other half for leftovers to eat another night. You can adjust the seasonings based on how much chicken you use.

Sautéed Spinach

I feel that this is a great accompaniment to so many meals, and I always make it with tandoori chicken. Something like saag paneer would be much more authentic, but it’s also a lot higher in calories.

This certainly isn’t the lowest calorie vegetable option you could be eating with the butter and olive oil, but it’s delicious and it’s okay to have once in a while if you plan out your daily calories.

The original recipe can be found here: Garlic Sautéed Spinach. I adjusted all of the quantities to be more realistic. 1.5 pounds of spinach is a lot! I have no reason to make or buy that much, so I usually buy a 10 ounce bag of fresh spinach at the store.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my journal. I really appreciate your support. I hope you like the recipes; I apologize for my blunder with the chicken calories. I feel like an idiot. Anyway, keep being your same awesome selves and I’ll see you in two weeks!

Daily Breakdown of Weight and Caloric Intake

Date	Pounds	Kilograms	Caloric Intake
18 September 2016	191.9 lb	87.04 kg	1499 calories
19 September 2016	192.2 lb	87.18 kg	1469 calories
20 September 2016	191.9 lb	87.04 kg	1199 calories
21 September 2016	191.8 lb	87.00 kg	1230 calories
22 September 2016	191.0 lb	86.64 kg	1207 calories
23 September 2016	190.7 lb	86.50 kg	1215 calories
24 September 2016	190.5 lb	86.41 kg	1247 calories
25 September 2016	190.7 lb	86.50 kg	1309 calories
26 September 2016	190.0 lb	86.18 kg	1388 calories
27 September 2016	190.0 lb	86.18 kg	1218 calories
28 September 2016	190.5 lb	86.41 kg	1325 calories
29 September 2016	190.6 lb	86.45 kg	1084 calories
30 September 2016	188.7 lb	85.59 kg	1205 calories
1 October 2016	189.3 lb	85.87 kg	1313 calories
2 October 2016	188.1 lb	85.32 kg	---