Food labels can be extremely helpful as a guide to help you be more conscious of what you are putting into your body. But a study I read recently hinted they are not that great for calorie counting.
The study (the very fancily titled, "The accuracy of stated energy contents of reduced-energy, commercially prepared foods") found that certain foods had 8% more calories than the label said. The worst offenders were restaurants that had 18% more calories than reported.
FitBits, like reading food labels, are awesome. They really do motivate people to move more. Many a night my wife has held up bed time because she is marching in place while brushing her teeth to get to the elusive 10,000th step.
But they are not as accurate when it comes to calorie burn. Studies show that FitBits overestimate calorie burn by 10-15%.
Both of these seem like marginal percentages, but if you are trying to track your calories it can make a big difference. If your caloric intake is 15% off and you think you are burning 15% (FYI-Treadmills and ellipticals are not accurate either on calorie burn) more than you think, that could be a reason you are not losing weight.
Let's say you are on a 2000 calorie plan. You have tracked every little thing accurately, but the 15% food label difference adds 300 calories to your day. You workout and instead of burning 600 calories, you and up burning 500 instead. You have an extra 400 calories per day right there.
An extra 400 calories a day will add 41.7 pounds of fat to your body per year. This is a bit of an extreme example, but my main point is that accurately tracking calories consumed and calories burned is tough with a dietitian's help.
So what is the solution? I will cover that in my next blog.
