Eating Disorder

Don’t lie, you’re dieting. And, like me, you are probably weighing, measuring and doing more math than God intended us to do.

Luckily, there are a ton of recipes on the internet, complete with full meal plans for a day, week or month. Luckily, there are also instant calorie counters that measure how many calories you need in a day to maintain your current weight and to tell you how little calories you should be eating to lose those stubborn ten pounds.

Unluckily, the numbers don’t match.

I tried seven different calorie counters.  All take in information like age, gender, activity level, height, current weight and goal weight. My results span 600 calories. At 5′ 2 1/2″, an extra 600 calories a day is the difference between whether I fit into my jeans or, gasp,  need to go up a size.

I’m finding that researching on the internet yields a similar experience. You get a tidal wave of information that leaves you in an informational swarm akin to tangled seaweed and deflated soda bottles. Everyone is an expert and not a whole lot of it is unsubstantiated. So how do you sift the real info from the IMHO?

For concrete facts, I rely on sites that put their money where their mouth is: they cite their sources. I go to the uncontested experts in the field. Nutrition.gov and the USDA sites cite their sources and spend much of their resources on nutrition information and data.

For more objective things, like Yelp and Lonely Planet reviews, I’ll look for people who are similar to me. It doesn’t really matter if a healthy food restaurant gets 500 rave reviews if someone says, “salad only contains two ingredients and there aren’t any vegetables on the menu,” I will probably opt to not eat there because I like veggies on my plate.

On the most part, if you use the internet for preliminary research then back it up at the library or bookstore with journals, magazines and books, you’ll save time and be assured your facts check out.