Why You Should Track Your Food Intake: Jacket Potato Edition🥔

⁣

Inspired by Secret Eaters (stay tuned for further commentary on my new favourite evening hobby).⁣

⁣

One woman self-reported that she has a healthy lunch every day - just a jacket potato, with some beans and cheese.⁣

⁣

A good choice right?⁣

Chuck on a side salad too = even better.⁣

⁣

So how had this contributed to her 8stone weight gain?⁣

⁣

Because her healthy jacket potato with beans and cheese actually included a metric f*ck ton of cheese, and half a tub of coleslaw.⁣

⁣

In her head:⁣

Medium potato = approx 140kcals⁣

1/2 tin of baked beans = 162kcals⁣

Grated Babybel light = 42kcals⁣

50g reduced fat coleslaw = 52kcals⁣

Side salad no dressing ⁣

𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 = 𝟯𝟵𝟴𝗸𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘀⁣

⁣

In reality:⁣

Large potato = approx 200kcals⁣

Tin of baked beans = 324kcals (19.4g p)⁣

60g cheddar cheese = 250kcals⁣

1/2 tub coleslaw = 310kcals⁣

𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 = 𝟭𝟬𝟴𝟰𝗸𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘀 ⁣

⁣

That’s a big difference - 686kcals difference. ⁣

⁣

Let’s say for arguments sake her maintenance calories (what she would eat to not gain or lose) were 1,800kcals a day.⁣

After her lunch she’s left with 800kcals to spread across breakfast, dinner, snacks, and drinks.⁣

It’s not much.⁣

And you can soon start to see how her weight gain had occurred. ⁣

⁣

𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗼𝘄 / 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗟𝗬 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝘁. ⁣

⁣

𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗸𝗲𝘆.