How accurate are Americans at estimating calories?

Sure, these probably aren't necessary for people whose parents taught them proper portion size and diet control. But some of us grew up with parents who <i>still</i> fight eating disorders. Two tools were instrumental in teaching myself how much to eat:<p>1. Calorie counting app. I use MyFitness daily and record everything in it. The app gives me one number -- how many calories are remaining for today -- on which I can focus and remember. Other apps are probably as good, I've never tried. This really helped me learn how to control my portions and stay honest with myself.<p>2. Calorie counts on menus. When looking at fast food, I'll remember how many calories are remaining for today, and I'll often change my choices. I've chosen the 300-calorie cheeseburger over the 600-calorie double cheeseburger many times, mostly because the difference was listed on the menu.<p>One of my goals was to change how I thought about food -- instead of being a magic elixir, it became a game: I have 2000 calories to spend today, but if I spend 600 calories on this burger, I won't be able to afford the 400 calories of beer I want to drink tonight. This is because I've already budgeted 1600 calories across my other meals. I've lost 80 lbs this way and maintained this lower weight for months.

Sigh. The OK Cupid "Let's look at the data" posts were so great that it's depressing to see other companies try to get attention by half-assing their way through a little research and coming up with a surprising conclusion.<p>Protip: When the conclusions of your amateur study contradict a peer-reviewed study done by professionals, your first thought should not be: gosh, those eggheads were wrong! Instead it's time to re-check your study design.

Recently the places I've lived have all had calorie counts on menus. It's very helpful. That way, when presented with a choice between a 400 calorie meal for $10 and a 1200 calorie meal for $10, I know which one will give me more calorie for my buck.<p>Yes, some of us use it to get more calories, not less. It's just far too helpful to know exactly how many calories you're getting. It's not just for people dieting or wanting to eat less.

Living in NYC I've definitely appreciated seeing the number of calories on the menu; I'd like to see it everywhere and not just chains.<p>I'm much more likely to order something with a lower amount of calories. If there are three choices: 400, 600, and 800 calories, I'll pick the middle and feel better about the choice. I now know that a large combo meal at McDonalds is easily 3/4 of what my daily intake would be.<p>Secondly, it shows up the hidden calories. How many people realize that the 20oz of soda with their meal adds an addition 200-250 calories? Or that an venti eggnog latte at Starbucks is a scary 610 calories.<p>I think restaurants are a big culprit. You have no idea how good or bad the food you are ordering is.

Calorie counts on menus is a good start, but it's not enough. It doesn't mean anything to the average American consumer that there are 1800 calories in that Starbuck's Mochaccino he just bought. Contextualize it with an Ad Council campaign to tell people that sedentary middle-aged people (for example) need to consume roughly 10 calories daily per pound of weight they want to maintain. You weigh 180? And you just bought that 1800-calorie candy coffee? Congratulations! you've achieved your maintenance goal for today. Any further calories you consume will be added to your waistline at 3500 calories per pound.<p>Then remind everyone that a sedentary lifestyle is a choice, and not a very wise one at that. Get your cardio on, and you'll burn through those excess pounds. Maybe even enable yourself to have something besides a Mochaccino each day. Get some resistance training going, and you'll need to ramp your daily intake up just to maintain all that lean muscle mass.<p>Of course, your mileage may vary; insult a doctor before beginning any weight-loss regimen; and if it hurts when you do that, don't do that.

Calories help, but especially for high-fat, low-carb diets they are pretty useless (see <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4892592" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4892592</a> )

Interesting to see some evidence for my anecdotal experience that people severely overestimate McDonald's calorie counts (not to mention unhealthiness).<p>People look at me like I'm a crazy person when I tell them you could eat 4 cheeseburgers a day and still lose weight (provided you don't each much else, granted, but still).<p>I wonder if McDonald's ever ran any research on whether trying to reanchor their food as healthy would boost or hurt their sales.

Having a calorie count on the menu is helpful. The state of California started requiring this a few years ago and it has influenced what I order.<p>As an example, before the calorie count I would occasionally go for a tuna sandwich at Subway. I knew that the sandwich wasn't a healthy choice, but after seeing 1,000+ calories next to it on the menu I stopped ordering it. When you see items on the menu in the 1,000+ range and others half of that for the same portion it should influence your chooses.

"Estimates for fast food calories were significantly misguided – but in both directions! Apparently we have been misled by those oh-so-catchy jingles."<p>So, the short answer is: Yes.

See that gigantic logo at the top of the page that says "Survata"—<i>it should be a link to your main web site.</i><p>In fact, such a link does not exist anywhere on your blog. You need to add one, or a few if possible.<p>Jesus. You'd think this was rocket surgery or something.

This article is rife with boloney statistical analysis and hand-waving, comes to conflicting conclusions at different points in the article, and really doesn't <i>say</i> anything.

What is the purpose of calorie counting for humans exactly? Most people don't get fat/slim/strong/weak because they ate too much/too little [calories]. It's what you eat.

A good resource for understanding calories and their effect on weight:<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/help/faqs/Fitness" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/help/faqs/Fitness</a>

1) estimate calories 2) add them up to too much 3) eat anyway and enjoy 4) drive back and resume sedentary lifestyle

What is really underestimated and forgotten are the calories of the daily casually snacks and drinks.

This would be insanely helpful for those of us who are cutting/bulking and want to keep track of exact amounts. Even better would be listing macro-nutrients along with the calorie count.

What "we need" is oversight by another federal government agency that can issue us smart cards that are mandated by grocery stores and will help us in deciding what we can buy and how much.<p>I hear Michael Bloomberg has already invested in a startup.