Q+A
I have worked to compile a list of frequently asked questions and helpful information on the blog. I’ve listed the questions by number and you can use Control F to find the answer in the list below.
Thanks for reading,
Kath
Weight Loss Questions
- Are you trying to maintain your weight or lose?
- Why count calories?
- When did you stop counting and keeping a food diary?
- How did you determine your goal weight?
- Was there a specific “ah-ha” moment when you made the decision to start losing weight?
- How often do you take rest days?
- Why CalorieKing?
- How are your eating habits different now from when you were losing weight?
- Did you encounter any plateaus during your weight loss?
- What are NET calories?
- How tall are you!?
Blog Questions
- What is KERF?
- How do you stay organized with meal planning?
- Where did you get the little green spoon!?
- What is the “squirrelliptical”?
- Are you going vegetarian?
- What kind of camera do you have?
- Do you have any advice for recipe building?
- Do you add anything to your tea and coffee?
- Do you take a multivitamin?
- What kind of food scale do you have and what should I look for in one?
- What time do you go to bed to get up at 5 a.m.?
- I’m thinking about starting my own food blog, as I think it would be a good way for me to stay on track and continue my weight loss. How much work is it to do what you do on your blog?
Exercise Questions
- What kind of heart rate monitor do you recommend?
- Are the calorie burns on cardio machines accurate?
- The science behind calories burned.
- Tips for a “9-5″ lifestyle.
Food Products
- Can anyone recommend some good teas
- What do I do with the oil in natural peanut butter?
- Info On Flax
- Do you have a favorite salad dressing?
- The Science of Oats
- How do you keep an avocado from going brown?
- How do you cut a butternut squash?
- What’s the brand of balsamic vinegar you use?
Weight Loss Questions
1. Are you trying to maintain your weight or lose?
I consider myself maintenance now, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still going to lose. Here’s why: Our lives are filled with ups and downs – I might go two weeks of eating super-healthy at home and cooking my own meals, but then I might have five special events in a row (holidays, travel, parties, etc.) where I eat more than usual. If I were eating maintenance calories on a regular basis, and then I overeat on these special events, I’d end up slowly gaining.
My goal now is to lose some, gain some a.k.a. “the Squiggly Line effect.” I eat a little below maintenance on my normal days with the assumption that I’ll be over some days each month (sometimes by a lot!) and it will balance out as maintenance. It’s like a wave with a straight line through the middle.
I don’t weigh myself anymore (I think weighing is important for weight loss but is too frustrating for maintenance) so I’m not sure exactly how much I lose or gain, but I use how I feel and how my clothes fit as a gauge, and I seem to be maintaining well.
2. Why count calories?
I think counting calories is a good idea for those seeking to lose weight because it’s way too easy to eat too much in U.S. culture. There are many ways to keep an eye on portions – Weight Watchers, counting food groups, and counting calories, and more. In my opinion, calories are the easiest to monitor, as long as you are mindful about the balance of nutrients in your diet as well. Counting really helped me realize how easy it was to sneak in empty calories here and there and how quickly they add up.
Throughout my weight loss and the first year of maintenance, I kept a food diary at www.CalorieKing.com to keep an eye on what I ate. I heartily believe (and tons of research supports) that food diaries are extremely helpful to increase awareness and accountability of food intake. I kept mine not only to keep a check on eating too much but also to make sure I’m eating enough. Weight loss the right way – slow and steady – is a delicate balance.
3. When did you stop counting and keeping a food diary?
It took about a year of maintaining my weight loss to feel confident in my ability to make good judgments in portions and balance. You can see the announcement post here . While I do feel a certain loyalty to calorie counting because it got me where I am, I do find not counting to be quite fun. Really more refreshing than anything. Calorie counting was never bothersome for me – I was very happy doing it – but I do feel happier towards food now and feel I can maintain this lifestyle forever.
I do often count up a meal very generally. A quick tally in my head when I’m deciding what to have. It’s more of a mental check to see if everything on my plate seems to match what I am hungry for. It can be easy to just keep adding things! I think that will go away with time, and I think it’s a very natural habit for me at this point. And probably not a bad idea in general.
4. How did you determine your goal weight?
The more I read about health and nutrition, the more I realized that the numbers just don’t matter. As cliché as it sounds, it’s how you feel on the inside that matters most. After reading SuperFoods HealthStyle , I decided I was just going to let nature run its course. As long as I was putting in the effort to eat the right foods and keep on exercising, I didn’t care what number the scale came back with. I think it’s one of those things that when you’ve lost a significant amount of weight you just KNOW when you’re completely satisfied with where you are. That’s probably a difficult mentality for some, but I hit that point sometime in 2007 – 2 years after I started losing and perhaps not coincidentally when I stopped weighing myself.
5. Was there a specific “ah-ha” moment when you made the decision to start losing weight?
I guess I had more of an “ah ha” action than a moment: college graduation. I was finally able to cook in a nice kitchen (not my small on-campus college apartment one), and I was able to join a gym with spinning classes and lots of variety of machines (many of which my small college gym didn’t have). So those two things made it easier, but I think the biggest factor was just being away from the college lifestyle. It’s SO hard to be healthy in college because the majority of people (at least in my experience) ate at all hours of the day and drank all the time. Of course I did my share of both, but even just being around it made me do it more than I would have liked. I rarely eat junk now and drink maybe once a week, so those two things were a huge lifestyle change, and the lifestyle changes led to my weight loss.
6. How often do you take rest days?
While I do get in a lot of physical activity (because I am one of the few that really does enjoy exercise), it’s probably not as vigorous/straining as it appears. I’ll follow a hard day with two light days, and I never work the same set of muscles back to back days with strength training. If I am sore, I might take a walk to massage out my legs or do yoga, and I do take days completely off. The way I see it, our ancestors (and some cultures still today) didn’t get breaks from the activity of their lives of hunting and gathering and survival, but if they were really hurt from overuse, I’m sure their family picked up the slack of the chores. So I do take breaks, but only when I really feel like my body needs a day off. I’d rather listen to my body and just adjust my workout schedule to how I’m feeling than plan rest days in when I might not need one.
7. Why did you choose CalorieKing?
The calorie database is available to everyone. What the membership gets you is:
1) A terrific food diary where you can log your food and exercise to any calorie goal you set, enter in recipes to get nutritional information, save meals to easily add to your dairy each day (I used to have my oatmeal breakfast saved so I just push a button and it’s entered in). In my opinion it’s the best food diary out there. It’s fast and user-friendly. I no longer log my meals there, but it was extremely helpful during my weight loss.
2) There’s also a great community. I made many friends (and met a few in person when vacationing in their hometown!) through the blogs and forums. There is a whole world of blogs on CK (how I got started blogging) too. They are private to the community.
3) There’s also a ton of message boards and lots of people who are trying to get healthier.
I don’t know if I would have been as successful at weight loss without CK.
8. How are your eating habits different now from when you were losing weight?
The main difference between when I first started out and now is my focus is more on eating whole foods. Then I ate a lot more processed things (although never a ton). I’ve learned to cook with a lot more ingredients, whereas before we cooked the same things over and over (pretty simple things or a favorite soup at least once a week). Now we try to experiment and have more variety. I like a LOT more different kinds of vegetables now! I also think in the beginning (as in 2.5 years ago) I was more focused on counting calories and not so much where the calories were coming from. So I’d have a cookie or a sugary granola bar as long as it fit in. I’ve learned now that those things are a waste of good calories that could go towards foods that are not only more filling, but more satisfying too.
9. Did you encounter any plateaus during your weight loss?
I hit two plateaus during my weight loss in 2006-2007 and made three changes to get things going again.
1) I started walking at lunch
2) I added 2 new kinds of exercise
3) I cleaned up my diet.
In addition to walking at lunch, I started taking a new boot camp class and began swimming with the warmer weather instead of just doing the Stairmaster and ET every day. I also was eating a “dessert” every night (even if it was a healthy one like cereal) and was eating more packaged foods than I probably needed, so I started eating more produce and a little more dinner instead of dessert. It worked – I broke through and the last 10 pounds came off (slowly!)
10. What are NET calories?
In a nutshell:
NET calories = Calories to maintain – 300-500, depending on how much you have to lose. NET should never be lower than 1200. You can estimate your calories to maintain with calculators at www.caloriesperhour.com. Unless you have a very active on-your-feet lifestyle, use the sedentary recommendation (RMR x 1.2) for NET. Or if you do an activity everyday (like a walk to the train station and back) you can factor that in. Calories to maintain should take into account daily activity like a job that demands you to be on your feet, but not formal exercise .
Gross Calories per day = NET + Exercise calories burned
Because exercise calories burned changes so much each day, some days you might need a lot more (running 10 miles) and some days a lot less (walking for 30 minutes) so it allows your intake to adjust to your activity level for that day. It’s a good weight loss approach for those who are very active because it ensures you are eating enough to fuel your basal metabolism and part of your workouts but still at a 300-500 kcal deficit at the end of the day.
11. How tall are you?
5′2″ and have been since 8th grade.
Blog Questions
1. What is KERF?
KERF = K ath E ats R eal F ood
2. How do you stay organized with meal planning?
It depends on the week! Some weeks I’m a super planner, and others we’re much more spur of the moment. But I’d say most of the time I make a meal plan in Google Calendar of recipes I’m craving for that week (and check what’s on sale) and then make a grocery list of ingredients and shop for them on the weekend. I also add in things to just “have on hand” like carrots, salad greens and yogurt. In November of 2008 I embarked on the Thanksgiving Challenge where I challenged myself to spend less than $126 (my lucky number) on groceries through the month of November, including Thanksgiving. I’m happy to report we ended up at $115! It was a tough month, and I’m not sure that we could sustain a grocery budget quite that low long-term, but it was eye-opening and I’m thrilled we did it.
3. Where did you get the little green spoon?! What about your dishes?
The green spoon is from Crate and Barrel. I don’t know if you can still get them in green, but they have tons of cute appetizer-sized items there. My dishes are from all different stores – C&B, Pier1, Pottery Barn, gift shops, Home Goods. When I see a bowl I like, I get it! I usually buy bowls in sets of two.
4. What is the “squirrelliptical”?
The squirrelliptical is a CYBEX Arc Trainer - just another kind of elliptical. I think people look funny on it and its shape reminds me of a squirrel with big legs (no idea why). I distingish between the squirrelliptical and the regular elliptical (”ET”) that I use more frequently by Precor .
5. Have you thought about going vegetarian?
I consider myself a flexitarian. I eat meat and probably always will, but more as a side dish and not as often as I eat other kinds of foods. I have never really liked meat all that much compared to my love for whole grains, fruits, veg and dairy. I don’t really crave it and have never been a big meat eater. I do believe that humans evolved to eat meat (and perhaps that we might not even be here as a species if we didn’t?). But the main reasons I don’t eat it more frequently are:
1) I just don’t think it tastes that good
2) I do have issues with the horrors and environmental aspects of the meat-producing industry (and grass-fed/organic is SO expensive)
3) Compared to a bag of lentils, meat is expensive!
I think Michael Pollan says in The Omnivore’s Dilemma that meat used to be reserved for special occasions but Americans and its availability have made it an everyday food. I like to think of it – pork tenderloin, turkey, ham – as a special occasion food or something I order in a restaurant rather than something I want to cook for dinner a few times a week.
And I don’t think I could ever give up seafood or dairy 
6. What kind of camera do you have?
As of September 2009, I shoot with a Canon Rebel XSI 12.2 MP Digital SLR and a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. See this post for the switch: KERF v. 2.6 PRO. Couldn’t be happier with the purchase!!
I have a Canon SD880 IS Point and Shoot that I use when I am roughing it. See this post for all the specs: KERF 2.6.
I never use a flash (unless absolutely necessary) and always use the macro setting (the little flower) when using my Point and Shoot.
7. Do you have any advice for recipe building?
Practice!! I’ve studied LOTS of recipes so I feel like I have a base of knowledge for what to start with and what to build on. We usually pick one ingredient and build from there. This was the thought process for a meal with lentils: What to do with it? I was craving mushrooms. What about a green? We just had kale, how about radicchio? How could we cook it? Broiled. But what about a sauce or binder? A vinaigrette would be a nice strong taste. Oh, and we have leftover bacon, let’s put that on top. Just think about what you like, what flavors are involved, and what you have on hand.
8. Do you add anything to your tea and coffee?
I usually add a splash of milk to my tea, and sometimes I drink it plain. On occasion I add a little sugar, but I have given up artificial sweeteners as an everyday ingredient. I always add about 2 oz of milk to my coffee. I heat it in the microwave first and pour the coffee over it.
9. Do you take a multivitamin?
I take One a Day Women’s (well, a generic version) a few times a week. I thought I was getting all of my required vitamins and minerals until I did a complete 3-day diet analysis for a nutrition course and found out I was actually short on a few. So I take one now to cover my bases, as they say. But since I still have a very healthy diet and also eat some foods like cereals that have added nutrients, I aim for 3-4 times per week.
10. What kind of food scale do you have and what should I look for in one?
I use a Salter food scale that I bought for $50 at Linens and Things 2 years ago. Any of the Salter ones are probably good. I like both of the ones in my Amazon store .
The most important features of a good food scale are:
1) It’s digital. They’re way (weigh?) more accurate
2) It can measure in grams and ounces (trust me, you’ll want them both)
3) It has a “tare” or “zero” button. this allows you to say, put a bowl on the scale, zero its weight out, add your X ounces of cereal, zero that out, add your X grams of walnuts, and presto, you know the exact measurements of the things you added without having to break out the calculator.
11. What time do you go to bed to get up at 5 a.m.?
I’m in bed around 9 on weeknights (or any night I’m planning to get up at 5, which does happen on weekends on occasion!). I think sleep is extremely important and rarely get less than 7.5-8 hours.
12. I’m thinking about starting my own food blog, as I think it would be a good way for me to stay on track and continue my weight loss. How much work is it to do what you do on your blog?
Blogging is very time consuming – but the amount of time depends on your readership and the amount of detail you put in your posts. If you’re just going to post photos, it won’t take you more than a few minutes a day. It only takes 10 seconds to snap a few photos before each meal. But if you’re going to post 3 times a day, type up recipes and answer questions and comments for each post (which often require research!), then you’re talking part-time job hours. I probably spend 20-30 hours a week at least “working” on KERF. But since I have put the time in, the blog has grown so that I earn money and it’s all the more worthwhile.
I think food blogs serve their best purpose as creative outlets rather than actual food diaries. It’s probably not worth the time and effort if you are doing it just for your own records, and you might burn out quickly. I write KERF first and foremost out of a love for creativity – in the kitchen, as a writer and as a photographer. The blog really had very little to do with keeping me accountable when I started it – it has always been more reflection and a way to share my love of food.
But if you are searching for a new hobby AND a way to keep yourself accountable, then you could certainly give it a try and see how you like it. Start with a free Wordpress.com blog like I did and if you love it, take it to your own domain and make it professional.
Exercise Questions
1. What kind of heart rate monitor do you recommend?
Polar is my favorite brand and one of the most widely used. I chose the F4 because it’s a lot less expensive. If you have money to spend, go for the F6! I hope to get one someday, but for now the F4 does all that I need to keep me working out hard – heart rate, time, and kcal estimate.
2. Are the calorie burns on cardio machines accurate?
I rarely take note of the calorie burns on the machines so I’m not quite sure of the exact numbers compared to my heart rate monitor. After 30 minutes on the Stairmaster I am usually at about 275 kcal burned and I think I’ve seen the monitor report numbers like 350-400, so it’s pretty far off. The machines tend to overestimate a lot, sorry to bring bad news!
Calories burned on the machines is entirely based on the type of machine (such as arms or no arms) and the resistance you have. I would not trust the elliptical screen to estimate your calories burned, even if you do put in height and weight, as I’ve found them to be a good 25-30% higher than my heart rate monitor’s number.
A general estimate for calorie burn is about 80-100 calories per mile run. If you run 10 minute miles, that’s 240-300 calories in 30 minutes. If you don’t feel like the elliptical gave you the equivalent of a 3-mile run workout, you probably didn’t burn more than you would have when running. Make sense? It’s a good way to estimate. Estimate being the key word there!
3. The science behind calories burned
The Husband:
1) Calories are a measure of how much energy you expend (i.e. WORK)
2) Work is defined as FORCE applied over a DISTANCE
3) Force is defined as MASS times ACCELERATION
4) Therefore, because your mass doesn’t change, and the distance to the grocery store doesn’t change, then you’re doing the same amount of work whether you run there or walk.
The only difference is the ACCELERATION, and that only affects how quickly you accomplish your work. Now the one argument you could make is that running is actually a less efficient use of energy, so you probably burn a minuscule amount more when you run, but it’s mostly negligible.
That’s why you can average out every mile you travel, regardless of the locomotion, to about 80-100 calories burned.
4. Tips for a “9-5″ Lifestyle
Many of you have been asking about how to start getting up earlier. Surprisingly, I have the most energy the first few hours I’m awake – and the least mid-afternoon and evening. If you’re the same way (and it might take a 5 a.m. workout 5 days in a row to truly find out!) then give early morning workouts a try! To me, there’s no better way to start the day than with a good sweaty workout under your belt. It boosts self confidence, motivation and happiness all day long.
I thought it would be helpful to share some of my tips for my 9 p.m. -5 a.m. routine 
1. You HAVE to go to bed on time. If you don’t, you will feel like a sleep deprived zombie, and in that case should probably get back in bed anyways! Count backwards 7, 8, 9 hours of sleep – however much you need – and get in bed 30 minutes before then. It will seem really early, if you are normally a night owl, but it’ll only get easier!
2. Pick the right alarm clock . It’s REALLY hard to get out of bed on the first buzzer. I always snooze at least twice, but you can’t snooze for more than a few minutes or you’re wasting time!! I have two alarms on my clock and set them 2 minutes apart. Then instead of snoozing with the button, I just click two minutes back when the second alarm goes off. Beeping at much shorter intervals helps me wake up MUCH faster.
3. Turn the light on. Be brave, reach out of the warm covers into the cold air, and just do it. It’ll help wake you up 100x better than darkness.
4. Program your thermostat . If you don’t have one, go buy one! Ours was $10 and was very easy to install. I have the heat set to turn on about 10 minutes before my alarm goes off so it’s nice and toasty when I get out of bed. It turns back off shortly after I leave at 5:30.
5. Decide what to have for a pre-workout snack while you’re still in bed. If you’re anything like me, the thought of peanut butter will get you up and going!
6. If you’re hoping to workout first thing, set out your workout clothes neatly before you go to bed. Then you just have to put them on in the morning. No fumbling around in drawers. Sometimes I even put my sports bra on my nightstand and when the alarm goes off I bring it in bed with me to warm it up so it’s not so cold against my skin in the dead of winter!
7. Mondays are ALWAYS hard. Fridays are (almost) always easy. Lesson learned: the body clock does exist. On Saturdays I often wake up at 5 (although I usually go back to sleep for an hour) simply because I’m used to it. The first day will be hard, but after that it gets easier and easier.
Happy sleeping!
Food Products
1. Can anyone recommend some good teas?
- Tetley Pomegranate Green Tea
- Yogi Tahitian Vanilla Hazelnut (naturally sweet)
- Yogi Raspberry Ginger
- Yogi Egyptian Licorice Mint
- Tazo Passion Flavor
- Republic of Tea Apple Cider
- Choice Liquorice (naturally sweet)
- Mighty Leaf Vanilla Bean (naturally sweet)
- Bigelow Eggnogg’n
- Bigelow Pumpkin Spice
- Bigelow Vanilla Caramel
- Bigelow French Vanilla Black Tea
- Celestial Seasonings
- Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane
- Celestial Seasonings Chocolate Caramel Enchantment Chai
- Celestial Seasonings Pear White Tea
- Celestial Seasonings English Toffee Dessert Tea
- Celestial Seasonings Peppermint Green Tea
- Celestial Seasonings Madagascar Vanilla Roobios Red
Find more of my favorite teas at the KERF Amazon store
2. What do I do with the oil in natural peanut butter?
We give our natural peanut butter a vigorous stir at the beginning (making sure to get all the way to the bottom!) and then refrigerate it. The chilly temp keeps it emulsified so there’s no need to stir again.
3. Info On Flax
Flax must be ground for the body to be able to absorb the omega-3’s. You can buy it pre-ground and keep it in the freezer and/or fridge or grind whole seeds in a coffee/spice grinder. We have pre-ground now, but now that we have a coffee bean grinder we’ll grind our own on our next batch since the general rule for most foods is the fresher the better.
4. Do you have a favorite salad dressing?
I really don’t like any bottled salad dressings, so my favorite “dressing” is Williams-Sonoma Aged Balsamic Vinegar with a drizzle of honey. Just pour both right over your greens. Simple and delicious! When I have more time, I make a rosemary vinaigrette with equal parts: olive oil, Dijon mustard, honey, lime juice, rosemary plus double the amount of balsamic vinegar. Add some garlic if you like.
5. The Science of Oats
So continuing my research on oats, we recently watched a Good Eats episode on them. Alton Brown does a great job of explaining the why of food not just the how . Here’s the transcript from his episode explaining the different kinds of oats.
Groats
Once the oats are harvested, the miller has got a lot of choices to make. For instance he might elect to remove only the outer hull. That would produce whole oats, also known as groats. You notice that, uh, they still have their entire bran coat on, a lot like brown rice which is not a complete accident because you know what? They also taste kind of like brown rice. Nice, but a little too nutty for my taste. The other thing is that, uh, even if you soak them overnight and cook them for hours, they’re chewy as Gumby. I’ll pass.
Steel Cut Oats
Now, if you were to take these, however, and send them through steel cutters you would have steel cut oats, a.k.a. Scotch oats or Irish Oats or—I love this one—pinhead oats. They also take a little while to cook. But they produce a very creamy porridge. Mmm. It’s also just a little bit chewy, a little toasty … mmm. They’re really nice.
Rolled Oats
Now if you were to take these and steam them and press them out in rollers and then dry them, you would have rolled oats, a.k.a. old fashioned oats, a.k.a. oatmeal. These are the oats we think of when and, well, if we think of oats. Now the idea of mashing them flat that was an American thing. Makes them cook faster. The problem is, faster is not always better. In fact, uh, they tend to produce a rather measly mush. They do have some other applications which they are very well suited, but we’ll get to those later.
Instant Oats
Could you process them even more? Well, sure. Why not? You could mash them even thinner, par-cook them and then dry them. Then you’d have instant oats which I wouldn’t feed to my horse.”
-Good Eats
6. How do you keep an avocado from going brown?
I don’t – I like them green and brown! But to reduce the brownness, keep the pit in, store it in the fridge, and only cut what you need. Others suggest brushing with lemon or lime juice, if you have it on hand!
7. How do you cut a butternut squash?
Squash is a bit of a pain, but SO worth the effort!
Here’s what I do: I usually cut it in half with a huge knife. Start in the middle, cut outwards. Take out the knife, put it in the other direction and cut outwards. It usually splits in half nicely that way. Then I scoop out the seeds with a grapefruit spoon (the serration helps a lot) and then peel it with a good veggie peeler. Then I have two clean halves. I usually weigh it then to get an idea of the portion size. Then I microwave it for 5 minutes or so to soften it before I start cutting. It’s much easier to cut when a little soft. Then I’ll roast in the oven at 400* for another 20-30 minutes for a good flavor. It’s a bit of a process, but I think it’s worth it because I love squash so much!
8. What’s the brand of balsamic vinegar you use?
It’s from Williams-Sonoma and costs $22.50. See this post for all the info!
Comments on this entry are closed.