I sometimes forget that calorie counting is not a precise science, it is about averages and estimates. When I eat at a restaurant and log the calorie content from the menu or the restaurant's web site, I am assuming much greater accuracy than is reasonable. Have you ever watched a cook serve up food to a plate? Does it get weighed to the nearest gram? Or is it scooped up with a calibrated ladle? Probably not. Now, a cook will not keep his job for long if he repeatedly gives away food, but when you order a cup of bean soup or Southern style green beans, the mix of soup to pork or green beans to ham can vary all over the map. The bean soup today is loaded with beans whereas yesterday it contained a lot more liquid. The food in the pot is NOT a homogeneous mixture. But, it is all about averages. On average, I am probably getting pretty close to what I expect. Restaurants have a lot of leeway and there are no rules to specify how accurate their websites have to be. For that matter there are often serious discrepancies between the CK food list and the restaurant's website.

Packaged food is a little different. Food producers are required by law to be within 5 calories of what the label says. This also means that something that has 5 calories per serving can be labeled as "calorie free." Even CK allows for a plus or minus 150 calorie tolerance on our daily calorie limit. I find it interesting that we often get stressed out when we overshoot the daily limit when that daily limit is, at best, an estimate. My BMR is not going to be the same as someone else's BMR even if that person is the same age, height, and weight as me. It might be close, but it is not exact.

The point is that we need to, on averge, be in the ballpark. Over a bit one day, under the next works just fine. And there are times when the CK selected limit just does not seem to work. It isn't as rigid as it seems so I choose to be flexible. So far my weight loss has been fairly consistent but I had to lower the CK limit to make it work. And it does.

I have to remember that I am in control and that CK is providing some really good guidelines, but they are not necessarily 100% "spot on." As long as I keep it in my mind tghat I need to focus on averages, I'm fine. The reason for this is not so much to get the numbers right but to keep the stress level as low as possible. Shedding pounds is pretty stressful and I see no reason to compound it with stress factors that I can avoid.

On average, I am doing quite well.