While writing my blog post about Fitvine, I needed to do some nutritional research and calorie comparing. That is how I discovered CalorieKing! CalorieKing is a unique nutrition website because it tells you how long it would take you to burn off the calories consumed.
I have been counting calories and tracking my macros on and off for years. There are apps that make this easier including as MyFitnessPal and Noom. But tracking your calories is tougher than you think. To successfully lose weight by counting calories, you need to delve deeper than knowing that a calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1° Celsius.
The obvious equation is to burn more calories than you consume. Simple? Yes. But it’s not always super practical when you’re out in the real world. It is totally possible to limit your daily calories to a strict number and follow this no matter what. But what happens when you’re invited to a party? I admit that I have gone the route of eating way less during the day to leave room for a few glasses of wine. This is effective when it comes to weight loss but it is by no means healthy.
This is where CalorieKing comes in! It helps you make better choices and understand the consequences. Let’s say I only have 200 calories left in my daily budget but I decide that I really want to go cheese and wine tasting after work instead of my planned steam broccoli dinner. Can I still do this without seeing the consequences on the scale the next day.
Example 1:
I know that a serving of my favorite Miyoko’s cheese (Aged English Sharp Farmhouse btw) is 100 calories. This is what happens when we search for Miyoko’s Aged English Sharp Farmhouse Vegan Cheese Wheel:
First, the basics. Calories, fats, carbs, fibers and protein.
Second, the thing that makes CalorieKing so amazing:
Then they explore the macros a little deeper:
Example 2:
The average 5oz glass of red wine is 120 calories. This is what happens when we search for red wine. Although CalorieKing has a great database of specific brands or wine types, this is the average of all varieties:
First, the basics:
Second, the calorie burn:
Finally, there’s some more macro info:
Plan Ahead
I have a treadmill in my home office so my go to activity is running. With all this amazing information from CalorieKing, I can plan my cheese and wine tasting ahead of time! Let’s go crazy and say that I want to have 3 glasses of wine and 3 servings of cheese – it sounds like a lot but once you start it’s easy to overdo it.
Do the Math
Three servings of cheese (100 each) is 300 and three glasses of wine (126 each) is 378. That’s a whopping total of 678 calories! According to CalorieKing, it would take 75 minutes of jogging to burn off. Alternatively, that’s 54 minutes of swimming, 102 minutes of cycling or 189 minutes of walking. That’s a lot of exercise!
But hey, now you know and can either plan to eat less, prepare to pay the price on the scale or change into your workout clothes. There is no right answer, but CalorieKing gives you the tools to be in control of your calories. Plus it gives you a better understanding of what is going into your body.
Keep in mind that the exercise amounts are based on a 35 year old female who is 5 foot 7 and weighs 144 pounds. I am younger, shorter and fatter, so my numbers would be different. But it’s still a great reference point. Someone who weighs more will burn it off a little faster for example.
CalorieKing Program
Everything I mentioned above is available on the web without signing up for the program. But there is in fact, a program! The first thing it asks you is for your age, height and weight. Then it hits you with your BMI and goal numbers. Full disclosure, I have been to weight loss doctors and the goals they have me were a little higher that these. But I have seen similar numbers from other websites.
Personally, I would be happy at 135 which I weighed before and which is 20 pounds less than I weight now. But I was still chubby at 135, so I can see why these numbers are the way they are. But please don’t be discouraged and notice the range instead of focusing on the insane number that 97.9 pounds is.
Plus, if you become a workout junkie, you will have heavy muscles which means that your BMI could be healthy even though your weight will be higher than the top of the range.
Next, you have to tell CalorieKing if your activity level is light, moderate or active. Since I work from home at a desk but I have a home gym in my office that I use throughout the day, I selected “moderate.” This gave me a daily calorie goal, which is far more generous than the 1,200 I got from MyFitnessPal:
Next, it asks you for a target exercise goal of either 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 minutes. I selected 30, which I already do on an average day. With those three questions answered, my account is created and I can now track my progress. I was hoping that creating an account would let me search the database and tell me how much I need to exercise to burn off the calories of certain foods. It doesn’t appear like that is an option which is quite disappointing.
Phone Apps
I forgot to mention that until right now, I have been using. the web version of CalorieKing. But it’s 2020, so let’s get mobile. There are two CalorieKing apps: the food search app and the program app. Both apps are available for Android as well as Apple.
Food Search App
This app was a big let down for me since it gives you the nutritional info only. It doesn’t show the diagrams or give you the exercise info that the website gives you. Why can’t this app be as awesome as the website though?
CalorieKing Program App
I love how this app looks and how user friendly it is. I almost like it more than the look and usability of MyFitnessPal. That being said, I won’t be switching because I have been using MyFitnessPal for more than 6 years and it has all my stats and number. If I had discovered this one first, I would have been happy to use it forever.
I still don’t understand why the information from the website about the exercises needed to burn certain amounts of food off isn’t included. I feel like this would make so many more people switch to using CalorieKing. While I don’t see myself using these apps, I will keep using their website because it offers what my other tracking apps do not.
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Great post 😁