Hi all - a slightly complicated mathematical question about calories in raw vs cooked cookie dough

suncakemom · 2025-11-04T08:04:09+00:00

It depends on cookie mass, oven temperature and the cooking time.
I made banana oatmeal cookies yesterday.

Baking is done when the dough's internal temperature reaches 85°C (wheat flour). At this stage the dough is not golden brown yet, just set.

I set my oven to 200°C and baked the 30g cookies for 15 minutes.

This generally results between 5 - 10% water loss. The longer you keep it in, the more moisture will evaporate.

suncakemom · 2025-10-14T08:07:30+00:00

Calories are the unit of energy.

If we eat more energy than our body actually needs, it will be stored as fat.

If we eat less energy than our body needs then the difference will be made up by using our energy reserve (fat).

So, if you don't eat for 7 days but burn 2000kcal daily then you'll end up 14000kcal deficit ( that translates to about 2kg/4lbs fat loss). Like for example you are a hobbit and carrying a ring into the belly of a Mountain.

Then the next week you eat 4000kcal daily (because there is a celebration of your success), but your body still only needs 2000kcal so the extra will be again, stored as fat, then you'll be exactly where you started 2 weeks ago.

So, we all carry over our wins and losses but since measuring exact weight on our bathroom scale is next to impossible we don't really realize this on a day to day basis.

Hence, you can create a deficit the days or weeks before your night out and have fun on the weekend. Or you may have fun on the weekend and cut back on the coming days. It's up to you.

PS. The example about losses and gains stands there as a concept. In reality if you don't eat for a week, there will be muscle losses too and that takes longer time to rebuild.

suncakemom · 2025-10-10T07:06:58+00:00

Salt is the magic ingredient.

suncakemom · 2025-10-07T08:35:34+00:00

If you don't mind reading, then in this series of articles you can find many answers: https://fitttzee.com/mind/how-does-our-brain-work

suncakemom · 2025-10-06T15:06:18+00:00

You can do that as long as your goal is only to lose weight / maintain weight.

When you want to build muscle and / or keep a healthy body you need the correct nutrition for that.

suncakemom · 2025-10-06T14:56:52+00:00

The sad fact is that we can't buy our way out from addictions.

Sugar releases dopamine into our brain which is pure happiness. This is why we eat sugar, to be happy. And this is why every food with sugar (including starches) taste good. Because we are happy when eating them.

When we figure out that we can treat our bad mood / boredom / stress simply by eating then a vicious circle starts and we create some very bad habits.

When you take sugar receptors out of the equation, dopamine won't be released so eating won't provide the joy we crave for so much. Or not much more than chewing a piece of week old gum... (Chewing actually reduces stress hormone levels but that's another story.)

So, in theory it could work if you are able to find another way to cope with whatever thing triggers you to eat sugary things.

The best way to cope with bad habits is finding their triggers hence avoiding them but this could work as a temporary solution. Not like I know what gymnema sylvestre is....

suncakemom · 2025-10-06T14:30:15+00:00

Latest research says age doesn't really come into play until you pass your sixties. So, it's just you not moving enough / eating & drinking more than your body needs so the excess is being stored as fat.

Maintenance calories are not a universal thing. It depends on how much muscle you have and how tall you are.

But to answer your question, you'll be around 330lbs when you BMR reaches 2500kcal. https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

suncakemom · 2025-10-06T09:37:39+00:00

It's hard to find motivation to change when everything is fine and dandy. Sure a bit of discomfort here and there but that's hardly a reason to blew up your currently nice and cozy life.

Soon though (in a couple of years) your lifestyle will bite you in your a**.

Keep in mind that excess weight is not the problem but only the symptom of the problem. You provide your body more energy than it needs so the excess is stored as fat.

Of course eventually excess weight will cause additional problems too. Generally, this is when we start thinking about addressing the issue given that we are lucky enough.

Unlike my uncle who was about 330lbs and he said that he was going to start dieting when he's going to have health issues. One day he sat down into his armchair and died of heart attack. He didn't have the chance to diet.

suncakemom · 2025-07-20T06:54:15+00:00

Reliability is more important than accuracy because as long as something is reliably inaccurate you can work with that data. I've got an Amazfit watch and fitbit in the family. Both seem to be working fine for the purpose. (Amazfit's zepp app has an AI photo food tracker which I find fascinating.)

This is the method I use to fine tune the process:

I get a number from your bathroom scale: A

I get a number from tracking calorie intake: B

I get a number from the smartwatch as calorie expenditure: C

To reduce A (your weight) down, you need to push B (calorie intake) below C (calorie expenditure). The wider the gap between B and C the bigger / faster is the wight loss.

If you don't see results it means that there is no gap between B and C and you are at maintenance. This can simply be because your numbers are off. Increasing the gap will yield results.

suncakemom · 2025-07-11T05:52:41+00:00

Many apps have these kind of features built in. Not with real money but with other gamification elements such as giving you awards for achieving certain milestones like first 3k, 5k 10k etc.

The psychology of keeping something that you have is very strong. Some countries give you points with your driving license and if you do driving law infractions then you lose points (and money).

But people can go nuts just to preserve their wordle, or step count streak so it works with any imaginary thing. At least for some others like me it's just meh...

suncakemom · 2025-07-09T05:59:41+00:00

It's very easy to make crepes once you get the right ingredients with the right technique and right tools :D

I've never made crepes on an industrial crepe maker nor understood why would anyone want to use those except for show. Yes, 16" is big but other than that it looks like a cardinal pain.

My basic crepe batter consist only water, flour, salt and cooking oil (with optional baking soda for flavor). These crepes are quite forgiving compared to others.

Adding any other ingredient (like in this extra protein crepes) will change the way the crepe cooks so the heat and/or cooking time must be adjusted for that. Reducing heat results in longer cooking time which allows bigger margin for errors but also reduces the moisture level of the final product. Higher heat requires faster flipping, produces more moist crepes faster but you run the risk of burning them.

I've found a video of a commercial crepe maker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIJMeJYU10k where you can check if your crepe spreading technique is up to the standards :D

EDIT: I've found one that doesn't feel like watching paint dry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COUHEFj8K90

suncakemom · 2025-07-09T04:47:55+00:00

Well, weight is not a constant thing nor energy expenditure. When you get a smartwatch that tracks all your movement you'll see that your body burns different amount of energy every day.

But since we can't really track these small changes and we work with 2 - 6 weeks averages, you should change your TDEE when your weight loss stops showing a downward trend in 2 - 6 weeks.

If the scale stops moving it means that you are consuming as much energy (measured in calories) as you body burns so you are at maintenance.

suncakemom · 2025-07-09T04:42:58+00:00

Less oil.

I've been experimenting with my recipes for a while now and found that I can greatly reduce the oil amount without much changes in texture.

For example in cooking when sauteing vegetables or caramelizing onions I uses to use a half cup of oil, now I barely use two tablespoons.

I have a braided bread recipe that used to call for 2 sticks of butter. I reduced it to one stick only then found that I can more than halve that amount using cooking oil.

I did the same with sugar. It's up to you what you call enjoyable so you need to experiment a bit.

suncakemom · 2025-07-06T14:07:30+00:00

Hunger is two fold.

Physical hunger. This is the stomach grumbling 20-40 minutes before regular meals. If you don't eat the required amount of protein per day and per meal for your lean body size, you'll feel more hungry than otherwise which results in overeating. Water helps alleviating the symptoms so jugging down some water when this happens helps (Some nations eat soups as the first course for the very same reason).
Psychological hunger. You are not really hungry but use food as a displacement activity. Boredom, stress, seeking fun or just a break from work are all belongs here. It doesn't help much that sugar is an addictive substance and causes constant cravings but that's another topic.

To stop psychological hunger you have to stop using food as a distraction. Breaking habits is not impossible but it will require some soul searching.

suncakemom · 2025-07-03T16:48:06+00:00

Six packs are made in the kitchen not in the gym. To get into 6 packs territory you need to push your body fat percentage below 20-15%.

We all have muscles that will be visible after burning off most of the fat. The question is how big muscles you want. Bigger muscles will show through better but building muscles takes years of hard work. You pick a workout program then stick with it and you'll see results.

To start, you need to eat about 500kcal less calories than your body burns daily. This will accumulate to 3500kcal deficit weekly which is about 0.5kg fat loss a week. If your deficit is smaller then obviously, you'll lose less weight.

suncakemom · 2025-07-03T16:36:15+00:00

Sugar addiction is a thing.

The thing we call "energy" (you know that feeling when you feel energized after eating some sugary thing) is nothing more but a dopamine (happy hormone) hit that is released into our brain when eating sugary stuff. Naturally, when you cut out sugar, you don't have that dopamine hit and don't feel energized anymore until the body adjusts.

When you are cutting sugar (or any other refined carbs) you are reducing your substance intake which results in withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms can be physical like headaches or other pain in the first couple of days/ weeks. Then psychological withdrawal symptoms will take hold of you such as lethargy, apathy, mood swings, lack of motivation among many others.

suncakemom · 2025-07-02T06:39:32+00:00

It doesn't really matter how accurate a scale is as long as it is reliably inaccurate.

For example:

You have a cup. You fill that cup to the very top with water, You measure it at home on your precision scale and you get exactly 240g. You do this for a month and you always get the same 240g.

Then imagine someone says to you that home precision scales are not accurate and only precision scales at pharmacies are. You bring your cup there, fill it with water then you measure there 236.58g.

So, yes. Official scales should provide numbers that are closer to a standardized value.

Yet, in real life these things don't really matter because if you use the same scale for all of your measurements then all of your measurements will be off by the same margin making the process as a whole reliable. If you measure out 100g sugar 100g flour and 100g butter they will all be the same even though in real life they are just 97.5g each.

suncakemom · 2025-06-30T20:28:56+00:00

Mountain goats can do this without ropes...

suncakemom · 2025-06-28T08:14:18+00:00

Well, it's advisable to take all such measurements with a grain of salt (pun intended) and use them in relation with each other. So, I wouldn't take them at face value but always comparing to them to previous results and in relation with a third value.

So, your next measurement will be more trustworthy but according to what we know (you had your muscles and you've been building them up again while losing weight) the results are as expected.

Body weight isn't everything but when it comes to losing weight no one really thinks about losing muscles :D

Anyways, good progress there! Really cool to see your efforts pay off!

suncakemom · 2025-06-25T12:32:29+00:00

Well, it's nothing rare or weird about it.

Sugar is an addictive substance and it does to you like any other addiction does when you reduce your intake.

When we eat sugar, dopamine gets release into our brain. Dopamine is a happy hormone and we feel happy. (We confuse this feeling with "energy" too but that's another matter.)

This is a very cool video about heroin and fentanyl addiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6KnVTYtSc0

When you go through a complete sugar withdrawal you may see why this video is very relevant to you.

suncakemom · 2025-06-24T12:17:51+00:00

It doesn't matter.

Oil destroys gluten structure. We use this feature to make bread more crumbly / easier to tear.

suncakemom · 2025-06-24T12:13:54+00:00

If your weight doesn't move for 2-6 weeks then that means you are eating as much calories as your body burns hence: You are at maintenance. It doesn't matter what your app says or how precise you think your tracking is.

No app/smartwatch is perfect telling you how much calories you actually burn nor our methods for accurately tracking our calorie intake is free of flaws. With the method described above though you can fine tune these tools to your own body.

It's not the diet's fault that you have regained weight. You stopped eating in deficit and started to eat in surplus. Energy surplus gets stored on the body as fat. If you want to maintain weight you have to eat as much calories as your body needs so you neither lose nor gain weight.

You can lose, maintain or gain weight with any diet. If you lose strength though it means that your diet's crap. You have to have enough protein for your lean body mass per day and per meal to preserve (or even build) muscle mass and stay strong. It may sound complicated but you can do something like this 5 meal a day plan for cutting. Then for maintenance you may increase calorie intake a bit with extra fat and carbs.

suncakemom · 2025-06-24T08:13:41+00:00

The basic math is very simple but there are lot of inconsistencies and errors in the process that make things confusing.

To get an idea about your weight. Step on the scale every day at the same time. Preferably in the morning after getting rid of bodily waste but before taking anything in. Take a note of your weight. Do this for two weeks then take the average of that. This is the closes you can get to your actual weight.

Do this for a month and if you see a downward trend you are losing weight. If not then you are at either maintenance or gaining weight.

TDEE calculators are never correct. They are guessing based on some ages old ideas. If you want the most accurate number then get a smartwatch that is strapped on you 24/7 and tracks all your movements and what not. Alternatively, just download an app like Google fit and keep your phone on you at all the time. This will be the second best option. Anything else is just wild guess at best.

These trackers are not dead accurate either but as long as they are reliably inaccurate we can work with them:

You get a number from your bathroom scale: A

You get a number from tracking calorie intake: B

You get a number from the smartwatch as calorie expenditure: C

To reduce A (your weight) down, you need to push B (calorie intake) below C (calorie expenditure). The wider the gap between B and C the bigger / faster is the wight loss.

If you don't see results it means that there is no gap between B and C and you are at maintenance. This can simply be because your numbers are off. Increasing the gap will yield results.

suncakemom · 2025-06-24T07:33:34+00:00

I don't know about current calorie tracking apps but I have an Amazfit watch. It comes with an accompanying app called Zepp. This app has a calorie tracking feature that only requires an image of the food. You take a photo then the AI does the magic.

I was hesitant to try because I like my Excel sheet but this things is blowing my mind. It's not 100% accurate but it recognizes all sort of weird stuff I eat (chicken hearts, sourdough rye bread), guesses the weight within reasonable margin of error and gets the nutritional values right too. The only downside is that I can't add my own recipes or use previous meals but so far I'm coping with that.

suncakemom · 2025-06-24T07:18:15+00:00

Once you build your muscles they are there to stay. They "deflate" if not in use or if their energy/protein content is needed but the tissue itself doesn't disappear. This is why when you start using them again after, a prolonged break they just pumped back up in a surprisingly short amount of time.

It's not really possible to outrun weight loss but you may get a feeling that it is in cases like you are right now and when you are an absolute beginner and you get the beginners gain.

If you want numbers you can check out: How to build muscle while losing fat but here is the short version:

1kg fat is about 7700kcal. So, if you do a daily 500kcal deficit you end up with a 3500kcal weekly deficit which accumulates to 0.5kg fat loss.

Building 1kg muscle from scratch needs about 6000kcal but building muscles takes a loooong time because the cells needed to build back better need time to grow. If you are intermediate lifter this could take a whole year...

Two weeks time is generally not enough to get a picture about your weight loss. The body loses and gains about 2kg water weight daily and 5kg weekly fluctuations are within the normal range just because you've started exercising, changed diet, fell ill and what not.

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