How does secure erase 3.3 work on an intel G2 Drive?

[Somatic]

I recently bought a new or maybe used intel x25-m mainstream drive. I would like to check how much data has been written to disk using intel toolbox, checking the smart values report, I noticed a value labeled "host writes" after a Secure Erase and windows install it was about 173/174gb. My question is does using Secure Erase count as having written data to the drive? Because 149GB +about 25GB for install would be about right. In that case I DID get a new drive. Am I misinterpreting the defintion of the value labeled Host Writes? I noticed that this value goes up even after a secure erase, or firmware upgrade, which is good for me because I want to keep track of how much total data is written. Also I have read that you need to zero a certain area of your SSD that secure erase does not touch, G values or something? I am not sure what it is called exactly, but does anyone have any further info on this?