Logging accuracy, consistency, and you're probably eating more than you think.

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  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    asflatasapancake wrote: »
    Sarauk2sf wrote: »
    justinkwright wrote: »
    It doesn't help Food Corporations mark food so weirdly by not showing the total servings in a total of an item. But I learned to make my own food instead of eating junk.

    They show the number of servings in packaged foods. Also, just because something is made by a corporation, does not make it junk.

    I disagree. This was made by a corporation and it was pure junk:

    crystal-pepsi.jpg

    Your example does not refute what she said.

    She said that just because it was made by a corporation does not mean it is junk. Finding an example of something that's made by a corporation and also "junk" doesn't refute that.
  • carole4000
    carole4000 Posts: 50 Member
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    Plateau for quite sometime. :/ Scales used accurately for everything this week. Thought average calories were less than 1500, so just shows how the food scales have helped with inconsistencies. This week actually shows an average of 1636 calories for the week and I lost all of 1/4lb though usually STS!?! Should I now aim for below 1500 to help me through this long plateau? :)
  • carole4000
    carole4000 Posts: 50 Member
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    HappyCampr1 wrote: »
    carole4000 wrote: »
    Plateau for quite sometime. :/ Scales used accurately for everything this week. Thought average calories were less than 1500, so just shows how the food scales have helped with inconsistencies. This week actually shows an average of 1636 calories for the week and I lost all of 1/4lb though usually STS!?! Should I now aim for below 1500 to help me through this long plateau? :)

    Just following up to see if you broke through your plateau.

  • carole4000
    carole4000 Posts: 50 Member
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    Hi. Would you believe it, didn't count calories all week, ate well with couple of treats - lost one pound! On exactly 10 stone. Next weigh in tomorrow. . Oh!
  • lilcole08
    lilcole08 Posts: 18 Member
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    Thank You! This info is helpful and something to remember.
  • veephil31
    veephil31 Posts: 53 Member
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    It is very easy! I weight everything to help prevent that a little
  • brb2008
    brb2008 Posts: 406 Member
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    Thanks for this! Im still establishing my plan and skills to follow through, but I have only ever gotten a 5 day streak because I skip the weekends when Im home and relaxing. I know I overeat on the weekends, and if I can be honest with myself maybe I will see how my weekend eating is sabotaging my 5 days of awesome efforts.
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
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  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
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    This is so true, but man does it ruffle the feathers around here! I see how much more lax I am over time, and as I continue to lose its really rather moot FOR A WHILE... but eventually everyone has to figure out a maintenance game, and these are the tricks we'll have to sharpen to figure out our ideal intake. I never understand why a person squawking their head off about stalling out won't make the effort to perform this sort of audit.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    cat-76o8M.gif

    bump.
  • Dvdgzz
    Dvdgzz Posts: 437 Member
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    One example of accidental inaccuracy. Someone I know believed that there were only 3 servings of 37 calories in a bag of popcorn that she has been consuming for years. There were actually 7.5 servings. So she sometimes would have two bags a night. 111 calories turned into 277.5 calories. Now multiply that by two over years and you can see how some may believe they are at a plateau when in reality they are at maintenance or in a very small deficit.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    Just want to give this a fresh bump.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    Giving this a Monday morning bump.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,933 Member
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    http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36988065

    The Behavioural Insights Team points to scientific and economic data showing people eat 3,000 calories, compared to the 2,000 cited in official surveys.

    http://38r8om2xjhhl25mw24492dir.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/16-07-12-Counting-Calories-Final.pdf
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    tumblr_mkgjo7ELeh1r5pl3ao1_500.gif
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    Bumpity.
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
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    Seems like there are a few threads that could use a bump today... :)
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
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    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    Good point, especially these above. People often think they can look at someone's diary and tell how well they're logging based on the units of measure and such, but a reader has no way of knowing what they didn't log, which is probably a bigger source of error than using a cup measurement vs. a scale.

    I just hate to say people think that using a food scale automatically means good logging, and that not using one automatically means bad.
    You also can't assume that because an entry in someone's diary lists the measurement in cups that the person doesn't weigh their food. I use many entries from the database that are accurate (i.e., match the package label), but the person who created them used the volume measurement rather than the weight measurement when both are given on the package, e.g., 1/2 cup (113 g) for cottage cheese. I can weigh my cottage cheese and divide by the grams in a serving size to determine how much I'm serving myself, and still use that entry, and it doesn't mean I'm being inaccurate.
    I used to do that. Pain in the rear! Grams into ounces, ounces into the serving size. Ugh.

    If you manually enter the cottage cheese into "My Foods" with the grams, not only can you enter grams, but the option for One Gram will magically appear, so then you can just enter the 89 or whatever it is. And it will always be in My Foods. :)

    I mention this only because I found it so helpful and not to criticize you!

    OK - I'm not taking it as criticism, but just explaining that I'm not converting grams to ounces. I put my bowl on the scale, tare the bowl, add as much cottage cheese as I want (120 grams tonight), divide (120/113 = 1.06), and enter 1.06 servings, even though the serving is listed as a half cup.

    Exactly. And as stated by a previous poster, the perfectly round number of "1/2 cup" every single time is one clue that the person might not be weighing. I did have a user come back and say she actually cuts the chicken each time down to four ounces exactly, but most people I've encountered who logged the perfect serving size each time and were asked about it were not weighing. To be clear, when we review diaries, that's what many of us are looking for - clues. We still have to ask the user to verify what process they actually follow

    You can also get clues as to whether items are being skipped. Missing meals, missing days, chicken with no oil butter, or condiments etc. Yeah they could be boiling the chicken in water and eating it plain, but we would just quickly ask to verify

    That's why a single day copy and paste is not really the same thing as an open diary when performing this review for the user

    Sometimes the perfect log is on purpose though! I will weigh out precisely 70g of ice cream because thats the serving (half cup just to continue that point too), or pull of the tiniest amount of deli meat from my sammich to make it exactly 4oz or exactly 30g of ranch dressing (I've used a spoon to take some out) or similar... Course that isn't everything... Have never cut a cherry tomato in half to get to 100g or anything. Can kinda go either way: Figure out a serving and weigh that precisely, or pull out what I want and weigh and log that.
  • jen_092
    jen_092 Posts: 254 Member
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    lilawolf wrote: »
    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    Good point, especially these above. People often think they can look at someone's diary and tell how well they're logging based on the units of measure and such, but a reader has no way of knowing what they didn't log, which is probably a bigger source of error than using a cup measurement vs. a scale.

    I just hate to say people think that using a food scale automatically means good logging, and that not using one automatically means bad.
    You also can't assume that because an entry in someone's diary lists the measurement in cups that the person doesn't weigh their food. I use many entries from the database that are accurate (i.e., match the package label), but the person who created them used the volume measurement rather than the weight measurement when both are given on the package, e.g., 1/2 cup (113 g) for cottage cheese. I can weigh my cottage cheese and divide by the grams in a serving size to determine how much I'm serving myself, and still use that entry, and it doesn't mean I'm being inaccurate.
    I used to do that. Pain in the rear! Grams into ounces, ounces into the serving size. Ugh.

    If you manually enter the cottage cheese into "My Foods" with the grams, not only can you enter grams, but the option for One Gram will magically appear, so then you can just enter the 89 or whatever it is. And it will always be in My Foods. :)

    I mention this only because I found it so helpful and not to criticize you!

    OK - I'm not taking it as criticism, but just explaining that I'm not converting grams to ounces. I put my bowl on the scale, tare the bowl, add as much cottage cheese as I want (120 grams tonight), divide (120/113 = 1.06), and enter 1.06 servings, even though the serving is listed as a half cup.

    Exactly. And as stated by a previous poster, the perfectly round number of "1/2 cup" every single time is one clue that the person might not be weighing. I did have a user come back and say she actually cuts the chicken each time down to four ounces exactly, but most people I've encountered who logged the perfect serving size each time and were asked about it were not weighing. To be clear, when we review diaries, that's what many of us are looking for - clues. We still have to ask the user to verify what process they actually follow

    You can also get clues as to whether items are being skipped. Missing meals, missing days, chicken with no oil butter, or condiments etc. Yeah they could be boiling the chicken in water and eating it plain, but we would just quickly ask to verify

    That's why a single day copy and paste is not really the same thing as an open diary when performing this review for the user

    Sometimes the perfect log is on purpose though! I will weigh out precisely 70g of ice cream because thats the serving (half cup just to continue that point too), or pull of the tiniest amount of deli meat from my sammich to make it exactly 4oz or exactly 30g of ranch dressing (I've used a spoon to take some out) or similar... Course that isn't everything... Have never cut a cherry tomato in half to get to 100g or anything. Can kinda go either way: Figure out a serving and weigh that precisely, or pull out what I want and weigh and log that.

    Glad I'm not the only one who does this! I think I do it because I'm often pre-logging and I'm too lazy to go back to adjust my entry so I'd rather just adjust the food. I find it kinda fun trying to get exactly 227g of yogurt. I admit I don't use my scale for absolutely everything, though. For example today I had a Lean Cuisine... I'm just gonna let that one go for now. Don't worry, I won't make a thread if this backfires on me one day :)
  • Ray_Libby
    Ray_Libby Posts: 874 Member
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    bump

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