I hate measuring

katalinax87

I lost 14lbs with eyeballing but hit a plateau so out comes the scale. It's not my favourite thing in the world and I have a manual scale which goes up in 25 gram increments so I know I could be getting it a tad wrong but will get a digital scale if it doesn't work.

TimothyFish

Ravachu wrote: »

Personally, I don't see how you can log your food without weighing it but that's probably because I just can't stand to be wrong/inaccurate when it comes to data I get a kick out of statistics and trends but not everyone does so I can sympathise with your position. The most important key to losing weight is to find something that works for you long-term so that you can lose the weight and maintain the loss.

I will be weighing and logging food for the rest of my life because I love the sense of control and the 38lbs I've lost doing it so far.

I suspect that is why a lot of people do it. To each his own. For me, if I'm going to be accurate, I want everything to be accurate. I want all the math to work out perfectly, so that I know how many calories I ate and how many calories I burned and I want my calorie deficit equal my weight loss. But it doesn't work that way. No matter how accurately I measure portion sizes, the calories won't match what the package says. No matter how accurately I record my activity, I won't know exactly how much I burned. And when I step on the scales, I might weigh more or less than I expect because I might have a little extra water in my system. The more accurate I try to be, the less in control I feel. So, I eyeball things and use measuring cups that may be a little more or less than level.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

callsitlikeiseeit

Onlythetruth wrote: »

So let's say you are 50 lbs. overweight and are trying to lose weight for the first time. You start counting calories. Great! One year later you have lost the 50 lbs. Great!

Now perhaps to celebrate, you can finally stop counting calories (unless you really really enjoy counting calories).

I mean after one entire year, you should have learned how much you can eat and how much you can't eat, without the need to count.

if that were TRUE.... regaining the weight wouldnt occur as often as it DOES which is why (from what ive heard, anyways) maintenance is more difficult than actually losing weight.

terar21

I both weigh and estimate. It works for me. It mainly works for me because I'm very passive about weight loss at this point. If I do more estimating one week and have a lower loss, my attitude is "oh well! Could've been off in my estimating. Moving onto the next week." I have very little angst over a .25 loss rather than a .5 loss one week. I'm within the range I want to be and already reached my initial goal. I might tighten up at the beginning of maintenance just to be sure because I'm really bad about overestimating and I don't want to be below maintenance when my goal is recomp through lifting.

Now I DO prefer to weigh at food out at least once to see what it looks like. I'd like to know what an ounce of beef jerky looks like so I'm not just blind guessing. After weighing peanut butter endlessly because I LOVE my peanut butter on ritz crackers, I have a special skill of being able to pull out exactly half a tablespoon of peanut butter to the gram. I can do the same thing with a tablespoon of country crock butter. Just call me a savant with a damn good visual memory. Ounces or cups...I'm not so good with. But grams/tablespoons, I'm a fantastic estimator lol.

So I do think everyone would benefit from seeing the things they eat weighed out because it's easy to assume wrong when you've never seen it.

LoosingMyLast15

nesian_twin wrote: »

Will count calories in here but to weigh and measure every single morsel that goes onto my plate is so damn boring, anyone else feel the same? Plus I think its obsessive. Still managing to lose the weight without it though Usually measure portions by hand.

measuring helps you better gauge what a portion size truly looks like over time you won't need to measure because you'll just know what say 30g of peanut butter looks like

runnrchic

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

Onlythetruth wrote: »

So let's say you are 50 lbs. overweight and are trying to lose weight for the first time. You start counting calories. Great! One year later you have lost the 50 lbs. Great!

Now perhaps to celebrate, you can finally stop counting calories (unless you really really enjoy counting calories).

I mean after one entire year, you should have learned how much you can eat and how much you can't eat, without the need to count.

if that were TRUE.... regaining the weight wouldnt occur as often as it DOES which is why (from what ive heard, anyways) maintenance is more difficult than actually losing weight.

I wish this were true for me. In 2010 I realized I was at my highest weight, 136 5'6". I started counting calories in a notebook (yes a paper one!) and got down to 114 (this was actually too low but I run a lot of miles). I stopped counting in January 2012 because cmon, I knew what I could eat, I got this! My weight crept up to 138 by mid 2013. Before I got to 140 I knew I had to start counting again. Good habits slowly turned into bad ones with no accountability. This time I used MFP and 15 months later I am 119, 17% bf and have lots of muscle. It works and I'm not going back to being a non-counter.

SergeantSausage

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

jt880 wrote: »

Actually taxes are totally voluntary there is no law on the books that says you have to look it up.

yeah, thats why the state took $300 out of my bank account. for not paying that ' voluntary' tax....

SergeantSausage wrote: »

jt880 wrote: »

Actually taxes are totally voluntary there is no law on the books that says you have to look it up.

Yer funny.

Educate yourself, or go to prison for your ignorance. You can claim "no law" all you want as they slap on the cuffs, seize all of your assets, and put you on the bus to prison.

It doesn't matter to me - I'm laughing either way, right?



BTW - I cite my source: Straight from irs.gov.

Your "look it up" is Argumentum ad Ignorantum of the highest order, Bro.

**

You don't have to pay the taxes, but you do have to suffer the consequences of not paying your taxes.

then its not REALLY voluntary, is it? I mean, I could rob a bank, but there are consequences.....

thatsthepoint.jpg

Christine_72

For me It's not just a matter of getting my portions correct, I also keep an eye on my macros. I follow my protein, fat and fibre, vitC and A numbers. If I'm off with the weight of my my food, those numbers could be way off too.

SherryTeach

And maintenance makes weighing even more important. I am the first one to be in denial about portion size, particularly of high calorie foods. Potato chips is a problem for me. And Nutella. Weighing that has been valuable in my maintaining.

callsitlikeiseeit

runnrchic wrote: »

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

Onlythetruth wrote: »

So let's say you are 50 lbs. overweight and are trying to lose weight for the first time. You start counting calories. Great! One year later you have lost the 50 lbs. Great!

Now perhaps to celebrate, you can finally stop counting calories (unless you really really enjoy counting calories).

I mean after one entire year, you should have learned how much you can eat and how much you can't eat, without the need to count.

if that were TRUE.... regaining the weight wouldnt occur as often as it DOES which is why (from what ive heard, anyways) maintenance is more difficult than actually losing weight.

I wish this were true for me. In 2010 I realized I was at my highest weight, 136 5'6". I started counting calories in a notebook (yes a paper one!) and got down to 114 (this was actually too low but I run a lot of miles). I stopped counting in January 2012 because cmon, I knew what I could eat, I got this! My weight crept up to 138 by mid 2013. Before I got to 140 I knew I had to start counting again. Good habits slowly turned into bad ones with no accountability. This time I used MFP and 15 months later I am 119, 17% bf and have lots of muscle. It works and I'm not going back to being a non-counter.

i think you missed my point, seeing as you just DEMONSTRATED my point.

runnrchic

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

runnrchic wrote: »

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

Onlythetruth wrote: »

So let's say you are 50 lbs. overweight and are trying to lose weight for the first time. You start counting calories. Great! One year later you have lost the 50 lbs. Great!

Now perhaps to celebrate, you can finally stop counting calories (unless you really really enjoy counting calories).

I mean after one entire year, you should have learned how much you can eat and how much you can't eat, without the need to count.

if that were TRUE.... regaining the weight wouldnt occur as often as it DOES which is why (from what ive heard, anyways) maintenance is more difficult than actually losing weight.

I wish this were true for me. In 2010 I realized I was at my highest weight, 136 5'6". I started counting calories in a notebook (yes a paper one!) and got down to 114 (this was actually too low but I run a lot of miles). I stopped counting in January 2012 because cmon, I knew what I could eat, I got this! My weight crept up to 138 by mid 2013. Before I got to 140 I knew I had to start counting again. Good habits slowly turned into bad ones with no accountability. This time I used MFP and 15 months later I am 119, 17% bf and have lots of muscle. It works and I'm not going back to being a non-counter.

i think you missed my point, seeing as you just DEMONSTRATED my point.

I know lol I accidentally quoted the wrong quote :-P

cb2bslim

I weigh everything and enjoy. Numbers don't lie. I feel like I'm not in control when eating at other people's homes or restaurants I think they would look at me funny if I brought my food scale

Christine_72

cb2bslim wrote: »

I weigh everything and enjoy. Numbers don't lie. I feel like I'm not in control when eating at other people's homes or restaurants I think they would look at me funny if I brought my food scale

HaHa I draw the line at bringing my scales to friends, families places and restaurants.... on those occasions I wing it and hope I'm close.

tinascar2015

Not weighing and measuring your food is like never weighing yourself and just relying on one old pair of jeans to indicate what you weigh. I did that for awhile. I learned that one pair of old jeans can span about 20 pounds.

JulieAnneFIU

I find I can actually eat more by measuring. Prior to that I would overestimate my meals in order to stay under my goal and while I lost weight I was still hungry. Now I'm losing exactly what the app says I will and I feel like I'm eating way more. Plus I've found some serving sizes are bigger than I expected. After all the talk of how little peanut butter is I was underestimating it and now I'm getting way more than expected. Same for ice cream.

callsitlikeiseeit

tinascar2015 wrote: »

Not weighing and measuring your food is like never weighing yourself and just relying on one old pair of jeans to indicate what you weigh. I did that for awhile. I learned that one pair of old jeans can span about 20 pounds.

im down 30 pounds and still in the same jeans. im losing all my weight from the waist up! LOLOLOL!

come on body.... work with me.... give me ONE SIZE DOWN.... PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!

Ellaskat

Ravachu wrote: »

Personally, I don't see how you can log your food without weighing it but that's probably because I just can't stand to be wrong/inaccurate when it comes to data I get a kick out of statistics and trends but not everyone does so I can sympathise with your position. The most important key to losing weight is to find something that works for you long-term so that you can lose the weight and maintain the loss.

I will be weighing and logging food for the rest of my life because I love the sense of control and the 38lbs I've lost doing it so far.

I work with statistics for my job. Data is my life. But I recognize when it's helpful and when it's just a waste of time and effort. Most people don't know their individual, scientifically tested and confirmed BMR, so since we start by using guesstimates, trying to create exact data with an inexact starting point just doesn't make sense to me. I would never do that in my job- so why do it to myself?