MFP Food Diary vs. Handwritten Diary

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bbutler921
bbutler921 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Anyone else prefer to use a handwritten food diary vs MFP? Logging in a notebook seems much quicker and easier to go back and look what I ate in the past.
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  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
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    depends on where I am. If I am gonna be out of the house all day, I keep a handwritten one, and transfer the info to MFP in the evening. MFP is invaluable for the calorie counting aspect.
  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
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    Nope. I use the phone app and, since I take my phone everywhere, it takes literally a few seconds to scan something or enter it in.
  • jenncornelsen
    jenncornelsen Posts: 969 Member
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    i did for a long time. but then i was always logging on to figure out the calories in something. this actually seemed quicker now that ive gotten the hang of it. was easier to just 'guess' on paper
  • Got2beme7
    Got2beme7 Posts: 23 Member
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    The beauty of electronic is that it automatically gives calories....notebook doesn't. I battled with this decision too and It hought at least for the first few months, I'll do MFP and when I'm more confident, I may switch to a notebook.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    I have a hard time believing writing stuff down in a notebook and calculating the calories and macros by hand is faster than letting a calculator designed to do these calculations do its job. The calculator does all the work for you, all you have to do is find an item in the database.

    I don't know...it's pretty damned easy.
  • isulo_kura
    isulo_kura Posts: 818 Member
    edited April 2015
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    bbutler921 wrote: »
    Anyone else prefer to use a handwritten food diary vs MFP? Logging in a notebook seems much quicker and easier to go back and look what I ate in the past.

    Does your notebook have a database of 1000s of foods and their nutritional information? If not and you still have to look it up somewhere you may as well look it up on MFP and add it to your diary.

    If your happy doing it your way fine but I can't see how you can get the accuracy. Logging on MFP is as hard as you want to make it. I spend around 5-10 minutes at most a day logging
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    bbutler921 wrote: »
    Anyone else prefer to use a handwritten food diary vs MFP? Logging in a notebook seems much quicker and easier to go back and look what I ate in the past.

    Not for me.
  • NoIdea101NoIdea
    NoIdea101NoIdea Posts: 659 Member
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    I prefer (and use) a notebook too. Firstly, I'm just a bit old fashioned like that, and secondly I find it much easier to log as I go as I have quite a 'hectic lifestyle'.

    I have a list of all the foods I commonly eat and their calorie, carb, protein and fat content, which I pretty much update as I go; sometimes it can result in a bit of online research to make sure I get accurate portrayals, but I find it kinda fun and it helps motivate me.

    I also keep inspirational pictures, quotes, and exercise routines in there too. It has really helped me to stay on track on many occasions, occasions when there hasn't been a computer to hand.
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
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    When I was in active weight loss phase I did a handwritten one because I was only tracking calories and it was easier to just make note of calories as I ate them (I didn't even write down the food-just the calorie numbers). Now I'm in maintenance and focusing on macros, so I'm here using MFP's food diary to track those :)
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    nope did that back in the 90's with a little book with 1000 food in it...it worked but was a pain in the butt.

    I prefer this method...and if I am away from home there's an app for that....;)
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
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    isulo_kura wrote: »
    bbutler921 wrote: »
    Anyone else prefer to use a handwritten food diary vs MFP? Logging in a notebook seems much quicker and easier to go back and look what I ate in the past.

    Does your notebook have a database of 1000s of foods and their nutritional information? If not and you still have to look it up somewhere you may as well look it up on MFP and add it to your diary.

    If your happy doing it your way fine but I can't see how you can get the accuracy. Logging on MFP is as hard as you want to make it. I spend around 5-10 minutes at most a day logging

    When I did it in a notebook it was very accurate-I just looked at the nutritional labels and then made note of the calories in my nobebook. For things that didn't have a label, like veggies, I used nutritional data to find the info (memorized my regulars pretty quickly though).
  • RunTimer
    RunTimer Posts: 9,137 Member
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    nope.
    MFP diary
    7min..done
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
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    I do both - i make a meal plan for the week on MFP to meet my macros, then it gets written in to a note book. It's easier to refer to, and a good record..... I'm on my 3rd book.
  • bbutler921
    bbutler921 Posts: 5 Member
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    isulo_kura wrote: »
    bbutler921 wrote: »
    Anyone else prefer to use a handwritten food diary vs MFP? Logging in a notebook seems much quicker and easier to go back and look what I ate in the past.

    Does your notebook have a database of 1000s of foods and their nutritional information? If not and you still have to look it up somewhere you may as well look it up on MFP and add it to your diary.

    If your happy doing it your way fine but I can't see how you can get the accuracy. Logging on MFP is as hard as you want to make it. I spend around 5-10 minutes at most a day logging

    I tend to eat the same things so I usually have the nutrition information. I currently log in a notebook and MFP but I can't have my phone at work so I write it all down and then log it at home, which is why I said it's easier to log in a notebook for me :)

    Maybe I just don't like change haha. I'll keep using MFP and see if I start liking it better.
  • HereWeGoAgain7
    HereWeGoAgain7 Posts: 163 Member
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    I do both. I keep MFP updated with my phone/work computer, but for some reason writing it down old-school style really helps me stay on target. Plus its easier for me to just hand my notebook to my coach/dietician and say "what did I miss?"
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited April 2015
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    I've done that before to understand what I was eating, but I didn't bother with the calorie part--it would have been far too much work.

    I enjoy putting it in MFP now--easy and weirdly fun.

    I keep a journal of sorts and make notes/comments about food stuff and struggles I might have.
  • shaunte92
    shaunte92 Posts: 127 Member
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    Are you using the mobile app? So quick & so easy. You're phone is always at your fingertips.
  • NoIdea101NoIdea
    NoIdea101NoIdea Posts: 659 Member
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    My phone is also terrible for internet, so can rarely use the app, hence why I tend to use the notebook instead!
  • aerochic42
    aerochic42 Posts: 822 Member
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    I've done the notebook thing kind of listing of food/calories to establish a baseline of what a normal week looked like prior to reducing the food. I found out that the "suggested" MFP was like half of what I normally ate which explained why I couldn't keep it up and was always starving - too big a drop at a time. It also got me in the habit of documenting. I've gotten better about estiguessing sizes and to listening to my body as to how full I really am, so I'm not currently logging or measuring too actively right now.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    edited April 2015
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    I prelog my day in the morning. I'm not one much for on the go logging.

    I know doing it by hand would not be my style. I remember those little calorie count booklets at supermarket checkouts when I was a kid. I think my mother and aunt used one of those and a postage scale back in the day. I'm pretty sure that was the phase that gave birth to the tuna fish mixed with tomato juice nightmare concoction.

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