MFP Food Diary vs. Handwritten Diary

segacs

I think the reason calorie counting is so much more popular than it used to be is because, thanks to technology, it's so much more accessible than it used to be.

Programs like Weight Watchers and the like became really popular in the days when calorie counting with any kind of accuracy was a giant hassle. You had to log by hand, and look up foods in a huge book with thousands of foods, and it took forever. Weight Watchers and similar programs aimed to simplify the process, and that was not perfect but it was "good enough" for many people.

But now, with free apps like MFP doing all the hard work for you, there's no real benefit to using those simplified programs versus calorie counting.

I'm old fashioned about a lot of things, too, but tracking calories is so much easier with the app.

Lounmoun

I pre-log my day of food with MFP the night before or in the morning before breakfast. At the end of the day I complete the entry.
I can see how if you do not have access to the internet most of the time then a notebook food diary could be handier but I don't think it is easier.

edellaSut

I use a standard steno notebook, but MFP as well.But this is not really for dietary reasons. I'm diabetic, on a very intensive regime, and therefore have to take lots of notes, numbers and so forth throughout each day of my life. The notes I made about food were useful, but they were jotted down very quickly, and really didn't give me much the guidance for future meals (or much useful overview of medical problems) . Since I've got going with MFP, things have been a breeze! I live in the UK, and shop online from Waitrose/Ocado, so I find that the database already holds most of my food choices. (I'm in the process of transferring over all my custom foods from fitday and I must say that so far I've had to input very very few foods.) A really big advantage of using MFP is that you can transfer daily menus to other dates as long as you know when you put them all in. I keep a record of this, a little index, and when I come across really lovely menus that I want to try again I just go back to '04 – 02-THU' or whatever and copy it to a new date. People seem toImostly eat the same things anyway, so once you have, say, a month or so oif really nice daily menus, the thought processes can ease up a bit! This is especially true if you are on a very strict ketogenic diet, which I am at the moment. It's sometimes very hard to come up with the interesting things on a daily basis so having this sort of backlog of useful menus so easy to hand is very useful. In academic terms, I suppose my scrolled and pitifully messy notebooks on my "primary source" and what I actually printout in Word, with the daily menu on one side and a massive technical diabetes things on the other side are turning out to make a very useful historical report of how it's all going. Generally speaking the advertising for this site says you can lose weight a lot faster if you do it with friends – this is certainly true, but from the diabetic point of view it's also made a world of difference in the way I track and can keep in contro of my now quite normal blood sugar results (between 4.5 and 5.5). I keep a little daily graph of my BG readings as well, and they are starting to go across the grass in a very gentle wavy line rather than in constant zigzags. It's easier to keep track of just how your you are progressing, so I would say use MFP as well. But hey, each to their own way of doing things. I probably wouldn't be doing any of this if I didn't have to!

hsmith0930

I think it depends on what you're using it for. If you are simply trying to be aware of what you're eating without concern of exactly how much and how many calories, paper might be faster. If you are counting calories to lose weight, I think it's much easier to use MFP. I have the app on my phone so I can scan things, but I can usually remember a few numbers enough to make my meal and enter it on my computer too.

I like that MFP has all the data I want in one place. I have all my past journals, notes about my day if I chose to put them in, my weights, etc all together in addition to the community! It's pretty much perfect to me!

hsmith0930

segacs wrote: »

I think the reason calorie counting is so much more popular than it used to be is because, thanks to technology, it's so much more accessible than it used to be.

Programs like Weight Watchers and the like became really popular in the days when calorie counting with any kind of accuracy was a giant hassle. You had to log by hand, and look up foods in a huge book with thousands of foods, and it took forever. Weight Watchers and similar programs aimed to simplify the process, and that was not perfect but it was "good enough" for many people.

But now, with free apps like MFP doing all the hard work for you, there's no real benefit to using those simplified programs versus calorie counting.

I'm old fashioned about a lot of things, too, but tracking calories is so much easier with the app.

I agree with this a LOT! I'm not old by any means, but I know that even when I was first starting to look at weight loss in school I had so few options. I think that easy access to programs such as MFP and Sparkpeople and such will start showing up soon in the statistics of people who successfully keep weight off after losing it!

1shauna1

I have the app on my phone and tablet, and I love it. I'm, I guess you'd say, "older" but nope, this is the easiest way. I have all my recipes and foods I've entered, and everything logs properly, no guessing. So for me, this is the way I keep no track!

HumboldtFred

I print my logs from MFP and put them in a notebook that I keep in my locker at work. It is nice to see those entries in solid state. I also sometimes thumb through my book of wisdom for inspiration and food choices I know I liked.

Sued0nim

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.

Yes

I also like using a chisel and slate to write shopping lists

rainbow198

I've been writing my foods down in a notebook for the past 3.5 years. Not so much to save time, or that it's easier - it's just a preference.

I've lost and kept off 80 lbs. and have been maintaining for 2 years.

Works for me.

PaulaWallaDingDong

I like to travel light, plan my day's calories ahead of time, and edit them on a whim. Having a cell phone app does the job well.

Liftng4Lis

I prelog my days and like to do that on the computer. If I'm out and something is finding it's way to my mouth, I use the phone app.

Francl27

Why? MFP does the math for me, and considering that I use a lot of foods that don't come with a barcode or nutrition info, I need the database.

I can't imagine that a written diary would be accurate at all, especially as I almost never eat an exact serving of something.

teagirlmedium

I like using them both, but I write the food down in my agenda book. That makes shopping easier for me.

lesliewalker108

Personally when I try hand writing its way more work. MFP makes it so much easier ,you can be at work , at home on use it on the go on your phone