I don't weight my food

Rockin2014

I started my weight loss journey 10 weeks ago. In these 10 weeks I have lost 10kg (22lbs) just as planned. However, I hardly ever weigh my food. I measure with cups, spoons and my eyeballs and each and every week I have met my target. If I am eating something I've never had before and which I find impossible to figure out I will weigh it (if I'm at home).
I sometimes wonder whether the focus on weighing your food is to big on MFP and I believe it may scare many people away because they find it too much of a hassle.

Anyone else not weigh and still see great results?

randomtai

Rockin2014 wrote: »

I started my weight loss journey 10 weeks ago. In these 10 weeks I have lost 10kg (22lbs) just as planned. However, I hardly ever weigh my food. I measure with cups, spoons and my eyeballs and each and every week I have met my target. If I am eating something I've never had before and which I find impossible to figure out I will weigh it (if I'm at home).
I sometimes wonder whether the focus on weighing your food is to big on MFP and I believe it may scare many people away because they find it too much of a hassle.

Anyone else not weigh and still see great results?

Eyeballing works up to a point. As soon as the weight loss slows down it becomes time to buckle down. Whatever works for people.

adamitri

I don't think a lot of people see it as a hassle and unfortunately some people are just not good at estimating. You see a lot of threads from people saying they haven't lost any weight or they stopped losing weight and they can't figure out why.

North44

I don't weigh my food either and I get good results. Most of the time people are told to weigh their food when they are having problems losing. I also used MFP for quite a while before I even realized there was a forum.

INDF1978

I agree and think it would help to have more natural ways to measure, eg. 1/2 an avocado, 3 tablespoons of eggwhite (that one was tough to calculate an omelet) not measured through 1/2 cup or weight. If you are out and need to judge it would be great to see as some other weightloss programs have more natural approaches. i too feel like i need to buy a scale and it seems like there could be easier options.

marilandica

I think some people are better at eyeballing than others. And, since you're losing weight, you obviously are someone who is better at it. A lot of it I think has to do with whether you cook or not. I'm a good estimator of amounts - like you, I didn't do a whole lot of weighing at the height of my calorie counting and still lost a lot of weight - because I do a lot of cooking and baking.

5stringjeff

I have never weighed food, but I often measure (cups, tablespoons, etc.). I also eat more packaged food than others, so I have less occasion to need to measure things out.

SezxyStef

some people don't weigh their food and have great luck.

When I first started I didn't weigh my food...I was losing too...but not as quick as I should have been.

1/2lb vs 1lb a week...I started weighing my portions bam 1lb a week...

The thing is this too since I started weighing I have gotten some nice surprises for example

I love cottage cheese on my salad and the portion is 1/2c or 125grams...125grams is a lot more than 1/2cup.

it's odd tho your diary shows portions in weight more often than not...and you log 1200 and under typically and exercise up to 300 calories a day...

myukniewicz

congratulations on such an awesome loss!! ❤

brianpperkins

Rockin2014 wrote: »

I started my weight loss journey 10 weeks ago. In these 10 weeks I have lost 10kg (22lbs) just as planned. However, I hardly ever weigh my food. I measure with cups, spoons and my eyeballs and each and every week I have met my target. If I am eating something I've never had before and which I find impossible to figure out I will weigh it (if I'm at home).
I sometimes wonder whether the focus on weighing your food is to big on MFP and I believe it may scare many people away because they find it too much of a hassle.

Anyone else not weigh and still see great results?

If you're losing as planned while logging 500 or more calories below your daily target, you are then eating more than you think.

jmourbina

I never weigh my food either and I have lost nearly 20 pounds in about 10 weeks as well. However I don't eat back my excersice calories so if I am not logging accurately I have a bit of a cushion.

Jgasmic

When I started MyFitnessPal this time (yay second try!) I read all of the "plateau" and "Why am I not losing weight" threads and every single one of them told me to get a food scale and weigh my food. I don't think it matters so much while I'm at a one pound a week deficit, but I can see it mattering when I get down to half a pound so I figured I would get in the habit now. It's really easy and cooking doesn't take me any more time than it did before. Plus, knowing I am measuring everything as accurately as possible means I don't freak out when the scale doesn't match my expectations because I trust the math and know the scale will catch up. It's a peace of mind thing for me, and my way of feeling like I'm doing everything I can to stay on track.

booksandchocolate12

Congratulations on your weight loss and on being able to eyeball and guess your way to a slimmer you!

I, unfortunately, do not have that skill and have to weigh and measure everything. It's just habit now, and not a hassle at all.

*shrugs*

Unknown

This content has been removed.

999tigger

It an work for some, but most of the posts on MFP are by people who are not losing and the reason is they cnat maintain an accurate deficit, hence the focus on weighing.

_m0lly

My situation is similar. I have lost 20lbs and have not once weighed my food, I seem to be doing ok. I'm still losing consistently 1lb a week, I only have a few more to go so I'm hoping it carries on

KombuchaCat

I agree with you. I think if you really have no idea about something weighing is useful. However weightloss with tediousness is pretty much going to fail unless you already have underlying OCD. Personally I like to focus on the nutrient density of my food and cut out anything that does not fit the bill. Then you don't have to worry so much about calories because it's harder to over eat nutrient dense food. Also when you cut out the sugar and junk the cravings end so I don't have to worry about counting every chip or cracker and weighing them. I don't crave them anymore.

Laurend224

I stink at estimating portions and to me weighing is the easier choice. Congrats on your loss, that's great.

dfranch

I don't weigh everything I eat either. I usually only weigh meat portions for dinner, snacks like fruit or peanuts. That's about it. After a while you just know how many calories certain foods are and you don't have to weigh as often. As others have noted, when your weight loss slows down, weighing foods can help fine tune items you may have been misjudging.

Rockin2014

Makes perfect sense that weighing might become more important the closer I get to my goal weight.

Jessikin13

I don't weigh either but I also don't eat any of my exercise calories. It seems to be working just fine. I've lost 22 lbs in 14 weeks.

isulo_kura

Rockin2014 wrote: »

I started my weight loss journey 10 weeks ago. In these 10 weeks I have lost 10kg (22lbs) just as planned. However, I hardly ever weigh my food. I measure with cups, spoons and my eyeballs and each and every week I have met my target. If I am eating something I've never had before and which I find impossible to figure out I will weigh it (if I'm at home).
I sometimes wonder whether the focus on weighing your food is to big on MFP and I believe it may scare many people away because they find it too much of a hassle.

Anyone else not weigh and still see great results?

When you get nearer your goal and your deficit is smaller the margin for error is much less so at that point you may need to start weighing. So it may be better to start now because it will be easier to get into the habit, but whatever works for you

lemurcat12

I didn't weigh at first, but I switched to weighing because for me it's a time saver--much easier to dump things on the scale when I chop or cook than to have to mess with measuring them in cups or estimating. I'm also the kind of person who found logging much more burdensome when I had to guess with the cup entries and the like and didn't have an easy exact number to plug in for meat than when I can just weigh and use that.

However, I don't think you need to weigh to lose, obviously. I wasn't having a problem losing (I also still had a pretty large deficit, so wiggle room) when I switched.

I'm mainly popping in to say I don't see why the focus on weighing would scare people off. When I first saw people talking about it I thought they were nuts and that estimating was fine (I still think this is true for many--I think the key benefit of logging for me is making myself be mindful and weighing and precision just makes it more fun). I never thought I couldn't calorie count or use the MFP tool if I didn't weigh, however.

I think the bigger problem with the MFP tool are the many terrible entries and that some people don't seem to realize that many of them are inaccurate or useless when they first start logging, not weighing vs. estimating. But also some people are just better estimators than others or less likely to assume the number is lower than reality. If you are someone prone to, say, wishful thinking, that should be something you take into account in deciding what tools you need to do this.

jrline

I have never weighed my food

keithcw_the_first

isulo_kura wrote: »

Rockin2014 wrote: »

I started my weight loss journey 10 weeks ago. In these 10 weeks I have lost 10kg (22lbs) just as planned. However, I hardly ever weigh my food. I measure with cups, spoons and my eyeballs and each and every week I have met my target. If I am eating something I've never had before and which I find impossible to figure out I will weigh it (if I'm at home).
I sometimes wonder whether the focus on weighing your food is to big on MFP and I believe it may scare many people away because they find it too much of a hassle.

Anyone else not weigh and still see great results?

When you get nearer your goal and your deficit is smaller the margin for error is much less so at that point you may need to start weighing. So it may be better to start now because it will be easier to get into the habit, but whatever works for you

This. If you get down to losing .5 lb a week, and not weighing food introduces an error equivalent to .25 pounds a week, then you may see some verrrrrrry slow progress vs. what's expected.

Rockin2014

jrline wrote: »

I have never weighed my food

Wow. Congratulations! Amazing

brianpperkins

I've noticed a trend of claims that people don't eat back their exercise calories. The reality is the inaccurate logging of intake means that the exercise calories are in fact consumed back.

When the margins for error shrink, the issues show up ... just look at how many threads pop up on MFP every day of people who "stalled" or "plateaued" after early success. The trend in those threads is inaccurate logging of both intake and burn which didn't become evident until those margins for error shrank.

yopeeps025

Rockin2014 wrote: »

Makes perfect sense that weighing might become more important the closer I get to my goal weight.

How much more weight do you want to lose till you get to your goal?

Sarasmaintaining

Rockin2014 wrote: »

I started my weight loss journey 10 weeks ago. In these 10 weeks I have lost 10kg (22lbs) just as planned. However, I hardly ever weigh my food. I measure with cups, spoons and my eyeballs and each and every week I have met my target. If I am eating something I've never had before and which I find impossible to figure out I will weigh it (if I'm at home).
I sometimes wonder whether the focus on weighing your food is to big on MFP and I believe it may scare many people away because they find it too much of a hassle.

Anyone else not weigh and still see great results?

Starting out, when I had a lot to lose, I also got away with just using measuring cups, package serving size recommendations (serving of chips is 11 chips etc). However, once I got close to my maintenance range I had to buy a food scale because I had to become a lot more accurate with my measuring, in order to keep losing the last few pounds. I've been in maintenance for two years now and I've found that I have to use my food scale as part of my maintenance plan.

scratchdesk

I have been weighing more and more items as I progress. I find that there are a number of difficult or inaccurate items that I can't measure without weight. Primary leafy greens and just recently some Honey Bunches of Oats Granola. That stuff says 1/2 cup or 50g. If I use a measuring cup I get about 25g in a half cup so it's pretty far off.

DeguelloTex

jrline wrote: »

I have never weighed my food

I always weigh my food.



If weighing works, weigh. If it works without it, don't.