Anyone else end up choosing foods to eat just because they are easy to log?

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  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
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    I sometimes choose the easy way out in restaurants. A salad or somethig simple, so I don't have to guess, or wonder what the heck was in a meal. I would rather eat simple then fix a meal later, (or before going out to a restaurant) and know exactly what is in it. Its all a matter of controlling your environment, and since I am kind of at the beginning of my journey, I would rather do that then lose control.
  • tibby531
    tibby531 Posts: 717 Member
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    I eat dinner at my mom's house regularly and I know that I've blown that day's deficit on several occasions. I'm not going to turn down that food in favor of eating something I know precisely. I have a life outside of my weight loss.
    Hah this is preciesly my problem when i visit my parents and my dad cooks something delicious.
    As for the last 10 pounds thing: Yes, you do have to be more accurate if you want the weight to come off consistently. But I have gone from obese to 6 pounds above goal and I know I'm working on vanity pounds. I was much more restrictive in the beginning. As long as I'm in a deficit most of the time, I don't worry about going over. The weight is coming off slowly, but I don't feel like I'm losing out on social gatherings, so it's fine.
    This is comforting, thank you. Dunno why I'm freaking out about vanity pounds, I guess I'm still in the "coming to terms with the weight loss slowing" phase.

    It's funny how we're so gung ho when accuracy doesn't matter as much, then a bit more laissez faire when it does. I don't know if you work out, but I find tracking my intake much less stressful when I know I have a pool of exercise calories to play with.

    I do and then I have to deal with "am i eating back enough of the exercise calories? too many?"

    so many factors. UGH

    I actually tested it out this year. I ate 50% back for a month and then all of them back for a month. MFP is about 75% accurate for me.

    I think I have that aspect figured out. MFP logs your exercise calories as if it's the absolute-hardest workout you could do at the time. (I think, compared to results from my HRM). so, if you're logging a little walk around the block, maybe manually adjust to 40%-50% of what it says, depending on how much OOMPH you think you used. if you think you gave an aerobics video 80% of your full potential, adjust the burn to 80% of what MFP logs. and if you think you only put forth 20% of your potential... maybe just don't log it. I haven't tried it, yet, or fully compared notes, but I think it's fair that it would work in theory, at least. :)
  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,771 Member
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    tibby531 wrote: »

    I eat dinner at my mom's house regularly and I know that I've blown that day's deficit on several occasions. I'm not going to turn down that food in favor of eating something I know precisely. I have a life outside of my weight loss.
    Hah this is preciesly my problem when i visit my parents and my dad cooks something delicious.
    As for the last 10 pounds thing: Yes, you do have to be more accurate if you want the weight to come off consistently. But I have gone from obese to 6 pounds above goal and I know I'm working on vanity pounds. I was much more restrictive in the beginning. As long as I'm in a deficit most of the time, I don't worry about going over. The weight is coming off slowly, but I don't feel like I'm losing out on social gatherings, so it's fine.
    This is comforting, thank you. Dunno why I'm freaking out about vanity pounds, I guess I'm still in the "coming to terms with the weight loss slowing" phase.

    It's funny how we're so gung ho when accuracy doesn't matter as much, then a bit more laissez faire when it does. I don't know if you work out, but I find tracking my intake much less stressful when I know I have a pool of exercise calories to play with.

    I do and then I have to deal with "am i eating back enough of the exercise calories? too many?"

    so many factors. UGH

    I actually tested it out this year. I ate 50% back for a month and then all of them back for a month. MFP is about 75% accurate for me.

    I think I have that aspect figured out. MFP logs your exercise calories as if it's the absolute-hardest workout you could do at the time. (I think, compared to results from my HRM). so, if you're logging a little walk around the block, maybe manually adjust to 40%-50% of what it says, depending on how much OOMPH you think you used. if you think you gave an aerobics video 80% of your full potential, adjust the burn to 80% of what MFP logs. and if you think you only put forth 20% of your potential... maybe just don't log it. I haven't tried it, yet, or fully compared notes, but I think it's fair that it would work in theory, at least. :)

    That's what I've suspected too. I was a fairly new runner when I tested it out. If I start losing once I hit maintenance, I'll know why.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    tibby531 wrote: »
    Wishing MFP could let us "deactivate" stuff we only ate once . . .

    I would second this in a heart beat!

    and, yay! I love that there's so many of us lazy people, here. ;)

    I wish they would let us deactivate it as well! We've all bought and logged things we'll probably never eat again. I'd like to remove my Fourth of July hot dogs from the first page of recent results, please.

    Log some herbs and spices and you'll push it off page one quickly enough :)

  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,771 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    tibby531 wrote: »
    Wishing MFP could let us "deactivate" stuff we only ate once . . .

    I would second this in a heart beat!

    and, yay! I love that there's so many of us lazy people, here. ;)

    I wish they would let us deactivate it as well! We've all bought and logged things we'll probably never eat again. I'd like to remove my Fourth of July hot dogs from the first page of recent results, please.

    Log some herbs and spices and you'll push it off page one quickly enough :)

    Nice callback
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
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    Annr wrote: »
    I sometimes choose the easy way out in restaurants. A salad or somethig simple, so I don't have to guess, or wonder what the heck was in a meal. I would rather eat simple then fix a meal later, (or before going out to a restaurant) and know exactly what is in it. Its all a matter of controlling your environment, and since I am kind of at the beginning of my journey, I would rather do that then lose control.

    You would be surprised at how many calories restaurants can pack into a seemingly innocuous salad.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    I got to that point. I'd even say, "No, I'm not going to grab a few peanuts/strawberries/whatever" to eat right now" because I didn't feel like getting the paper towel, weighing them, writing it down and going over and logging it. I just wanted to have a tiny snack. It was easier to skip it.

    The logging started becoming a serious chore and began to affect what I ate.

    No too long after that, I got wildly tired of all the weighing and counting and took myself a nice, long break.
  • natboosh69
    natboosh69 Posts: 276 Member
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    Yeah lazy logger here too :P I don't eat the same food every day but I do tend to stick to packaged stuff so it's easier to log, eg. frozen chicken grills I can just lash in the oven.

    I do still eat out and get takeout and stuff though. I just search for a similar meal in the database and pick one with the most calories. If I don't know how much to log for anything, which isn't very often, I make sure I overestimate to be safe.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Ha! No. I like specific foods more than I'm lazy about logging them.

    I have, however, subtly (I hope) taken a pulled pork burrito apart, and then used a ruler app to measure the contents (e.g. diameter of tortilla, length/width of pulled pork filling glob) so that I felt my estimations would be accurate enough to feel ok about logging (and SAVING) those individual entries as a meal. I choose higher cal database entries to hedge my bets.

    Have done the same for a schwarma and other things I have more often than once every few months. But now they're in there! Since they're meals, and they're foods I have often-ish, if I notice I get extra filling, it's easy to adjust.

    I feel like it's worth it, because those could be anywhere from 400 to 1000 calories.

    I have also spent 10 + minutes evaluating entries and/or Googling to be confident I'm close, if I can't get the food directly.

    THEN I have some days I don't log at all, and for some reason am fine with that when I do it :p
  • _runnerbean_
    _runnerbean_ Posts: 640 Member
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    I sometimes cook a meal for my family then make myself a weight watchers ready meal for my own dinner as it's easier to log! I only do it on weekdays though. If someone cooks me a nice meal at the weekend, or we go out, I just guess the calories and do "quick add calories". It won't give me the breakdown of macros but it's only occasionally so I don't get too hung up on it.
  • MelissaSchlaikier05
    MelissaSchlaikier05 Posts: 20 Member
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    tibby531 wrote: »
    I am one of the laziest loggers I know. ;) I eat the same thing five days a week just so I can prelog in about five minutes and I don't have to math and stuff.

    I also do this too! Package foods like dried broadbeans, protien bars, yogurts, Makes it alot easier and accurate, lazy I know! : ) sometimes I just can't be bothered measuring weighing food
  • karenrich77
    karenrich77 Posts: 292 Member
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    No way, that sounds like one of the most miserable ways to live life!!
  • kazminchu
    kazminchu Posts: 250 Member
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    tibby531 wrote: »
    I am one of the laziest loggers I know. ;) I eat the same thing five days a week just so I can prelog in about five minutes and I don't have to math and stuff.

    "What's for lunch today, Karen?"
    "tuna salad, like the last 6 months"

    In winter I have soup. :p
  • 257_Lag
    257_Lag Posts: 1,249 Member
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    I'll admit to that. The only time I go "off the known path" is when I have a ton of extra calories left after a long workout.
  • ExRelaySprinter
    ExRelaySprinter Posts: 874 Member
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    Anyone else end up choosing foods to eat just because they are easy to log?"

    Nope, never that.
    I do sometimes choose things to eat because they're easy to cook though! ;)
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
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    I don't have this problem because I only eat at restaurants a handful of times every year, and I've never had a homemade meal cooked by someone else that I'd classify as delicious.
  • meddaugh48
    meddaugh48 Posts: 41 Member
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    tibby531 wrote: »
    I am one of the laziest loggers I know. ;) I eat the same thing five days a week just so I can prelog in about five minutes and I don't have to math and stuff.

    I do the same thing. :)

    Same here!
  • tibby531
    tibby531 Posts: 717 Member
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    kazminchu wrote: »
    tibby531 wrote: »
    I am one of the laziest loggers I know. ;) I eat the same thing five days a week just so I can prelog in about five minutes and I don't have to math and stuff.

    "What's for lunch today, Karen?"
    "tuna salad, like the last 6 months"

    In winter I have soup. :p

    I've recently started alternating between tuna AND turkey sammiches. my coworkers don't know what to think. hahaaaaaa! fist bump for tuna sammiches! ;)
  • tibby531
    tibby531 Posts: 717 Member
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    tomatoey wrote: »
    I have, however, subtly (I hope) taken a pulled pork burrito apart, and then used a ruler app to measure the contents (e.g. diameter of tortilla, length/width of pulled pork filling glob) so that I felt my estimations would be accurate enough to feel ok about logging (and SAVING) those individual entries as a meal. I choose higher cal database entries to hedge my bets.

    you are the anti-lazy logger!! the yang to our yin. :p

    I do write down how many grams of which ingredients I used on recipe printouts for some quick-remake-without-relogging-the-recipe action.
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
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    I just bought a Subway sandwich and mentally took it apart in my brain. I have to omit the turkey to stay within my guidelines...but its gonna be a hellava dinner :-)