does anyone else log like this?
Replies
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goteammummy wrote: »Sorry, but I will not be weighing my food for the tiny variations from the package size stated.
There is surely far more margin for error in the measurement of daily activity, or the exercise you do. Was it 20 minutes of walking, or was it 21? How long did I wait at the crossing, and so on.
I think I would become obsessed if I had to worry about an extra couple of grams of bread!
I typically do not weigh pre-packaged items...but I do weigh things like nuts, peanut butter, pasta (how else would you know if you're even remotely close to your 2 ounces of spaghetti), etc.
I also weigh out my meats and whatnot...for the longest time I was eating a whole chicken breast and logging it as 4 ounces because my package said 4 ounces was a serving size and logically I thought that would be roughly 1 breast give or take...turns out the average chicken breast is generally in the neighborhood of 8-10 ounces...boom...just doubled up my actual calories from what I logged. I had a similar issue with almonds...someone told me a handful was a good estimate of serving size...so I was logging 1 ounce of almonds for my afternoon snack...turns out my handful of almonds is closer to 2 ounces.
just between those two items alone I was regularly underestimating my actual intake by almost 300 calories...puts a pretty big dent in what is supposedly a 500 calorie deficit.0 -
I don't think picky and judgy, more like unfriendly and unapproachable tones
The one liner postings like:
*Open Your Diary
*CICO
*Are you weighing your food?
How about instead:
**If we can see your diary that would help
**CICO <<enter one paragraph or more explanation>>
**It could be that you're not weighing your food correctly. Let's check out your diary and see if there's anything we can find that could help you.
Yes, if more people could give complete thoughts the way lemurcat does that would indeed be helpful.
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lemurcat12 wrote: »If we can see your diary that would help
This is what I say. Also, there are tricks to logging, so we might be able to help if you are willing to open your diary.
When reading diaries to try to help I focus more on entries chosen and whether there may be an issue with weighing cooked meats and logging raw (I ask, don't assume), since I'm bad at seeing other issues and am less convinced that not weighing is the issue (although weighing is, IMO, easier).
Sometimes I think people want to have an excuse to get offended by anything, though -- like the response to OP here was perfectly positive and she doesn't seem to have a problem.
Yeah, I think erroneous entries being used are probably a bigger issue than weighing something vs measuring something. Erroneous entries and just eyeballing...
I'm always a little dumbfounded when I come across entries like...1 piece of cake or some such generic thing like this...like how can anyone presume any kind of accuracy there? yet they seem to.0 -
tincanonastring wrote: »tincanonastring wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »erialcelyob wrote: »Nothing wrong with what you are doing whatsoever, people are just picky and judgy :P
In every case where I have seen where someone is asked if they're weighing their food, it's because they have asked the community for help and advice because they aren't losing weight. I wouldn't call this "picky and judgy," not weighing food is a pretty common trend among people who aren't getting the results they want. If someone is actually weighing their food and logging it based on the cup/tablespoon, it's an easy clarification for them to make when it is brought up.
Well yes and no. A lot of times, OP says that they are weighing their food, yet people come and say that there are a lot of entries in cups in their diary... Personally, well, I take OP's word (although I will mention if OP uses a lot of 'generic' entries for homemade dishes). But if OP says 'I measure and weigh everything' I do tend to ask what they mean by 'measuring', because if someone is weighing everything, I don't really know where the 'measure' is coming from.
Most times when I see that happen, they go on to clarify that they are weighing some things but not others (they don't weigh bread, for example).
Do you weigh bread????? I never did or ever will and I have in maintenance for almost 5 years. I think that sometimes we take things to the extreme trying to be super accurate without realizing that "life" is not accurate.
Lolllll bread it's something you would never going to see in my food scale #hellNo #ItrusinhimAndHeTrustInMe... and don't really think not weighing bread is a good example or reason why someone would no be losing weight
It seems ridiculous, but the bread I weighed on Monday was 12g heavier than the serving size on the package indicated. That's 22% more than it said I would be eating. Not weighing bread, especially if it's a high-calorie version, could easily lead someone to not lose weight.
Yeah hahahaahah I believe you, but IDK
if it is working don't try to fix it I guess (in my case not weighing my bread is def. A no no)
But for those who do it , good for you !
No doubt. I don't know that it's necessarily affecting my success, but the more accurate I log, the better the chance I can find room for beer and whiskey.
Now, that is your reason for weighting bread. Naughty boy!
I'm not naughty, I just have priorities.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »If we can see your diary that would help
This is what I say. Also, there are tricks to logging, so we might be able to help if you are willing to open your diary.
When reading diaries to try to help I focus more on entries chosen and whether there may be an issue with weighing cooked meats and logging raw (I ask, don't assume), since I'm bad at seeing other issues and am less convinced that not weighing is the issue (although weighing is, IMO, easier).
Sometimes I think people want to have an excuse to get offended by anything, though -- like the response to OP here was perfectly positive and she doesn't seem to have a problem.
Yeah, I think erroneous entries being used are probably a bigger issue than weighing something vs measuring something. Erroneous entries and just eyeballing...
I'm always a little dumbfounded when I come across entries like...1 piece of cake or some such generic thing like this...like how can anyone presume any kind of accuracy there? yet they seem to.
A thousand thises. I saw 3/4 pound of chicken logged as 120 calories. Like, wut?0 -
tincanonastring wrote: »I do this, but I don't overreact when people ask if I'm actually weighing them. I just point out what you did here; my logged amount is equal to what I actually ate.
There's normally an easy clue to determine between someone who is actually weighing and just using the measurement listed in the database vs. someone who is measuring or just eyeballing. The majority of my diary is entered as grams using whole food components and most of my "measured" entries are not whole numbers. If I see those two things, I typically wouldn't ask a user if they were weighing; they most likely are.
The corollary to the above, though, is that users who weigh and log properly are not the typical posters of "Why am I not losing" threads. Chances are, if you understand the concept of weighing and logging and you're doing it consistently, you know exactly why you're not losing.
^Exactly this.
I'm anal retentive enough that I'll weigh out exactly how many grams are in the cup measurement of yogurt I have logged ... every. single. day.
There was one time I hit a three week stall and I posted a general question about stalls. When I made my post, I made sure to mention that all volume entries in my diary had been measured to their gram equivalencies. It wasn't really an issue. The one thing I was sure of during that stall was that my logging was tight. That's why my question was generic about length of stalls and not... HALP!!! Why am I not losing weight?!?!?!
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janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »erialcelyob wrote: »Nothing wrong with what you are doing whatsoever, people are just picky and judgy :P
In every case where I have seen where someone is asked if they're weighing their food, it's because they have asked the community for help and advice because they aren't losing weight. I wouldn't call this "picky and judgy," not weighing food is a pretty common trend among people who aren't getting the results they want. If someone is actually weighing their food and logging it based on the cup/tablespoon, it's an easy clarification for them to make when it is brought up.
Well yes and no. A lot of times, OP says that they are weighing their food, yet people come and say that there are a lot of entries in cups in their diary... Personally, well, I take OP's word (although I will mention if OP uses a lot of 'generic' entries for homemade dishes). But if OP says 'I measure and weigh everything' I do tend to ask what they mean by 'measuring', because if someone is weighing everything, I don't really know where the 'measure' is coming from.
Most times when I see that happen, they go on to clarify that they are weighing some things but not others (they don't weigh bread, for example).
Do you weigh bread????? I never did or ever will and I have in maintenance for almost 5 years. I think that sometimes we take things to the extreme trying to be super accurate without realizing that "life" is not accurate.
I do. But there was a discussion where it was brought to light that specialty breads (which I need to eat since I have celiac disease) are more likely to be highly variable in size per slice than your average supermarket loaf.
I noticed this with the last loaf of bread I had. Some slices were so much thicker than others. I started weighing them. There was a big difference.
Since I don't eat bread often, I store the bread in the freezer and toast as needed. This isn't something where the loaf averages out over the week.
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An English muffin has about 120 calories, so your bothering to weigh and adjust meant 6 calories. If you get pleasure from that sort of burdensome precision, that's fine, but it is quite unnecessary for weight loss. To be clear, I use my scale plenty, but not when it is pointless.Yep, I do this too. Today my diary has 1.05 English muffins. It weighed 60 grams instead of the 57 listed on the nutrition info. Now, if I see a diary and it's all in those even amounts, then I question whether or not they're weighing.
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sheldonklein wrote: »
An English muffin has about 120 calories, so your bothering to weigh and adjust meant 6 calories. If you get pleasure from that sort of burdensome precision, that's fine, but it is quite unnecessary for weight loss. To be clear, I use my scale plenty, but not when it is pointless.Yep, I do this too. Today my diary has 1.05 English muffins. It weighed 60 grams instead of the 57 listed on the nutrition info. Now, if I see a diary and it's all in those even amounts, then I question whether or not they're weighing.
So, I get you think it's pointless, but for someone with only a 200-250 calorie deficit to achieve ~.5 loss per week, those 6 cals are 2.5% of the deficit. Multiply that imprecision by the 15 items they've logged that day and you're talking about a hefty chunk of their deficit being erased.
ETA: That's not the case with me. I log it precisely because, well, why bother weighing it if you're not going to use the number on the scale?
ETAA: Also, more beer.0 -
If someone looked at my diary it may not look accurate because you would see cups and tablespoons. But what they don't know is I have weighed everything in grams. I have then checked with multiple calorie websites to determine exactly what what the calories should be per gram for that particular item. I then pick the highest one or the one that I feel is probably accurate. But ultimately it comes down to if you are losing weight at the pace your calorie deficit would imply. If you are not then you are not logging accurately. 3500 calories is a pound. Do the math.
This is what I do. If entries in the database don't seem right I'll double check with other data bases. And I do weigh everything even those sometimes it's entered in cups or spoons.0 -
I see a lot of people make comments about peoples diaries saying "I see you have a lot of cups and tablespoons on your log..." which I think leads to the assumption that it is bad logging.
I was flipping through my diary and notices a lot of things say TBS, Cup or whatever. lets say i'm going to have cereal. box says serving size 3/4 of a cup (31 grams) so I measure in grams, but sometimes once i scan it it records it as a cup. Or like if I weigh in grams what the container says is a table spoon ...and so on and so on. Like if the serving of butter is listed in tablespoons..I weigh how many grams they say should be a tablespoon, but it is still logged as a tablespoon.
does that make sense? am I doing something wrong? I have had really good success, I do log everything i eat..and weigh just about everything, I don't weigh individual servings..maybe when I am way closer to goal and I need to really tighten up..but I still have about 60ish pounds to go.
Like if a can of soup says 2.5 servings. I just count the whole can. I don't actually weigh it.
I do weigh, cereal, cheese, fruit, condiments, meat, pasta..anything that isn't 'obvious'.
and hooray for small victories, my idea of a serving size of jelly was 1/3 of what the label stated. I think my eyes are getting better!
You aren't doing anything wrong. My yogurt, for example, on the carton is listed as 1 cup = 227g and in the data base lists calories by the cup (same figures for nutrients). Just use common sense.
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sheldonklein wrote: »
An English muffin has about 120 calories, so your bothering to weigh and adjust meant 6 calories. If you get pleasure from that sort of burdensome precision, that's fine, but it is quite unnecessary for weight loss. To be clear, I use my scale plenty, but not when it is pointless.Yep, I do this too. Today my diary has 1.05 English muffins. It weighed 60 grams instead of the 57 listed on the nutrition info. Now, if I see a diary and it's all in those even amounts, then I question whether or not they're weighing.
How is it pointless to want to be as accurate as possible?0 -
tincanonastring wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »If we can see your diary that would help
This is what I say. Also, there are tricks to logging, so we might be able to help if you are willing to open your diary.
When reading diaries to try to help I focus more on entries chosen and whether there may be an issue with weighing cooked meats and logging raw (I ask, don't assume), since I'm bad at seeing other issues and am less convinced that not weighing is the issue (although weighing is, IMO, easier).
Sometimes I think people want to have an excuse to get offended by anything, though -- like the response to OP here was perfectly positive and she doesn't seem to have a problem.
Yeah, I think erroneous entries being used are probably a bigger issue than weighing something vs measuring something. Erroneous entries and just eyeballing...
I'm always a little dumbfounded when I come across entries like...1 piece of cake or some such generic thing like this...like how can anyone presume any kind of accuracy there? yet they seem to.
A thousand thises. I saw 3/4 pound of chicken logged as 120 calories. Like, wut?
Lol. To be fair though, sometimes labels are crazy. I bought some no brand frozen shrimp at Walmart once and it said that 3oz was 50 calories. Never in a million years would 3oz of shrimp only be 50 calories.sheldonklein wrote: »
An English muffin has about 120 calories, so your bothering to weigh and adjust meant 6 calories. If you get pleasure from that sort of burdensome precision, that's fine, but it is quite unnecessary for weight loss. To be clear, I use my scale plenty, but not when it is pointless.Yep, I do this too. Today my diary has 1.05 English muffins. It weighed 60 grams instead of the 57 listed on the nutrition info. Now, if I see a diary and it's all in those even amounts, then I question whether or not they're weighing.
There's a brand of muffins that are typically 75g instead of 57g. The calories are 160 for 57g. That's a pretty huge difference if you ask me (it's Vermont Bread Company or something).
And fresh bread is the biggest thing honestly... obviously slices are all over the place size-wise and you often end up with 300 calories of bread in 2 slices (instead of the 240 the package says).
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Another thing to remember is the closer you are to goal weight, the smaller the margin for error will be.
For items that I use a lot, I do take the time to find or create the gram values for these items. By doing that, it will automatically give me the 1 gr option in the drop-down menu, which I use to pre-log my dinner, for example. I put in everything I'll be having for dinner in their single gram values. Then when I'm actually serving, I'll weigh up my portions of everything and then it only takes a second to adjust the 1 gram entries I pre-logged to reflect the actual amounts eaten. 0
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