High maintenance?

linlinjay

Hi!
I really do want to lose weight but it seems a bit high maitenance to weigh all your foods to log them, so it also means that i can only eat at home so basically i'm gonna ruin my social life since i'm gonna stress about everything i eat. I don't think it's a way to live (no offense to people that actually do that) i don't know, i feel miserable being over weight even though i'm healthy..

arditarose

Just start logging your dang food. One step at a time. Take a good guesstimate when you eat out and learn what portion sizes look like. If you don't lose, consider a food scale for home.

elphie754

arditarose wrote: »

Just start logging your dang food. One step at a time. Take a good guesstimate when you eat out and learn what portion sizes look like. If you don't lose, consider a food scale for home.

This. It's the same advice you've been getting in all of your threads.

Christine_72

I thought people who weighed their food were uber obsessive when I first started here. But i eventually gave in and I'm totally used to it now.

When i go out to eat i just estimate as best i can.

LokiGrrl

I completely admit to being obsessive about weighing and logging because I'm an obsessive person, and I'm always going to be obsessed with something or other, so it might as well be that! LOL.

kgirlhart

I weigh almost all of my food at home. But I also eat out pretty regularly. I just make my best guess when I eat out.

Shana67

It is pretty simple to weigh food. And to use the app as a good estimate when you're out. I mean.... if that's what you want (to drop weight), it's not so tough.

afatpersonwholikesfood

I can't speak for everyone, but I am an "obsessive" food weigher, and I still have a social life. I don't bring my scale to restaurants. My scale is used at home. Very rarely does it leave the kitchen. Restaurant meals and fast food get nutrition info from online + my best estimates + an obligatory 10% added on. Once or twice, I've brought my food scale to a relative's house for a casual meal but not to big gatherings. It's really not a big deal.

I also find that I worry less because I know as best as I can how many calories I have taken in. I don't have to stress over estimates. I feel more confident in the calories left and whether or not I can fit in X or Y.

If you don't want to weigh your food, then don't. If you don't get the results you want, then you'll know one of the first things to change.

rankinsect

It's not hard to log and still eat out.

Many restaurants have menus with nutrition info online, so I pick a meal option in advance and know what I'll order before I get there. Others I just guess based on a similar restaurant with the same kind of dish. Or I just eat it and make a guess. Or I just eat it and don't make a guess. I don't have to log absolutely every day, although I definitely log more than 95% of my days.

All of calorie counting is estimates. Even the calories on packaging are rounded and estimated - not even necessarily by the same formula from product to product, either. You don't need to be perfect and account for every last calorie. You need to be good enough. That is not all that hard to accomplish.

I find it so easy to log, it's pretty much just auto-pilot. I plan my meals the night before, I eat what I planned on the day of. I use a food scale at home, or I use restaurant nutrition info or estimates when not at home.

AnnPT77

I think it's pretty easy, once you learn the tricks of using a food scale. Adds only a few minutes to my day, and those minutes have had a huge payoff - losing over a third of my body weight, 60+ pounds. And logging has helped me improve my nutrition, besides, so I feel just great now, even though I was reasonably healthy & well-nourished before.

For sure, weighing food is easier & quicker than using measuring cups. I did eyeballing/estimating for a while before I joined MFP, and did lose weight, but then hit a plateau, so I joined MFP, started weighing food . . . and learned that eyeballing was not a very accurate way of accomplishing a calorie deficit, for me.

Obsessing or stressing over it seem like a separate choice from the choice to do it, though. To me, the weighing makes it so understandable & manageable - like a fun science-fair project for grown-ups.

I didn't have any trouble with eating out, or at other people's homes: While I do it regularly, it isn't constant, so the weighing happened at home, and when eating elsewhere I either used the restaurant's website calorie info (in the few cases where it was available), or estimated from memory, choosing similar dishes from the MFP database (and not the lowest-calorie examples out there, either!). Didn't seem to impair weight loss.

That said, weighing & logging food is not for everyone. You probably know yourself best.

RainyDayBrunette

Feeling miserable and being overweight is much harder than logging food.

Logging is about learning to eat right. It's about accountability, honesty, and responsibility.

Logging gives you enormous insight into how you are treating your body.

daniip_la

Weigh your food at home. Estimate your food when eating out.

Literally no one is going to make you do either of these, but if you want to lose weight, they do work.

Gallowmere1984

MarieFromOz wrote: »

Feeling miserable and being overweight is much harder than logging food.

Logging is about learning to eat right. It's about accountability, honesty, and responsibility.

Logging gives you enormous insight into how you are treating your body.

Pretty much this. In my experience, most overweight people don't have the slightest clue as to how many calories they are actually consuming. At least once armed with that information, they can succeed or fail more on their own merits and efforts.
Weigh, log, track, and be shocked.

Christine_72

If you can lose weight without weighing and logging your food, then that's awesome. There is no absolute weight loss rule that says you HAVE to do it.

Hoooowwweeever if you're not losing, gaining or stalling then inaccurate food logging/calories would be the very first place I'd look at.

Sued0nim

linlinjay wrote: »

Hi!
I really do want to lose weight but it seems a bit high maitenance to weigh all your foods to log them, so it also means that i can only eat at home so basically i'm gonna ruin my social life since i'm gonna stress about everything i eat. I don't think it's a way to live (no offense to people that actually do that) i don't know, i feel miserable being over weight even though i'm healthy..

So don't

Find a way that works for you to cut calories or stay overweight

That's your choice

Christine_72

OP you could start a thread asking how non loggers/weighers have lost weight. You may get some useful tips from them.

arditarose

I find this episode of Ben Coomber's podcast to be helpful for people who are feeling overwhelmed about diet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPhLgzGgjQM&list=PLtpOTGOc6gWery6BPQ3wZFACZj2rid4pa&index=91

Bmoremama

Choose your hard.

I decided 3 meals a day was hard for me so I replaced two with shakes, and weigh/measure/ log the third. It's hard(ish) but being undisciplined and huge was way more hard.

ogtmama

I don't weigh and rarely measure and I've lost 30 pounds at a consistent rate of 2 pounds per week until I decided recently to slow down.

I still log, I just assume the worst. I know that serving sizes are small but I always measure one out the first time just to see HOW small.

If I think my strawberries are medium sized, I assume the powers that be think that they're large...and I use a measuring cup for cereal, rice or pasta just because a) they're pretty calorie dense, and b) it's easy to get carried away and deceived by the bowl.

When I go out I use best estimates of similar foods or I add up the ingredients with the amount of oil/butter I imagine is appropriate for the restaurant.

Is that at all helpful?

Bearbo27

I use the app and it honestly isn't that big of a hassle to log. On the odd occasion I go to a restaurant with my family, I pick an option that is healthy (salad usually) and log it based on the nutritional info from the restaurant. I tend to leave a few hundred calories as a buffer in those occasions in case the restaurant info is off.

You just have to ask yourself how bad you want to lose the weight. I wanted/needed to lose this weight and with 32 days of consistant logging I am down a total of 18 lbs as of today (I was 120 lbs overweight to start though). I still have a social life too. In fact me and some friends are planning a mom day out for lunch and a movie later this month. I'll be definitely making sure I stay reasonable with my choices and make sure it fits in my calories. I probably will forego the popcorn at the movies and order a salad so that I can enjoy my sangria margarita without going over, but that doesn't cut into my social life. I can still have a great time with friends all while logging my food and losing weight.

bquartermainNZ

I don't weigh my food but I log it and estimate my portion sizes on the number of calories.. seems to be going OK and its not difficult at all. The bar code scanner is champion! Use that and go from there.

trigden1991

It depends if losing weight is important to you. Only you can make that decision!

beaglebrandon

Shana67 wrote: »

It is pretty simple to weigh food. And to use the app as a good estimate when you're out. I mean.... if that's what you want (to drop weight), it's not so tough.

How do you weigh food? Do you have to take things apart?

For example, I have a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich in the morning.

Do I need to (1) take apart the sandwich into the croissant, cheese and meat parts, weigh the croissant separately, the cheese separately, and the meat separately, then put them back together?

Or (2) just measure it's weight in totality, compare with what the box says and adjust the calories accordingly? Because in #2, I might be off if the meat is smaller, but the croissant is larger, or vice versa.

victoria_1024

Sounds like you're just making excuses at this point. Don't worry, we've all been there. You can do whatever you want to lose weight. Weighing food is a tool that works for many many people. I lost 90 lbs doing it and still have had a social life. I eat out regularly and just estimate. I have 4 young children and weighing my food barely disrupted my life. I am now at a healthy weight and I feel amazing so I would consider it totally worth it.

cavia

Until you try it, how do you know? Commit to 30 days and see if it makes a difference for you. That's how I approached it cause I thought it was crazy to weigh one's food. That was 3.5years and 49lbs ago. It literally takes me seconds per meal. (I still eat out at restaurants)

Arapacana1

If you are eating something that comes from a package with calories printed on it, just use those calories. If you are eating something that doesn't have calories on it, such as a steak or an apple, then weigh that. If you are eating out, check out the calories on the restaurant website or just give it your best guess.

babypunkprincess

I measured my food for a week or so then when I knew how much put in a bowl of cereal or pb on my toast I just eye balled it. I eat out once or twice a week and sometimes eat whatever i want as a cheat day or get something healthier and always get a garden salad and veggies with it rather than fries or something.

I also eat whatever I want as long as it works in my calories. If u want to lose weight then do it if not then don't.

ummijaaz560

beaglebrandon wrote: »

Shana67 wrote: »

It is pretty simple to weigh food. And to use the app as a good estimate when you're out. I mean.... if that's what you want (to drop weight), it's not so tough.

How do you weigh food? Do you have to take things apart?

For example, I have a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich in the morning.

Do I need to (1) take apart the sandwich into the croissant, cheese and meat parts, weigh the croissant separately, the cheese separately, and the meat separately, then put them back together?

Or (2) just measure it's weight in totality, compare with what the box says and adjust the calories accordingly? Because in #2, I might be off if the meat is smaller, but the croissant is larger, or vice versa.

Weigh the entire sandwich in grams on the scale. Adjust the scale amounts with what the package says.

malibu927

beaglebrandon wrote: »

Shana67 wrote: »

It is pretty simple to weigh food. And to use the app as a good estimate when you're out. I mean.... if that's what you want (to drop weight), it's not so tough.

How do you weigh food? Do you have to take things apart?

For example, I have a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich in the morning.

Do I need to (1) take apart the sandwich into the croissant, cheese and meat parts, weigh the croissant separately, the cheese separately, and the meat separately, then put them back together?

Or (2) just measure it's weight in totality, compare with what the box says and adjust the calories accordingly? Because in #2, I might be off if the meat is smaller, but the croissant is larger, or vice versa.

2. And remember that even weighing, this is still an estimate and calories can still be off.

faidwen

Weigh your food...

Don't weigh your food...

Lose weight...

Don't lose weight...

They are all choices YOU can make. Folks will help you, folks will hinder you. But it all boils down to YOUR desire to do what YOU want. Only YOU can make the decisions that will effect you. If one of those happens to be the choice to weigh your food and lose weight through this proven methodology, then that is your choice. If not, then that is ALSO your choice.

It is all about choices. Weigh, don't weigh, no one is going to FORCE you to do it. There is no WRONG way to do it, if it works for you.

Enjoy life..... don't stress so much!

fanceegirl75

It doesn't mean you can only eat at home. It means you take control over food instead of the food taking control over you. You plan and prep your meals at home. For those instances where you can't you make better choices with your food. You only fail if you don't try.