High maintenance?

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Replies

  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
    I weigh everything at home. I leave my exercise calories for any discrepancies when I estimate eating out, which is very frequent given social, family and work stuff. Logging my food hardly takes any time at all. If I cook something at home, I build the plate on my food scale. I'm prepared to do this the rest of my life if I need to. My decision was "think about my food portions and take a few seconds to log them" instead of "I'll just keep gaining weight, it's easier".
  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
    sarahlifts wrote: »
    I'll take high maintenance for results. Easily. Its not high maintenance its about the lowest maintenance thing I do in regard to my fitness.

    step 1 - put plate on scale
    step 2- turn scale on
    step 3- put food on plate until desired amount is met
    step 4- log entry
    step 5- remove plate from scale
    step 6- eat

    I do this daily, its pretty low maintenance. My diary is open and available for scrutiny.

    Off topic--- your photos are amazing and inspiring!
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    I weigh my food most of the time. It is the best way to know how much you are eating.

    HOWEVER... you shouldn't be obsessive about it. You can still lose weight, but you need a few guidelines.

    1) Eat at home as much as possible - This is the ONLY way to even have a chance at controlling what goes in your body. Plus, you can weigh your food. Restaurants put TONS of carbs and fat into the food and it is usually totally unnecessary. Eating at home will save you money, be much healthier, and gives you the chance to weigh.

    2) When you DO weigh your food, try to estimate it first. Play a little game with yourself where you get a serving, guess how much it weighs, then weigh it to see if you are right. After a few weeks, you will start getting really good and estimating.

    3) When you CAN'T weigh your food, estimate high. You will almost always estimate too low naturally, so add about 20% to what you think. Also, if you can't weigh your food, I'll assume you are at a restaurant - add oil or butter to everything. Don't just log a chicken breast, but rather, log a chicken breast, oil, and sauce.

    4) If you know you can't weigh it out and want to be really careful, order food that is low calorie density. In other words, if you order a salad and estimate wrong the consequences are pretty mild compared to estimating wrong on a slice of cheesecake.

    5) Realize that "special occasions" like eating out, celebrating a birthday, etc., are not supposed to happen daily or even weekly. If you want to cut loose and enjoy some drinks, a good meal, and dessert, go for it, but keep it "special". It's not special if it is the norm.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    I just had to face that life is not fair and behave accordingly. Yes, weighing and logging can be a bother. But it works. I would rather bother with it than be fat, in my particular situation. No, I don't get to eat out hardly ever any more, and I seldom drink alcohol, since my calorie allotment is so low. BUT I'm not fat now, and my blood sugar is controlled now whereas before it was getting worse and worse. So basically ask yourself which is the priority: eating more food, or losing more weight? If you'd rather eat and stay thick, that's no sin. I was doing that too, until my blood sugar went bananas, then I had to make the other choice and lose the fat. If your sugar and cholesterol stay okay.... then that could be a valid choice.
  • _piaffe
    _piaffe Posts: 163 Member
    You don't seem very ready to commit to a weight loss plan, as I read your post. You really want to lose weight and feel miserable, but at the same time, you don't seem interested in making the kinds of changes you need to if they will "ruin" your current lifestyle.

    1. It's going to be WORK. Compared to not being in deficit, and eating at surplus, it's going to be higher maintenance than you're used to.

    2. It's going to mean CHANGE. Of habit(s), including your social ones. With or without logging, a social life centred around eating out gets hard if you are trying to stick to a deficit plan. You may find you need to totally readjust how you socialize anyway - e.g. movies or activities - if you currently go out and eat or drink. You may even find your relationships and friend circles change.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
    GauchoMark wrote: »

    3) When you CAN'T weigh your food, estimate high. You will almost always estimate too low naturally, so add about 20% to what you think. Also, if you can't weigh your food, I'll assume you are at a restaurant - add oil or butter to everything. Don't just log a chicken breast, but rather, log a chicken breast, oil, and sauce.

    This is really, really important, and if you eat out regularly this one WILL get you. 20% more than you think is probalby a little low, actually:

    a) Learn what a 3 or 4 ounce cooked chicken breast looks like. Compare that to what you get in the restaurant. Notice its probably 2x as big. Log all chicken breasts as 6 ounces (at least).

    b) I've cooked at home enough now to know what makes restaurant meals so delicious: Fat. And salt. And sugar. LOTS of all of it. That 6 ounce chicken breast may have been "tenderized" before cooking in a marinade of fat-salt-sugar, and then it is cooked in a LOT of oil, butter, or both, and may be sprinkled with sugar to "help it caramelize." Log that 6 ounce chicken breast and then log a full tablespoon of butter for its marinating/cooking. And a teaspoon of sugar, just in case. Add an other tablespoon of butter for any cooked vegetables on your plate, while you're at it.

    c) If you're counting sodium? Add a LOT of salt to the count.

    d) salad may be safer, but not a lot safer. Learn what 2 tablespoons of dressing looks like. The little dressing cups that restaurants give you hold more like 6 or 8 tablespoons, and the ladles that they use are generally 1/4 to 1/3 cup ladles. That "sprinkle" of cheese may be 2-3 ounces, too.
  • nickisa28
    nickisa28 Posts: 116 Member
    When you eat out, most chain restaurants have nutritional info somewhere so take it from there. It's normally pretty accurate as they have portion sizes/specs that they have to stick to in order to make the projected profit. I hate having to weigh everything so when I can, I'll pre portion or eat things that are sold per portion iykwim? For example j just had a 'lean burger' which wasn't homemade and I can see from the packet the nutritional value of each burger so no need to weigh, 1 bun-no need to weigh, 1 slice of cheese, no need to weigh. Today I only had to weigh my bacon this morning as I cut the fat off so had to check weight after. It's not that bad, I promise :)

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