Tracking everydsy
JenniferOBX12
Posts: 4 Member
Do you track everything, everyday? I find it harder in evenings and weekends when my husband is home. I struggle with loss of control of measuring every little ingredient.
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Replies
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Yes. You can't lie to your body so why lie to your food log?
Why do you find it so difficult to measure when your husband is home? Inconvenient? He cooks? Figuring that out may be the key to helping you be as accurate as possible.3 -
JenniferOBX12 wrote: »Do you track everything, everyday? I find it harder in evenings and weekends when my husband is home. I struggle with loss of control of measuring every little ingredient.
I feel much more in control when I weigh and measure my foods out.
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For instance, I make chili in the crockpot and measure every ingredient to the gram as I enter it in. After its cooked I have to take it back out of the crockpot and see what the total weight is again since it changed over cooking.
If he scoops his portion out before I get to do the second measurement then I am flustered I don't have a total cooked weight measurement.
If I make this again in the future, I have to do the same thing since maybe I added 20 more grams of onions this time than last time.
I spend so much time getting everything tracked that it gets overwhelming and I am just searching for an easier way than taking 30 minutes to measure all my cooked food out when the family is waiting for me at the table.
Not making excuses, not "lying" to my food diary, just looking for help especially when making recipes or eating other non packaged foods, crockpot meals, casseroles, ect. Things that just are not a simple chicken breast with nothing on it.0 -
Can your scale handle the weight of your crockpot (perhaps when empty)? I keep notes in the kitchen, and I know the weights for the pots and bowls I use most often. That keeps me from having to transfer the food back and forth after cooking. My scale can't handle a full crockpot, but it can handle most other things. Ask your husband not to touch the food unless you've weighed it. You're right; it can be a pain sometimes.2
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JenniferOBX12 wrote: »If he scoops his portion out before I get to do the second measurement then I am flustered I don't have a total cooked weight measurement.
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Im not understanding why you need to weigh again after cooking, what information does that give you, Surely you want to add all the ingredients to the recipe and then how many grams of the finished product you made. Im new to this so i could be missing something.
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stephenhopkins2 wrote: »JenniferOBX12 wrote: »If he scoops his portion out before I get to do the second measurement then I am flustered I don't have a total cooked weight measurement.
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Im not understanding why you need to weigh again after cooking, what information does that give you, Surely you want to add all the ingredients to the recipe and then how many grams of the finished product you made. Im new to this so i could be missing something.
The water that cooks off will change the weight of the final product, giving it more calories per gram.1 -
@stephenhopkins2 You almost answered your own question. You would measure all the ingredients individually, cook the dish (if applicable), weigh the finished product to get the total calorie amount for the whole dish, and then weigh out your portion to figure how many calories you're eating.
With chili, for example, you may add a 15oz can of beans. You're not eating the entire can, and you can't separate the beans from the chili to weigh what you put in your bowl. Same thing with your ground meat, tomatoes, etc. You have to know the weigh of whole pot of chili and subtract your bowl from that to get your calories.2 -
JenniferOBX12 wrote: »For instance, I make chili in the crockpot and measure every ingredient to the gram as I enter it in. After its cooked I have to take it back out of the crockpot and see what the total weight is again since it changed over cooking.
If he scoops his portion out before I get to do the second measurement then I am flustered I don't have a total cooked weight measurement.
If I make this again in the future, I have to do the same thing since maybe I added 20 more grams of onions this time than last time.
I spend so much time getting everything tracked that it gets overwhelming and I am just searching for an easier way than taking 30 minutes to measure all my cooked food out when the family is waiting for me at the table.
Not making excuses, not "lying" to my food diary, just looking for help especially when making recipes or eating other non packaged foods, crockpot meals, casseroles, ect. Things that just are not a simple chicken breast with nothing on it.
Weigh crockpot empty and then remove weight from cooked weight
Tell him not to touch it till you've weighed it
Weigh an equal portion to the one he took out and double it
Accept 20% margin of error it goes both ways and is common..
An extra 20g onion will make no difference
How can it take 30 mins to weigh food?
-put plate on scale, add thing 1, remember or scribble down
-tare to zero add thing 2, remember or scribble down etc
2 mins tops0 -
I prelog my food for the day before I eat breakfast. I eat what I logged. I find it easier that way even if there are minor adjustments to the day.
I don't weigh my food before and after cooking usually. Just once. I have followed a recipe closely- even if I wrote it myself- so I don't add 40 g of something one day and 100 g another day. I entered my recipe in the recipe builder, figured out the amount of servings for the recipe and just divide it into equal portions.
I will weigh my food out before I tell my family the food is ready. We eat at the same time every night but I often have to hunt them down, tell them and they mosey to the kitchen/table 10+ minutes later. They never get to the food before I have a chance to weigh it.
Try following a plan, following a recipe, using the recipe builder, telling people to wait until you are ready to serve the food. Be more controlling and assertive to your family? Make them wait 1 minute.3 -
I find a crock pot liner to be a big help. My scale cant take the weight of my crock so i put a plastic bowl on my scale and carefully lift the liner out, tie the top off with a clip and put it in the bowl. Weigh ,and put back in crock. my recipes differ enough each time to reweigh as well.4
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Thanks for all the suggestions. My oxo scale can't handle the weight of a crockpot but it can a frying pan and maybe a baking dish.
It can take longer than 2 mins to enter new items since I look through and don't choose one that has even one micro off and it's common to have a number off. As I enter more items I know the time entering food will be reduced.
And thank you for saying I need to be more assertive! You know what your right! I back down when I get all negative and why bother comments. I need to push back for the benefit of myself!1 -
Just a thought, but if you intend to eat what you have made, regardless, why can't you weight it after its cooked as talked about above, then make a quick written note, and enter it on to you food diary after you have eaten it, giving you time to search the correct entry.0
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regardless of whether or not Sir is home, i weigh my food. most of what i make is simple, or a recipe i have in the builder (after 2 years nearly everything i routinely make is in there and variations arent going to be enough to make a difference to me). I serve him, then plate up mine while on the scale and tare out between foods. jot it down log it later.
not hard and doesnt take but an extra minute, if that.
Other than being mildly amused sometimes (usually just to give me a hard time LOL), Sir has no concern over me weighing my food, and doesn't think about it any more than I do. it's a habit I have. nothing more, or less, to him.1 -
Yes. Log everything, everyday - or as close to it as possible. If I have Sesame Chicken at a local Chinese place, I'll find something from a national chain that is on MFP since it's likely the local place won't be listed in the MFP database. So - close enough counts.
If you can't be real on the food log, you are not likely to make much progress. That leads to frustration, which leads to quitting. Why put yourself through all that?
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It depends on your goals and whether or not what you're doing now is working.
If you are losing weight at a pace that is acceptable to you & healthy, then keep doing as you are doing. Less accuracy in the evenings is not hurting you. If you're not losing then the way to change that is to improve your accuracy and take control of your food decisions/portions.
I know what you mean about some conditions making things harder. Ultimately it comes down to a matter of choice. If you know some days/times of day will be harder, you can go a little lighter on your calories at other times to help offset it.0 -
I lost 100 lbs and did not weigh my food once during those 2 years. It can really help but if you add an extra 100 - 200 kcal (depending on total kcal goal) than that usually makes up for the missed calories.0
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A lot of times, the people around us are not dieting when we are. I do think it is a little important to make sure that everyone in the household is on board with your goals! So if the people in your world are doing something different when compared to your diet, keep that in mind, that they do not have to be.
Stay the course with your commitment. Our nights consist of a dinner that I cook and everyone eats that, or they can eat something else or something additional. Our weekends are still controlled but we eat a little different than our normal Mon - Fri eating. A little more relaxed in food choices, but still within reason to not out do goals.
I weight all my own food I eat, and weight all the food I cook and proportion my out separately. The one thing that is different with me is that we are both trying to loose, me with counting and my husband is not (I am sort of doing that for him off the calorie counting grid per se..lol)..
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If you have the weight of the raw ingredients and know you are going to eat , say, 1/4 of the finished pot (allowing for husbands and leftovers0 then just ad 1/4/ of each item to your diary. The loss of water does not matter as it has no calories!0
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I do the same as you in regard to weighing each ingredient and then the total amount. My family has learned to not touch the food until I have weighed it - particularly on items like chili. They have gotten to the point of asking if they can start dishing up to make sure I've done my thing. What I do so they don't have to wait is jot it down on paper as I'm going and then enter it after I'm done eating. Your hubby just needs to learn patience.0
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I don't like weighing the entire batch of a recipe after cooking either. In situations like this I measure or eyeball the number of servings in the finished dish and enter that into the recipe builder and live with the inaccuracy.
For example:
Chili: Serve out four bowls, I know each bowl is about 12 fluid ounces. Measure what's left in the pot, say it's 24 ounces. That recipe made 6 Abby2205 standard bowl servings.
Lasagna: I entered the recipe while it was in the oven, figured that 6 servings would be right. Stared at the finished lasagna, decided that 6 Is not enough, cut it by eye into 8 servings instead and edited the recipe. Had 1/2 piece later, logged it as 1/2 serving.
Mashed potatoes: use a spatula to divide it into 4 quarters while still in the pot.3 -
Just thinking about weighing a full pot of food...
Couldn't you weigh it on your bathroom scale if it's too heavy for a kitchen scale? Would that be too gross?0 -
I echo with the weighing before and after thing. One thing I do is each time I make that recipes again I go in to the recipe section and edit everything that is different from last time. Sometimes I add different ingredients it's only a slight adjustment but at least I know it's correct.0
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I don't like weighing the entire batch of a recipe after cooking either. In situations like this I measure or eyeball the number of servings in the finished dish and enter that into the recipe builder and live with the inaccuracy.
For example:
Chili: Serve out four bowls, I know each bowl is about 12 fluid ounces. Measure what's left in the pot, say it's 24 ounces. That recipe made 6 Abby2205 standard bowl servings.
Lasagna: I entered the recipe while it was in the oven, figured that 6 servings would be right. Stared at the finished lasagna, decided that 6 Is not enough, cut it by eye into 8 servings instead and edited the recipe. Had 1/2 piece later, logged it as 1/2 serving.
Mashed potatoes: use a spatula to divide it into 4 quarters while still in the pot.
^This.
I do this exactly. Once I know the calories of the total dish, I figure out how many servings I think it will be. I made a pizza and sliced it into 8 pieces, but I ate two of those pieces - that became 1 serving. I put it in the recipe builder as having 4 servings. Every two pieces is a serving.1 -
A lot of times, the people around us are not dieting when we are. I do think it is a little important to make sure that everyone in the household is on board with your goals!
i do not make separate meals for anyone. we all eat the same. i cook, therefore i know whats in the food and how much. i weigh mine. they dont. they all eat more than i do, with exception of my 10 year old (and even then, sometimes he does). even when Sir cooks, he will write down everything in it (nothing is ever swapped out just for me) and keep track of it for me, or I'll sit in the kitchen and we'll chat and ill write it down as he does it. he knows to weigh the piece of meat (ie: chicken or steak) and keep track of where mine is, while cooking.
and i didnt lose 80 pounds by DIETING. I lost it by making sustainable, long term eating and exercise habits and changes. A diet ENDS. what I do, does NOT.
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A useful motto to keep in mind: "The perfect is the enemy of the good."
When I make a new recipe (and I have about 150 I've created in MFP), I add the raw ingredients to get a total calorie count for the dish. I then estimate the number of servings, which gives me calories per serving. I'm usually making leftovers, so if it's something like soup whose serving sizes might vary, I'll use my ladle to parcel it out into fridge/freezer containers. That lets me know how many ladles there are per estimated serving. So if it's 3 ladles per serving, then I'll write that on a piece of masking tape affixed to the container.
If I make the recipe again, I don't worry about using 120g of onions vs 100g because onions don't have very many calories. I'm more careful about oil, fat, meat, sugar, and other ingredients with a high calorie density.
And if I'm not sure whether I've gotten the serving sizes right, I'll log a bit extra and not worry too much about it.
In short: do your best, worry most about high-calorie ingredients, and focus on being consistent. If you log 450 calories, and it was really 500, that's a lot better than not logging at all and eating 800.0 -
@stephenhopkins2 You almost answered your own question. You would measure all the ingredients individually, cook the dish (if applicable), weigh the finished product to get the total calorie amount for the whole dish, and then weigh out your portion to figure how many calories you're eating.
With chili, for example, you may add a 15oz can of beans. You're not eating the entire can, and you can't separate the beans from the chili to weigh what you put in your bowl. Same thing with your ground meat, tomatoes, etc. You have to know the weigh of whole pot of chili and subtract your bowl from that to get your calories.
I find the recipe builder very helpful for this sort of thing: I have basic recipe for, say, my oat flour-honey loaf. The basic amounts are the same every week, so all the ingredients are stored in the recipe database; I know that a half-cup measure (I know, I know, bad for measuring with cups!) is a serving (because that fills a muffin cup for baking).
From week to week, if I vary my recipe with additions or revisions, I just edit the existing recipe, and, if necessary, the amount of servings that week's yield will be. This week, I added ground flaxseed to my dry ingredients and ended up with 12 muffins, so I adjusted my number of servings to 12, and the program calculated how many calories, etc. each serving would be. Last week, it was 16 servings - I assume the flaxseed drank up a lot of my added water and reduced the number of scoops in my nice big mixing bowl - it certainly was thicker than usual.
So I'd do something similar with chili - log my basic ingredients and amounts into the Recipe Builder. All the calories and macro info will be loaded into the little file. Then. Weigh out what would be your portion. Estimate your husband's portion (or better, ask him to weigh it out for you). Pretend it's twice as much as yours. So now you can ballpark about how many servings there are in your chili recipe. Fill that number into the Servings cell, and now you have a fair idea of where you stand. And you have the foundation for any variations in the future (beef instead of beans, let's say).0 -
The other thing I do to make dealing with the large pots of things like chili is to just weigh out what we're eating right then into bowls and then when I get ready to freeze the remainder I just weigh the bags after I've put them in freezer bags. Then I can just add up all the weights and do the math and mark the weight and calorie count right on the bag.0
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A useful motto to keep in mind: "The perfect is the enemy of the good."
When I make a new recipe (and I have about 150 I've created in MFP), I add the raw ingredients to get a total calorie count for the dish. I then estimate the number of servings, which gives me calories per serving. I'm usually making leftovers, so if it's something like soup whose serving sizes might vary, I'll use my ladle to parcel it out into fridge/freezer containers. That lets me know how many ladles there are per estimated serving. So if it's 3 ladles per serving, then I'll write that on a piece of masking tape affixed to the container.
If I make the recipe again, I don't worry about using 120g of onions vs 100g because onions don't have very many calories. I'm more careful about oil, fat, meat, sugar, and other ingredients with a high calorie density.
And if I'm not sure whether I've gotten the serving sizes right, I'll log a bit extra and not worry too much about it.
In short: do your best, worry most about high-calorie ingredients, and focus on being consistent. If you log 450 calories, and it was really 500, that's a lot better than not logging at all and eating 800.
I was going to say something very similar...don't major in the minors. Weight loss takes a long time, and it's more important to find a balance so that you can maintain your new behaviors in the long run without making yourself insane or burning out and giving up. Pay the most attention to the things that will make the most impact (such as oil/fat/meat/sugar, like bwogilvie mentioned above), but be okay with letting other things go (like the extra 8 calories from those extra 20g of onions). 8 calories will never make or break your eating plan, but worrying about those 8 calories regularly could make you decide that calorie tracking is too difficult and quit.1 -
lthames0810 wrote: »Just thinking about weighing a full pot of food...
Couldn't you weigh it on your bathroom scale if it's too heavy for a kitchen scale? Would that be too gross?
I suppose theoretically this could work (although I would definitely move the scale out of the bathroom first) but you would have to keep in mind that a bathroom scale typically only measures to .1 lb, which is 45ish grams that it's rounding off.
I weigh every serving I or my boyfriend eats, then weigh and divide the leftovers into single serving bowls, and add it all up. Disadvantage is that I don't know exactly how many calories I've had until dinner is over and put away, but my crock pot is the only thing I have that my scale can't handle, and I don't have very many recipes I make in that.0
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