LTL Friday
Jimb376mfp
Posts: 6,236 Member
My first attempt to post (by phone) ended up on different page forum under General WL.
Topic Tracking the Little Things
Do you track small insignificant things you eat? BECAUSE everything counts!
I will try to cut paste my original later today.
Topic Tracking the Little Things
Do you track small insignificant things you eat? BECAUSE everything counts!
I will try to cut paste my original later today.
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Replies
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I track everything - including the spoonful of peanut butter eaten from the jar (yes I still do that). Those calories do count.0
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I do my best to track everything I eat (when I'm tracking, such as now). There is no such thing as an insignificant thing (mostly), and I think it's easy to fool yourself into thinking that some things are insignificant, when in fact, they have plenty of calories. For example, we'll recall that fruit was zero points (at least in one iteration of WW). The apple I have everyday with lunch is listed on MFP as 130 calories. 130 calories is roughly 1.5 miles worth of running for me. It's not a huge number of calories, but it's certainly not trivial either.0
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I have fallen into a bad habit of knowing how many points I have left at the end of the day, eating what I think equals them and not going back in before bed and tracking. I don't really think I'm going over my allotted points, but it's still a bad habit. I need to get back to always tracking before I eat, not after.
I don't track things like mustard or coffee. I know some track EVERYTHING that goes in their body, but since I'm on WW, I don't always track every zero point item. OH, and fruit is still zero points. I do track it, but I also limit myself to no more than 3 servings per day.0 -
Jimb376mfp wrote: »Do you track small insignificant things you eat? BECAUSE everything counts!
The honest answer is "No."
And I recognize that's a violation of all that most weight loss systems consider holy. i recognize that while I may not count it, the scale still counts it. I recognize that giving yourself a pass on some things is a slippery slope.
But at the end of the day, my sanity counts more that the scale does. As Murple said at one point, "I'd rather be fat than crazy." Tracking the 1/8th cup of onions on the hot dog would drive me crazy, and counting every two calories packet of Splenda would make me nuts. And at the end of that same day, I know that my body is not such a finely tuned mechanism that this onions will have me weigh 3.6 grams more. There's just too many things happening at the scale for that sort of artificial precision.
Of course, I've learned over time what matters. I measure and track the cream in my coffee, and if I choose two tablespoons instead of one, I track it. However, I don't track the Mt Olive pickle relish because it's about 3 calories per serving, and I can honestly say I've never binged on pickle relish. I track the crackers I eat because I know they add up, however, and because a few can lead to a few more.
So I track with discipline, but for me, "the perfect is the enemy of the good" on this one.0 -
at the end of the day, my sanity counts more that the scale does. As Murple said at one point, "I'd rather be fat than crazy."Jimb376mfp wrote: »Do you track small insignificant things you eat? BECAUSE everything counts!
I couldn't agree more. I have to track in a way that I feel in sustainable. If what I'm doing feels burdensome than I won't do it and that's not helping me at all. I don't track the 2 calories in my black coffee every morning, nor do I weigh my spinach in my salad (I just estimate). Part of this is that I need to learn how to be flexible and portion my food now so that I can continue this through the rest of my life. Wondering how many grams my onions are is just not worth a miniscule amount of weight loss for my long term sanity.
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Maybe I should clarify my point just a tiny bit: I track everything I can that has calories. If there are no calories, then I don't track it. I do, for example, put in my coffee, and I do input the lettuce from salad (but I don't weigh it).
I should also note that my caloric goal is 1500 calories per day. Relatively small items, like an apple, take up a significant chunk of my calories.0 -
I track 99% of what I eat. Some exceptions are the BLTs that occur when I'm baking. Since I'm the end consumer of the whole batch of goods, then those calories will get counted when I consume the final product (over the course of several days).
On the rare occasion when I have a salad with a meal at a restaurant, I'll track the dressing but not bother with the veggies. When we had dinner at a traditional supper club in Wisconsin last spring that served real bacon bits with the salad, I did make an effort to do a good estimate of the amount of bacon consumed.0 -
I don't track condiments, and I wholesale track 2 points a day for fat free half and half regardless of how much I use (over or under) -- I track about 40% of free foods particularly fruit which I can eat lots of on some days and I am making sure it does not become a problem.0
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I wonder if we all have our little cheats here and there. I was ready to say I track everything until reading the responses above. I've never counted points for mustard, and definitely never for coffee. I track apples, but I've never counted an apple as more than 100 calories.0
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I'm tracking on the WW site and using their SP system. When I am tracking, I don't track the low calorie zero point items: coffee, DCoke, dill pickles, etc. If my salad is all veggies, it is all tracked with one entry as salad. I do track little things I know I can over consume: ff half & half, etc. Some things that are zero points for one serving do have points for multiple servings.
So, no, I don't track everything.
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I think it all comes down to "are you making the progress you want to make (losing, maintaining, whatever)?". If not, then you might want to look at tracking all those BLTs (bites, licks, tastes) and see how it's adding up. I am making progress, so I'm not tracking mustard.1
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Kinda like Steve-O . I do pay attention to the little things that matter like bites,licks, and tastes while shopping for example. I lump them together and chip in an arbitrary point or two for them.
Condiments on the other hand while I don't use much (no mayo for me as I don't like it) I don't worry about. Salad dressing? Sure and I do that in moderation and sometimes just use flavored vinegar and pepper also.
Yeah I don't track mustard but don't use a lot either.0 -
I still follow WW so don't need to weigh my Kale or spinach and eat some fruit in moderation too. So far my fruit hasn't fattened me up.0
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I do not track the zero pt things. I also tend not to track shredded lettuce that I may use on a sandwich or in a fajita. I have also not tracked some high calorie meals that I eat out while I am traveling for work. Partly for guilt that I am still working through and partly because I am just too lazy to care what the amounts are if I know it is that calorie range.
Since the scale continues to fall despite my occasional traveling indiscretions, I am not feeling urged to get that under tighter control.0 -
I'm still getting used to tracking and have been doing it daily since late July. I track everything unless it is something with 20 calories or less like lettuce or a tomato slice on a sandwich. I track salad dressing and other condiments like miracle whip, but don't track ketchup or mustard. I'm getting good results so far and I think I'm being pretty honest in my estimates when I don't have my trusty WW scale to measure things.0
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No, but there's not much I don't track. One thing I decided early on was that (most days), if I was hungry enough to nibble, I ought to just portion whatever I'm eating it out so I can and do track it. I know myself well enough to know a few nuts here, a little cheese there, yada-yada and before I know I it, I've eaten a 'portion' or more.
Condiments, etc. I actually usually do track even though I don't measure them. With them and most everything else, I figure estimating gets me in the ballpark better than leaving them entirely.
My new exception is peanut butter. Recently in my quest to maintain, I've resorted to a teaspoon of it in a roll up with a little bit of jam. I shake my head every time I make one of those, suprsised to see myself using that itty-bitty utensil to get my peanut butter fix. But it works. It's way too easy to overdo it with that for me!0 -
When tracking I did. When you get close to goal those couple of points here and there will do you in.0
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minimyzeme wrote: »My new exception is peanut butter. Recently in my quest to maintain, I've resorted to a teaspoon of it in a roll up with a little bit of jam. I shake my head every time I make one of those, suprsised to see myself using that itty-bitty utensil to get my peanut butter fix. But it works. It's way too easy to overdo it with that for me!
It was a very sad day when I started to weigh out 2T of almond butter and realized that when I had previously used a measuring spoon, I had been getting a lot more. These days it takes me a lot longer to go through a jar of almond butter as many times the small amount I get for a rather large amount of calories just doesn't seem worth it.
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Jim - good topic; you got some dialogue going.0
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I track every thing but my sweet n low and diet cola. However the colas have a pretty healthy amount of sodium in them. I track ketchup but not mustard. Lite mayo but not onions. I think the hardest thing for me is making sure I have the proper weight or portion when it comes to tracking. This week for example my kitchen scales broke and I've got to go get another one today. Estimating the weight is not much fun for me.0
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If I were making meatloaf with ketchup in it I would track for sure. A smidge on a burger (or heaven forbid for the unadventurous and the mustard only with brats and dogs) and also the "tube steak" I don't bother to track.0
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Yes. I don't consider anything I put in my mouth to be insignificant. Tracking doesn't take that much effort and if it's too much bother to track it, maybe I just shouldn't eat it. But, I don't weigh/measure things that are really low.0
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gadgetgirlIL wrote: »These days it takes me a lot longer to go through a jar of almond butter as many times the small amount I get for a rather large amount of calories just doesn't seem worth it.
I get that, Regina but I have found I really can be satisfied with a totally scaled-down version of my former meal / snack. PBJ sandwich used to be one of my faves but it was two slices of bread, easily 2 T of PB and probably at least 1 T of jam (neither filling measured, of course). Now, I'm actually OK with half a roll up and 1 teaspoon each of fillings. I usually have it with some non-pointy fruit, etc. but truth be told, it really does do the trick for me. Much to my surprise!
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