Finding your BMR
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for the casserole type of things use the recipe builder, especially if it is something you make and eat often. Then each time you make it you can just edit the recipe to reflect the slight differences in weight (for things like 1 bell pepper which will vary slightly), or weigh the ingredients to match the recipe (for 40 grams of rice for example).
for salads i just throw the bowl i'm making the salad in on the scale and toss in each veggie as it's chopped, tare the scale and move on.
the longest part of the process can be finding accurate entries that are in grams in the database, so i add them to my foods to make the search quicker (or they're in frequently added).
so in the morning i take the same thing pretty much every day to work. i put the container on the scale, add greek yogurt till it's close to 200 grams (adjust in diary), add 12 grams pb2, at 15 grams chocolate chips, add 1 packet of splenda. it takes about 3 minutes total. and it's actually less clean up than if i used a cup to measure the yogurt and tablespoons to measure the pb2, etc.1 -
VintageFeline wrote: »you just get quicker at zero-ing and tossing the next thing on and logging it. For your meatloaf write down the ingredients then enter it as a recipe. Once cooked, weigh it cooked and enter the weight as the number of servings. Then when you serve yourself up a piece you enter the weight as number of servings and voila, accurate entry.
It can take a little longer on some things but I have to ask, were you just logging salads as some generic user entered option for salads? Because my salad might just be lettuce and tomato, your salad might be all those things and throw you way off. I can see where you're easily adding a lot of extra calories unwittingly.
No I created a recipe where I counted my lettuce as 2 cups (because it filled half of my soup bowl) then my 3 carrot slices I counted as a quarter cup, cauliflower I did similarly cut off a couple small bunches after chopping probably would just cover the bottom of a measuring cup I counted that at a quarter of a cup. One whole radish cut up also counted as a quarter of a cup and so on. As I said before... I would always greatly overestimate on items that aren't prepackaged. So even though my entire salad fit within my soup bowl... The entry for everything came up to close to 6 cups when my soup bowl only holds 10 oz of liquid and the is alot of air space in the salad.0 -
So basically the exact same thing but using grams instead of cups then.
But wait, you logged it as 6 cups? 6 cups of what? As I said, you can look up salad but that will be user created. And the user (me for example) will have a very different salad from you so probably totally incorrect. For a salad, sure, not a big deal. For your homemade calorie dense meat loaf? Big issue.0 -
6 cups of "salad" ok slight exaggeration... See below for what I actually loggedVintageFeline wrote: »So basically the exact same thing but using grams instead of cups then.
But wait, you logged it as 6 cups? 6 cups of what? As I said, you can look up salad but that will be user created. And the user (me for example) will have a very different salad from you so probably totally incorrect. For a salad, sure, not a big deal. For your homemade calorie dense meat loaf? Big issue.
2 cups iceberg
1/4 cup carrot
1/4 cup radish
1/4 cup green onion
1/4 cup broccoli
1/4 cup cauliflower
1/4 cup celery
1/4 cup peas
1 cup tomato
1/4 cup vinegrette
That's what I logged vs actually in the salad I ate. For example 1 radish was logged as 1/4 cup. 1/2 of a plum tomato was logged as 1 cup. 1 stalk of green onion logged as 1/4 cup. And so on.
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6 cups of "salad" ok slight exaggeration... See below for what I actually loggedVintageFeline wrote: »So basically the exact same thing but using grams instead of cups then.
But wait, you logged it as 6 cups? 6 cups of what? As I said, you can look up salad but that will be user created. And the user (me for example) will have a very different salad from you so probably totally incorrect. For a salad, sure, not a big deal. For your homemade calorie dense meat loaf? Big issue.
2 cups iceberg
1/4 cup carrot
1/4 cup radish
1/4 cup green onion
1/4 cup broccoli
1/4 cup cauliflower
1/4 cup celery
1/4 cup peas
1 cup tomato
1/4 cup vinegrette
That's what I logged vs actually in the salad I ate. For example 1 radish was logged as 1/4 cup. 1/2 of a plum tomato was logged as 1 cup. 1 stalk of green onion logged as 1/4 cup. And so on.
Gotcha. The way you explained it sounded like you were just looking for any old salad entry. So really, you're already logging everything separately, just by volume and not weight. It won't take you any longer than it already does.0 -
This is a good video on why weighing your food is more accurate than volume measurements. You're focused on the salad, but what about the more calorie dense items in your diet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY&feature=youtu.be
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Spliner1969 wrote: »When fixing my plate at night.. maybe 2-3 minutes tops. Once you get good at it it's not hard at all. I simply put my plate on the scale, tare it out to 0, toss on the meat, write that down or log it in MFP, tare it out again, add my veggies, write it down or log it, tare to 0, rinse and repeat for everything I put on my plate. Takes not much more time than it does to simply log food in the first place.
OK... For some dinners yes I can see that being easy. 2 boneless skinless unbreaded baked chicken tenderloin weigh, entered, scale zeroed, add single medium baked red skin potato, weigh, enter, scale zeroed, add steamed broccoli spear (usually 2) weigh, add and done meal entered...
But what if your meal is more of a mixed bag. Like veggies are mix of corn, asparagus, carrots, onion. And what if your protein is not straight meat but a casserole or meat mixture like my Italian meatloaf which uses hamburger, sausage, bread crumbs, eggs, onions, tomato sauce, tomatoes, mozzarella, and ricotta cheese all in one loaf?
And salads?! Good lord I like to put all kinds of veggies in my salads 3 or more kinds of lettuce, cucumber, carrot, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, green onions, radishes, tomatoes, peas, edamame... You get the idea lol.
MFP helps with what you're describing. I actually have fun entering recipes into MFP. I'll give you an example. Last weekend I made chili in the crockpot. I used 2 large cans of bush's chili beans (mild), 1 large can of whole peeled tomatoes (I like to dice/crush them myself), 48oz of browned 93% lean hamburger, 1 cup of water, 1 pkg of Six Gun Chilli Mixins (love that stuff), 1 medium yellow onion, 1 diced green pepper.
I weighed out each ingredient and used the nutrition labels on the can to enter it into my recipe on MFP. When I came to how many servings it made, I simply put in 12 (for now) and finished the recipe. Once it cooked for about 4 hours (my wife always thought I was nuts when she saw me do this lol!), I got a separate bowl, placed it on my scale, and poured all of the chili into the bowl and weighed it in ounces (I could have done grams but for my purposes I chose ounces). I then divided the total ounces by 12. Then, I poured it back into the crock pot until we were ready to eat. When we ate, I simply placed the serving bowl on my scale, and added chili until I hit the exact number of ounces a serving was. Is it perfectly accurate, well no.. I probably lost a gram or two by transferring from bowl to bowl, and some water probably evaporated over time, but it's pretty darn close. Now I have that exact recipe in MFP, which I can re-use with the same exact ingredients and I know know how many ounces per serving (unfortunately I have to keep that info separate because there's nowhere on MFP to put that unless you put it in the name of the recipe like "Spliner's Super Yummy Chili - 14oz per serving").
With a salad I simply use the nutrition label, if there is one (we buy the salad mixes from Dole a lot). They'll usually say 1.5 cups is a serving (or so many grams), so you can use your scale and set it on grams to get the exact serving. Honestly with salad, I estimate, it's so few calories anyway. Then I'll tare out the bowl, add a topping, log it as it's now weighed, tare, rinse repeat. It's not as difficult or time consuming as it sounds.
The recipe part sounds like a pain, and I'll agree MFP does not allow you to 'share' recipes, or add your own pictures, or anything cool like that, but if you open a recipe you've entered and edit it, you can see the ingredients and you can repeat it exactly. Same goes for a casserole. If I made a rice and chicken casserole all I need is a total weight, then how many servings I want to make it. It's really quite easy.
Once you hit maintenance you won't be as picky with weights, and honestly at your height it isn't going to need to be perfectly accurate 100% of the time anyway. Because tall people, like you and me, have an advantage (sorry, but we do) in that we get more calories to start with. Once you get your scale, and find your mistakes that were causing your gross miscalculations you will then know which things you always need to weigh and which things you can guess-timate with volumes.
Hope all that helps!0 -
This is a good video on why weighing your food is more accurate than volume measurements. You're focused on the salad, but what about the more calorie dense items in your diet?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY&feature=youtu.be
More dense foods... That one boneless skinless unbreaded baked chicken tenderloin is counted as 3 ounces. I usually eat 2. Mashed potatoes... I take the small spoon used for eating... Put 4 scoops on my plate and count it as a half cup.0 -
What about your homemade meatloaf? How are you logging that? There's beef (I'm assuming and also assuming the leanest ground), calorie bomb mozzarella, calorie bomb ricotta, calorie bomb breadcrumbs. Now it sounds delicious! But if you haven't entered the recipe and know what a serving is you could easily blow an entire days deficit by giving yourself too large a portion.
Also. Why punish yourself to smaller portions of everything when in all likelihood, with the use of a scale, there are a lot of things you could easily be eating more of. Your salad for example.0 -
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This is a good video on why weighing your food is more accurate than volume measurements. You're focused on the salad, but what about the more calorie dense items in your diet?
More dense foods... That one boneless skinless unbreaded baked chicken tenderloin is counted as 3 ounces. I usually eat 2. Mashed potatoes... I take the small spoon used for eating... Put 4 scoops on my plate and count it as a half cup.
Again, you underestimate how small errors can add up. A lot of people do that.
Example, suppose your two 3 oz tenderloins were 4 oz.
6 Oz of chicken (170g) is about 187 cals
8 Oz of chicken (227g) is about 250 cals
So suppose you're making a systematic 25% error on some of those calorie dense items you eat regularly, your "1200 calorie" day could be as much as 1500 calories.
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This is a good video on why weighing your food is more accurate than volume measurements. You're focused on the salad, but what about the more calorie dense items in your diet?
More dense foods... That one boneless skinless unbreaded baked chicken tenderloin is counted as 3 ounces. I usually eat 2. Mashed potatoes... I take the small spoon used for eating... Put 4 scoops on my plate and count it as a half cup.
Again, you underestimate how small errors can add up. A lot of people do that.
Example, suppose your two 3 oz tenderloins were 4 oz.
6 Oz of chicken (170g) is about 187 cals
8 Oz of chicken (227g) is about 250 cals
So suppose you're making a systematic 25% error on some of those calorie dense items you eat regularly, your "1200 calorie" day could be as much as 1500 calories.
That may be but have you seen how tiny chicken tenders are? About 2 inches wide and 3 inches long and less than an inch thick...
But aside from that... Now I have a question about when you don't eat at home or if you eat fast food.... Do you bring your scale with you? Or log values listed in the menu? Or what?
So like my dinner is one mcchicken with bun no mayo. When I get a scale would I then weigh the bun then the chicken patty? And what about if I'm some place extremely fancy like the fish market? They don't list calories for their meals... Heck because all the fish is brought in fresh each morning the menu changes daily... What then? Whip out your scale and weigh your 40 dollar meal? Or just forgo the eating out?0 -
If it's somewhere with listed nutritional info, go with that. If it's somewhere without, make your best guess using a similar entry from the database. The odd guesstimated meal is fine, only guesstimated meals are where it's a problem.
I eat out regularly, well, sort of, I get take out a lot! And I always just make a good guess and try to leave a little buffer if I can of left over calories. Hasn't hindered my losses. The more weighing of things you do at home, the better you get at guesstimating.0 -
VintageFeline wrote: »What about your homemade meatloaf? How are you logging that? There's beef (I'm assuming and also assuming the leanest ground), calorie bomb mozzarella, calorie bomb ricotta, calorie bomb breadcrumbs. Now it sounds delicious! But if you haven't entered the recipe and know what a serving is you could easily blow an entire days deficit by giving yourself too large a portion.
Also. Why punish yourself to smaller portions of everything when in all likelihood, with the use of a scale, there are a lot of things you could easily be eating more of. Your salad for example.
I actually created a recipe for the meatloaf and though inaccurate as I see it is now... It mfp calculated the calories as I entered the ingredients to be over 500 calories per quarter inch slice. I never let myself eat more than that quarter inch slice... Eat it meticulously slow and it helps but I haven't made it in ages because it's not very filling for the number of calories I have it figured for.
As for punishing myself... Well that's easy! So I don't stay obscenely fat.
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This is a good video on why weighing your food is more accurate than volume measurements. You're focused on the salad, but what about the more calorie dense items in your diet?
More dense foods... That one boneless skinless unbreaded baked chicken tenderloin is counted as 3 ounces. I usually eat 2. Mashed potatoes... I take the small spoon used for eating... Put 4 scoops on my plate and count it as a half cup.
Again, you underestimate how small errors can add up. A lot of people do that.
Example, suppose your two 3 oz tenderloins were 4 oz.
6 Oz of chicken (170g) is about 187 cals
8 Oz of chicken (227g) is about 250 cals
So suppose you're making a systematic 25% error on some of those calorie dense items you eat regularly, your "1200 calorie" day could be as much as 1500 calories.
That may be but have you seen how tiny chicken tenders are? About 2 inches wide and 3 inches long and less than an inch thick...
But aside from that... Now I have a question about when you don't eat at home or if you eat fast food.... Do you bring your scale with you? Or log values listed in the menu? Or what?
So like my dinner is one mcchicken with bun no mayo. When I get a scale would I then weigh the bun then the chicken patty? And what about if I'm some place extremely fancy like the fish market? They don't list calories for their meals... Heck because all the fish is brought in fresh each morning the menu changes daily... What then? Whip out your scale and weigh your 40 dollar meal? Or just forgo the eating out?
I don't bring a scale going out. Some people might.
I tend to eat out 2-3 times in week. If I go for fast food or chain restaurants, I use their websites as a guide for nutrition info. If I go someplace that doesn't have nutrition info, I try to find similar database entries. If I know I'm eating out ahead of time, I might "budget" some calories to allow for a big more leeway.
Controlling my portions at home gives me more certainty and options when it comes to those times when i have less control.0 -
This is a good video on why weighing your food is more accurate than volume measurements. You're focused on the salad, but what about the more calorie dense items in your diet?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY&feature=youtu.bequiksylver296 wrote: »
I love these videos. They were the game changer for me between maintaining (even though I thought I was in a deficit) and losing weight (being in a proper deficit. They are always a great reminder that using cups and spoons for solids aren't very accurate.1 -
Spliner1969 wrote: »The calculation is high because of your weight. Go back to the site, enter all your stats and put in your goal weight and it'll tell you what your BMR for a normal weight is, probably in the 1500's. With your weight being 297 your body requires more energy just to power your cardiovascular system. I started at 305 with MFP and IIFYM and I'm 6'2" tall so my BMR was similar (actually a tad higher). Keep in mind that BMR number is the amount of calories you need to simply exist and keep your weight. If you want to lose weight without any exercise, you'll have calculate a deficit into that BMR number. So if your BMR was 2148, and you wanted to lose 2lbs a week max, that's 7000 calories a week you need to deduct, so 7000/7 = 1000 calories a day, puts you at 1148/day goal, and by MFP standards no less than 1200 per day is what it will assign you, so it would set you at 1200 (I wouldn't honestly go that low at your height).
You use both terms BMR and TDEE so perhaps you really know what they stand for - but above you are giving some terrible advice if you really mean BMR.0 -
Spliner1969 wrote: »The calculation is high because of your weight. Go back to the site, enter all your stats and put in your goal weight and it'll tell you what your BMR for a normal weight is, probably in the 1500's. With your weight being 297 your body requires more energy just to power your cardiovascular system. I started at 305 with MFP and IIFYM and I'm 6'2" tall so my BMR was similar (actually a tad higher). Keep in mind that BMR number is the amount of calories you need to simply exist and keep your weight. If you want to lose weight without any exercise, you'll have calculate a deficit into that BMR number. So if your BMR was 2148, and you wanted to lose 2lbs a week max, that's 7000 calories a week you need to deduct, so 7000/7 = 1000 calories a day, puts you at 1148/day goal, and by MFP standards no less than 1200 per day is what it will assign you, so it would set you at 1200 (I wouldn't honestly go that low at your height).
You use both terms BMR and TDEE so perhaps you really know what they stand for - but above you are giving some terrible advice if you really mean BMR.
He deducted her deficit from her BMR instead of her TDEE it seems.0 -
This is a good video on why weighing your food is more accurate than volume measurements. You're focused on the salad, but what about the more calorie dense items in your diet?
More dense foods... That one boneless skinless unbreaded baked chicken tenderloin is counted as 3 ounces. I usually eat 2. Mashed potatoes... I take the small spoon used for eating... Put 4 scoops on my plate and count it as a half cup.
Again, you underestimate how small errors can add up. A lot of people do that.
Example, suppose your two 3 oz tenderloins were 4 oz.
6 Oz of chicken (170g) is about 187 cals
8 Oz of chicken (227g) is about 250 cals
So suppose you're making a systematic 25% error on some of those calorie dense items you eat regularly, your "1200 calorie" day could be as much as 1500 calories.
That may be but have you seen how tiny chicken tenders are? About 2 inches wide and 3 inches long and less than an inch thick...
But aside from that... Now I have a question about when you don't eat at home or if you eat fast food.... Do you bring your scale with you? Or log values listed in the menu? Or what?
So like my dinner is one mcchicken with bun no mayo. When I get a scale would I then weigh the bun then the chicken patty? And what about if I'm some place extremely fancy like the fish market? They don't list calories for their meals... Heck because all the fish is brought in fresh each morning the menu changes daily... What then? Whip out your scale and weigh your 40 dollar meal? Or just forgo the eating out?
Fast food especially has a vested interest in NOT giving you more than they are supposed to - which their nutritional info is based on.
And many have been called on the floor for going under - so all their prepared food makes calorie estimates pretty decent for what you are getting.
Especially compared to restaurants, even ones that have nutritional info, the size of things used is highly variable.
For those - try to find existing items of the same sort.
And eat out there infrequently - especially if you are doing a 4 week test of accuracy.0 -
Spliner1969 wrote: »Some of the scales on Amazon are as low as $8 delivered (if you have Amazon prime). Of course the better ones are the ones with glass tops or glass bowls that come with them but hey.. I started with a cheapo and upgraded later.
Yes but those cheap ones are known for been inaccurate too. I'll pay the uncharged for a guarantee and accurate scale. Now I'll just have to fit all the measuring and personalized diary entries into the 30 minutes I get to prepare and eat my food.
How long does it take for you guys who do precise entries to weigh and enter each item of your meals?
I am not currently logging (maintenance) but it didn't really add anything to my cooking time when I did. I weighed when I was chopping and stuff and jotted it down on an envelope and then entered it when on a break (waiting to take something out of the oven or whatever). Once you have the right entries saved it cuts down on the main time (finding or creating the good entries--I use the USDA ones). Weighing for me saved the time of having to estimate.0
https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk
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