Is weighing/logging everything necessary?

richardgavel

Logging and measuring is important for me because the amount of calories I burn on a daily basis is so varied, to eat to maintenance by instinct only would be good difficult. Some days I burn 150 with lifting exercise. Some days it could be 1000+ with a 10 mile run.

annna777

From my experience, I always used to say I did not eat much and watched what I ate. I watched what I ate alright! Once I started logging in my calories and exercise on phone app, then I saw how I was eating about an extra 1,000 calories a day. Such as a cookie here, a piece of cake there, chips here and there, soda, potluck for morning breaks, seconds for lunch and dinner. Logging in food and exercise made me realize how I was eating much more than what I should have been. To my surprise I lost 45 pounds in less than 1 years' time by cutting back drastically in eating out, home cooking, eating clean, no packaged foods, weighing and measuring food. I have maintained 2 years now. I don't weigh and measure food as much because I have learned portion control by lots of weighing and measuring food. I still work out regularly, weigh once a week, if the scale goes up a pound or two continuously week after week, then I start weighing and measuring food to get back on track. I am able to look back and see how I gained a few pounds. Weighing and measuring food is the true eye opener. People tell me all the time they don't eat much but I see them eating the same extra calories as I used to eat in which I say until we log in our food that we eat is when we will truly know the intake. I eat whatever I want, I am not on a strict diet, I meal prep my meals for the week every Sunday that keeps me on track. From my experience, it's worth the time and effort than trying fad diets which is too much work for me. I don't want to be eating 6 meals a day, eating certain foods at certain times, etc. which I have done in the past. Food in moderation and exercise key and it's free to top it off. If we want something, we will find a way whether it is time consuming or not.

comeonnow142857

Not if your body and food are doing just fine as they are, especially if you've established yourself at a healthy leanness & food relationship and accomplishment of physical goals for a long term period.

It is if you're continually struggling and failing to get results, it is if you're continually getting lost in not knowing what to do or what's right for you. You can constantly wait for that magic heuristic diet that's just perfect for you trick you into eating reasonably all the time to solve all your problems, or actually just directly employ the one direct path to knowing the ballpark of what your calorie balance is and being able to guarantee moving your calories up or down and knowing what happens when you do.

lorrpb

Those who are most successful here weigh & log everything until they develop a good judgement of portion control. For me that was about 3 months, for someone else it might be 3 yrs. Some people might prefer to weigh & log forever.

dutchandkiwi

Most people that complain that it is not working are not accurate in their serving size - You state serving sizes and I see: grams
Many people that are overweight cannot estimate what a serving size without weihghing. The wiehing is tool to learn what a serving looks like. Often then it becomes clear what they have been overeating and by how much. Often people will also forget their cooking oils or use the infamous 0 calorie cooking oil spray, but then use 10 servings or so.

I don't weigh everything anymore After three years I am now much better at estimating, but I do audit myself on a regular basis.
But also I can't be bothere with weighing lettuce for instance. Som nutritional dense foods (oils, butter, nuts etc) I most certainly still weigh. Too easy to go over what I want to use.

catzpyjamaz

I weigh everything at the moment and have done for the last 5 months. I am overweight because I don't know how to eat. I know WHAT to eat, just not HOW to eat. I don't know how much is a normal serving for people who arent overweight. Until I learn that I will continue to log everything. That may not work for everyone - but it is working for me.

amusedmonkey

If you are capable of achieving a calorie deficit without weighing and logging, and if you are alright with getting unpredictable results sometimes, it's not necessary. However, if you reach a point where you want to post something like "help! I'm doing everything right but not losing!", weighing and logging everything can be your first line of troubleshooting to find out what might have been the culprit. Putting in the effort for months but not seeing results is frustrating and might feel like a waste of time. Taking 5 minutes to accurately document your foods might help you avoid that kind of frustration.

Personally, I weigh and log everything for several reasons: I like numbers, I like predictability, I like having control, and most of all, I like eating that cheesecake/party food/movie popcorn without wondering if it would derail my efforts. That kind of freedom and flexibility is very important to me.

FatPorkyChop

I don't count calories at all, nor weight neither logged but I am successfull. I just mostly eat healthy, a cheat meal now and again but I'm training 5 times a week. I use FTP for the blog, training & fitness tips.

Need2Exerc1se

lorrpb wrote: »

Those who are most successful here weigh & log everything until they develop a good judgement of portion control.

I don't believe this is true. It is probably true that a greater percentage of successful people here weigh & log.

ndj1979

BrunetteRunner87 wrote: »

I see so many posts where people complain they haven't lost weight and then everybody comes in saying that EVERYTHING HAS TO BE WEIGHED AND LOGGED.

I know that CICO is typically the key to weight loss, but can you be successful without all of this? Who wants to have to weigh and log or even just log everything they put in their mouths for the rest of their life?

I recently started a new diet plan aimed at runners. The idea is to eat enough carbs to fuel workouts, but to lose or maintain at a good weight for you to run without extra pounds weighing you down. The diet is based on 10 categories of foods that are supposed to balance in ratios at the end of the week. So assume you eat 55 servings in a week (obviously you're going to eat more but just assume), 10 should be vegetables, 9 should be fruit, 8 should be seeds and nuts, 7 should be lean meats and eggs, and 6 should be whole grains. Then if you want you can have 5 servings of dairy, 4 servings of refined grains, 3 servings of unhealthy meats, 2 of sweets, and 1 fried food.

I feel like, yeah logging and weighing would be important if I was planning on doing some kind of figure competition or even a weightlifting competition, but if I'm following this type of diet, not eating when I'm not hungry, and developing a positive relationship with food, isn't this better than weighing everything the rest of my life? Weighing and logging can really get you bogged down with numbers or exercising extra just so that you can eat extra pizza that day.

Is there anyone here who has not logged/weighed everything, but seen success?

few things..

CICO is always the key to weight loss.
CICO and logging are not the same thing.
you don't think that figuring out all those servings and categories of food is as cumbersome as weighing nad logging everything?
Weighing everything is important for people who are starting out so that they can understand portion size and how many calories are actually in each portion of food, and it is equally important for those who say "Help, I am not losing weight." Most people that are not weighing everything are consuming more calories then they assume.

Finally, once you teach yourself about portion size and learn how many calories are in each serving of food, weighing everything becomes less necessary. I have not weighed my food in the past six months and I have roughly maintained the same weight, maybe even lost a pound or two.

MeanderingMammal

BrunetteRunner87 wrote: »

Is there anyone here who has not logged/weighed everything, but seen success?

Yes, absolutely. A lot depends on what success means. Personally I'm not bogged down in a target weight or bodyfat percentage, but in my running performance.

Being more thoughtful about food choices has led me to lose weight and fuel appropriately for my running.

The problem here is, so many get religious about it and project their own situation on others. I can see the usual suspects proselyting as I skim the thread.

CrazyCatLady916

I weigh and log, it's the only thing that works for me. I work with a woman who just started the Whole30 diet, i asked her what she was going to do after the 30 days was up. She just looked at me with a blank stare in her eyes. I suggested counting calories on MFP instead. SMH!!

crooked_left_hook

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

BrunetteRunner87 wrote: »

Is there anyone here who has not logged/weighed everything, but seen success?

Yes, absolutely. A lot depends on what success means. Personally I'm not bogged down in a target weight or bodyfat percentage, but in my running performance.

Being more thoughtful about food choices has led me to lose weight and fuel appropriately for my running.

The problem here is, so many get religious about it and project their own situation on others. I can see the usual suspects proselyting as I skim the thread.

I totally agree. I think that when you are trying to lose weighing and measuring is a good skill to help develop a better sense of what normal portions are, but you don't need to be neurotic about it. I don't weigh everything to precise grams, my solids go in measuring cups, and I still lose.

If you measure and weigh as a step to learn new skills and internalize a new way of eating, you can eventually dial it back. I maintained for several years without measuring. Life led me to start eating out for more than 50% of my meals and eventually eventually it caught up with me to the tune of 7lbs (over two years). Cooking my own meals and measuring for a couple of months got me back down to my happy weight.

However, if religiously measuring everything you eat is your jam I will not begrudge you for finding joy in it

Need2Exerc1se

This seems a rather silly debate really. The only way weighing and logging would be necessary for weight loss would be if no one had ever lost without it. Millions of people have so ... case closed.

PinkamenaD8

Yes there isn't necessary to track everything and I had lost weight before discovering MFP, but measuring accurately the calories gave more certanity in my expectations and I saw the corresponding results.

Theo166

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

This seems a rather silly debate really. The only way weighing and logging would be necessary for weight loss would be if no one had ever lost without it. Millions of people have so ... case closed.

Science or statistics aren't determined by the exception. A business doesn't need to keep accounts in order to make money, but businesses that pay attention to their goals are and keep accurate records are much more likely to end up profitable. Same logic applies to obese people trying to lose weight, accurate logging increases your chances of hitting loss goals.

paperpudding

yes but people losing weight without weighing or logging (let alone without weighing and logging everything, as OP stated) are not some tiny exception minority .

Many Many people do this - of course they have to acheive a calorie deficit - but by no means is weighing and logging the only way to do this.

It probably is the way most people on MFP acheive it - weighing and logging to at least some extent, since this is a calorie counting site.

Btu that doesnt mean that is the only way for everyone.

perkymommy

The only time I've ever been successful at losing weight without logging my food and weighing it was when I was literally starving myself to lose. I would eat only crackers or lettuce or take bites of things and drink water. I got down to 100 lbs that way about nine years ago. Not healthy at all.

LessCookiess

I don't weigh anything, and I also don't log my food. I've lost about 32 pounds so far since November 2016. I know different things work for different people. But I just eat smaller portions, and I realize logging in everything wasn't for me. I did log my food at first just to get an idea of my food choices; however, I stopped after a month. I always recommend people do what works for them though. I've never owned a food scale, so I can tell you it's not a requirement to lose weight. But if you're not losing weight and you don't own one it might be a good idea to try it. Weighing food and logging is just an optional tool.

FitbitConnor

There doesn't seem to be a one size fits all answer to this question, the whole thread was tldr so i apologise if this has already been said. I didnt gain weight in a short period of time, I come from a fairly fattish family and have been accustomed to eating large portions for my entire life, when i started logging my food It made me aware of which foods were better/worse and super aware of portion sizes. I peaked at just over 19 stone at around 270lb in my mid 30's and needed to lose around 6 stone for my final goal weight. Some people may live relatively healthy life styles and have good nutrition but have just gained a couple of pounds over time that they need to shift. they almost certainly dont need to log, as they probably just need to fine tune their exercise routine or maybe make a few small tweaks to their diet to get results. If they still dont drop any weight then maybe accurate logging will reveal where the issue is.