Leaning towards whole foods and tracking

jesslynn0520

I know eating unprocessed food that I prepare myself is the best way to go about losing weight but I find myself going away from that in fear of not being able to track it properly because of lack of nutrition facts on the package. Does anyone have any advice or insight for me?

NewMeSM75

What worked for me was creating either meals or recipes. That way I can log the nutrition as accurate as possible plus I have them saved for future use.

livingleanlivingclean

There are entries for everything.... Most of the food I eat has no nutrition label, but it all gets weighed and logged. I find new ingredients on the computer as I don't like using the app, I check nutrition info against accurate websites, and use "USDA" in the search

lemurcat12

Make the USDA site your friend. https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list

I eat mostly whole foods and find them easy to track using that (or finding the MFP entries that match up, really, which helpfully have 100 g options). Once you track them they will be easy to find in recents or favorites.

You can use that to make recipes or, as I usually do, just list ingredients and the amounts used. (The hardest thing for me, since I get meat from a farm, is figuring out the right entry for the meat I use, but it didn't seem to keep me from losing.)

Even easier is to track on Chronometer where these come right up (I'm doing this now), but that site will generally require that you add anything else you use as the data base is much smaller than MFP's. (But once you use it, it's there.)

janejellyroll

The best way to lose weight is a calorie deficit. Some people do find that eating whole foods helps them feel fuller in a deficit and that helps them lose weight. Other people find that eliminating certain foods from their diet makes it easier for them to keep a deficit because they struggle to eat moderate portions of those foods. So I don't think it's necessarily that it is the "best" way to lose weight, but it's a way that some people find it easier to maintain a deficit.

I cook with a lot of food that doesn't come with ingredients on the package and I can still find details for almost everything in the database. Take my lunch today, for instance, I cooked some chickpeas and tossed them with olive oil, garlic, spices, and preserved lemon. I was able to find an entry for chickpeas in the database (I know from past research that it is accurate), as well as entries for the olive oil, garlic, and seasonings. If this was multiple meals, I probably just would have used the Recipe Builder to create it, but it was something I just made up on the fly.

TheCupcakeCounter

Weigh the raw, unprocessed item using a food scale. Add USDA after the food name and you will likely get a better result but you can also cross-reference the entry to the USDA website. Usually you can tag your frequent foods and favorites so they are easier to spot.

jesslynn0520

Thanks everyone!!! I appreciate it!

vikinglander

TheCupcakeCounter wrote: »

Weigh the raw, unprocessed item using a food scale. Add USDA after the food name and you will likely get a better result but you can also cross-reference the entry to the USDA website. Usually you can tag your frequent foods and favorites so they are easier to spot.

THIS + food scale + weigh everything to the gram + forage daily + shop the perimeter of the supermarket (mostly) + read "In Defense Of Food"

cee134

Remember, it's important to keep up with whatever you end up doing. Can you cook with whole foods the rest of your life?

dmkoenig

You're on the right track. Eating whole foods may take a bit more effort but you'll get the benefits of eating better quality foods and you know exactly what you're putting into your body. It will take some experimentation and learning to come up with your "go to" recipes that are easy and you like but it's worth the investment in your health to do so.

I know there are many on this site who believe they need to be able to track every last calorie to lose weight, but the reality is there are many other factors that go into Caloric In/Out equation - your metabolism, food combinations you eat together, the variety and actual size of the "medium" apple you ate, the actual number of calories you burn in your workout - that the level of precision many believe just isn't there. That's not to say calorie counting is not essential, but to your question if you have to approximate what your whole food recipe represents in calories based on its major ingredients and serving size, that will be just fine.

janejellyroll

dmkoenig wrote: »

You're on the right track. Eating whole foods may take a bit more effort but you'll get the benefits of eating better quality foods and you know exactly what you're putting into your body. It will take some experimentation and learning to come up with your "go to" recipes that are easy and you like but it's worth the investment in your health to do so.

I know there are many on this site who believe they need to be able to track every last calorie to lose weight, but the reality is there are many other factors that go into Caloric In/Out equation - your metabolism, food combinations you eat together, the variety and actual size of the "medium" apple you ate, the actual number of calories you burn in your workout - that the level of precision many believe just isn't there. That's not to say calorie counting is not essential, but to your question if you have to approximate what your whole food recipe represents in calories based on its major ingredients and serving size, that will be just fine.

Assuming one has access to a scale and the internet, it is no more necessary to "approximate" the calories in a recipe made with whole foods than it is to "approximate" the calories in a recipe made with non-whole foods.

livingleanlivingclean

cee134 wrote: »

Remember, it's important to keep up with whatever you end up doing. Can you cook with whole foods the rest of your life?

I do most of the time... So yes. I prefer cooking stuff myself from scratch, and often choose it over buying pre made alternatives, because it tastes better, and is cheaper, and I can make it to fit my calorie needs/goals