Are you tracking food perfectly?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

annacole94

My goal is weight loss, not a perfect food log. I am losing weight, so my logging is close enough. I do eat out, and sometimes I eat out at places that aren't chains so I have to guess.

Make reasonable guesses. Watch what your weight does. If it's not doing what you want, change your guesses.

Theo166

slm14 wrote: »

Do you all track your food measuring every item? How do you manage when eating out?
When I am preparing my own food I measure and try to do accurate portions. Currently I'm rounding and doing my best educated guesses when eating out. I think at least bringing awareness to my eating, even if it's not the exact calorie and macro count, can be helpful. Thoughts? What has been most successful for tracking without becoming obsessive for some of you all?
Thanks. (I'm also super open to new MFP friends if anyone needs more buddies, just request).

I think it helps to be a bit pedantic in the beginning, when you are learning portion control and how to properly estimate. I really had no idea how much PB I was adding to my bread, etc.

Best guesses is very appropriate, just lean on the high side in terms of your portions. All this becomes more important when you find you are not losing at the predicted rate of loss for your deficit.

allyphoe

I eyeball everything. But I've got 18 months of really old experience and nearly 1000 days of current experience to tell me that I lose just fine eyeballing.

I also maintain an Excel schedule that lets me know if my activity level is dropping or my portion sizes are creeping up. Also tells me if my calorie burns are accurate. I find that weighing makes me obsessive, but data analysis doesn't.

paperpudding

Do you all track your food measuring every item?

No I do not, I estimate, take averages (every mandarine or carrot is just logged as a medium one) pick something similar in data base etc

How do you manage when eating out?
I guestimate, pick something similar in data base or failing all that, do quick add calories

As poster above mentioned, my aim is not to track as accurately as possible - my aim is to track well enough to meet my weight goal targets.
What poster above referred to as sloppy logging and what I myself have described before on here as lazy logging.

lynn_glenmont

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

FluffySandwich wrote: »

Yesterday someone gave me a pastry that they made themselves and I couldn't say no to something that looked so delicious. I just try and over-estimate how many calories things like this have in them to hopefully make up for it.

If you can weigh it, you can know that it's between 4x and 9x that weight in calories. It would be 4x if it were all carbs, and 9x if it were all fats. Most pastries are closer to 7x than to 4x or 9x.

Most foods have a significant percentage of their weight in water. According to the USDA database, a cinnamon danish is about 24% water by weight, and thus despite all the fat, its energy (in kcal) is only about 4X its weight in grams.

smokinbluegrass

I log everything and weigh most of it, even the packaged food and the condiments. If it's not in the database in grams, then I take info from the label, do the math, and add it to the db. I've found that sliced bread is over by as much as 25% per slice from the label. Same with frozen patties and frozen filleted meats/fish, sometimes as much as 30%. Even TV dinners, off by about 15% sometimes. Just about anything, over. If I have toast, I weigh the bread after it's toasted. What I miss is licking the spoon or my finger, but those "tastes" can add up.

dadsafrantic

i weigh everything at home down to the perfect amount of coffee for a brew. luckily where i work all the recipes are built into the mfp app. into loseit too. i pre load my dinner into mfp so i can adjust as i need to during the day. i can do last minute tweeks for dinner and fruit.

the last time i ate out was at chipotle and they have all the menu components in mfp so you can get an educated guess there.

mjbnj0001

I try, especially with the things I can control. Of course, eating out is a challenge in this regard.

I expect with all my logging that I'm probably only within 10% (give or take) of the actual calorie/macro values. This isn't just due to any inaccuracies *I* bring to the process -- there are inaccurate database entries, FDA label count allowed variances, differences in agricultural products and more.

As long as my bathroom scale keeps going in the right direction (down 20 lbs so far this year since Jan 1), I'm content with this level of accuracy. I log what I can, as best as I can, and don't fret about extra decimal points.

Gisel2015

No I don't because I am on maintenance, but I didn't track/log, weighted or measured perfectly when I was loosing either. Life is not made of perfection, neither is my diet (as a way of eating).

I do eat out once to three times a week, depending of what ever happens in my daily routine, but I don't log it unless the restaurant had the nutritional information on the menu or on line. I do have a good idea of the portions and I am in general aware of the items that may be high in calories, so I skip them or only eat part of it.

ambermmattox

I eat out often. I simply pick the best I can pick when we are out. I search "McDonald's" and "smoky bones" and "Wendy's" and then find the stuff I want to eat. If I only eat half, I plug it in as ".5"

JaxxieKat

At home I use a digital kitchen scale to weigh everything in grams. When I dine out I guess as best as I can. I will also do extra cardio at the gym and eat sensibly during the day.

cdkelly

Yes I weigh/measure absolutely everything and do meal prep meals for the week. That way I only have to weigh/measure that one day I make everything and then save it as my recipe in mfp so the whole rest of the week it's already predone and I don't have weigh or measure a thing. I just make sure I make super declicious but healthy meal prep meals to stay satisfied all week. So far so good. I also use the scan feature when adding the ingredients to make it more accurate.

raimondasa

I track precisely specific foods and I don't really care about others. I weigh peanut butter precisely, but I don't see a point of weighing most of vegetables.

Machka9

slm14 wrote: »

Do you all track your food measuring every item?

When I'm actively losing weight, I track all my food measuring about 97.6% of what I eat.

slm14 wrote: »

How do you manage when eating out?

I rarely eat out. Or if I do, I usually choose places which list the calories for their menu items. If I go somewhere that doesn't have a calorie listing, I look up the recipes for whatever I've eaten, and double the portions.

sabinaholtby

infinitynevermore wrote: »

I measure most stuff since I went 3 weeks at the same weight and it really makes a difference. Eating out, i try to reconstruct the meal here; if I can't I guesstimate. As you said, that's all you can do. And there are so many suggestions floating around about how to control your portions when you go out.

THIS IS ME RIGHT NOW! Three weeks no real loss. Think it might be time to crack down on my tracking. I've gotten lazy and too inaccurate. I need to seriously measure, and also stop buying chocolate.

amusedmonkey

I'm very meticulous with my logging when I'm losing (down to diet 7up, black coffee, and sugar free gum) but it doesn't come from an obsessive place. I do it because I like numbers and calculating how calories relate to my weight loss. If I go out I just estimate, not problem. Having to estimate doesn't give me anxiety and logging accurately does not send me down an obsessive spiral. I think that's what matters, the mindset.

When I'm maintaining I'm much looser with my logging. I log all vegetables as carrots, for example, and skip logging very low calorie things. I also sometimes guesstimate some foods in my head and quick add a rounded amount of calories (candies and chocolates almost never go over 5.5 calories per gram except for very dark chocolate, fruits average around 0.5 calories per gram except for bananas, and most breads don't usually go over 3 calories per gram). Some of my usual meals in my usual servings are always within a close range of calories so I quick add that as well. Some days I don't even log, just tally my guesstimates in my head for each meal.

crazyycatladyy1

slm14 wrote: »

Do you all track your food measuring every item? How do you manage when eating out?
When I am preparing my own food I measure and try to do accurate portions. Currently I'm rounding and doing my best educated guesses when eating out. I think at least bringing awareness to my eating, even if it's not the exact calorie and macro count, can be helpful. Thoughts? What has been most successful for tracking without becoming obsessive for some of you all?
Thanks. (I'm also super open to new MFP friends if anyone needs more buddies, just request).

I'm in maintenance and I'm not tracking at all right now, except for some mental math throughout the day. Earlier this year I got away from the maintenance plan I had been following for several years to try something new (changed what kinds of foods I was eating and started tracking/weighing everything again), but I didn't like it so I'm back to 16:8IF, eating whatever I want within my IF window, weighing daily, mentally adding up calories throughout the day, and then if I get above my maintenance range and stay for a few days-cut back on obvious culprits/start using my food scale again until I'm back in my range (125lbs-130lbs).

Gamliela

zachbonner_ wrote: »

I don't usually log vegetables

I log everything. I'm loose about it though. So far I haven't had that show up in plateux or anything so I'm ok with using package nutrition facts and whats in the mfp database. I roughly know what is 100 grams and what a cup is, so the database is what I most often use.

How do u know what your total calories are for the day if you don't log the veg? Just curious how that would work.

celestestar

I'm not tracking food perfectly, whenever i have eaten out at a restaurant or someone else has done the cooking at home i just roughly estimate it all to be 500 calories per meal and add that has a quick add.

helenrenee007

I try to! When eating out I choose something as close as possible if it's not in there. 99% of the time i post exactly what i eat.

slm14

Thanks so much everyone! Great to learn about the varying ways people managing tracking nutrition. I really appreciate the insight!

joemac1988

slm14 wrote: »

Do you all track your food measuring every item? How do you manage when eating out?
When I am preparing my own food I measure and try to do accurate portions. Currently I'm rounding and doing my best educated guesses when eating out. I think at least bringing awareness to my eating, even if it's not the exact calorie and macro count, can be helpful. Thoughts? What has been most successful for tracking without becoming obsessive for some of you all?
Thanks. (I'm also super open to new MFP friends if anyone needs more buddies, just request).

I'm pretty good at eyeballing at restaurants but I'll also go on their website and a lot will have nutrition info. Things I eat often (like a Chipotle bowl) I have saved in My Foods.

Be careful using volume measurements (like cups, etc) as weight is far more accurate. Follow cartergood on Instagram...

PrincessMel72

ambermmattox wrote: »

I eat out often. I simply pick the best I can pick when we are out. I search "McDonald's" and "smoky bones" and "Wendy's" and then find the stuff I want to eat. If I only eat half, I plug it in as ".5"

MMMMM Smokey Bones! We have one within walking distance of our apartment and it's AMAZING

perkymommy

slm14 wrote: »

Do you all track your food measuring every item? How do you manage when eating out?
When I am preparing my own food I measure and try to do accurate portions. Currently I'm rounding and doing my best educated guesses when eating out. I think at least bringing awareness to my eating, even if it's not the exact calorie and macro count, can be helpful. Thoughts? What has been most successful for tracking without becoming obsessive for some of you all?
Thanks. (I'm also super open to new MFP friends if anyone needs more buddies, just request).

When eating out some place where there is a menu online I generally pick out what I'm going to eat and find out what the calories per ounce are at home the best I can or compare it to something on the food list. Some places actually state their calories on the menu which is nice.

MelanieCN77

I'm in maintenance and I am still tracking everything as I did before. I'm not sure how to transition, to be honest.

crazyycatladyy1

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

I'm in maintenance and I am still tracking everything as I did before. I'm not sure how to transition, to be honest.

Nothing wrong with long term tracking if you don't mind doing it. Otherwise, you can set other parameters to go by if you get burned out on the tracking. I do IF and daily weigh-ins to keep me on track in maintenance. If the weight starts creeping up (and stays higher for more than a few days), then I get strict again and start tracking, until I'm back down in my maintenance range.

newheavensearth

I weigh and measure everything according to portion sizes on tbe package. Serving size is 85 grams? That's what I measure out and eat.I will not weigh prepackaged or single serving foods, its close enough for me.

Eating out I check nutrition info on online menus or find the best and closest approximation if no info is available. Since I still on occasion put food in measuring cups then onto the scale to weigh it, I've gotten good at eyeballing what 1 cup, 1/2 cup or 4 oz looks like. That's how I handle portion control out of the house.

tramondonna1

The Keg has nutritional values on their on-line menu. It was very helpful when I was deciding which restaurant to go to and what to have.

kirobinson54

I was, and I was losing weight steadily. I started getting lazy about it, doing it only about 1/2 the time and even then was sloppy about the accuracy, and my weight loss stopped. I am back on the road to accurate, complete logging.