Is This Really Worth It?
Kbasore
Posts: 25 Member
Morning Fitness Pal! Quick question: I'm just curious from those who have been here a while.. does this logging your intake actually make a difference? I know it all makes sense to log your food, but does it really make a difference? Just coming out of a funk and curious.
Thanks,
Kristen
Thanks,
Kristen
1
Replies
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Yes. If I didn't log my food I could easily eat over everyday and never lose weight. It is the only way to actually know how much I'm eating and make sure I eat under calories.
Also, I log all my food for the day every morning. That way I know okay well I have no calories left so all I can eat is what I put and it helps me say no to temptations through out the day for something extra not in my log.9 -
Yes. When I didn't log, I didn't lose.4
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Absolutely. I lost over 100lbs by logging. I got lazy, quit logging and a few years later - BAM 65lbs heavier. Now I'm back to logging and with 19lbs down, it's obviously working
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Yes! I can't emphasize enough how important it is to track your calories. Even on a maintenance. You could ensure yourself every day that you won't overeat when it could easily happen. Mfp tracking helps you to stay in balance and in check with yourself. Discipline is key.1
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Morning Fitness Pal! Quick question: I'm just curious from those who have been here a while.. does this logging your intake actually make a difference? I know it all makes sense to log your food, but does it really make a difference? Just coming out of a funk and curious.
Thanks,
Kristen
Yes it does.
I could do one of those elimination or meal replacement diets where I didn't have to log, but then I wouldn't learn anything. I'm fat because my portions are too big. Logging is my reality check.2 -
Try it and see. ::shrug::0
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It totally depends on you. It was not worth it to me. I found it too time consuming and frustrating, and found more success by simply paying attention and eating less. But others find it extremely helpful.
Only you can decide if it's worth it for you.0 -
Morning Fitness Pal! Quick question: I'm just curious from those who have been here a while.. does this logging your intake actually make a difference? I know it all makes sense to log your food, but does it really make a difference? Just coming out of a funk and curious.
Thanks,
Kristen
Logging your food accurately and staying in your deficit is probably the only thing that does matter. If your desired result is fat loss, you have to be in a deficit. I have plenty of friends who have decided that they don't need to log their food, they just need to lift heavy. Some of them started before I did in 2015 as well. They can certainly out lift me, but I don't know any of them that are happy with the way they look in the mirror. They get stronger, they build muscle, but tend to not lose fat because they eat what they want and don't practice any control with caloric intake. The result is they train hard, and it increases their appetite so they eat more. Most of them don't gain much weight, but they certainly don't lose it very fast either. I decided a while back that I was going to focus on weight loss until I hit my goal, then slowly ramp myself up to maintenance, then practice recomp for about a year or even two if necessary before considering cutting/bulking cycles. I figured it took me 20+ years to ruin my body and it wasn't going to be a quick fix no matter how I looked at it. Logging my food is the only thing that made me successful. I've been at it for a bit over two years now, hit my goal within the first year and have maintained for a year or a bit more. I may not be as strong as the people who lift heavy and don't log their food, but I like what I see in the mirror for the most part and it gets better every day. Log your food. It makes a difference. At least until you hit your goals and learn how and what you can eat and when you can eat it and how to adjust your exercise routine to pay for days when you fall off the wagon because everyone is human.4 -
Omg yes. Tracking=success.
It's so easy to overeat. I was at a meeting yesterday and they passed around a bag of Cadbury chocolate. I ate a SINGLE tiny 4g teeny wrapped ball of chocolate without looking at the nutrition value. It was nice to just participate in the group yumminess you know?
But being dutiful, I grabbed the bag to log it after and be accountable. 40 calories!!!!!!! For a chocolate the size of a SMALL purple grape. I could have had a whole snack bag of popcorn for 100 cals! Literally fistful after fistful of popcorn.
It's seeing the hard truth of the numbers like that that make you say, "Is puting this in my mouth really worth it for my goals?"
And no, it wasn't worth it. It wasn't a huge deal to my day in the end but I now know going forward that Cadbury can suck it. I can get my chocolate fix in MUCH more calorie friendly ways.
And this is why tracking is worth the effort.2 -
Morning Fitness Pal! Quick question: I'm just curious from those who have been here a while.. does this logging your intake actually make a difference? I know it all makes sense to log your food, but does it really make a difference? Just coming out of a funk and curious.
Thanks,
Kristen
Did for me, once I understood things.
Allowed me to get my BF % down to have a lean physique.0 -
MsHarryWinston wrote: »It's seeing the hard truth of the numbers like that that make you say, "Is puting this in my mouth really worth it for my goals?"
Off topic really.. but I'd have do say... yes chocolate is always worth it.
I simply eat dark chocolate or no sugar added chocolate ice cream, or both. I swear I will run/walk/work out an extra 30 minutes just for more chocolate. But no, I don't let it thwart my goals, I just find ways to fit it in. Cadbury is the worst (or the best depending on how you look at it). Try Hershey's Special Dark, it's one of my favs and is lower in calories than a lot of milk chocolate.
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Yes, it really does make a difference. My past Sunday was a binge day, a high-calorie day, a IDGAF day, but it was a day in which I measured and recorded everything. Since then I've been in a calorie deficit consistently, exercised valiantly, drank vast quantities of water, and still haven't erased the gains from Sunday. Logging accurately gives me the reality check that my calorie deficit since then simply has not grown large enough to reverse the fat gains from Sunday. It's not water and sodium. It's not constipated poop. It's just going to take an especially long time to erase one helluva day.0
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Morning Fitness Pal! Quick question: I'm just curious from those who have been here a while.. does this logging your intake actually make a difference? I know it all makes sense to log your food, but does it really make a difference? Just coming out of a funk and curious.
Thanks,
Kristen
It only makes sense if it helps you stay within the calorie deficit or increase you are looking to hit. Cause what it does it tell you where you are as you log your intake to reaching that. If you log just for the sake of logging, it can still give you good information about the food you eat ... like the macro breakdown. But ... it is a tool that you can use or abuse, like any other.0 -
Tracking your meals makes all the difference, at least for me it does. I log everything, the good the bad and the sometimes ugly. I measure and weigh everything. If I stop tracking I start gaining. 0
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I always used at least some of them while losing. Now, I sometimes use all of them. I think you have to find what works for you with that one - there are some variables such as how accurate your burn calculation is, as well as how accurate your food input is. I never weighed or carefully measured, so I knew that I wanted that "cushion" and didn't eat every exercise calorie back.0 -
Logging is the only way I can lose weight. Plus I've learned a lot here from helpful members. Good success!0
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Very few people are good at estimating what a particular weight or measure of food looks like without actually weighing or measuring it. Most people also wouldn't know how many calories are in that food without looking it up, and would have trouble mentally keeping track of the calorie or nutrient content of the food they've eaten in a day. Logging removes all of those sources of error.
It's often helpful to try this out for yourself when you first start logging, so you can get a sense of what you have been eating vs. what you want to eat. Grab a jar of peanut butter, or some other food that isn't packaged in single servings. Take out the amount you would normally eat, and guess how many calories are in it. Then weigh the food, look at the nutrition label, and see how close your guess was.0 -
MFP and logging everything is the only thing i've ever had success losing weight with.0
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For me, it's 100% necessary. If i dont do it and have everything planned out and know exactly how many calories i'm having then i go way too far the other way and just eat whatever and gain 70 pounds (literally). I log all my stuff and i do it in advance. That way i can see how my calories play out every day and what i need to do for the week. If i am way over i can adjust instead of just feel crappy about myself at the end of the day. It's almost like a game or a competition to see it all laid out in front of me. it's the only way i dont cheat. Because i know all my food is already logged and if i eat something else i'll go over.1
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It has definitely been worth it to me. Each and every log. Because I log both my food and weight, I can hold myself accountable whenever I start to lose or gain too much. I can't look in the mirror or squeeze into my clothes and pretend all is well. The cold hard facts are right there on my phone.
Perhaps I won't have to log everything one day, but at the very least, keeping a food diary for an extended period of time has made me aware of what proper food portions look like, what kind of meals will help me hit micros/macros, etc. I learned how to make quick, simple meals and adjust old favorites with lower calorie and/or more nutrient dense substitutions such that I never feel like I'm missing out, and I get the most bang for my buck.
I have never felt any guilt about eating what many would deem "bad" food because I don't categorize or eliminate foods as part of my weight management strategy. Rather, I fit in treats when I can, and if I happen to go over, I *slightly* cut back over the next week or so.
With logging, I have my cake and eat it too. In fact, last week, my dad brought home cake from a party. I had room and had already eaten pretty well all day long, so I used a reasonable estimate and logged the cake.3 -
It makes a huge difference for me. For example, I try to eat a breakfast of 500 calories with between 30 and 45g net carbs - I'm a diabetic and if I don't have some carbs in the morning, my medication drops my blood glucose too low before I'm ready to eat again, but if I have too many, my blood glucose spikes. In just a few seconds I can enter a whole complicated meal - say a breakfast bowl with grain, legumes, protein, and a variety of vegetables with some dressing - and find out if it's the right amount. Without MyFitnessPal figuring out the nutritional information would take several minutes, not several seconds.
To give a specific example, say today was a Mexican breakfast bowl using veggies, quinoa and black beans and leftover turkey taco meat and I wanted to put sour cream, guacamole, and cheese on it. And it turns out to add up to 700 calories. I can see that and decide - can I maybe have half as much guac? What about some yogurt instead of the sour cream? Do I really need a whole ounce of shredded cheese? Can I have salsa instead of salad dressing? And with a few tweaks, my breakfast is 200 calories lighter and fits into my calorie budget for the day. And the important thing is, the difference as far as eating satisfaction is barely perceptible and it took basically no time to make the changes. Without logging, I would have "guesstimated" a taco bowl and gone 200 calories over.
Investing in a good kitchen scale is worth it too. I have two essential tools - my kitchen scale which allows you to zero out the amount as you go, so you can just put your plate on it, hit zero, add one food and log it, zero, add the next food, etc. and a set of silicon mixing bowls which have cup fractions on them, for quickly measuring amounts of foods by volume instead of weight.1 -
As long as your being honest with your logging, then yes. I lost well over 100 pounds by using this site to log and monitor my calories and have maintained the loss for over three. There are many, many others who have done the same.1
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Logging worked for me. I lost over 70# here. As with anything in life, what works for me may not work for you. Give it a try; you might be pleasantly surprised! As to eating back exercise calories, same thing. Find what works for you. Good luck.0
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Yes, if for no other reason than the simple, psychological fact that by monitoring our intake, we eat less. We do better when people are watching, or when we are sitting in front of a mirror where we can see ourselves eat. It's because of self-awareness: suddenly, we are more aware and mindful of what we eat. The trick is being 100% honest in our diary, no matter how ugly it may be.
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Yes. I don't lose weight unless I log all my food. Gum and garlic included 0
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Yes0
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NM0
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Wow! I love reading all the success stories!!0
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