How do you remember accurate amounts of things when your logging?

Psychgrrl

For work each day, I pack my food the night before. And, while I don't pre-log, I usually eat the same amounts each day of most things, which helps me. The couple of things that vary, like my chicken tenders, when I weigh, I just remember--oh, that's 1.25 servings.

I log after I eat. Sometimes, my day gets away from me and I don't eat as planned. I have lots of "portable" emergency food just in case my meetings start to run together and I don't have 10-15 minutes to reheat and eat. If the food sits in my work fridge overnight, I use a post-it note so I don't forget.

scarlett_k

I use my memory. If that wasn't so good I'd write it down, as I'm assuming you're not near a smartphone or computer when you eat as you could easily note it down or log it if you were.

AMV91

If I'm cooking a meal, I'll jot it down as I go, then log after its done and I've figured out portions.

Otherwise I have a good memory and my meals aren't often too complicated. I also tend to do things in like grams (50g carrot, 50g spinach) etc, so its easier.

xvolution

I usually log food/fluids before I intake them, either using the website if I'm at home or using the MFP app if I'm not.

IsabeausRose

Log it before you eat it. I have my whole day planned out and logged in the morning (except for not knowing what an unpeeled banana weighs until I peel it).

explodingmango

I don't remember. I measure the amount I'm making, and I log it as I prepare it. I have a food scale, measuring cups, etc., and I use them. If I eat out, I split the meal into portions before I start eating (if the meal is more than a single serving - which it usually is) and record based on that.

Where I can, I make it easier for myself to measure by the use of shortcuts, like using small marks on my cereal bowls placed at the 1 and 2 cup levels - it takes some of the tedium out.

But, the main point is taking the whole "remembering" aspect out of the equation. No reception? I put the numbers in my notes app. Phone dead? Write it on paper.

Lounmoun

Every morning before I eat anything I log my food for the whole day. I don't really eat based on cravings or spontaneous events.
I look at my food diary before eating to remind myself what I logged. When I go to eat then I can just eat the amount I already logged.
Do you carry any devices or pen and paper? You can make notes or take photos to help you remember.

Machka9

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

Sticky notes and prelogging

This!

In fact, when I was on a mission to lose weight in the early days, my husband used to weigh everything for me when he made dinner, and would present me with a plate complete with food and sticky notes.

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MelodiousMermaid

I prefer to prelog as well, and I make printouts if there's much to do for prep, as I find it quicker to access/track if I have it on the refrigerator.

If prelogging isn't your thing, probably the best thing to do is to have some pre-made portions of foods available/with you if you're on the go, especially if you don't have access to the internet where you're going (work/no service-zone). This applies to both meal-type foods and snacks.

An example for snacking would be to take your "easy snack of choice" and portion it out into containers/baggies and find a couple of accessible places to make them available if you want them. I carry a purse and drive a car, so I have some dry roasted peanuts pre-measured and stowed in each. Depending on the snack type, there may not be an ability to prep ahead more than a day or two (especially if it is not able to be frozen), but for many items it is an option.

What I sometimes like to do for meal-type foods (especially if it's going to be a busy week) is to measure ahead of time and mark portions I've prepared for myself. This can either be in the form of the full meal or individual ingredients. Containers/baggies with 4 oz of pre-cooked chicken tenderloins are an example of an ingredient (for salads/other meals). I have also made full-meal preps ahead of time, used a mason jar (or more if separation is needed) for storage in the refrigerator, and it's either a "crockpot dump" or not too hard to cook up quickly in a skillet. This way it's all measured (often pre-set in my recipes as well). It can be a bit tedious to pre-program recipes, but in the end I find it's worth it for this my family or I like to have at least every once in a while, since it will already be there and waiting after the first time.

If none of these can be adapted to fit your lifestyle, another couple of ideas I just had would be 1) to use an app to note everything right away (I prefer Colornote for lists), or 2) take pictures of anything you have with some sort of consistent measurement comparison (such as a coin) within the picture to help estimate portion sizes. This would be a bit of a learning curve in the beginning, but the payoff after getting used to it would be major flexibility and the ability to go without a schedule of meals (that someone or an event could throw off in a moment).

Best of luck to you on your journey!

snowflake954

Everyone has already said it, but things get easier as you go along. You'll find that this is no longer a problem one day. So just keep trying until you find what works for you.

__TMac__

Machka9 wrote: »

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

Sticky notes and prelogging

This!

In fact, when I was on a mission to lose weight in the early days, my husband used to weigh everything for me when he made dinner, and would present me with a plate complete with food and sticky notes.

Side story: My husband and I stayed with a friend this past week, and on the last morning we had breakfast together. Our friend put an omelette in front of me, along with a sticky note of ingredients and weights. Hubs had suggested it. It was a really nice gesture, and so much appreciated. I punched it into the app while waiting for everyone else to sit down.

hesn92

I use the app on my phone

EHollander89

I keep a set of post-it notes and a pen next to my food scale. When I meal prep for the week, I write down the totals for what's in each container and stick the note to the lid. I prepare similar meals, so when I log the first ingredient, MFP usually suggests what I typically eat with that ingredient. Makes logging quick. I just adjust the totals if needed. When I'm preparing my breakfast or dinner, I follow a similar process. If I'm only using a few ingredients, I might not need to write them down. I'm pretty familiar now with how many grams of ingredients I use in the meals I make regularly, but I've been logging for a while.

DX2JX2

Once I got comfortable with my logging practices, targets, and my results trend, I stopped writing everything down and switched to more of a daily total thing. That is, I kept a mental running log of where I was calorie-wise throughout the day and just made sure to capture the total before I went to bed.

After a while, I found that I could switch to a weekly total. Since most days were on target, it only required remembering the days that I had a deviation from my target.

The big caveat with this approach is that you have to be very comfortable with your measurement practices, it helps if you are more or less consistent with daily meal planning, calorie intake, and activity levels, and you can't do it until you're in more or less a steady-state deficit.

The benefit of this approach is that I don't have to remember that I ate 10 almonds for 65 calories last Monday. I simply need to remember that I ran a steady 1000 calorie every day except for Friday last week, when I ate at maintenance.

nutmegoreo

Depends on the meal. For work lunch, I log while I pack. If I don't eat something, I can delete it later. While at home, I use this really high tech gadget. Pen and paper. Write it down while prepping, log while eating.

81Katz

I keep a basic spiral bound notebook in the kitchen with a pen. Write at the top the day, example Mon. Sept. 11, 2017 then I write all I eat for the day (time, food, weights, portions etc.) the I just log onto MFP via the computer through out the day. But I also pre-log. I can easily pre-log a week at a time with the typical day to day basics then fill in a bit more as I go (a veggie here, fruit there yogurt here, ate a little more chicken here, etc.)

cs2thecox

For meals at home, I try to log as I prepare/cook/serve so that I can get my portion size on point, particularly so I know how many carbs I can eat with dinner! It takes mere seconds to zap a packet and/or plonk some veg on the scales. If my boyfriend's cooking then he's really good at saving all the packaging for me until I've done it (and unpackaged veg tends to be low in calories anyway, so it doesn't matter too much if I eyeball the portion).

Meals out, I zap or search as I go, wherever possible.

I agree with the others - if this is important enough to you then you find a way.