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

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  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    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__
    __TMac__ Posts: 1,665 Member
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    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
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited September 2017
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    I use the app on my phone
  • EHollander89
    EHollander89 Posts: 169 Member
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    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
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    edited September 2017
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    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
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    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
    81Katz Posts: 7,074 Member
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    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
    cs2thecox Posts: 533 Member
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    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.

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