Weighing vs. estimating

artbyrachelh

I'd be interested in comparing results of two dedicated people. One dedicated calorie counter who weighs all her food and logs it, vs. another dedicated calorie counter who estimates the calories consumed and logs it. The reason I pose this question, is that logging my food is a tedious task for me enough, without the prospect of weighing it, too. Obviously, in order to achieve results, I'd be willing to start down the path of weighing food, but so far, I've had success with just estimating. Having said that, my rule of thumb is over estimating calories consumed, and underestimating calories burned. I'm not sure if it's my personality or what, but I think I would really resent the food scale if I had to resort to that sort of precision!

janejellyroll

There will be a whole range of results for people who are estimating because some people are just naturally better at guessing than other people are.

This is probably why we see some people have success while they're guessing and others who are unable to reach a deficit consistently with this method (I'm in the second camp for sure).

This is why I never resented the scale -- it was a way for me to begin seeing regular positive results in my weight loss.

artbyrachelh

@janejellyroll Yeah, you're totally right. I hope I don't seem critical of weighing food. I just wondered at the comparison.

snowflake954

It's very simple, really. Just guesstimate until you stop losing. Then if you want to continue losing, you can evaluate using a scale.

janejellyroll

artbyrachelh wrote: »

@janejellyroll Yeah, you're totally right. I hope I don't seem critical of weighing food. I just wondered at the comparison.

Nope, you didn't seem critical. I can understand how weighing can see challenging or difficult to some people. If people aren't weighing and they're seeing good results, I think sticking with estimating is perfectly reasonable!

aeloine

Edited because I google scholar'd something and didn't read the thing before posting it.

Wasn't actually very helpful information.

The food scale has helped keep me accountable. I was a fat kid growing up and learned all sorts of tricks for hiding how much I ate. I'd keep doing that if I wasn't weighing. "An extra cracker above a serving won't hurt," "this TBSP of pb can be heaping, It won't matter," etc .

holly041587

I also started with guesstimating and ended up shorting myself a lot, especially on proteins. You think you have a 4 oz piece of meat when it's only 2 or 3. I started using the scale and it's actually been a great tool for me. I've gotten to where I can guesstimate accurately (from using the scale) and I just pop in on the scale to verify, I'm usually within half an oz on proteins. It's a nice ability to have when you're eating out or having dinner at a friends and don't have that trusty scale with you.

Need2Exerc1se

I weighed a few things when I first started and logged everything. I also found it tedious and stopped both after a few weeks. I've been in maintenance for about 1.75 yrs.

I had maintained a healthy weight for decades without weighing or logging so it wasn't like I didn't know how much I should eat. If you don't like it and you are having good results without it then why add something that seems tedious? You can always change things up later if you want.

cwolfman13

I weigh some things...measure other things...visually estimate other things...

When I was losing I weighed or measured most things, but that was mostly because I wanted to eat as much as possible and still lose weight without shorting myself.

ETA: I don't think I ever weighed veg or fruit...just used the size thing.

laurenebargar

i guess most things, however if its a new food, or something like cereal it will get weighed. Like when I started eating almonds, I weighed them the first few times. Now I grab some and randomly do a weighing test, Im normally under one serving, rarely over.

I think if I stall Ill start weighing more vigorously, however its been working fine for me to just guess on most things.

rileysowner

artbyrachelh wrote: »

I'd be interested in comparing results of two dedicated people. One dedicated calorie counter who weighs all her food and logs it, vs. another dedicated calorie counter who estimates the calories consumed and logs it. The reason I pose this question, is that logging my food is a tedious task for me enough, without the prospect of weighing it, too. Obviously, in order to achieve results, I'd be willing to start down the path of weighing food, but so far, I've had success with just estimating. Having said that, my rule of thumb is over estimating calories consumed, and underestimating calories burned. I'm not sure if it's my personality or what, but I think I would really resent the food scale if I had to resort to that sort of precision!

If you are having success doing it the way you are doing it, why would you change. The usual time that weighing food is recommended is when a person says they are only eating 1200 calories exercising and not eating back exercise calories, but still not losing weight. More often than not, they are estimating, and not doing a good job of it. Thus the recommendation to weigh their food. If you have success estimating, stick with it until it doesn't work.

Anon2018

artbyrachelh wrote: »

I'd be interested in comparing results of two dedicated people. One dedicated calorie counter who weighs all her food and logs it, vs. another dedicated calorie counter who estimates the calories consumed and logs it. The reason I pose this question, is that logging my food is a tedious task for me enough, without the prospect of weighing it, too. Obviously, in order to achieve results, I'd be willing to start down the path of weighing food, but so far, I've had success with just estimating. Having said that, my rule of thumb is over estimating calories consumed, and underestimating calories burned. I'm not sure if it's my personality or what, but I think I would really resent the food scale if I had to resort to that sort of precision!

I also mostly estimate and have had success doing so. I've started weighing when something is calorie dense and easy to weigh (i.e. nuts or nut butters). If something is equal to or less than 1 calorie per gram it's too tedious for me.

Also, the first week I got my scale I started weighing everything besides veggies and super low cal stuff. I found I was pretty close so now I feel comfortable with my estimates.

DX2JX2

artbyrachelh wrote: »

I'd be interested in comparing results of two dedicated people. One dedicated calorie counter who weighs all her food and logs it, vs. another dedicated calorie counter who estimates the calories consumed and logs it. The reason I pose this question, is that logging my food is a tedious task for me enough, without the prospect of weighing it, too. Obviously, in order to achieve results, I'd be willing to start down the path of weighing food, but so far, I've had success with just estimating. Having said that, my rule of thumb is over estimating calories consumed, and underestimating calories burned. I'm not sure if it's my personality or what, but I think I would really resent the food scale if I had to resort to that sort of precision!

I say this only partly as a joke but if you don't mind finding a couple of recurring standard foods to build into your daily eating, then it becomes much easier.

Weighing is much more important than logging IMO and if it helps you to save some time, I didn't log individual meals. I only kept notes on my daily deficit/surplus on the days when I was significantly off target such that I could calculate a total weekly deficit amount.

Note that I did weigh every meal though. Once I figured out the calories for any given meal, I just kept a running daily calorie total in my head. If I was well off at the end of the day, I'd note it down. If I was on target, then no notes needed.

It worked well for me, 6 months and 50 pounds later and I'm officially at maintenance.

lemurcat12

If not weighing is working for you, then there's no need to weigh. I do think there are personality differences, but I will say that when I started I thought weighing everything seemed like way too much detail, and that I would never do it. Once I tried it (and I'm not really sure why I did, except I used to use a food scale for baking so had one), I realized that for my personality it was LESS stress and made it easier, as estimating took more work for me than just adding a moment on the scale as part of my cooking routine. I currently don't log consistently (I'm at maintenance) since that feels burdensome to me sometimes, but the weighing bit I enjoy and I often weigh things now.

But it's really individual and no need to change something that works.

steveko89

I approach weighing and logging like data-collection, that's largely because I'm an engineer and that's just how science works. I think you can have success either way, with a few caveats depending on your goals and individual circumstances. I didn't necessarily log everything and rarely logged on weekends until mid-July. I wasn't getting anywhere and really took a hard, objective look at how well I was really logging and tracking. I realized I was doing a terrible job capturing everything I was eating, especially the "occasional" fun size candy bars from the bowl at work (which was amounting to 200-400 cal/day). I now log everything I consume with precision, treating the exercise like data-collection for an experiment.

I keep my weight tracking spreadsheet on an annual basis, weighed myself weekly through July, have weighed daily since, when I buttoned up my logging (hit 100 days straight today). No appreciable changes between 1/1/17 and 7/24/17, since then I'm down 7-8 lbs, depending on the day. I know it doesn't sound like a whole lot but I'm on a slow cut/re-comping trying to get my body fat percentage down without losing any muscle and I feel and can see a difference in the mirror.

YMMV, if you don't like logging/weighing and are still losing weight, great, keep it up.

staticsplit

I do a mixture. Sometimes I weigh, sometimes I don't. When I was a teen, I had a terrible eating disorder, so being too stringent can backfire terribly. I'm not in a big rush to lose weight--it my guesstimation means I lose more slowly, it's fine by me.

artbyrachelh

"When I was losing I weighed or measured most things, but that was mostly because I wanted to eat as much as possible and still lose weight without shorting myself."

This is an excellent argument. I love it.

artbyrachelh

"I say this only partly as a joke but if you don't mind finding a couple of recurring standard foods to build into your daily eating, then it becomes much easier."

This makes eminent sense. I can see how that it true.

artbyrachelh

"I approach weighing and logging like data-collection, that's largely because I'm an engineer and that's just how science works. "

I can see the attraction of that. Definitely.

artbyrachelh

"I've started weighing when something is calorie dense and easy to weigh (i.e. nuts or nut butters)"

Excellent point. I think the scales tip in favor of the scales. (Nyuk Nyuk)

Francl27

I ended up weighing because I was tired of having to keep a bigger deficit 'just in case'. I figured, why not just take the extra 2 seconds to be more accurate, so that I just don't have to worry about eating too much?