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?

livingleanlivingclean

I weigh because I want to know I'm making the best possible effort to achieve the targets I'm aiming for. If I'm estimating, then my results will also be somewhat vague - weighing and being as accurate as possible takes away a variable.

If I was trying to do long term maintenance, and not worried about fluctuations I may be more likely to estimate more - I'm trying to collect data on myself though, and accuracy in logging is helpful. I think it also depends how close to goal you are, and how lean you are - as your deficit becomes smaller, accuracy is more important as you could easily wipe out a small deficit by eyeballing food

TonyB0588

I weigh some and guess some. Packaged foods are easy, as I use information from the label. Home cooked foods are more difficult. If it's terribly off, it will soon show in lack of progress.

EllieElla2015

I estimated for almost a year and maintained. When it came to losing I found myself eating minimally to ensure I wasn’t eating too many calories. Too me, counting is freedom because it shows you what you CAN eat. Without counting, I was paranoid I was eating too much when I wasn’t. So it’s possible definitely possible to maintain or lose with estimating, but for me it wasn’t worth it. Knowledge is power for me

erica_today

My first 40lbs was lost by estimating alone. If I didn't know how much I'd purposey over estimate my log though. But I had success. The next 10lbs I used a scale for that extra push.

JaxxieKat

I used to eyeball, until I decided for giggles one day to weigh my protein powder. The serving size on the jar says "2 scoops/43g" I weighed two level scoops of powder, and it weighed almost 90g. That was over twice as much as the serving size on the package. It ends up being 340 calories instead of 170. 10 days of that mistake is a pound's worth of extra, sneaky calories. 43g ends up being around a scoop and a half when I'm weighing. If you're estimating and losing, keep doing it. If you stall, break out the kitchen scales.

dutchandkiwi

There are a few items that I consistently weigh - My breakfast because I know that at that stage of the day my eyes are not trustworthy in estimations. I'd happily double some of the ingredients and underestimate my calories big time.
There are a few items I audit; My salads for instance - I am pretty good at the guesstimates there and I know it. As a result I use the scale to check myself about once a month.
I never weigh my bread; I did that initially for about 50 days and they were all 34-36 g. All get logged at 35.
When making a recipe I weigh the large ingredients and calorie dense ingredients for instance I'll weigh the bacon, but not green leafy vegetables.

3.5 years ago I never weighed anything All was guesstimates and I lost quite a bit of weight and then stalled.Started using the scales determined my downfall areas (read gross underestimates) and stated weighing there only. Got to my goal weight. From my over 20 years ago lab background I know I can estimate really well. In our lab we'd have a friendly competition who could be the most accurate in one scoop on weighing whatever out and that trained me pretty well. I guess it was for me re-learning a forgotten skill and also learning when to trust my eyes vs my training.

For some the scale is the only way to really learn about portion control. For others well they know really what to do or have to skill to do so. The reason why the use of a scale is often recommended is because most people have no idea what the weight of their food is and as a result don't know what their intake is. A little underestimation does not have to be bad perse, but a lot of people underestimate some items by 50%. It is about learning what you eat until it become something you just know. Bit like learning the letters in the alphabet to learn how to read.

callsitlikeiseeit

its not tedious once you get in the habit and have your most common items easily accessible from your history.

that said, i weigh and log.

when i was maintaining for a year, i rarely weighed (and maintained just fine) but eating at a deficit is a lot harder for me than being at maintenance, i ONLY lose if i weigh and log accurately

cmlax

I am interested in purchasing a food scale in order to weigh my caloric intake. The way I guesstimate right now is by way of comparison to prepared meals I have purchased before. While living in Michigan I had purchased BiteMeals from Haydn and Katy. I have taken the serving sizes and nutritional facts from those meals and have tried to make comparable meals at home. I have been quite successful, you can even check out their website which has pictures of the servings along with the nurtrional facts. Hope this helps.

leggup

I've noticed that I fall off of logging entirely if I stop weighing my food. Every now and then I have a guesstimate day (usually a weekend) where I log my breakfast and lunch with a food scale and then eat out/eat leftovers without logging, just adding 1,000-1,500 cals to the log and hoping for the best.

When I log without weighing I tend to undereat, then stop logging and overeat (because I'm so hungry). I also have a harder time balancing my meals. Yesterday I was hungry all day. I looked at my log at the end of the day and I only got 10% of my calories from protein- oops! The log (and knowing it's accurate) helps me with hunger.

When I did this journey the first time, I logged without weighing. I eyeballed, counted chips, etc. I lost weight just fine because I was overweight, approaching obese. As my weight loss slowed/became variable, I got the food scale. This time around I am only losing a few vanity lbs (already in the normal range), so the food scale is a requirement. 10 lbs down in 2 months, 20 more lbs to go.

artbyrachelh

" I think it also depends how close to goal you are, and how lean you are - as your deficit becomes smaller, accuracy is more important as you could easily wipe out a small deficit by eyeballing food"

I see a theme here... looks like it's been successful for me so far because I'm at beginning of my weight loss journey. My last 10 lbs may be the time to get accurate. Thanks everyone for sharing your insight. It's tremendously helpful and makes so much sense.