Streamlining logging

summpear

I started a second part time job about 5 weeks ago, andI'm having trouble keeping up with mylogging. What tips do you have to keep it easy (or efficient)?

Pre loggers, what worksfor you? How much and how far out doyou log?

TavistockToad

I make and log my breakfast and lunch the night before. I guesstimate my evening meal and then tweak my logging as I weigh and cook everything.

Snacks I log as I eat

Lounmoun

I generally log for the day in the morning before or while I have breakfast.
I eat from home most meals so my options are limited and dinners are planned for the week. I often rotate through a few items for breakfast or have dinner leftovers. Since some items and amounts are the frequent it is quick to log them.

elsie6hickman

Since I eat most of my meals at home, the only thing I struggle with is multi-ingredients, and since I cook for two, figuring out how much of each ingredient I personally consumed. But since we are normally talking vegetables and I weigh all my proteins, I don't think it is a huge problem.
Preplanning seems like a solution to your problem.

Jackie9003

I log in the morning for the day as I usually take it to work with me and I have a rough idea of what to do for dinner. I do tend to be consistent though with 300 cals for breakfast and 400 for lunch and alternate between a few favourite options.

nowine4me

If you rotate a few items for breakfast, lunch, dinners and snacks, set them up under “meals”. I pre-log my entire week on Sunday, usually just a quick add of 600 for dinner, then adjust as I go.

CarvedTones

I can usually log at the time or soon after. One of the few times I use quick add is to add a big number that will remind me to correct it later. If it's not possible to log at all until later which is rare, I just have to hope I will remember.

lorrpb

You can copy meals from one day to another. This is great if you a lot similar things, especially for breakfast and lunch.

DarianJP

I’m sure what I do may seem a little excessive to some people but I prelog my food about a week or 2 out at a time. My life is busy so this works well for me so I don’t have to worry about what I’m going to eat and so I don’t have to stop and get fast food. I’m off Mondays and do all my food prepping on that day and I always have the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner 5 or 6 days a week. Usually oatmeal for breakfast (maybe a yogurt parfait or chia pudding to mix things up or even sometimes a jimmy dean delight crossaint), a giant salad for lunch, and baked fish (usually salmon, tilapia or flounder) with baked vegetables. For snacks I’ll usually have an apple or orange, roasted broad beans and some kind of vegetable (baby carrots, mini cucumbers or even raw mushrooms) Of course I always leave about 150-200 calories left in case I decide I want something extra and I’m flexible so if something comes up I can switch things around.

aokoye

I eat a lot of leftovers so pre-logging is pretty easy for me to do. Breakfast is even easier as it typically consists of a bagel with butter. Sometimes I'll deviate from my typical breakfast but a bagel eaten at 7:30 will leave me satiated until 11:30 or noon where as oatmeal (which I like better, taste wise), will end with me being hungry within an hour and a half.

I typically log snacks when I eat them but sometimes I'm able to plan ahead of time, though never more than X number of hours. So for instance I bought a piece of caramel yesterday afternoon that I knew I would eat it later that day so I just logged it when I was logging my lunch (which I had bought at the same time).

livingleanlivingclean

elsie6hickman wrote: »

Since I eat most of my meals at home, the only thing I struggle with is multi-ingredients, and since I cook for two, figuring out how much of each ingredient I personally consumed. But since we are normally talking vegetables and I weigh all my proteins, I don't think it is a huge problem.
Preplanning seems like a solution to your problem.

My husband and I both have different requirements but like to eat similar foods when we share meals. I use two pots for multiple ingredient mixed foods rather than try to work out dividing things, or I make meals with individual components - like steak and roast vegies, I'll put his vegies on one tray and mine on another.

OP, I log one day of food and eat that every day during the week. I might eat the same meals for weeks at a time if I enjoy them.

HeyJudii

I also pre-log, for about a week. Breakfast during the week is usually a smoothie and coffee, so I have created meals that have the repeating basic ingredients. (If I don't have a smoothie, I have something that I have previously created a meal for.) Lunch is usually a big salad, so same for that. The evening meal is one of 8 that rotate by day of the week (Fri-Sun set meals are still being established.) Snacks have also been created as meals.

I find this method quick and easy. Easier still would be if I could copy over an entire week and copy forward wasn't limited to just a few pre-set days.

Machka9

I use: Quick Tools > Copy Yesterday.

VUA21

I prelog most of my food. I also build recipes on dishes/foods I make the same every time. My steaks are cut into 4oz servings, so when I make steak tacos - each taco is 1 grilled corn tortilla, 2oz of steak, 1TBSP jalapeno salsa. I used the recipe builder to be able to add "steak taco" instead of adding each individual ingredient every time I make them. While it may take a bit more effort to build every recipe, in the long run it saves a lot of time.

mariluny

I always freeze my dinner leftovers for lunches to bring at work. I keep a roll of painting tape and a sharpie in the kitchen and I’ll stick a piece of tape with either the name of the recipe (that i previously created in mfp) or the quantity of food in it (like 40g unc rice, 85g cooked chicken, 145 g cooked gr beans...)
The night before I take a lunch out from the freezer to thaw in the fridge and i’ll log it. I’ll more often than not enter my breakfast than as well and adjust quantities in the morning while I eat it.
For dinners, i enter it as I cook it

Machafin

If you have access to MFP at work, log your stuff while at work if you don't have time in the morning.

DoubleUbea

If you make your meals ahead of time you can log ahead of time or use the copy meal feature.
I use recipes or meals for entries. Often I will have two eggs, turkey bacon, a slice of toast, and juice for breakfast. Although the weights might be off a little I don't worry too much about it.

motivatedmartha

Prelogging helps me a lot, I usually do it in the morning or even the night before and just tweak quantities as I eat Using the recipe builder is helpful and most importantly for me - saving meals. Using 'save meal' saves me ages in logging meals - after eating a meal I decide whether it is going to be a regular thing - if so I save it as a meal eg chicken salad, roast beef dinner, baked cod, chips and peas etc. Next time I have that meal I can just log the meal, check that I have used the same weight ingredients, readjust if necessary and job's a goodun. I have saved a lot of frequent meals. It is amazing how common a lot of ingredients are across meals. Saves entering everything again.

joemac1988

M-F I follow a meal plan and I prep my meals so I eat identical every day. I don't bother logging except the weekend because then I go to more of a flexible dieting style.

born_of_fire74

There is a lunch program where I work and I get my lunch menus from it on a weekly basis. As a result, I plan a week at a time.

DX2JX2

I don't mind routine so I tend to eat the same things again and again. It might not be totally exciting variety-wise but it makes logging really easy.

Millicent3015

I prelog up to three days in advance, but I can prelog the entire week. I've downloaded a shopping list app that has a Pantry feature and have listed everything in my fridge, freezer and main food cupboard, so I can check what I have and plan my meals and snacks accordingly.

tinkerbellang83

I create "recipes" for things that I might make/eat regularly like a sandwich I order regularly or the powdered greens I make in the morning.

beer_buzz

Every Sunday, I make-out my menu for the entire week. When I can, I log-in foods as I go, but when I can't, I just write then down in a little pad and enter them (all-at-once) at the end of each day. I also use the "QuickTools" to set-up meals that I eat all of the time, so that I can enter an entire meal with just 1 click. If you don't mind repetitive meals, using the Quick Tools is a godsend.

lynn_glenmont

When I get home from the grocery store, I pre-log that week's perishables, and maybe anything nonperishable that I plan to eat that week (rather than "stocking up" stuff that I'll stick on the shelf for the future). I put them in the diary a couple of days ahead, and each evening I just copy each of the meals to the next day (two days ahead), so they're always there when I want them. So I'm not actually planning specific meals, just making sure that I don't have to find and verify database entries when I eat the things I've bought during the week.

MsArriabella

I log everything for the week when I do my weekly meal planning, I'm writing it all out for my grocery list anyway. I do meal prep for my lunches so I have those saved as either recipes or meals.

The meal option is especially helpful for basics I make often as it's easy to swap out the ingredients when I make it. Recipes are better when it's made the exact same way every time.

Shellytana

I log as I go or sometimes in the morning if I have prepped. I tend to stick to the same food types so its not too difficult. copy meal, save meal and recipes are crucial to me. I use the recipe when I make something for the family and divide by servings.

Redjedi1

I set a reminder on my phone, for when I'm relaxing at night. I mean I'm not doing anything but looking at a screen anyway, so I may as well make it prodictive

mazdauk

I log in the morning during the week - I take a pack lunch (with snacks) so breakfast and lunch are easy. I have most meals that we have regularly saved (it runs to 3 pages!) so I add the one we a re having, or if I am changing something I add the nearest option and just swap out the changes. I also have restaurant meals saved by "Typical [restaurant name]" so I can pre-log if we are going out and just tweak it when we get back.

HeyJudii

Millicent3015 wrote: »

I prelog up to three days in advance, but I can prelog the entire week. I've downloaded a shopping list app that has a Pantry feature and have listed everything in my fridge, freezer and main food cupboard, so I can check what I have and plan my meals and snacks accordingly.

Do you mind sharing the name of that app?

NuggetLovesEdie

I try my best to meal prep on Sundays for the week. I pick two recipes that will tend to keep well and alternate them between lunch and dinner.

One of the recipes is usually a 'recipe' of salad by formula (a whole grain plus some veggies plus some greens plus some nuts plus some lemon juice/olive oil dressing).

Overnight oats or making a batch of oats at the beginning of the week (and freezing them in the muffin pan to make instant heat and eat 'pucks') with two flavors that alternate for brekkie. This week I'm alternating raspberries and sliced almonds with blueberries and sunflower seeds.

This lets me prelog the whole week on Sunday.