Anybody else get tired of counting calories?
Options
Replies
-
cartersmom06 wrote: »Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.
I'd rather do that than not track and fail.
You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?
Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.
I eat different things just about every day and it still takes me ten minutes or under to log.
I'm not saying that it should take *you* that long, but it possible to eat a wide variety of foods and still have relatively efficient logging.9 -
cartersmom06 wrote: »LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »How long have you been logging?
I never minded logging my food, certainly not for the first few years anyway (it got me to goal weight and it helped me keep it off imo) - I now no longer need to log as I can maintain my loss without physically logging however mentally I still am very aware of my approx calorie daily intake.
Ive been logging on and off for years never losing much weight because I grow tiresome of the process. I dont have alot to lose, 20 pounds would be nice. I keep coming back to this app though because its the only way of eating that lets me eat what I want without restricting certain foods. I always lose momentum though during the process because I dont see any results of weight loss. I can never seem to lose that pound a week I have my calories set for and always feel hungry in the evening after I have used up my calories for the day. I get frustrated when I step on the scale and there is no loss, sometimes even a gain. FYI Im a 53 yo woman, 5'7" 178 pounds. Im also in perimenopause. Cycles are all over the map! Maybe somebody here has some advice that has been where I am. I trust the process, just growing tired of not seeing results thats all!
1. Tighten up your logging and make sure you're verifying data base entries. I started when I was older and post menopausal and lost weight just fine because I made sure I was being accurate about my logging.
2. Once you're sure your logging is accurate, set your loss to half a pound a week. One pound a week is pretty aggressive for 20 pounds to lose.
3. Try playing around with your macros to see if you find a different balance more filling. Even over time, we can change in this regard. I've been at this for years (just messing with vanity weight) and recently got the hungries, and juggled mine to up the protein and fiber, and my hungries stopped.
Edit: Here's a link to the USDA data base to verify data base entries
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list8 -
deannalfisher wrote: »cartersmom06 wrote: »Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.
I'd rather do that than not track and fail.
You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?
Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.
so do i and it still probably takes less than 15 minutes i day - i eat roughly the same/similar foods - but different time periods/amounts - those are saved in my frequent foods; if its new (or something that has fallen off my frequents) i search for it and rarely take more than about a minute to find it (the more specific in your searches you can be helps - ie. strawberry greek yogurt vs. simply balanced, greek yogurt, strawberry, 5.3oz)
my food diary is broken up into time periods (0400-0800; 0800-1200; 12-1600 etc)
+1
Like @AnnPT77 brought out above, different people are going to find different thing burdensome by virtue of our personality& how we view things. We often compare logging to brushing our teeth. Personally, I'm annoyed when I'm ready for bed and realize I still need to brush my teeth. But I do it anyway, because the alternative is unpleasant. Only you can decide if it's worth it to you or if you are willing to commit to some other alternative.10 -
Yeah, it's really exhausting sometimes to be honest. I feel like I can never relax. Like, I can't just grab an apple without thinking and eat it when I'm hungry. I should take out my scale, weight it, make sure it fits into my goal, then log the number before I forget. It sort of takes the enjoyment out of eating the apple. Any event that has food in it, makes me a little nervous and needs to be prepared for in advance. How will I know the calories of food that I will be eating? Should I try to look for the info in advance? should I estimate? How will I work it into my goal? should I readjust all of my other meals that day or the next day to bee able to "afford" it. Sometimes it's easier to pass on the invitation than to worry about all that. And sometimes when I'm eating out with friends or I'm at a party the calories are always on the back of my mind. Like, before grabbing a handful of popcorn or dip a carrot into the hummus, I have to estimate the calories and decide if it fits into my goal and make a mental note to log it as soon as I can instead of focusing on the conversation I'm having. Eating out, being invited over for dinner, parties, holidays, spending time over at a friend's place, when you have to cook for yourself and someone else at the same time, going to vacation... everything is associated with slight anxiety around calories and is less enjoyable due to having to log.
Cooking, instead of being therapeutic and relaxing is now less enjoyable as well, and takes so much more time. Because I have to make sure to weigh every single ingredient before adding it, log everything, then divide into equal portions, all while making sure that the calories and macros per serving fit your goal.
I really don't understand how people here take "only a fe minutes to log". Most of my meals are made from scratch and contain many ingredients. So I have to weigh every one of them every time I cook and log it while I'm cooking or preparing my meal to eat later. Which takes quite a lot of time in my opinion. If I include the time I spend on grocery planning to fit my goals, meal planning, weighing separately the ingredients for my every meal (3-5times a day), or looking for the closest estimates when I don't know the exact calories, logging it, making sure it fits my goal etc. it takes much more time than "a few minutes" and much more energy and headspace than I want to spend on t.
I will definitely not be able (or willing) to spend my entire life doing that. I can only hope that someday after losing enough weight and logging at maintenance I can learn to eat intuitively. I mean 80% of the people around me are at a healthy weight and don't count calories, they can rely on their hunger cues to know how much they should eat. So I hope I can learn to do that too...
I really agree with this 100%. With me, I have PCOS and I didn’t have much luck with relosing the 15 lbs that I had gained until I started logging my food. Now that I more aware of portions and I’m sticking to a range of calories 1200-1800 I’m becoming more loose with my calories. If I’m more active I eat 1800 and if I’m less active I eat 12-1400. Seems pretty simple right? Plus I’m exercising 6 times a week (strength training and cardio) and I’ve bumped up my steps to 10000 per day. Honestly once I reach my goal weight of 129lbs I’m gonna stop counting my calories by weighing them and instead focus on eating whole foods, balanced macros, veggies, protein etc and some treats.3 -
deannalfisher wrote: »cartersmom06 wrote: »Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.
I'd rather do that than not track and fail.
You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?
Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.
so do i and it still probably takes less than 15 minutes i day - i eat roughly the same/similar foods - but different time periods/amounts - those are saved in my frequent foods; if its new (or something that has fallen off my frequents) i search for it and rarely take more than about a minute to find it (the more specific in your searches you can be helps - ie. strawberry greek yogurt vs. simply balanced, greek yogurt, strawberry, 5.3oz)
my food diary is broken up into time periods (0400-0800; 0800-1200; 12-1600 etc)
+1
Like @AnnPT77 brought out above, different people are going to find different thing burdensome by virtue of our personality& how we view things. We often compare logging to brushing our teeth. Personally, I'm annoyed when I'm ready for bed and realize I still need to brush my teeth. But I do it anyway, because the alternative is unpleasant. Only you can decide if it's worth it to you or if you are willing to commit to some other alternative.
This is really the heart of the matter. Logging is a tool. It's completely optional, we can always choose not to do it. Those of us who are doing it do it because we prefer it, even with its inconveniences or ability to hamper spontaneity, to the alternative.
If it's not making your life better, then it's time to consider something else (or adjust your emotional approach to it).
I'd hate logging too if I approached it as an onerous chore.16 -
yes I hate it. I haven't logged my food since July or so. I'm not trying to lose weight though. All the people saying it only takes 5 minutes of their day and it's so easy, I don't understand that. Everytime I cook something new I have to write down each ingredient and weigh it, and enter everything in a recipe builder, and remember to weigh the stupid pot before I make the thing so I can subtract that off the final weight etc. When I make dinner I have to carefully weigh each side dish I put on my plate one at a time instead of just plopping stuff on my plate like everybody else does. Logging food is so easy but only until dinner time. Sometimes I want to get back into counting my calories and lose another 5-10 lbs and lose this belly fat hopefully but ugh, counting calories is such a drag for me.
I find these comments about cooking so odd. I'm really lazy and have never had an issue using the recipe builder, or saving meals, and tweaking the weights the next time I have it. The most time-consuming part of that for me is finding the dumb recipe in my database (which is full), because MFP doesn't have a search function for it. I don't fuss over lower-calorie ingredients like onions, mushrooms, or celery but eyeball those by cups. As to the couple of specific issues you mention, I keep a list of the weights of all of my pots, pans, & baking dishes on the fridge and keep a calculator nearby. I plop stuff on my plate the same as everyone else, but my plate is on the food scale and I tare it in between items.
We can agree to disagree I suppose. I find it to be tedious especially when I'm eating something like tacos where I have to look up each individual thing. I also think the database is a huge mess and I really wish MFP would clean it up and stop allowing random people to just add any old thing they feel like.8 -
yes I hate it. I haven't logged my food since July or so. I'm not trying to lose weight though. All the people saying it only takes 5 minutes of their day and it's so easy, I don't understand that. Everytime I cook something new I have to write down each ingredient and weigh it, and enter everything in a recipe builder, and remember to weigh the stupid pot before I make the thing so I can subtract that off the final weight etc. When I make dinner I have to carefully weigh each side dish I put on my plate one at a time instead of just plopping stuff on my plate like everybody else does. Logging food is so easy but only until dinner time. Sometimes I want to get back into counting my calories and lose another 5-10 lbs and lose this belly fat hopefully but ugh, counting calories is such a drag for me.
One reason I liked that consistency vs. accuracy thread is that it talked about how even lazy logging can be sufficient.
I am someone for whom it takes about 5-10 minutes a day, since at times I am a lazy logger.
When cooking is when I find it least difficult, since I weigh things as a chop and it adds no time to the process. Yes, if I then make 5 servings or some such I could measure to see total for the dish and then weigh my amount, but I don't. I estimate that I eat .2 or 1/3 or whatever it is and then divide the ingredient amounts by that. The only exception is if I make meat on the bone and I'm at home and it's not some fancy dinner party I will likely pull off chicken or even cut meat off the bone to weight while serving up (and then use an entry for cooked meat).
I almost never bother with the recipe builder unless it's a baked good (which is something I rarely eat).4 -
yes I hate it. I haven't logged my food since July or so. I'm not trying to lose weight though. All the people saying it only takes 5 minutes of their day and it's so easy, I don't understand that. Everytime I cook something new I have to write down each ingredient and weigh it, and enter everything in a recipe builder, and remember to weigh the stupid pot before I make the thing so I can subtract that off the final weight etc. When I make dinner I have to carefully weigh each side dish I put on my plate one at a time instead of just plopping stuff on my plate like everybody else does. Logging food is so easy but only until dinner time. Sometimes I want to get back into counting my calories and lose another 5-10 lbs and lose this belly fat hopefully but ugh, counting calories is such a drag for me.
I find these comments about cooking so odd. I'm really lazy and have never had an issue using the recipe builder, or saving meals, and tweaking the weights the next time I have it. The most time-consuming part of that for me is finding the dumb recipe in my database (which is full), because MFP doesn't have a search function for it. I don't fuss over lower-calorie ingredients like onions, mushrooms, or celery but eyeball those by cups. As to the couple of specific issues you mention, I keep a list of the weights of all of my pots, pans, & baking dishes on the fridge and keep a calculator nearby. I plop stuff on my plate the same as everyone else, but my plate is on the food scale and I tare it in between items.
We can agree to disagree I suppose. I find it to be tedious especially when I'm eating something like tacos where I have to look up each individual thing. I also think the database is a huge mess and I really wish MFP would clean it up and stop allowing random people to just add any old thing they feel like.
Granted, I have my tacos in salad form in a big bowl now (partly because I want more toppings than the little shells allow, partly because they're messy).
1 -
cartersmom06 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »cartersmom06 wrote: »LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »How long have you been logging?
I never minded logging my food, certainly not for the first few years anyway (it got me to goal weight and it helped me keep it off imo) - I now no longer need to log as I can maintain my loss without physically logging however mentally I still am very aware of my approx calorie daily intake.
Ive been logging on and off for years never losing much weight because I grow tiresome of the process. I dont have alot to lose, 20 pounds would be nice. I keep coming back to this app though because its the only way of eating that lets me eat what I want without restricting certain foods. I always lose momentum though during the process because I dont see any results of weight loss. I can never seem to lose that pound a week I have my calories set for and always feel hungry in the evening after I have used up my calories for the day. I get frustrated when I step on the scale and there is no loss, sometimes even a gain. FYI Im a 53 yo woman, 5'7" 178 pounds. Im also in perimenopause. Cycles are all over the map! Maybe somebody here has some advice that has been where I am. I trust the process, just growing tired of not seeing results thats all!
have you played around with macros much?
I have no idea how to do the macro thing! I have done low carb and was a miserable mess!!
When people talk about changing macros in order to feel more full/satiated, you can think of it a different way: Think of it as paying attention to your food choices, and the timing of when you eat them, to see what's most filling for you personally.
Your food log can be a big help in this, if you review it every couple of days over a period of time. If you have a particularly hungry/crave-y day, think about why that might be so, compared to easier days: Different meals or snacks, as to timing or foods? More than usual stress? Less than usual sleep? Boredom? Emotional complexities? Particular exercise or other activity making you feel more hungry (that day or the day before, in some cases)? Social triggers for eating/craving? Habit-based triggers for eating/craving? Hungry at particular times of day? Does weather have an effect? You can look at the same factors in reverse, if you have a particularly full & satisfied day, within your calorie goal: Why was it satisfying?
If you notice a pattern, experiment with a new approach for a couple of days, and see if it's an improvement: Different food choices or timing, or if it's sleep/stress/boredom/social/habit/etc., a more direct way of getting at the root cause, like stress-busting exercise or a new hobby.
Here's how macros come into it: I found that I felt more full and satified if I got a solid amount of protein in every meal, and that a good-sized breakfast helped me. The protein (a macro) could be any good source: Eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, beans, tofu, whatever (I'm vegetarian), but I needed more protein to feel full. "Protein" is just a way of generalizing what I'd observed about myself. (Those specifics will differ from mine for each individual, but you can figure out how food choices and timing affect you by reviewing your diary and thinking about it for a while, I predict.)
Looking at macros for nutritional balance is a whole different issue. For satiation, you can just think of it as food choices. Are you more satiated by meat/fish/dairy? By whole grains, potatoes, high-volume veggies? By fatty things like cheese or avocados (in reasonable quantity)? Etc. The answers will be different for different people.7 -
On looking up food items, I admit I log at Cron now (for other reasons), but I never found that difficult at MFP once I'd been logging for a while, since I had most things I used frequently (meats, veg) in Frequent Foods or Recent Foods (and I don't eat the same every day, although I usually make enough for leftovers to be lunches).
There's a period of time when it's more time-consuming before those are all filled in.
I think janejellyroll's point about mindset is right on. I think I got into logging because for me it was very interesting to put down everything I ate (why I'd never skip low cal things with nutrients) and served as an exercise to motivate myself to get in lots of nutritious things, even more than I otherwise might have. And I found the macro info interesting and fun to experiment with and enjoyed figuring out my TDEE and all that, so it wasn't at all unpleasant. I do get bored with it from time to time, though, and go long periods without logging.6 -
cartersmom06 wrote: »Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.
I'd rather do that than not track and fail.
You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?
Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.
This is not a criticism at all, but just something to think about. I also never used to plan what I was going to eat or when. But when I realized I had gained 20 lbs and I started logging, I realized logging was easier when I did do some meal planning. So I started doing it, at least sometimes. And now, I honestly think it's the mindfully planning ahead that is really helping me maintain, probably more so than actually logging it. I had to get to a place in my life and in my head where prioritizing how I was fueling my body was worth that time. I tend to take 10-15 minutes on the weekend to think about what I want to be eating this week and making up my shopping list. And I prep my lunches, plus basics for other meals like a big pot of rice, or roasting veggies, or baking a pan of chicken thighs (on good weeks at least
. I will still go off plan if I feel like it, but not too often.
In my experience, when you leave things to chance, they have a better chance of going badly and tend to require more work to get right than if you had just planned for it in the first place.
Everyone's thought process is different, so just because this was necessary for me doesn't mean it is for you. It just seemed relevant, at least for me.11 -
I guess, on further reflection, I'd add this: Calorie counting isn't necessary for everyone. For some, it never is, and for others, it's a short term strategy to get a handle on things. Monitoring body weight, or fit of clothes, then adjusting eating can also work, and there are probably other reasonable methods.
Calorie management is the only way to gain, lose, or maintain weight, but calorie counting isn't the only way to accomplish calorie management.
For me, calorie counting's the easiest way, though.
My wife and I had this discussion last night. She has always managed her weight well and I am the one that struggles. She doesn't count calories, but it is a necessary step for me. Someone posted recently that none of us got fat intentionally - that was insightful for me. I didn't overeat on purpose. I didn't know how to manage my weight and caloric intake. Logging meals allows me to manage that.11 -
cartersmom06 wrote: »Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.
I'd rather do that than not track and fail.
You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?
Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.
How long have you been doing this? I spent more time in the beginning, but learned to guess on low risk items and be careful around high calorie food. Most of this is going through the routine so that you can make educated estimates.
5 -
cartersmom06 wrote: »Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.
I'd rather do that than not track and fail.
You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?
Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.
This is not a criticism at all, but just something to think about. I also never used to plan what I was going to eat or when. But when I realized I had gained 20 lbs and I started logging, I realized logging was easier when I did do some meal planning. So I started doing it, at least sometimes. And now, I honestly think it's the mindfully planning ahead that is really helping me maintain, probably more so than actually logging it. I had to get to a place in my life and in my head where prioritizing how I was fueling my body was worth that time. I tend to take 10-15 minutes on the weekend to think about what I want to be eating this week and making up my shopping list. And I prep my lunches, plus basics for other meals like a big pot of rice, or roasting veggies, or baking a pan of chicken thighs (on good weeks at least . I will still go off plan if I feel like it, but not too often.
In my experience, when you leave things to chance, they have a better chance of going badly and tend to require more work to get right than if you had just planned for it in the first place.
Everyone's thought process is different, so just because this was necessary for me doesn't mean it is for you. It just seemed relevant, at least for me.
This is a good point. I've always combined logging with meal planning. This has multiple good impacts for me -- I'm making fewer spur-of-the-moment food decisions (not a problem for some people, but I tend to choose higher calorie stuff when I'm deciding at the last minute what to eat), I'm able to complete my shopping and ensure I have everything I need for meals that meet my goals, I can pre-prep meals to make busy days easier, and I can pre-log so I can make adjustments if I see I've planned a day that will leave me feel unsatisfied.
If I was just logging and not doing any sort of planning, I don't think I'd have been as successful.6 -
cartersmom06 wrote: »Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.
I'd rather do that than not track and fail.
You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?
Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.
This is not a criticism at all, but just something to think about. I also never used to plan what I was going to eat or when. But when I realized I had gained 20 lbs and I started logging, I realized logging was easier when I did do some meal planning. So I started doing it, at least sometimes. And now, I honestly think it's the mindfully planning ahead that is really helping me maintain, probably more so than actually logging it. I had to get to a place in my life and in my head where prioritizing how I was fueling my body was worth that time. I tend to take 10-15 minutes on the weekend to think about what I want to be eating this week and making up my shopping list. And I prep my lunches, plus basics for other meals like a big pot of rice, or roasting veggies, or baking a pan of chicken thighs (on good weeks at least . I will still go off plan if I feel like it, but not too often.
In my experience, when you leave things to chance, they have a better chance of going badly and tend to require more work to get right than if you had just planned for it in the first place.
Everyone's thought process is different, so just because this was necessary for me doesn't mean it is for you. It just seemed relevant, at least for me.
Yup, everyone is different. I'm a happy logger, but almost never meal plan. I do tend to eat similar breakfasts/lunches from day to day, but that's been true forever: I'm kinda comatose until the day's been rolling for many hours, so routine and simplicity in the first 6 hours or so are just my jam. Dinner pretty much always starts with looking in the fridge and thinking "hmmm . . . what sounds good?". Sometimes lunch does, too.
Meal planning and happy weighing/logging of food aren't joined at the hip, IMO.4 -
976 day streak here, according to my front page.
That is over 2.5 years straight, without a break.
Sounds like you just want to lose weight without being mindful of what you eat and eating a bit less than you need.
Sorry, it does not get "easier" than that.
If people could actually eat "intuitively" (in proper amounts and/or macros) then they would not be carrying excess body fat.
Unfortunately the human brain has evolved to not work that way when it comes to food.
Therefore most people cannot do it successfully.
The question is: What are you more tired of?
Excess body fat or Logging your food
10 -
I do get tired of it and take a break from it sometimes, but even when I'm not logging, I still catch myself weighing out serving most of the time, habit I guess. I end up eating most of the same things either way, so I probably end up eating the same amount of calories.
I tend to stick with a lot of the same food for a little while and then get tired of some things and change it up for a while. Changing things up a bit always makes me want to go back to logging for a while since I'm not as familiar with the calorie counts and how much a serving weighs.
Do what works for you bc it all comes down to a calorie deficit, and how you create that deficit is up to you.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »cartersmom06 wrote: »Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.
I'd rather do that than not track and fail.
You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?
Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.
This is not a criticism at all, but just something to think about. I also never used to plan what I was going to eat or when. But when I realized I had gained 20 lbs and I started logging, I realized logging was easier when I did do some meal planning. So I started doing it, at least sometimes. And now, I honestly think it's the mindfully planning ahead that is really helping me maintain, probably more so than actually logging it. I had to get to a place in my life and in my head where prioritizing how I was fueling my body was worth that time. I tend to take 10-15 minutes on the weekend to think about what I want to be eating this week and making up my shopping list. And I prep my lunches, plus basics for other meals like a big pot of rice, or roasting veggies, or baking a pan of chicken thighs (on good weeks at least . I will still go off plan if I feel like it, but not too often.
In my experience, when you leave things to chance, they have a better chance of going badly and tend to require more work to get right than if you had just planned for it in the first place.
Everyone's thought process is different, so just because this was necessary for me doesn't mean it is for you. It just seemed relevant, at least for me.
This is a good point. I've always combined logging with meal planning. This has multiple good impacts for me -- I'm making fewer spur-of-the-moment food decisions (not a problem for some people, but I tend to choose higher calorie stuff when I'm deciding at the last minute what to eat), I'm able to complete my shopping and ensure I have everything I need for meals that meet my goals, I can pre-prep meals to make busy days easier, and I can pre-log so I can make adjustments if I see I've planned a day that will leave me feel unsatisfied.
If I was just logging and not doing any sort of planning, I don't think I'd have been as successful.
and meal plannign saves me money because i don't wander down to the cafeteria at work for a bagel or qdoba - i eat what i had planned for the day2 -
Reading some of the comments, I think some people are definitely in a situation of not being able to see the forest for the trees when it comes to counting and logging. What I mean by that is: If you are finding yourself driven crazy by weighing and measuring every little thing that goes into your cooking, then don't do that anymore. It's much better to log, even if you are estimating, than not log at all.
I do use a food scale, but mostly to weigh portions of finished dishes to estimate the calories based of the ingredients. Is it perfect? No. But it allows me to do it all in only a couple of minutes a day and keep me a lot more on track than not logging.
Most meals only have a couple of items in them that are high calorie. If you don't get the exact right estimate of how much onion is in your dish, you will survive the counting process. I am certainly not bashing exact measurements. If you can do it, that is awesome and will be the best way to do it. But if you can't, just doing the best you can and keeping with it is good enough. My calorie counting has not been perfect, but by keeping with it and getting the majority of it right has helped me a lot.14 -
deannalfisher wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »cartersmom06 wrote: »Nope - been doing this for 4 years now. Takes 5-10 mins/day and keeps me maintaining possibly the most critically important health indicator.
I'd rather do that than not track and fail.
You're looking for something easier than 10 mins/day?
Its not 10 mins a day because i dont eat the same things every day. I dont plan out my meals, I eat when im hungry.
This is not a criticism at all, but just something to think about. I also never used to plan what I was going to eat or when. But when I realized I had gained 20 lbs and I started logging, I realized logging was easier when I did do some meal planning. So I started doing it, at least sometimes. And now, I honestly think it's the mindfully planning ahead that is really helping me maintain, probably more so than actually logging it. I had to get to a place in my life and in my head where prioritizing how I was fueling my body was worth that time. I tend to take 10-15 minutes on the weekend to think about what I want to be eating this week and making up my shopping list. And I prep my lunches, plus basics for other meals like a big pot of rice, or roasting veggies, or baking a pan of chicken thighs (on good weeks at least . I will still go off plan if I feel like it, but not too often.
In my experience, when you leave things to chance, they have a better chance of going badly and tend to require more work to get right than if you had just planned for it in the first place.
Everyone's thought process is different, so just because this was necessary for me doesn't mean it is for you. It just seemed relevant, at least for me.
This is a good point. I've always combined logging with meal planning. This has multiple good impacts for me -- I'm making fewer spur-of-the-moment food decisions (not a problem for some people, but I tend to choose higher calorie stuff when I'm deciding at the last minute what to eat), I'm able to complete my shopping and ensure I have everything I need for meals that meet my goals, I can pre-prep meals to make busy days easier, and I can pre-log so I can make adjustments if I see I've planned a day that will leave me feel unsatisfied.
If I was just logging and not doing any sort of planning, I don't think I'd have been as successful.
and meal plannign saves me money because i don't wander down to the cafeteria at work for a bagel or qdoba - i eat what i had planned for the day
Yeah, I can't even imagine how much money I'd be spending if I was buying my lunch at work each day . . .3
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.5K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 391 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 926 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions