Is it bad to offload items to the next days diary?
Torinn88
Posts: 1 Member
For example: I was surprised at work with a gift towards the end of the day, after I had eaten my dinner. Would it be bad to mark that snack on the next day's log so the current day's count doesn't go over?
Basically it's the difference between total kcal in a week vs in a day.
Basically it's the difference between total kcal in a week vs in a day.
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Replies
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Whatever you like. You're only kidding your diary and yourself though, not your body. Having said that: one additional snack doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Just log it and move on. Or log it and eat a bit less tomorrow if you like.6
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For example: I was surprised at work with a gift towards the end of the day, after I had eaten my dinner. Would it be bad to mark that snack on the next day's log so the current day's count doesn't go over?
Basically it's the difference between total kcal in a week vs in a day.
or log it on the day you ate it and work to your weekly goal?5 -
Well it's a sign you can't be honest with yourself which isn't great. Going over your calorie goal for one day is not the end of the world and won't impede your progress if it's a rare occasion.3
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Some people do count their calories per week, instead of daily. Like instead of havinng 1,500 calories a day to work with. They will do something like 10,500 calories a week. Personally, how I try to combat over eating is - logging truthfully for that day. Then taking my "red" number (the amount of calories I've eaten over) and plugging it into the next day. That way, even tho I may have screwed up that single day - I'm keeping my week in the "green" ya know what I mean?4
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Some people do count their calories per week, instead of daily. Like instead of havinng 1,500 calories a day to work with. They will do something like 10,500 calories a week. Personally, how I try to combat over eating is - logging truthfully for that day. Then taking my "red" number (the amount of calories I've eaten over) and plugging it into the next day. That way, even tho I may have screwed up that single day - I'm keeping my week in the "green" ya know what I mean?
or maybe stop thinking that just because you ate a bit over your calorie goal one day its a 'screw up'?5 -
IMHO just log it as it was.
This is a marathon not a sprint.
It's not what you ate today. It's not even what you ate this week. It's what you eat over the next several months AND beyond.....5 -
Are you in it to lose weight or generate textbook MFP entries? The whole concept of diet logging is about accuracy; scootching things around to make the numbers pretty doesn't make a lick of difference to what and when (which is significant according to many) your body processes what you put into it. Just MHO, though.3
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If your adherence long term to your diet is improved by taking a weekly view with higher days and lower days then it's a good idea for you.
If your adherence long term to your diet is improved by fitting in treats and social events without rigid restriction then it's a good idea for you.
For perspective it's good to remember exceeding your daily goal probably only made your calorie deficit smaller or maybe put you at maintenance level for a day. That it might take you one more day to get to goal isn't really significant IMHO.
Personally I find a same every day restriction boring, feels awfully restrictive and saps my motivation, I do much better taking a long term view.2 -
Log it and just try not to do that again, especially if you're trying to lose weight.
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For a solid year I tracked my weekly calories. Your body doesn't know the time of day and as long as you're still hitting your calories it doesn't matter1
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Log it and just try not to do that again, especially if you're trying to lose weight.
That's a bit harsh. Personally I think it's better to recognize that sometimes you go over your calories and that the influence on the whole is not big. I mean, if you ate a snack of 500kcal and you're on a 500kcal deficit, then you don't have a deficit for one single day. There are still more days in the week, the month, the coming months.4 -
So I'm going to buck the trend a little here and say I think it's fine. It's all about figuring out how your brain works and strategizing around it. It's basically the same as measuring your calories weekly but logging those calories in the next day to make sure you don't forget to allow for that overage. So logging it the next day is reminding you that in order to hit your deficit for the week you need to make up for those extra calories.
Some people do better looking at that big weekly number, other people need to see the smaller day by day numbers.
IMHO the only way to be dishonest in your food diary is to not log something at all. You need to account for all your calories for the week, which day you log them on is immaterial. I don't see how this is any different than saving calories one day for a planned splurge the next, he's just putting it in his diary differently than others would. Ultimately, the numbers work out the same.
I would often eat a big dessert one night, and then log a quarter of it on each of the next four days. It reminded me I had that overage to make up for, and I think kept me from getting in the habit of just "writing off" overages and having multiple weeks where one oopsie negated my deficit.
I would add, it's not a huge deal to be a few calories over or a few calories under, but making an effort to balance everything out is fine. Just make sure you don't go hungry the next day in an effort to make up those calories!12 -
TavistockToad wrote: »
or log it on the day you ate it and work to your weekly goal?
@TavistockToad, how do you do this exactly? Keep track somewhere else or within the app?0 -
On very rare occasions I have something to eat after the actual dinner time. In that case I record the extra food on next morning's breakfast and adjust my meal plan for the day accordingly.0
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@TavistockToad, how do you do this exactly? Keep track somewhere else or within the app?
It's in the app, in your diary if you press the nutrition button you can pick day view or week view.2 -
TavistockToad wrote: »
@TavistockToad, how do you do this exactly? Keep track somewhere else or within the app?
It's in the app, in your diary if you press the nutrition button you can pick day view or week view.
For those like me who keep reading this and haven't found it, it is a little gray "day view" with an arrow to open the menu above the word TODAY on your nutrients.
In settings, you can also choose your "week," as starting on a specific day or just 7 days ago.
Calories and macros will show you your daily totals and your daily average for the week. Scroll down to see your calories under/over goal. Nutrients will only show your average, but you can click on an individual nutrient to see the breakdown.
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So I'm going to buck the trend a little here and say I think it's fine. It's all about figuring out how your brain works and strategizing around it. It's basically the same as measuring your calories weekly but logging those calories in the next day to make sure you don't forget to allow for that overage. So logging it the next day is reminding you that in order to hit your deficit for the week you need to make up for those extra calories.
Some people do better looking at that big weekly number, other people need to see the smaller day by day numbers.
IMHO the only way to be dishonest in your food diary is to not log something at all. You need to account for all your calories for the week, which day you log them on is immaterial. I don't see how this is any different than saving calories one day for a planned splurge the next, he's just putting it in his diary differently than others would. Ultimately, the numbers work out the same.
I would often eat a big dessert one night, and then log a quarter of it on each of the next four days. It reminded me I had that overage to make up for, and I think kept me from getting in the habit of just "writing off" overages and having multiple weeks where one oopsie negated my deficit.
I would add, it's not a huge deal to be a few calories over or a few calories under, but making an effort to balance everything out is fine. Just make sure you don't go hungry the next day in an effort to make up those calories!
I agree. I follow a weekly goal and don't care where my food is logged as long as it's all accounted for, so it's easier for me to have a "carry over" option on my diary for stuff like this. It's easier to see where I stand throughout the week this way. Sometimes I just carry a portion over, sometimes the whole thing. Depends on the day. Works fine for me.2 -
So I'm going to buck the trend a little here and say I think it's fine. It's all about figuring out how your brain works and strategizing around it. It's basically the same as measuring your calories weekly but logging those calories in the next day to make sure you don't forget to allow for that overage. So logging it the next day is reminding you that in order to hit your deficit for the week you need to make up for those extra calories.
Some people do better looking at that big weekly number, other people need to see the smaller day by day numbers.
IMHO the only way to be dishonest in your food diary is to not log something at all. You need to account for all your calories for the week, which day you log them on is immaterial. I don't see how this is any different than saving calories one day for a planned splurge the next, he's just putting it in his diary differently than others would. Ultimately, the numbers work out the same.
I would often eat a big dessert one night, and then log a quarter of it on each of the next four days. It reminded me I had that overage to make up for, and I think kept me from getting in the habit of just "writing off" overages and having multiple weeks where one oopsie negated my deficit.
I would add, it's not a huge deal to be a few calories over or a few calories under, but making an effort to balance everything out is fine. Just make sure you don't go hungry the next day in an effort to make up those calories!
I guess I should have said potentially a sign, probably projecting a little in my post. I used to do things like that out of guilt, which was not a healthy mindset at all, for eating a couple of hundred calories over my daily goal, before I realised that my goal back then was actually 1000 calories below maintenance and it made very little difference in the long term.
I guess it depends on the motivation behind not logging it on that day.2 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »So I'm going to buck the trend a little here and say I think it's fine. It's all about figuring out how your brain works and strategizing around it. It's basically the same as measuring your calories weekly but logging those calories in the next day to make sure you don't forget to allow for that overage. So logging it the next day is reminding you that in order to hit your deficit for the week you need to make up for those extra calories.
Some people do better looking at that big weekly number, other people need to see the smaller day by day numbers.
IMHO the only way to be dishonest in your food diary is to not log something at all. You need to account for all your calories for the week, which day you log them on is immaterial. I don't see how this is any different than saving calories one day for a planned splurge the next, he's just putting it in his diary differently than others would. Ultimately, the numbers work out the same.
I would often eat a big dessert one night, and then log a quarter of it on each of the next four days. It reminded me I had that overage to make up for, and I think kept me from getting in the habit of just "writing off" overages and having multiple weeks where one oopsie negated my deficit.
I would add, it's not a huge deal to be a few calories over or a few calories under, but making an effort to balance everything out is fine. Just make sure you don't go hungry the next day in an effort to make up those calories!
I guess I should have said potentially a sign, probably projecting a little in my post. I used to do things like that out of guilt, which was not a healthy mindset at all, for eating a couple of hundred calories over my daily goal, before I realised that my goal back then was actually 1000 calories below maintenance and it made very little difference in the long term.
I guess it depends on the motivation behind not logging it on that day.
That's a good point. The same action can be healthy for one person and unhealthy for another, depending on the motivation and emotion behind the action.
When I did it, there was no guilt or stress behind it. It was just a data entry to remind me that I had taken a little extra out of my account for the week. If one were to do it out of a controlling need to micromanage calories, or as punishment, that would obviously change things.
It's hard to read tone, but OP doesn't sound particularly stressed or concerned about it to me. Hopefully he's not
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I'd say it's absolutely fine if you're just doing it to put the arithmetic and record-keeping of working within a weekly budget onto MFP -- i.e., you don't want to have to add up days or compare daily over-unders to be sure you're on track for the week. Heck, if you're under on the first day of the week, you could just keep logging food you eat on the second day on the first day until you can't fit anything more within your goal on day 1, then start logging foods on day 2. That could be an easy way to track if you're trying to save calories for bigger weekend meals, etc., rather than separately tracking how many extra calories you've save from the first four or five days of the week.
If you're doing it because you're more focused on having your diary reflect some ideal, even if it means not having your diary reflect reality, that's potentially problematic.
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Sort of like using a credit card it you can't afford to pay cash at the time. If you pay it back soon might not hurt. If you continue the behavior you're in trouble.2
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