"You have to eat everything on your plate..."

JskC1893

I guess-timate to the best of my ability. I even add about 200 calories a day just in case I under guess because it is not realistic for me to measure every single thing precisely.

I take it as a good thing when I eat a little less and get full.

I also wouldn't force myself to eat if I were full. Maybe your friend can do smaller portion sizes?

I definitely agree that smaller portions would help her, but shes on a roll with butter (thats what she says).

ehorn625

I'm sorry I read that your title in my mother's voice .. though there was usually a reward at the end .. "to get dessert!"

LOL-That's what I was thinking. The reason I am overweight was that we were always taught to eat everything on our plate because there are poor starving children somewhere!!

dakitten2

I'm sorry I read that your title in my mother's voice .. though there was usually a reward at the end .. "to get dessert!"

I thought the same thing along with the statement that followed.......there are starving children in Africa.

My sisters and I spent many hours sitting at the dining room table after dinner until it was bedtime. Then we found this tiny tear in the wallpaper right below the chair railing and found that we could stuff our broccoli or whatever into the wall. Needless to say eventually when the "smell" starting becoming quite evident and my mother was convinced there was a dead mouse in the wall and my dad had to tear down the wall, our secret was exposed.

When I had children I vowed I would never make them clean their plates and I never did. I would ask them to take one bite of something new instead of just saying that they didn't like it.

JskC1893

It's not always "silly" to keep eating if you're "full." I'm very precise about calculating my calories and macros, weighing and measuring food, and logging absolutely everything I eat. It is all planned very well so that I know when I sit down to eat a plate full of food, it's as close to being the exact amount of calories I'm supposed to eat (for my body and my goals) as I can get. So I may think I'm "full" when I've eaten half of my dinner, but I know if I don't eat all of it, something will not go well. I won't sleep as well I normally do, I'll be hungry way sooner than I should be the next day, or my training will be off.

Besides, I'm a great cook, and I'm not going to leave delicious food on the plate when it fits in my calorie/macro goals for the day. It just seems dumb.

I agree with you. I don't think that there is a right or wrong answer, or even an 'all the time' answer.

I definitely understand wanting to eat great cooking. Its funny how full i get with less delicious food, and how much delicious food I can eat.

MyChocolateDiet

If this happens once. Just stop eating and log the whole thing, or if you can eyeball it like a half or a third you can erase the 1 and put .5 or .333333. That's what I do.

If this happens over and over. Start serving and measuring yourself half the amount. Finish it and if you are still hungry have a completely different food to get you to your cal goal.

EatClean_WashUrNuts

EAT ALL THE FOODZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EmilyOfTheSun

For example I just measured out 3/4 cup of spaghetti squash and a 1/4 cup of sauce and did not eat all of it, but I logged all of it.

Just curious how other people deal with this

Measure left overs
Subtract from original entry
Save lefts overs
Eat later and re-log

LBNOakland

I'm sorry I read that your title in my mother's voice .. though there was usually a reward at the end .. "to get dessert!"

Lol. I heard my dad saying "Eat the dang peas girl!"

LOL Biggest fight my father-in-law had was when he told my kids to clean their plates! Oh No!! That's why I look like this. YOU made their plate, not them so it isn't a case eyes bigger than their stomache. You want the plate clean, YOU clean it! Hubby just looked at me and shrugged. He knew I was right.

LBNOakland

I'm sorry I read that your title in my mother's voice .. though there was usually a reward at the end .. "to get dessert!"

Lol. I heard my dad saying "Eat the dang peas girl!"

LOL Biggest fight my father-in-law had was when he told my kids to clean their plates! Oh No!! That's why I look like this. YOU made their plate, not them so it isn't a case eyes bigger than their stomache. You want the plate clean, YOU clean it! Hubby just looked at me and shrugged. He knew I was right.

Sorry!! To the OP! Cleaning my plate is still a hard habit to break so I like to leave a little food. It makes me feel I am practicing self-control. I count it all because I am afraid it may be under-estimated. I eat back exercise calories and I am afraid MFP overestimates that. Trying to balance it all out is difficult!

WendyTerry420

I'm sorry I read that your title in my mother's voice .. though there was usually a reward at the end .. "to get dessert!"

I was thinking this too. Only "happy plates" will get a dessert.

chrisdavey

no dessert until you finish your plate

WendyTerry420

I'm sorry I read that your title in my mother's voice .. though there was usually a reward at the end .. "to get dessert!"

Lol. I heard my dad saying "Eat the dang peas girl!"

LOL Biggest fight my father-in-law had was when he told my kids to clean their plates! Oh No!! That's why I look like this. YOU made their plate, not them so it isn't a case eyes bigger than their stomache. You want the plate clean, YOU clean it! Hubby just looked at me and shrugged. He knew I was right.

At my house, any kiddo leftovers go to dad's plate if he wants it. If dad doesn't want it, it goes to our dog.

anonniemouse

I do this all the time. I cover my plate, put it in the refrigerator, and call it "free food." Then I can eat it anytime I want and not have to count the calories for it because they have already been added in. I usually end up eating it as a snack the same day, or maybe as lunch the next day, or I might save it for a "free" meal-between-meals on a really high calorie burning day that week. It rarely goes to waste though.

This is such a good idea! I don't know why I haven't thought of it before. :blushing:

ritchiedrama

All I can say from this thread;

Stop measuring foods with "1/2 a cup" "1/4 cup"

use grams, and grams only.

Beckaroo94

If you're worried, weigh all the food before on the plate, then when you're finished, minus the weight of the plate of it's own. Original (food mass/final foodmass)*the calories in the original plate of food

Note:I don't do this. I make myself eat it all, so I won't snack later

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SoDamnHungry

I never take more than I'll eat. And I'm good a estimating how much it will take me to feel full. Otherwise, if you only eat about half, log it around half...

Unknown

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RockinTerri

I typically plan my foods, so if I don't eat it all, I adjust for what I didn't eat.

brower47

weigh the remainder and subtract...

VasylP

I'm sorry I read that your title in my mother's voice .. though there was usually a reward at the end .. "to get dessert!"

Or there is always the Pink Floyd version of that - "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?" :noway:

I personally don't weigh everything to the gram and make pretty good estimates. I try to be as honest as possible with everything thing I cook and consume. I know one thing for fact, I am much more aware of the difference between "clean" food and the other stuff. In fact I would say that eating clean is even more important than counting the calories and weighing/measuring the hell out of everything.

SailorKnightWing

I usually pre-log my dinners with suggested serving sizes, get to actually serving myself and seeing those portions are too big for me, eat what I want and let my dad and brother have the rest, adjust my logging, then eat chocolate until I hit my goal.

JskC1893

All I can say from this thread;

Stop measuring foods with "1/2 a cup" "1/4 cup"

use grams, and grams only.

I do agree, I'm not sure if that was a general post or a response geared towards me, but I definitely weigh my food in grams.

ritchiedrama

All I can say from this thread;

Stop measuring foods with "1/2 a cup" "1/4 cup"

use grams, and grams only.

I do agree, I'm not sure if that was a general post or a response geared towards me, but I definitely weigh my food in grams.

You wrote this.

"For example I just measured out 3/4 cup of spaghetti squash and a 1/4 cup of sauce and did not eat all of it, but I logged all of it. "

WendyTerry420

All I can say from this thread;

Stop measuring foods with "1/2 a cup" "1/4 cup"

use grams, and grams only.

this too
a tblspn is 28 grams
for ****s and giggles scoop out a tblspn of peanut butter and weight it in grams
you will be surprised at how much an eyeballed tblspn is! It is closer to 2 servings if you are heavyhanded.

Throw away the measuring cups and stick to grams to get proper servings....

:flowerforyou:
Unless of course you know what you are doing when it comes to measuring. I finally got a food scale about a month ago and found that I was already doing it right. Some people actually have taken classes in cooking and know how to properly measure different foods.

Fullsterkur_woman

Unless of course you know what you are doing when it comes to measuring. I finally got a food scale about a month ago and found that I was already doing it right. Some people actually have taken classes in cooking and know how to properly measure different foods.

I think it's going to be very difficult to account for things like non-uniform size of flakes in corn flakes, for instance, or measuring a cup of radishes... are they little tiny radishes that pack in there nice and tight, or are they big ones that you can only fit 3-4 in a cup? Weigh them in grams, and your problems, they are a-solved... I just wish it was easier to log more foods that way. I hate having to look up the densities of foods that may not be easily found. :grumble:

WendyTerry420

Unless of course you know what you are doing when it comes to measuring. I finally got a food scale about a month ago and found that I was already doing it right. Some people actually have taken classes in cooking and know how to properly measure different foods.

I think it's going to be very difficult to account for things like non-uniform size of flakes in corn flakes, for instance, or measuring a cup of radishes... are they little tiny radishes that pack in there nice and tight, or are they big ones that you can only fit 3-4 in a cup? Weigh them in grams, and your problems, they are a-solved... I just wish it was easier to log more foods that way. I hate having to look up the densities of foods that may not be easily found. :grumble:

Actually, I have used my scale to check, and it's within less than 10 grams difference trying it three different times. (For cereal) For something like radishes, or virtually any vegetable, the actual difference is so tiny, calorie-wise, that I don't even bothering measuring at all, just eyeballing, and maybe doubling it even. I marked myself as two cups of green beans just because I didn't want to measure them out. It was probably just one cup, but when the calories are so tiny, why bother?

JskC1893

All I can say from this thread;

Stop measuring foods with "1/2 a cup" "1/4 cup"

use grams, and grams only.

I do agree, I'm not sure if that was a general post or a response geared towards me, but I definitely weigh my food in grams.

You wrote this.

"For example I just measured out 3/4 cup of spaghetti squash and a 1/4 cup of sauce and did not eat all of it, but I logged all of it. "

wompwomp, your right. I did measure that, good catch

JskC1893

Thanks for all the responses!! I appreciate everyone taking the time to share their input

cwolfman13

Confused...what are these leftovers you speak of?