Do you try to be overly accurate while logging food.
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Close enough is good enough for me.3
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Depends on what it is. Calorie dense items, yes, I weigh them accurately and measure them out precisely.
Something like salad greens? Close enough is good enough in my book.
A little cooking oil splashed in a pan? I don't include that. Or things like ketchup or mustard (generally).
Scale and progress pictures tell me if what I'm doing is okay or if I need to trim back, and as long as I'm logging consistently, I seem to lose consistently, so what I'm doing works for me.
My method may not work for everyone, to each their own.1 -
paperpudding wrote: »AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »There's no such thing as "overly accurate". You're either accurate or you're not, and there's no point in logging at all if you're not being accurate. You might as well be guessing at that point.
I disagree.
Of course what is 'overly accurate' will be a subjective and individual choice - nighthawk lost 77lb being anal to the last piece of lettuce, I lost 10 kg and maintained for 5 years being very approximate.
no, there isnt 2 polarised extremes: either accurate or not.
There is plenty of in between "accurate enough" which involves some weighing, some guessing, some law of averaging
Plenty of point in doing that if it works for you
As it does for me.
I would like to explain why I disagree with your disagreement:
Accurate, or, not accurate ARE polarized extremes. the portion is either accurately recorded or it is not.
Mixing real data with estimated data isn't a strong basis for making conclusions when reviewing a historical record of information.
If I'm looking at a progress line that spikes, and I'm looking at my food choices and portions for that time frame - how will I know if it is the food I chose or the portion I logged if I'm not consistent in how I measure and log the portion?
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Note that many professional scientists and medical professionals dismiss logging due to the inaccuracies. As a professional scientist I dismiss this claim as the degree of accuracy and precision is suited for purpose. It's as accurate as the process needs to be.
When I started logging I was precise - I tared bowls, measured portions, measured all additives, sauces, etc. The purpose of this is twofold - first to develop a series of behaviors and habits to reinforce mindful eating - second to get a visual confirmation of what 6 oz baked chicken looks like.
Once this became ingrained I backed off weighing out calorie sparse foods, but still weigh out the calorie dense foods or those snacks I can just destroy - like ice cream and potato chips. I weigh myself at least every week, but see more of an issue in athletic performance, so have multiple means of checking progress. If I start to slip or something isn't working I go back to basics and weigh everything.6 -
I'll also add that I'm super weird about it. Like today I had two meals prepared by delivery services where I just weighed the finished meal and then eyeballed and guessed how much of each item was used and what ingredients.
But once I got home today, I was in the ktichen weighing out how many blueberries I was going to have. 😂
Not exactly the most logical way of doing it at times, but in its weird way it works for me.
I feel like this is just maintaining your practice. If you don't regularly portion out your food by weight for a variety of textures, and states, you won't be able to accurately eyeball your proportions on your delivery food. You have to be in the habit of doing one to be able to do both.0 -
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It depends. I weigh fruits and vegetables, but I have a close enough mindset if it goes over a couple tenths of an ounce or a few grams.
For tonight’s dinner, I weighed out noodles, took half of that, cooked it, weighed it again. So I knew “exactly” what a cooked serving would weigh. That’s what I do with proteins as well.
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I am as accurate as can be based on the circumstances:
1. At home - use food scale.
2. At restaurant w calories on the menu - log using calories indicated.
3. At Buffet - Practice portion control; plus discreetly take picture to approximate calories later.
4. Away at a Conference or on vacation - Try not to overdo it; no logging for the duration.
It’s a lifestyle; not a diet:-).1 -
I am fairly inaccurate, I think. I estimate a lot of things (mostly dinners). I weigh foods after they are cooked (like pasta). I use measuring cups/spoons for some foods (oatmeal, for example). I don’t weigh individually packaged foods (like granola bars). When I do weigh things, I get close enough (ie. I might eat anywhere between 28-32 grams when the serving size is 30 grams). This approach works fine for me, but I am sure some people would go crazy using my method.
I also don’t calculate my exercise calories burned (don’t care) and I set my activity level higher than it probably is in reality to accommodate that. On days when I run, I give myself a little more latitude in eating over my calorie target if I feel hungry.
The end result of all this is that I have lost about 26 pounds in about 4 months. I am satisfied with that, and I will continue on this way for as long as I see progress. If there comes a time when it becomes necessary to be more accurate, I will adjust accordingly.1 -
paperpudding wrote: »AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »There's no such thing as "overly accurate". You're either accurate or you're not, and there's no point in logging at all if you're not being accurate. You might as well be guessing at that point.
I disagree.
Of course what is 'overly accurate' will be a subjective and individual choice - nighthawk lost 77lb being anal to the last piece of lettuce, I lost 10 kg and maintained for 5 years being very approximate.
no, there isnt 2 polarised extremes: either accurate or not.
There is plenty of in between "accurate enough" which involves some weighing, some guessing, some law of averaging
Plenty of point in doing that if it works for you
As it does for me.
I would like to explain why I disagree with your disagreement:
Accurate, or, not accurate ARE polarized extremes. the portion is either accurately recorded or it is not.
Mixing real data with estimated data isn't a strong basis for making conclusions when reviewing a historical record of information.
If I'm looking at a progress line that spikes, and I'm looking at my food choices and portions for that time frame - how will I know if it is the food I chose or the portion I logged if I'm not consistent in how I measure and log the portion?
You would not know no matter how accurately you log. Nonfat related weight fluctuations will keep you from connecting a day of recording with an bathroom scale outcome.
I have a column in my spreadsheet that compares my logged deficit to my outcome deficit each week. So if I logged 7000 calories of deficit and I lost 1.5 pounds it would show a negative 1750 calories. This column has never been 0 and it has only been under 1000 a handful of times. It once helped me on weeks I gained weight because I would see how far off my logging would have to be for the scale result to be accurate. It improved my relationship with the scale. These days that column is useless.
However I also track my logged deficit as a trend and compare it to my actual weight loss and those numbers are close. My actual weight loss is slightly higher but my habits tend to favor logging more than I need when I guess. This satisfies my personal criteria for logging accurately enough.
Right now my main goal in logging is to lose weight not win an award for most beautiful and accurate diary.2 -
paperpudding wrote: »AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »There's no such thing as "overly accurate". You're either accurate or you're not, and there's no point in logging at all if you're not being accurate. You might as well be guessing at that point.
I disagree.
Of course what is 'overly accurate' will be a subjective and individual choice - nighthawk lost 77lb being anal to the last piece of lettuce, I lost 10 kg and maintained for 5 years being very approximate.
no, there isnt 2 polarised extremes: either accurate or not.
There is plenty of in between "accurate enough" which involves some weighing, some guessing, some law of averaging
Plenty of point in doing that if it works for you
As it does for me.
I would like to explain why I disagree with your disagreement:
Accurate, or, not accurate ARE polarized extremes. the portion is either accurately recorded or it is not.
Mixing real data with estimated data isn't a strong basis for making conclusions when reviewing a historical record of information.
If I'm looking at a progress line that spikes, and I'm looking at my food choices and portions for that time frame - how will I know if it is the food I chose or the portion I logged if I'm not consistent in how I measure and log the portion?
No they are not polarized extremes - it isnt log to the last gram of lettuce or do nothing
Totally false dichotomy.
There is plenty of in between levels that work for different people.
Not really following your progress line example -as daily weight doesnt correlate exactly to the day of food consumption anyway.
But, sure, there are people who like exact data and spreadsheets and graphs and so on - and people like me who don't.
I never really looked at progress lines or tried to correlate data on graphs - what I did was eat to approximately my calorie level and roughly log that to keep me on track.
My measure of whether it was working wasnt whether data points co ordianted on a graph - it was whether over time , I was losing (maintaining) approximately as expected.
Which I was - so my method was accurate enough for me.
The aim of the game is not to have the most accurate data - it is to have the results you are expecting, over time.3 -
I weigh my breakfast and *usually* my lunch-exceptions are when I am rushed or something comes up. Usually by dinner time I have 1300-2000 calories remaining after fitbit adjustments are made, and I just try to log as closely as possible(no way will I be able to tell the difference between my weighed chicken breast vs my boyfriends unweighted piece/extras, when making dinner), and I allow for some wiggle room to make sure I am under.0
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AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »There's no such thing as "overly accurate". You're either accurate or you're not, and there's no point in logging at all if you're not being accurate. You might as well be guessing at that point.
not sure that everyone has to do things just the way you do.... results are results. i get your point about being “overly accurate”. it’s just semantics. but, i think most of us understood the spirit of the original post. anyway, accuracy is often represented on a continuum, so who is to say one can’t be overly accurate? i bet we could have a really fun symbolic logic debate about it! (i bet i would win. ; )
maybe “don’t believe everything you think”. just think it with some room for reconsideration. and have a little humility about your thoughts - even your strongly held beliefs. otherwise you come across as a know-it-all jerk and elicit responses like this.
as for my logging - i lost twenty pounds (over about six months) and have weighed ~115 (so not an easy twenty pounds to lose, because i was a “healthy” weight prior to tracking) for the past two years. i did this by mostly just tracking the good days and saying f-it on the bad days (because those were the days i ate all the homemade cake in the break room, and who the hell knows how many calories are in a homemade chocolate almond cake with some kinda delicious mousse filling and devilishly sublime frosting?!) i don’t weigh anything. guess a lot! but, make a conscious decision to overestimate on portion size (because that is where i believe people have the most issues with tracking not leading to results).
so, i’m 42, moderately active, work overnights five nights a week, and am a single mom of three little kids. sometimes i can see my six pack. i can always see a good but not gross outline of my ribs. i look strong and fit. my body fat is ~18%. i have never felt better. so, in my experience, one needn’t be overly accurate on the tracking. just get a baseline. and then start making adjustments. experiment - it’s fun!!!
one more thing - almost any tracking we do will
increase our knowledge about what’s in the food we eat. and that’s always good to know.1
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