Does anyone else find it so boring and uninspiring to keep track of all your meals/calories.

JoeyFitness1718

I went to do it the other day because I don’t really keep much track of things I just workout and that’s it I never really keep track. I went to write out what I normally have in a day and just got so bored and gave up.

kimny72

A little tough love - everyday life is rarely exciting or inspiring. Do you brush your teeth every day because it's such a fun and uplifting thing to do? Do you do the laundry because the spinning of the washing machine is inspiring?

Getting yourself set up with good habits that keep you healthy and fit so you don't need motivation and inspiration to take care of yourself is one of the best things you can do. Having said that, if logging really doesn't agree with you, and you feel like you need more control over your diet, then you need to find some other strategy that is.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1

:drinker:

puffbrat

No sympathy from me. I understand people saying it's tedious or that they don't want to do it forever. But get bored part way through logging a single day is not impressive. You have to be at least 18 years old to use this site, which means you are an adult and have to do plenty of boring and uninteresting things on a daily basis. Logging food isn't the only tool to help lose/maintain/gain weight but it is one that many people find useful. You need to find what works for you. For me, working on my weight and health is a higher priority than 3 minutes of boredom each day.

teacherspet1

You do realise you can copy meals from one day to another by backtracking on your diary? Also you can save your own meals & recipes which are then available at a click. In this age of technology there is always a shortcut for those who are less bothered about putting in the time. It makes me wonder..... Do you spend time on Facebook etc or even commenting on MFP? If it's too much bother perhaps it's not for you...... 😕😒

cwolfman13

I did it...I don't do it anymore. I found it tedious and I got a little head case about some things, but I also ultimately found it to be informative. I haven't logged in almost 7 years, but the brief time I did log has helped me immensely with almost 7 years of maintenance and knowing what I need to meet my nutritional needs, even if I don't know exactly down to the exact calorie or gram of this and that.

springlering62

I make it a game like Tetris. For example, only having 3/4 serving cheese on my baked potato tonight means I can have a homemade chai latte later. Win!

Convince yourself it’s a fun thing to do, and revel in the data, and it will become habit.

mysteps2beauty

It's fascinating to me.

I almost had a McDonalds breakfast sandwich because they were 2 for $4. But I saved it till I got to work to see how many calories it was. 460 calories, a calorie bomb. In olden days I would have just ate it. Logging helps me see more clearly what it is I'm putting in mouth. And no I didn't eat it, not even a little bit. (My taste tolerance for sodium is getting really sensitive, things I use to eat I don't want to cause it's too salty).

Are you here to manage your weight or ???? If you are here for your health then logging is important.

tuckerrj

5 minutes, 3 times a day, I don't have time to get bored, and I'm 60 lbs. down in 7 months. WORTH IT!

gothchiq

It doesn't take long. Sure it's boring, but just buckle down and do it. Like any other chore. No one likes scrubbng the toilet right? But we all do it.

leggup

If you don't need to, don't do it.

NovusDies

It has been an effective tool to help me dramatically improve my health and quality of life. I can't find it boring or uninspiring for those reasons alone. It did take some time to learn and streamline but nowadays I barely have to put much thought into it unless I am entering a new recipe. I am not even sure I spend 2 full minutes doing it most days.

I say that with zero judgment. If it is not for you I hope whatever your goals happen to be you find a suitable alternative. Logging is not the only way to get from point A to point B. For me it was the easiest way but that was me.

mi_nina_lola

i think most of us who stay here are compelled to because they don't want to slide back into their old ways. that's the reason i'm here. sure i like my friends and the forums obviously. however this is the best way for me to stay on track with my food - even though i still continue to make bad decisions on weekends

AlexandraFindsHerself1971

I find it lessens my anxiety.
I don't have to get up tomorrow and wonder if what I'm eating works within my calories, or discover at dinner time I didn't save enough calories to eat properly. A few minutes in the evening, along with setting up the coffee pot for tomorrow morning, getting my to-do list in order, and laying out my clothes, makes tomorrow go smoothly, and I don't have to wonder about what to eat, I know, cause I worked it out already.

I like doing it. However, I'm autistic, so I like reducing it to numbers and knowing what I'm going to do ahead of time.

NovusDies

AlexandraFindsHerself1971 wrote: »

I find it lessens my anxiety.
I don't have to get up tomorrow and wonder if what I'm eating works within my calories, or discover at dinner time I didn't save enough calories to eat properly. A few minutes in the evening, along with setting up the coffee pot for tomorrow morning, getting my to-do list in order, and laying out my clothes, makes tomorrow go smoothly, and I don't have to wonder about what to eat, I know, cause I worked it out already.

I like doing it. However, I'm autistic, so I like reducing it to numbers and knowing what I'm going to do ahead of time.

I am not autistic but I also find that it reduces my stress. Whether I am trying to lose weight or maintain my weight as I am now the numbers show me I am on track. When the scale goes up I can see that it is just a weight fluctuation because the math says so.

ElizabethKalmbach

I do a ton of tedious boring stuff so that I don't die. This is just one of those things like remembering to take all my meds on time and not taking them with other things that will make them ineffective, and doing my PT for all the injured bits of me so that they will heal properly, and other stuff like showering so that people around me won't be offended. Cooking everything from scratch and shopping are also tedious, but they're part of being an adult human. At least I don't have to run down the chicken and skin it before I start cooking. I just have to take 10 seconds to weigh it and log it.

scarlett_k

I largely use the recipe tool to input my recipes and then I just log those. It's just necessary admin.

maisita509

I don't mind it when it's something that's easily searchable. But I do get impatient and a bit stressed when it's something I can't readily calculate. Example: today I had a tomato and meatball soup for lunch, from a cafe where I normally have my lunch. I know the owner, and I know how she cooks. Her soups are generally very low fat, and she uses good ingredients. Plus, knowing I'm trying to lose weight, she'll suggest food that she knows would help me. But my point is, I have to estimate how many calories a dish would be, and that stresses me out. So partly I do understand the boredom and stress, but at the same time, logging does help me personally avoid that extra snack or the extra helping of something.

Jackie9003

Why are you writing it out when you can zap barcodes on all packaging, even veg. It takes me about 5mins on a morning to prelog most of what I plan to eat then I usually add any additional stuff as I go.

At the end of the day it's a tool, it's not compulsory, so if you can get to your desired results without out logging then that's fine.

amusedmonkey

AlexandraFindsHerself1971 wrote: »

I find it lessens my anxiety.
I don't have to get up tomorrow and wonder if what I'm eating works within my calories, or discover at dinner time I didn't save enough calories to eat properly. A few minutes in the evening, along with setting up the coffee pot for tomorrow morning, getting my to-do list in order, and laying out my clothes, makes tomorrow go smoothly, and I don't have to wonder about what to eat, I know, cause I worked it out already.

I like doing it. However, I'm autistic, so I like reducing it to numbers and knowing what I'm going to do ahead of time.

I may or may not be autistic, but I thrive on numbers too. I find logging freeing because I don't have to wonder if I can eat something or not. Not logging causes me to restrict more than I'm willing to do. I don't think if it in terms of "boring", it's only a few minutes a day less than one minute at a time, so classifying it as "boring" is kind of odd.

shaf238

Not at all, I'm a geek for data.

neugebauer52

I find MFP an exhilarating numbers game - there is always something new to learn, something new to experience. Above all - I am finally doing something entirely for myself; so very selfish, I know - but it does feel good!

snowflake954

If you find logging tedious and boring then by all means, don't do it. How is your weight loss coming along? Even people that are not losing, but want to build muscle and strength log to watch their macros. You don't say what your goals are......

rainbow198

I use a written journal to plan and track my meals.

To me it's actually freeing to know that as long as I know appx. how many calories I'm consuming each day I can fit in and eat anything I want and still maintain my weight (and lose weight when I was losing weight).

RelCanonical

Guys I'm gonna go brush my teeth I'm so excited!

Nope.

NovusDies

RelCanonical wrote: »

Guys I'm gonna go brush my teeth I'm so excited!

Nope.

Finally. I didn't think you were ever going to brush them.

I have my list of things that are daily chores. I get no actual enjoyment out of doing them but I do get a sense of satisfaction knowing they are done and, if applicable, knowing they have either improved or maintained something.

I think the thing that trips people up is that initially you are hunting and hunting to find and verify things. Eventually though, at least for me, one day becomes a variation of another that happened as recently as yesterday but probably happened within the last few days. I pursue variety but it is not like that makes each new day completely unique. I make a wide range of fritattas but they are still frittatas and so some ingredients can just be grabbed from a recent list or a previous day.

RelCanonical

NovusDies wrote: »

RelCanonical wrote: »

Guys I'm gonna go brush my teeth I'm so excited!

Nope.

Finally. I didn't think you were ever going to brush them.

I have my list of things that are daily chores. I get no actual enjoyment out of doing them but I do get a sense of satisfaction knowing they are done and, if applicable, knowing they have either improved or maintained something.

I think the thing that trips people up is that initially you are hunting and hunting to find and verify things. Eventually though, at least for me, one day becomes a variation of another that happened as recently as yesterday but probably happened within the last few days. I pursue variety but it is not like that makes each new day completely unique. I make a wide range of fritattas but they are still frittatas and so some ingredients can just be grabbed from a recent list or a previous day.

I agree, you start to develop your staples and it's easy to just grab the things you eat regularly and copy/paste. There is a learning curve to logging food and unfortunately it's right at the beginning because you have to build your food log "repository" up. After that, it's a bit redundant, but it's not a big deal because so is brushing your teeth, but you do it anyway because the results are worth it.

missysippy930

No.
The end justifies the means.

cherys

I did in the past when I kept giving up. But this time I see it as a learning process more than a record-keeping process. I'm learning not just what calories foods have but sodium, sugar etc, and also whether something is worth the calorie expenditure in terms of how nutritious or nice it is to eat.

serindipte

I guess I'm one of the weirdos because I actually do enjoy it. It doesn't feel like a chore at all. It's a security thing for me. I know I could eat within my calorie deficit without logging, but I also know that I tend to start slipping when I stop logging. Logging tells me whether or not I can have that piece of cake in the evening or if I should stick with popcorn. It tells me that, even when my weight stalls for a week or two, that I'm still in a deficit and it's going to drop eventually so I stick with it.

amtyrell

I am so inspired and excited by doing laundry. Uhm no
Lots of boring tasks are good for you and practical

steveko89

serindipte wrote: »

I guess I'm one of the weirdos because I actually do enjoy it. It doesn't feel like a chore at all. It's a security thing for me. I know I could eat within my calorie deficit without logging, but I also know that I tend to start slipping when I stop logging. Logging tells me whether or not I can have that piece of cake in the evening or if I should stick with popcorn. It tells me that, even when my weight stalls for a week or two, that I'm still in a deficit and it's going to drop eventually so I stick with it.

Same. I've been around since 2012 and can't see stopping any time soon. I was actually discussing this with my wife and she thinks she's gotten a lot better at being mindful of what/how much she eats over the last ~5 years (she's never been a fan of logging). On the other hand, I feel completely lost portioning something without quantifying it in some way. I'm also a very numbers-oriented person and she's not.