September 4
Mrs_Hoffer
Posts: 5,194 Member
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
0
Replies
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The Importance of Tracking
We all know the 3 UAC goals:
- Tracking food intake (food logging)
- Staying within desired calorie goal
- Exercise 20+ minutes
We also know that it can be difficult to achieve all 3 of these day in and day out, which is why the UAC celebrates Champions who are working to build these 3 habits into their daily lives.
So what if you were to pick just one to focus on and make it a daily habit? Which one would be the wisest choice?
You would do very well to pick the first one, "Tracking food intake (food logging)".
For starters it is the easiest of the three. Simply track everything you put in your mouth. That's it! And it results in no discomfort whatsoever. Calorie restrictions are not as easy, and we all know that exercise is...well...it's hard because we have to get off the couch for starters!
There are also many studies showing results like this one where...
Keeping a Food Diary Resulted in a Doubling of Weight Loss
...or this one where...
Participants who simply tracked their food lost an average of 6 pounds while those who tracked their food as well as received nutritional advice lost an average of 7 pounds (only one pound more).
I won't speak to results of losing weight through exercise alone or diet alone (because that is not the topic). But there are consistently good results among those who simply track their food intake daily.14 -
I used to have a mindset: “I hate tracking my food and will not waste my time doing that the rest of my life.” However, now I understand and embrace it. It’s just a healthy habit like brushing my teeth. And it’s so easy now, not like the old days where you needed pen, pencil, and calculator. I will confess that often, my calorie estimations are like throwing a dart at a target, but I’m generally pretty close.13
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@biketheworld it's funny how everyone looks at things differently. You find it easy to use the tracker on here; I find it frustrating. The nutrition database is so unreliable and I find I waste more time sifting out decent entries than it takes to just look it up and write it down! I wish there was an option to simply list one's macros for the day and be done with it.
Then again, I also like to scrub my dishcloths and cleaning cloths on a washboard and line dry my clothes!
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Tracking may seem easy, but for someone like me, who had convinced myself that I was eating a reasonably healthy diet, it can be challenging to realise the truth. My portion control was way off the mark. 😂 Weighing/measuring, and tracking my food became a necessity in my quest for a healthier/fitter lifestyle.
I have tried tracking when I was younger, back in the day when pen/paper/calculator was the norm. It was a very long time-consuming process involving hunting through numerous reams of paper calorie tables. Not a jolly activity. (No handy Mr Google in those days.)
Tracking on MFP is not an exact process, but I find it is close enough to be a useful tool in gauging CI/CO. I currently try to do my tracking in advance, and adjust quantities as food is served. It is well worth the minimal time and effort involved. I have saved many of my recipes, and MFP remembers my frequent/recent entries, so tracking is quick and fairly easy. I also scan barcodes of bought foods.
Thanks to modern technology, it has certainly been one of the most useful Habits that I have developed.9 -
Ashleymullo6195
Logged food yes
Excersize for 20 min - no done 11 min
Under cal no over by 688 -
I like tracking, it helps me plan my day/week. I’ve used this app for several years and all my regular foods are easily accessible.
✅Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes?
❌ Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? I went to a beer festival; only had a pint but then ate something that was about 1,000 calories… chorizo hot dog and some chips.
✅ Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
1 pass used10 -
Yes X 3
Running for exercise.
I think a bit like @biketheworld I used to kind of hate tracking. Now I see it as a necessary boring mundane task.
Using the recipes on the app for things I regularly cook has been great.
I'll probably have to track forever. I regain if I stop10 -
04/09/2021
Exercise – yes, cycling, cardio etc
Tracked – yes
Calories – yes, well under.
I weighed in this morning – up by over 1kg since last Sunday before I went away. I will be tracking very carefully for the next couple of weeks.
I’m another fan of tracking – I also did it back in the day with paper and pen and books of calorie values. The advantage of MFP is that I can now easily track my protein, fibre etc. Tracking was absolutely necessary when I was losing weight (I’m a little old lady who needed to keep to 1,200 calories most days). Now that I have been maintaining for two years I can have holidays without tracking but I still need to be mindful of portion sizes especially of calorie-dense, high fat foods.
Tracking helps you to learn your portion sizes, high calorie foods, more or less satisfying foods, a really useful tool.
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@biketheworld @lesdarts180 @TerriRichardson112 and @genevermfp i can relate to all ur comments. I am a big eater and love my food so tracking is the only way I can know how to stay under my calorie threshold. Picking at food/grazing wen im cooking and my sugar intake are 2 areas I'm currently trying to strengthen. All my grandparents and my bro hve diabetes and I'm a massive sweet tooth so i need to be extra careful. The sugar intake is only something I hve just started monitoring in September it's been an eye opener going back and looking at how much sugar I was eating sometimes double and triple the amount I shld be eating. Pretty shocking! @MadisonMolly2017 im pretty sure we hve spoken about sugar & salt intake and I know u monitor both very closely. I am finding the less sugar I eat the less I'm craving it and the more I ate before the more I was craving it. I think this is something u hve mentioned too. Xox7
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@WhatMeRunning Awesome topic interested to hear wat the team has to share. Xo4
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✅ - Exercise 20+ Minutes
✅ - Calories within budget
✅ - Tracked everything
3️⃣ Pass Days Remaining
@WhatMeRunning ~ Super discussion topic.
Great job on 3 x yes
@lesdarts180 ~
@Geneveremfp
@ashleymullo6195 ~ so close on the calories
@taurie ~ It's just 1 day lol. Hope you enjoyed the festival.
5 -
IDK, I suppose I will see what happens. I just can't envision what tracking looks like once I hit maintenance. It's one thing when I can weigh, measure, read labels, and know every ingredient that I am consuming, but how do I do it when I eventually eat something I don't personally prepare at home? How do you rock star maintainers manage?
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All three done. I never used to track and logged but once I started and began to look at the calorie and nutritional value of foods it made more sense. I also find it to logged my exercise as I have a yearly goal of how many spin miles I do and how many walking miles that I classify as exercise to try and meet. So when I go over I connect with better food choices and more exercise.
On healthy foods here is a pic of my red and Yukon gold potato’s I grew in large containers.
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Exercise:
Weight circuit, 20 minutes elliptical, 30 minute walk. Race day tomorrow! 10k run in preparation for the 15k. I am really nervous.
Tracking:
Calories: 10 -
You've got this 10k @bradkcrew! Just don't start in the first half of the crowd, and run at your normal pace, not the pace of the crowd. Enjoy the event and be sure to cheer others along too. The crowd itself and the cheering will help keep you and others going!
As for logging when eating food you didn't prepare, a lot of restaurant and prepared food is already in MFP. One thing I do when that can't help is to log the components or ingredients. Even if you're at best 80% accurate, you have such a better idea than just ignoring it completely.10 -
Exercise 30 minutes walk/11,000 + steps ✅
Tracked calories ✅
Stayed under calories ✅
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4 Sept
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? yes
Pass days used:0
Importance of tracking? Let's just say I will be in maintenance for 4 years Oct 1. I have tracked pretty much every day. I do this because I absolutely hate weighing myself. So by tracking, working out, and watching how my clothes fit I can avoid the scale. I find that unless I have plans to do a specific cut (drop some weight for a race etc..) my logging is probably not as accurate as it was when I was losing. I don't absolutely measure everything but I know I am close.
Good luck with the race tomorrow @bradkcrew !10 -
donna25trinity wrote: »@biketheworld @lesdarts180 @TerriRichardson112 and @genevermfp i can relate to all ur comments. I am a big eater and love my food so tracking is the only way I can know how to stay under my calorie threshold. Picking at food/grazing wen im cooking and my sugar intake are 2 areas I'm currently trying to strengthen. All my grandparents and my bro hve diabetes and I'm a massive sweet tooth so i need to be extra careful. The sugar intake is only something I hve just started monitoring in September it's been an eye opener going back and looking at how much sugar I was eating sometimes double and triple the amount I shld be eating. Pretty shocking! @MadisonMolly2017 im pretty sure we hve spoken about sugar & salt intake and I know u monitor both very closely. I am finding the less sugar I eat the less I'm craving it and the more I ate before the more I was craving it. I think this is something u hve mentioned too. Xox
@donna25trinity YES. Definitely.
For refined sugars. I don’t find it to be true for fruit - for me, at least. I have read fiber in the fruit slows down response to the sugar.
Ditto salt. It usually takes me 3 days of sodium Uber 1,800 mg & sugars < 100g for my “mouth hunger” to disappear again.
So glad we have figured this out == greater chance of long term success!
🌸Best,
Maddie7 -
10
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IDK, I suppose I will see what happens. I just can't envision what tracking looks like once I hit maintenance. It's one thing when I can weigh, measure, read labels, and know every ingredient that I am consuming, but how do I do it when I eventually eat something I don't personally prepare at home? How do you rock star maintainers manage?
@bradkcrew
Um…I kept doing what I did when I was losing. I weighed, measured, read labels (as needed) - I don’t focus on each ingredient I’m Eating.
What would you do now if you ate something you didn’t personally prepare? Maybe try it?
You don’t want to make a lot of changes in maintenance.
I will say after almost 6 years of tracking, it’s pretty darn easy.
The reason I keep tracking everything every day is I want good data. I want to know if my sugars are up or my sodium…or if my protein is too high for my kidney.
I’m doing all this for Health. The amounts of different nutrients are part of being healthy to me.
You can do it!!
🌸7 -
@biketheworld it's funny how everyone looks at things differently. You find it easy to use the tracker on here; I find it frustrating. The nutrition database is so unreliable and I find I waste more time sifting out decent entries than it takes to just look it up and write it down! I wish there was an option to simply list one's macros for the day and be done with it.
Then again, I also like to scrub my dishcloths and cleaning cloths on a washboard and line dry my clothes!
@LeeH31 Ive never used MFP’s tracking for what I eat - for the reasons you mention.
At first I used NOOM - Easiest & most intuitive tracking system EVER. After transplant, I switched to MyNetDiary - all entries are vetted. You can customize which nutrients you want to track.7 -
My tracking history is so inconsistent. But one thing has been consistent, when I track my food intake to hit nutritional goals I see consistently good results. When I don't track, I get inconsistent (often bad) results.
Long details in spoilerI lost 96 pounds between January and November 2014 (from morbidly obese at 316 pounds and 40.6 BMI to overweight at 220 pounds and 28.2 BMI). I was tracking during that entire time.
I maintained that "overweight" status (actually gaining 10-15 pounds) for two more years through June 2016 when I ran a bunch of half marathons and full marathons. I was still tracking but had to eat to fuel my body for the running, so I basically sacrificed further weight loss to keep running at such volume. Truth be told, I really wanted to eat under calories, but was simply too hungry to do so, and also felt I underperformed without keeping calories at maintenance. I would have easily overeaten and gained weight during this period without tracking. Tracking kept my diet clean and let me keep my weight where it was.
When an injury stopped my running in 2016 I also stopped tracking because that running hunger stuck around for a while and I was ashamed at my daily numbers while I kept on eating and eating. I didn't want other people on MFP to see how over I was going on calories, let alone hold myself to account, so I "hid it". That cost me as I gained back over 60 pounds.
When I tried in March 2017 to get my weight back in control and make a return to running I was back to obese at 292 pounds with a BMI of 27.5. I literally tried to run the weight off using a training plan to quickly get back to half marathon distances. Between March and June after running 3 half marathons I had only lost 10 pounds. There was one thing I was not doing...tracking.
Due to perceived difficulty running which I attributed to strength (yeah, I had blinders on, obviously), I shifted to a strength program that also used a low carb primal diet to quickly build core and lower body strength. To follow that diet and hit my macros I had to start tracking. Suddenly I started losing weight at a faster pace, and I decided to stick with that for a while since it was working. My weight loss was offset somewhat by muscle gains, but I was having a good time with it, which was the important thing.
By 2018 I stopped tracking and just kept with the weight routines...until I stopped that too.
Now I'm here, again, and have lost 63 pounds since March 8, 2021 when I started tracking and exercising again. This time focused on losing all the weight and focusing on really just that. Not letting the running or strength or anything else get in the way (yet still doing those things to help speed the weight loss). Then I want to learn how to do maintenance, which apparently also involves tracking (no surprise to me at this point).
I think one of the big lessons I have taken away from these experiences is that trying to manage nutritional health without tracking is like driving without being able to see.4 -
Pass day #2 😬
I really set myself up to fail by not eating enough after my morning run, and I was just over hungry for the rest of the day. The chips a hoy got me and I don’t even like chips a hoy. 🤦🏻♀️ I need to start setting expectations with my family that my run time includes breakfast time after it so I’m not immediately going into child care mode when I return and not getting proper fuel to recharge.
In other news, it was 65 out today during my run and it felt much, much better than it’s been feeling at 85. So happy for the cooler weather.
Pretty run.
I’m finding myself in a defeated mindset this month which I don’t normally find myself and I don’t like it much. There is a lot going on in September with family birthdays and my first overnight work travel since COVID started. I find myself saying “well there’s no way you’re going to be under 3 pass days in September, why try”. Past few months I’ve had good intentions and one thing after another has left me over 3 like every month since April. I had always wanted to hit my goal weight within two years and that’s passed. My weight has stayed the same for like 6 months. I’m just… Meh. I need a motivation reset. Or maybe a carat or two to dangle I front of my face on a stick as motivation 🤔 (see what I did there? 😂🥕💍). The NYS Ren Faire is happening and my favorite jeweler is there. Maybe I need to buy the ring I want, come home and give it hubs with the instructions that I don’t get it back until I lose 15lbs. Knowing it’s in the house and I can’t have it will really annoy me. I find being annoyed very motivating. Hey look at that, I think I have a plan. 🤔
❤️M11 -
@bradkcrew - good luck tomorrow! You got this! 🙌🏻4
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I really stink posting here. I keep forgetting.
Yesterday was a good day, today not so much.
When I know I’ve eaten too much, I avoid tracking. When I need it the most, ya know.
Tomorrow is a new day.
Good night everyone7 -
✅✅✅ all good5
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Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? ✅
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? ✅
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? ✅6 -
9/4
Exersised yes
Caleries yes
Logged yes6 -
Yes to all 3
Pass days: 0/3
Freggie report:Week of July 18 avg 4.42/day
Week of July 25 avg 3.42
Week of August 1 avg 4.57
Week of August 8: avg 4.57
Week of August 15: avg 4.71
Week of August 22: ??
Sunday: ?
Monday: 5
Tuesday: 5
Wednesday: 5
Thursday: 4
Friday: 4
Saturday: 46 -
Yes x 3
I have a hard time tracking. There are so many different ingredients in recipes, that it's a pain in the neck trying to figure out which % of ingredient is in each serving, and putting each ingredient in the tracker. However, it really works. When I don't track, I eat bigger servings, use more fats, eat more snacks and always gain weight. Tracking really works, and this group helps me stick with it. Thanks.5
