Sticking with it

KyleDavid0313

I've used MFP a few times in the past and, while I really want to track my intake and end each day with a deficit in order to meet my goals, I find myself giving up after a few days or weeks. I find that its time consuming and cumbersome to put in everything I eat. Especially if its from a restaurant, not prepackaged, or a home made combination meal. Its easy to put in single foods when you can scan a bar code, but when I make something home made like red sauce or alfredo, a stew, casserole, or complicated dish, I find it super annoying to enter each ingredient. If I do a search for the dish that someone else may have already put in the data bank, there are so many different ones with so many different numbers attached to them I don't know which one is right or closest to the dish I made...after a few days in a row of this, I get frustrated, give up, and just stop tracking altogether. I am looking for tips, tricks or anything anyone can offer to help make this easier so that I will stick with it this time. One other thing I found myself doing in the past, is when it tells me at the end of the day, say I have 250 calories left after my workout and meals....my brain says, go back for seconds, or have some dessert, you have calories to play with....I know I'm the only one who can fix that issue but any help with ideas on how to turn food tracking into a habit that I will stick with would be greatly appreciated. I already have created a few "meals" making it easier. Its mostly the recipes that call for multiple ingredients that steer me away from putting all of it in. Thanks.

wunderkindking

First of all, know that estimating when you don't know for sure is fine. Especially when you're just trying to build the logging and having a 'ceiling' on your calories as a habit. Putting in 'chicken alfredo' and estimating the calories and amounts is okay. It's more important that you do SOMETHING than do nothing.

The only other thing I can suggest is that because I had a really negative reaction to 'failing' to keep 'enough' f a deficit per mfp, I set my goal to 'maintain' and considered ANYTHING less than that a win. That one took some working into but it got me used to, again, eating with a calorie limit. and if I wasn't going to lose then I was also at least not going to gain.

When those things got easy I set a deficit to actual loss. ANd I recalculated every time I lost a pound so I never had more than 10 calories come off my calorie limit at a time and never had to make major adjustments to stay within my goal.

That said um. If you have your calorie goal set to lose, and you have calories left over - go eat some dessert! You'll still lose and you got dessert :P (I ate a candy bar, brownie, cake or ice cream EVERY DAY from 190lbs to 125. It's fine.)

cwolfman13

For your own recipes, use the recipe builder...once you've created it, it's saved and you just have to log the "lasagna" or whatever you created. You don't have to go through and enter ingredients one by one in your journal if you use the recipe builder...one time and then you're done. With multiple ingredient recipes, you just have to sit down and do it...once...and you're done. You may or may not make everything exactly the same every single time, but as a cook myself, it's usually pretty close...at any rate, a lot of frustration with calorie counting comes from letting perfect be the enemy of good or good enough. There were plenty of times when I logged that I was in a hurry and just picked something the same or similar from the database that seemed good enough for the moment and reasonable given things I've learned about calories and whatnot along the way.

For restaurants, when I'm actively trying to lose weight I really just limit that activity as my wife and I usually go to local places and not chains with nutritional information...again, I just made the best educated guess I could when looking for something in the database...but I usually limit dining out to once per week when I'm losing weight. It actually became a good habit and even in maintenance I only eat out once or twice per week.

If your logging is correct and you exercise estimates are legitimately reasonable, you shouldn't have calories left...it should be close to nothing left. MFP is designed for you to consume additional calories when you exercise, and your calorie goal is just that...a goal...something to be achieved, not undershot.

As I stated before, you can't let perfect be the enemy of good, or good enough. Just be consistent, even if it's not perfect. If you're not losing weight as a general trend then you know that despite whatever you've logged, you need to eat a little less. Also, things get easier and come together more with practice and consistency of application as you build up "recent foods" and "my foods" and recipes, etc. With consistency and practice, accuracy is also likely to get better as you settle in and get more comfortable and overall more knowledgeable about what seems realistic or what seems way out there. But ultimately that is going to take more than a few days or a couple of weeks. Let yourself learn the process knowing that in the beginning it might be a little rough around the edges. It's like starting a new job...nobody starts their new position hitting on all cylinders as if they've been doing it for years...it's new, and it takes time to put everything together.

annliz23

Just be consistent with your logging it does get easier and is well worth it.

elisa123gal

I am with you.. my personality doesn't take to long term logging. But, I've found a way to eat that works for me and I do lose. I find MFP a great support community. The tips and sharing of weight loss journeys really keeps me on track. This site is a multifaceted support system for weight loss. So, keep logging on...track what you can.. but read the forums for advice and inspiration ..it really helps with the weight loss.