Overwhelmed by logging foods
btj7ndr33
Posts: 3 Member
Ok, brand new to the app. I have autism, ADHD, GAD, and BPD, and trying to figure out how to log an open-faced pb&j that I had for breakfast is overwhelming. I can't even log one meal, much less everything! Please, someone simplify this for me! Or at least give me some guidance on how to do this! The app doesn't even have a tutorial for how to log your food! 🤯 I really need some help before I just give up!
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Replies
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You've got this. It's a learning curve. To start.... you're going to look at each part of what you ate, search for it in the database, and add it. For a PBJ sandwich, for example... think of what you used to make it. Bread. Ok, so you're going to look for and add 1 slice of bread. What else? Peanut Butter. Ok, I used 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. Find peanut butter and add a 2 tablespoon serving. What else? Oh yeah, 1 tablespoon of strawberry jelly. Go to the database and add a 1 tablespoon serving of jelly. It gets easier as you do it, I promise.6
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Here's an instruction, but I'm afraid all this info might overwhelm you and some of it may be outdated, but it will be here for you to reference:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
If you're trying to lose weight because of a health concern, why don't you also ask your health team (doctors, parents, etc.) for a referral to a dietician. They can help you set up a meal plan so you don't have to log food if it's too stressful.
It does get easier, but yeah, there's a lot of fiddling around and lots of frustrating things about it. It's not for everyone.
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I’m none of the above and it was totally overwhelming for me at first.
Ask questions and read the boards to learn. The members who populate the board are amazingly kind and helpful, and there’s no judgement here, since we all have similar goals.2 -
Rather neurodiverse person here. I easy get overwhelmed but now have no problem logging all my food (and tracking all expenses in a spreadsheet). I guess a PB&J sandwich is peanut butter and jelly? I don't know what's on it, but lets do this together. Do you have a digital food scale? If so then this will be easy.
Put slice of bread on scale and weigh in grams. Find the type of bread in the database and log it. If there's no measurement in grams, then maybe something else. Maybe just a slice? Lets keep it simple for now. You can do more detail later on.
Then put peanut butter jar on scale, set to zero. Leave jar on scale. Take peanut butter out and put on bread. Now the scale shows you how many grams of peanut butter you used with a minus in front. Use that number without the minus. Find the right brand peanut butter in the database and log the weight.
Repeat with the jelly.
Eat.
At the moment it sounds like a lot of work, but if you use products more often then these will always appear at the top of your list. And once you confirmed the calories are the same as on the packaging you can use them over and over again. If I cook my dinner with about 10-15 ingredients then logging just takes about 2 minutes, because rice, garlic, ginger, chicken or tofu, lots of other things often repeat.1 -
Food scale??? Nope!!! And currently no money to buy one!!! 🤯 Nope. I need *simple*. Like, why can't we start off with general meals, and as time goes by fine-tune the ingredients??? Why can't I just add "pb&j" and *later* go in and specify what kind of bread, how many slices, the fact that I'm using peanut & jam that have no sugar added, etc???0
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Because my PBJ might be totally different than yours. Mine might be on an English muffin or high cal Sara Lee bread and be slathered with peanut butter and a sugary jam or Nutella.
Yours might be on low 35 calorie bread, with a conservative half serving of peanut butter and an all-fruit spread.
That could be hundred of calories difference.
Same with a Cookout burger versus a Five Guys burger.
Or a chicken sandwich: yours may be Chikfila, mine may be shredded boiled chicken on a low carb wrap. That’s 3 or 400 calories difference right there.
If you are doing this to control your weight, you need the awareness to control the calories as well.1 -
Food scale??? Nope!!! And currently no money to buy one!!! 🤯 Nope. I need *simple*. Like, why can't we start off with general meals, and as time goes by fine-tune the ingredients??? Why can't I just add "pb&j" and *later* go in and specify what kind of bread, how many slices, the fact that I'm using peanut & jam that have no sugar added, etc???
Well, the system is created in a certain way and it is what it is. Read through that thread link above. There are workarounds for anything and everything, but you have to learn to stay upright on the bicycle before you can learn bicycle tricks, ya know? One step at a time...and you have to work with your own limitations as well as the limitations of this tool. We all had to learn, it's not really intuitive.
You can always just use "Quick Add" and just add the number.
It is possible to create "Meals" but in order to do that you first have to enter each ingredient one by one.
If it's so overwhelming, maybe it's not for you...1 -
A food scale doesn't need to cost more than $10.2
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I really and truly do understand that there can be 100 calories difference between your pb&j and mine. But my point is that, if you can start SOMEWHERE, later you can fine-tune it. It's like buying frozen cookie dough while you learn how to use the oven, and then learning the recipe for the dough. Does that make sense?? This app literally throws you to the wolves and makes you do it the hard way all on your own.0
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I really and truly do understand that there can be 100 calories difference between your pb&j and mine. But my point is that, if you can start SOMEWHERE, later you can fine-tune it. It's like buying frozen cookie dough while you learn how to use the oven, and then learning the recipe for the dough. Does that make sense?? This app literally throws you to the wolves and makes you do it the hard way all on your own.
yeah.
Since every food has different numbers of calories, and since the number of calories are what, "Calorie Counting (logging food,)" is about - then the fine-tuning of exact numbers is what matters in the end, but if you just want to loosely keep track, then you can log someone elses' PBJ, it's in the database - put this into the Search Box:
"Generic - Open Face Pbj"
(I just typed in open face pbj)
280 calories. Close enough.
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Don't feel bad if MFP isn't for you. Everyone is different. Those of us here like using the logging of food and don't think it is a pain but I have friends who have tried it and it just wasn't right for them. I second the suggestion to talk to your health support team and see if there is another option.1
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cmriverside wrote: »I really and truly do understand that there can be 100 calories difference between your pb&j and mine. But my point is that, if you can start SOMEWHERE, later you can fine-tune it. It's like buying frozen cookie dough while you learn how to use the oven, and then learning the recipe for the dough. Does that make sense?? This app literally throws you to the wolves and makes you do it the hard way all on your own.
yeah.
Since every food has different numbers of calories, and since the number of calories are what, "Calorie Counting (logging food,)" is about - then the fine-tuning of exact numbers is what matters in the end, but if you just want to loosely keep track, then you can log someone elses' PBJ, it's in the database - put this into the Search Box:
"Generic - Open Face Pbj"
(I just typed in open face pbj)
280 calories. Close enough.
My thoughts exactly. Just put the name of the dish in there and use that.
Will it be accurate? No
Will it be close? No
Will you learn how to choose someone else’s food and apply it to yourself? Yes
Will that work? If your lucky, yes, but not likely.
Will you start to realize what you eat and when? Absolutely, and this could be really helpful!
If logging doesn’t work for you, maybe using IF to create a small eating window might work. Not knowing your medical history, I tend to agree with a previous poster, consult with your doctor and get a referral to a dietitian if possible.2 -
Why not just use the barcode scan feature? It's really easy if your food is store-bought with a barcode on it. For example, scan the barcode on your bag of bread and probably several choices will come up. Choose one with the green shield (verified by my fitness pal) and edit the serving size if necessary and hit the checkmark at the top. Voila! You're on your way! I don't love tracking each ingredient, but it helps when you can be accurate with what you really ate. Hope this helps! And be patient, as others said, it takes time to learn this and to remember to do it. PS I track my food after I eat it, not being paranoid about weighing it or exact measurements, but a good estimate is good enough for my purposes.0
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lilacsinmi wrote: »Why not just use the barcode scan feature? It's really easy if your food is store-bought with a barcode on it. For example, scan the barcode on your bag of bread and probably several choices will come up. Choose one with the green shield (verified by my fitness pal) and edit the serving size if necessary and hit the checkmark at the top. Voila! You're on your way! I don't love tracking each ingredient, but it helps when you can be accurate with what you really ate. Hope this helps! And be patient, as others said, it takes time to learn this and to remember to do it. PS I track my food after I eat it, not being paranoid about weighing it or exact measurements, but a good estimate is good enough for my purposes.
Well, since you suggested it - you may not realize that it has some inherent problems not unlike what the poster already has.
First, it's only available on the Paid Premium version of this site - if the person doesn't have $20 for a food scale I'm guessing s/he isn't paying $100 for an internet site.
Second, the scanned items are entered by users and are no more accurate than picking a random item from the database, they aren't entered by manufacturers nor by this site's admin. Beware and double-check them against your own label.
Third, an open-faced peanut butter and jelly sandwich doesn't come with a bar code. In a subsequent post s/he said they wanted to be able to enter it as a meal and worry about each item at some later date. I dunno, I don't think they'll be buying Premium. I never once used the barcode and I lost all my weight and have kept it off and it takes me approximately five minutes to log all my day's food. It just takes time to learn how. I think impatience and frustration (which are understandable with something like this) may be the person's biggest obstacle.1 -
Immediate perfection is NOT required, just do your best to be as accurate as possible and with time you’ll find youve learned through trial and error what works for you and what doesn’t.
If it helps try thinking of food tracking and weight loss as a long term thing. Habits change slowly and it takes a while to get good at perfecting a new skill like calorie tracking. By just putting something down you’re taking your first step towards getting it right 90% of the time.0 -
Ok, brand new to the app. I have autism, ADHD, GAD, and BPD, and trying to figure out how to log an open-faced pb&j that I had for breakfast is overwhelming. I can't even log one meal, much less everything! Please, someone simplify this for me! Or at least give me some guidance on how to do this! The app doesn't even have a tutorial for how to log your food! 🤯 I really need some help before I just give up!
Because you have a number of medical issues, I concur with the advice to reach out to your health care team, probably for a referral to a dietitian.
While you are waiting for that, you could start listening to the Half Size Me podcast. While a number of the coaching clients do use MFP, other use Heather's Paper/Pencil Journal method.
Heather has a video series talking about this. I prefer written information, and couldn't get through much of the first video (plus I'm happy with MFP, so was only watching to see if it would be good to recommend to you,) but maybe it will work for you, or someone else, so here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDN52ZAyGOo
It looks like there are 9 videos in the series. Here is the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLuK3yM3H9-PIgP_HOid9uIa8YX1Hyk8VD0 -
But my point is that, if you can start SOMEWHERE, later you can fine-tune it. This app literally throws you to the wolves and makes you do it the hard way all on your own.
You are right.
MFP is kind of a wild explosion of different parts that often don't work well together. It takes time. But it is free.
It does two things well
1) Food diary
2) The message board
You seem to have the message board part, that's good as it is a powerful resource.
The food diary relies on you doing daily repetitive work. It turns into the most powerful thing in MFP if someone does it completely and reliably over a couple of weeks or months.
Do you have a beverage in the morning? Starbucks, tea, orange juice, coffee with cream and sugar?
Do this: For a week straight, first thing in the morning, log your beverage first, then go have the beverage.
You will understand the routine by doing it.
Overwhelm will be gone.
The you can begin being thorough and accurate.
For example
1 c - coffee
50g - cream
2 - medium boiled eggs
2 - slice Sarah Lee bread.
400 calories
At some point, like some people here, you'll become a mad scientist with measuring cups, scales, and great pride in very accurately logging a full day worth of food.2
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