Logging Before or After

MacLowCarbing

Do you prefer to log your food in advance, making a plan for the day?

Do you log in sporadically to figure out each meal/snack as you go through the day?

Or do you prefer logging when your day is over plugging it in to see how it went?

Feel free to elaborate on your methods.

lynn_glenmont

I mostly do a combination of "pre-logging" (not really planning what I'll eat for specific meals -- it's mostly for keeping my focus on food that needs to be eaten because it's perishable and to find a good database entry for foods that aren't in my regular rotation that I've bought, so I don't have to worry about that in the rush of putting a meal together) and logging throughout the day, as I actually decide and weigh what I'm having for a given meal or snack.

On rare occasions, when eating out at a restaurant without nutrition information or at family or friends' houses, I'll log after the event, reconstructing what I ate, and that definitely could be at the end of the day.

shadow5669

I log the whole day in the morning. Then I know what I can and can not fit in. I'm a boring eater and pretty much eat the same thing every day, so it makes it easy.

AnnPT77

It varies some. Mostly I log at the end of the day, though I may log a meal at a time (usually after eating it) sometimes if it's more convenient. I pretty much only pre-log if my intuition suggests I'm running low on the day's calorie budget, to see what will top up my nutrition goals within the calories remaining.

During the day, I note items eaten on a junk mail envelope or some other paper already headed for recycling, then log it all in my phone later. I don't like messing with my phone while cooking.

I did slightly more pre-logging when I was first losing, but it still tended to be a meal at a time, not the whole day. I'm too impulsive about food choices to pre-log: It would make the process meaningfully more annoying or unpleasant to me, and I like things to be easy, as long as easy will accomplish my goals.

I'm in year 8 of calorie counting (year of loss, maintenance since). At this point, I have pretty good intuition about whether I have plenty or few calories left for the day.

I'm also much more relaxed about overages at this point . . . after getting past the newbie-maintainer magical thinking that if I eat wrong one day I'll somehow gain back a bunch of weight. At this point, I know viscerally that it doesn't work like that. At worst, I'll slowly creep up a pound or few if I eat over maintenance semi-repeatedly. I've proven to myself that I can creep those pounds back off again, so I don't stress much about it at this point. 🤷‍♀️

MacLowCarbing

Thanks for the input, it's useful.

I've been trying different ways to be more consistent and effective.

Mostly I am trying to get into the habit of sitting down at the end of the night when I have my coffee and play around on the internet. I log for the next day so I can make sure I eat enough, not too much or too little, and also so I don't get halfway thru the day and realize I've blasted thru my carb allowance at breakfast and have to figure out something 100% carb-free to eat.

But then some nights I have to go back and change it because something came up-- out of an ingredient, or got busy, or like today I got an upset stomach and wasn't hungry and didn't feel like cooking.

I'd rather have the plan there, and change it if/when necessary, rather than to try to go along figuring it out in the day and logging it later. When I do that I find I always go under, over, mess up my macro balance, or I forget to list something. I'm just not at that point yet in my journey.

kshama2001

MacLowCarbing wrote: »

Thanks for the input, it's useful.

I've been trying different ways to be more consistent and effective.

Mostly I am trying to get into the habit of sitting down at the end of the night when I have my coffee and play around on the internet. I log for the next day so I can make sure I eat enough, not too much or too little, and also so I don't get halfway thru the day and realize I've blasted thru my carb allowance at breakfast and have to figure out something 100% carb-free to eat.

But then some nights I have to go back and change it because something came up-- out of an ingredient, or got busy, or like today I got an upset stomach and wasn't hungry and didn't feel like cooking.

I'd rather have the plan there, and change it if/when necessary, rather than to try to go along figuring it out in the day and logging it later. When I do that I find I always go under, over, mess up my macro balance, or I forget to list something. I'm just not at that point yet in my journey.

Sounds like great planning

My breakfasts, lunches, and snacks don't vary a lot. But it is very helpful for me to prelog dinner.

Corina1143

I check the fridge at night, loosely prelog tomorrow, basics only. Tomorrow I will eat and log immediately as I go, while i remember the weights. That stops me from grabbing the first thing I see when I'm hungry NOW!

evileyefirefly

I typically have a good idea of what I will eat each day, but I also intermittently fast a few days a week. I prefer to just log what I eat, when I eat it to build my habits and it also helps me make better choices for the day as I'm forced into looking at calorie count more often than I normally would. I also work out 5 times a week, so there are days I'm just more hungry than others and will eat more so logging real time works better for me.

reese1968

On workdays I often pre-log my day as I pack breakfast lunch and snacks for work. On weekends, I tend to log as I go ir at the end of the day (usually having gone over a bit).

kas7630

I prefer to log as I go. It helps me to make better choices.

cwolfman13

I don't log anymore, but when I did I usually pre-logged the day. Sometimes it would change...like if we decided to do something else for dinner or an extra snack or something but logging ahead of time just laid out the framework for the day and there wasn't any of this, "oh noes...it's 4 PM and I've used all of my calories" nonsense to deal with. I also brown bag my breakfast, lunch, and snacks for the day so I knew more or less what I was eating so there really wasn't any reason to not just log it in the morning when I was logging my breakfast.

mmatcha_latte

I prelog my day to make sure I can fit in everything I need, then adjust if necessary when plans change etc.

nossmf

I have a dry-erase board in the kitchen showing what the next week's dinners will be, for the benefit of my kids. Thus I know well in advance what my evening meal will be each day, and pre-log it, sometimes a week in advance when I get home from the grocery store.

When I am getting ready for work each morning, I glance at my pre-logged total for two numbers...calories and protein. Based on what dinner will fill out, I decide what leftovers to take to work for lunch...if dinner is high-calorie, I choose a low-calorie lunch; if dinner is low protein, I choose a high-protein lunch.

At the end of the day I will go through one more time, make changes as needed, and click complete.

pony4us

I do the same as nossmf (I thought I was weird). I have always had the "menu board" on the fridge, I log the week dinners in advance then fill in the day either as I go or at the end. I'm retired now but when we were working it just made life so much easier, both from the shopping and preparing point of view.

Lietchi

Logging beforehand is a rare thing, I log as I go. I would find it quite unpleasant to prelog (feels restrictive mentally), and it wouldn't even be possible for many of my meals.

Breakfast is pretty standard but precise quantities vary.
Lunch:
- microwave meals: could prelog, but usually don't (I know the range of calories from experience)
- bread and toppings: don't know the precise quantities until I prepare it, which is at the moment of eating
- sometimes leftovers (one of those rare occasions where I will prelog, because I will weigh my portion as I put it in a box)
Dinner: I could theoretically log the general ingredients, but it would be a waste of time since I don't know the precise quantities until it's effectively cooked and I've taken my portion. (I imagine it makes a difference if meals are shared or not - all my dinners are shared with my BF)
Evening snack: I don't know what I'll have until I actually choose my snack in the evening (depending on mood and remaining calories)

I could probably benefit from prelogging those few elements that are standard or known in advance (microwave meals, routine breakfast +coffees at the office), it might help me avoid the pitfalls of, for example, free snacks and treats in the break room at work if I see how many calories I have left for dinner and evening snacks. But otherwise, my way suits me fine.

yirara

My breakfasts and dinners are largely the same with some last minute variations. Snacking and dinner gets logged when I cook orgrab it as I often don’t know what I’ll eat.

evileyefirefly

nossmf wrote: »

I have a dry-erase board in the kitchen showing what the next week's dinners will be, for the benefit of my kids. Thus I know well in advance what my evening meal will be each day, and pre-log it, sometimes a week in advance when I get home from the grocery store.

This. We have something similar(partner used the chalkboard paint on a wall spot in the dining room), but we clean it off on Friday and do leftovers on weekends and then let everyone choose a meal for the week. Shop on Sun/Mon and then plan around that.

SafariGalNYC

Im mostly a pre logger. I’d say 90% of the time. I create the menu for the day and then eat what I log.

Sometimes I will have to edit if I get something different at a restaurant or cafe by my office.

Sett2023

I have shopping once a week (Saturdays) and plan all the week's lunches and dinners before shopping; moreover, I do a lot of meal prep and batch cooking (for instance, I make sure I have always a lot of veggies in freezer, cooked in many different ways, so every day I'm sure I could eat a lot of them even if I'm tired for work; but I also batch cook a lot of other things, i.e. fish patties oven cooked, chicken stew with vegetables and so on). (I used to plan also before MFP, 'cause I like to vary a lot my meals, balancing and rotating them in the week).
So basically I know on Fridays what we will have on lunch and dinner every day of the week, and often I prelog directly all the week on Sundays.
Breakfast and snacks, instead, I usually log after, because they are more floating (breakfast because sometimes we go at cafè and other times we have cake or muffins at home, but I don't know in advance if/when I'll be in the mood of baking and when I'll be too tired or, simply, I'll prefer to have a walk and eat the cafè's croissant; and snacks 'cause they depend on how much calories I burnt that day, so while some of them are more or less the same - two fruits, a yogurt, a square of chocolate - the others vary a lot - nuts, a couple of biscuits, a chunck of parmesan, sometimes even a sandwich or two if I walked too much).

pds06

I have always found that checking your foods before eating is a smarter option for me. It gives me a chance to switch things around both for nutrition and bulk. I am a bulk eater.

davidhannah90

I definitely try and log in advance it helps me plan my food throughout the day and helps planning the cooking lol.. working away from home and out of a suitcase 90 percent of the time the shopping trip for the week is important. I also like to stick to similar foods each day so i know im on point with calories etc.