When Did Logging Start to Feel Normal for You?
Just curious, how long did it take before logging your food felt like part of your day and not a chore? I’m a few weeks in. It’s getting easier, but I still forget random snacks sometimes. Also kinda proud when my diary actually looks balanced at the end of the day. Anyone else feel that?
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Hard to remember, honestly: It was gradual, over a time period. Month or so, maybe?
Attitude matters, too. Focusing on feelings that it's burdensome can inflate the sense of burden.
I'd say not everyone is necessarily a forever logger. Personality type, preferences, lifestyle matter. Learning how to efficiently use a food scale and MFP features like meals and recipes - that really helps.
Logging suits me, personally. I'm almost in year 10 of logging, year 9+ of maintenance. I don't log every day anymore, but still log most. It would be a rare day that takes as much as 10 minutes to log. The quality of life payoff from staying at a healthy weight is huge, for me. That truly tiny number of minutes daily seems like a very small price to pay for the reward I get.
Yes, part of the reward is feeling assurance that I'm getting decent overall nutrition.
Best wishes!
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Tracking is a chore, and I treat it like I a chore. It's just something I do whether I "feel" like it or not and find that it's takes longer to put off tracking than it does to just do it. Kind of like unloading the dishwasher. I would put off unloading because it took SO LONG. But I timed it once and a full dishwasher took me less than 3 minutes to unload. Literally took less time than I spent dreading doing it. Now I just do it when I think of it 😄
That said, reminders, reminders, reminders! I have reminders set on my phone and my computer for EVERYTHING. Reminders to eat. Reminders to log. Reminders to take meds. Reminders to take vitamins. Reminders for just about everything that needs to get done in a day. That might be annoying to some, but I have ADHD and get really absorbed in what I'm doing, so the jangle from my phone helps keep me on track with the mundane details of life.
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I think it took me a couple of months to get it into a routine. (they say it takes 30-60 days to form a habit). It is just a habit that I either log for the day (if my meals are pre-planned) or right after I eat. It only takes a minute or less once you have the database of what you usually eat in MFP. Also, I find the phone is easier to use - the website doesn't bring up my usuals when I start typing in the search like the phone does (HINT MFP!)
Now, I will often do my meal planning and logging at the same time (prelog on a regular basis). Meal planning is something else I'm doing regularly and it's helped in multiple ways - not only does it keep me on track for my calories/macros, but it keeps me from eating out and not overbuying at the store!
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Logging felt normal instantly because I’m a record-keeper and list-maker by nature—but not everyone else is, of course.
With that being said, it took me months to get good at it by double-checking entries, etc. (Some are outlandishly incorrect). But it’s actually been fun and eye-opening to learn from my early logging blunders.
I’ve logged every day since January 2012 because it works for me. I lost ~15 pounds that first year and have maintained my weight (+/– 5 pounds) ever since. And I credit that to logging my food and weighing myself daily. If I miss a day or two because of sketchy internet, etc, I just write a note and input it later.
I try to keep things simple and easy. Logging takes such a tiny bit of time in the grand scheme of things and the process gets so much more efficient over time—especially if one tends to eat fairly similarly week to week.
As mentioned above, I find logging and pre-logging on the phone quicker and easier, as well.
Good luck!
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Been logging forever, so I don't remember when it was hard.
SSnacks. I cheat. Protein bar while out and about? Wrapper in my purse or grocery bag, so when I get home and put things away I'll be reminded to log it. Grapes in the fridge and I know I'll grab a few now, a few later,etc. Put some in a cup, weigh whole cup of grapes, log it all. At night, weigh again, subtract that weight from weight recorded earlier to get weight eaten. Correct entry.
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like everything else, it depends on you and how long it takes you to lose or gain a new habit.
for me, I think it was maybe a month or so.
the beginning is the most challenging because you’re searching for every food item.
I tend to eat the same kinds of food and have certain meals and recipes created. Once you have that, then logging literally takes a minute.
I typically log right after I eat. But other people log before they eat. Sometimes, I’ll prelog the entire day. Then I just eat what I’ve logged.
I also have premium and bar code scanner and meal scanner features make logging faster.
you will find what works for you.1 -
It's been about 12 years, so it's not easy to remember exactly. I do remember making a many-ingredient dish about five or six weeks in and feeling like the prepping and cooking were a bit of work, but the logging wasn't.
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The first week is always the hardest, whether it’s logging, gym, or weight loss. Once you get past the first week you can do anything!
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This.
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It took me 2 weeks. Don't sweat it too much when you forget logging snacks. What's important is you track your heavy meals because they make up 70-80% of your daily calories. As long as you choose snacks that don't too much calories, and if they are, at least they should be protein-packed.
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When you do the math, healthy and sustainable deficit levels tend to max out at about 25% of actual total daily energy expenditure when considered longer term.
Not saying that logging 70% of one's daily calories cannot work for someone.
I mean not logging at all can also work for someone assuming it is paired with other dietary and activity modifications.
But I would venture to say that if you intend to use Calorie counting as a primary intervention tool your initial stated goal should probably be more ambitious than capturing most but not all of your caloric intake activity!
Re snacks and such. While again there is an individualized component to this, I would not be surprised if a large percentage of people starting out on MFP were to discover through logging that their excess calories can be attributed to the combination of snacks plus meals plus drinks while either the snacks or the meals or the drinks by themselves would not result in a caloric imbalance.
Now this sounds basic: The total of calories that you ingest is the total of the calories you ingest--duh!🤯
But until you see this on "paper" and you realise what you are spending your calories on. And you then evaluate whether it was worth it for you to do so. Or you decide to refrain from doing so. Or you decide to modify what you had or whether to have it... For many people I think that if they don't do that they may end up missing on some information that may prove valuable to them
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Checking/tracking helps me understand what I am eating and how much is enough. I don't keep rechecking repeat foods, meals & snacks. I do check new ones and whenever I get overly snacky beyond my usual.
I snap a picture on the phone often and sometimes log later with related notes - where, unusuals. It helped me understand patterns, especially when I was eating for reasons beyond what my body needs.
For example away from home - unusual foods at a 4 day conference with meals provided there.
We were gifted excess event foods after cleanup, kind of like feast leftovers and silly brain gave me all sorts of feastly reasons to keep enjoying the party.
In both cases, tracking helped me understand how much was enough so I could stop at that. (And store/freeze, give away or toss the big pile of extra.)
I reached this approach after about 4 months of logging everything.
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Appreciate this, especially the part about attitude shaping the experience. I’m still figuring things out, but it’s already starting to feel more doable.
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I’ve had the same thing with putting stuff off, takes less time to just do it than stress about it. Reminders help a lot, especially on busy days.
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That makes a lot of sense. I’ve just started pre-logging and it really does make the day smoother. Totally agree on the phone app too, it’s way quicker with past entries. Meal planning’s something I’m working on next.
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@barabaradem - so how goes it?
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Not sure if it feels normal yet. Years ago I got serious about my diet and exercise and went from 206lbs down to 178 lbs but then settles in around 182 -185 lbs. I stopped tracking when I hit my goal because I felt like I knew what I could eat and about what my portions were. Stayed there for a while but then Covid I let old habits creep back in and got up to 192 lbs. I just started back 54 days ago and am back down to 178 lbs as of this morning.
My big awareness is I do better when I measure and track my food. This time around I haven't really changed my diet. All I'm doing is measuring/weighing my food rather than guessing and then logging it in. My breakfast is pretty much the same, greek yogurt with 1/4 cup of granola. So that one is pretty easy to log. Lunch and dinner is different but my routine is typically log the food item itself as we are cooking. Then as I measure my plate out I just adjust the serving to the accurate amount. Most of my meat is 4oz give or take an ounce depending on the sides. I haven't really changed my diet other than being honest with my servings. I still do Pizza and Beer night every Friday. Still have ice cream for desert from time to time. The only difference is in the portions and that I know I'm still within my calorie goals.
Other than my breakfast, my general rule is in order to eat it, I have to log it first. That pretty much has ensured that I don't forget to log something and seems to be working well. The only real issue is if we do dine out. I can't really measure so those meals will not be as accurate but my wife and I don't dine out a lot so I'm probably underestimating to a degree but I find that going over your calorie limit once in a while helps because normally about a day or two after that I see a bigger drop in my scale when I weigh in.
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I can't remember. However that despite me "thinking" I ate healthily, and had been successful at a fatclub organisation whose ethos was not to count calories (SW I am looking at you) and to fill with healthy veggies & watch your snacks, I fell off the horse to the point of regaining everything I had lost. (Can you hear the carousel music playing in the background?).
I logged my weight on this site long before I logged foods when I was in full fatclub mode and for the years I tried to lose what I had gained back, but about a year or so ago I started logging foods again. And would you believe it, it made me accountable to myself. Not anyone else. Not to the fatclub leader, or my fellow slimmers (yeech) or friends or the cat. Just me. So the logging benefits me.
Like other had said, I do enjoy the logging. I think it also has helped me to make MUCH, MUCH better choices on what I spend calories on, and along with a lot of other reading around strategies, psychology, etc etc, I have come to realise…shock horror, I really couldn't care less for cakes, sweeties and all that kind of stuff. So it makes them a lot easier to refuse or exclude, or have in smaller amounts when I feel like them. No guilt. No shame. No denial.
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pretty good so far.💪
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