How accurate is your logging

MeanderingMammal

Sometimes my boyfriend thinks I'm OTT esp as I have been known to weigh my lettuce

There is a point at which the accuracy of measurement becomes meaningless as the consistency of the food itself isn't high enough for the conversion to be meaningful in terms of reliably assessing your energy intake.

That's compounded by your measurement of energy out. Inevitably the BMR is a gross estimate, with output varying by day of the week. I walk the dog for longer on Saturdays and Sundays than midweek, and if I work from home on aa Friday then he gets a longer walk that day. If I walk up and down the stairs to meeting rooms once extra then my energy expenditure is higher, and even then it's different if I wander down with a colleague or go on my own when I'm doing two steps at a time.

What you describe in terms of your behaviour, is known as spurious accuracy. It gives the impression of accuracy, but in fact it becomes less than meaningful because so many other factors come into play.

As you're describing something that's affecting your behaviour to the extent where you're becoming a mildly offensive guest, then it's perhaps worth a rethink.

It's about fitting into a lifestyle, and objectives. For me the objectives aren't simply about the scales, if anything it's really not about the scales. I've gone from being unable to run to doing 10Kms consistently and knocking out 30Km per week. My suits fit me better, I'm not winded when I walk up seven flights of stairs to the office, my resting heart rate is down considerably and my blood pressure is significantly reduced.

As evidenced in the thread there are some weighting/ measuring zealots who would criticise my approach, but I'm seeing significant results in my objectives, without the need to weight anything.

The one exception to that would be last week when I made Christmas cake, and did weight out the ingredients

DawnieB1977

I wouldn't weigh something like lettuce, cucumber etc, because even if you have slightly more than you think, you'd have no more than about 10 calories extra, if that! That sounds a bit extreme, same for the milk in coffee thing.

I haven't been obsessive, and I lost around 70lbs. I'm 20 weeks pregnant now and still not being obsessive, and I don't think I'm doing too badly.

So long as you exercise lots and are active, I don't see the need to obsess over an extra 5g of lettuce!

zorbaru

i dont weigh anything. i estimate a lot. however, im also set to sedentary when im not, so it all evens out.

patrickwx

I weigh pretty much everything and make sure it 'fits', with the exclusion of food/drink/sauces that have very low calorie estimates, e.g. Tomato Sauce that only has ~5kcal/serve when I use it, lettuce (majority of lettuce is water anyways), most veges really. I tend to be a bit more spartan on it when I'm trying to lose fat, if I'm trying to gain muscle I generally won't go out of my way to weigh something. My suggestion would be to weigh everything over maybe 15kcal/serve for a couple months or so, so after that you get an accurate idea of how much everything that you eat weighs by 'eyeballing' it.

MACnificence

Ha I don't obsess over lettuce , just if I'm making a salad ill throw the bowl up on the weighing scales pop 100g of lettuce or whatever and log it , it's just habit more than anything ! Same with most things like tomatoe or cucumber just outta habit
I wouldn't have a heart attack if I ate 5g more of lettuce than I should have
I'm just trying to say I weigh pretty much everything
Myself and my little scales have a fairly tight bond

I know everything is a guesstimate at best , that's why I like to make it the best guesstimate I can

It works for me and I generally don't mind doing it like I said I don't count on a Sunday so I'm not completely tied to me scales but during the week it's something I can easily incorporate into my life so why not

WalkingAlong

Sometimes it's good to just weigh an item initially, or occasionally. Like if you buy a new cereal, weigh it in your bowl to see what a portion is, make a mental note what it looks like in your cereal bowl, and for successive portions just pour that amount. The portions can creep up over time so if you plateau, re-weigh the things you eat often or that are more caloric.

I have a teen daughter so I don't weigh much when she's around. No one even knows when I'm counting calories.

Shreddingit84

My food needs to be exact!
So my logging is perfect!

Francl27

95% accurate. The 5% are the times I go out and have to eyeball my food because the restaurant doesn't have nutrition info.

nicenhealthy

very. it's so easy to underestimate because food manufactures sometimes lie with cal label. I include miniscule amounts of things too.. e.g. spices. although, I don't see why there is much need to log really small things that are probably 3 cal or something.

mortuseon

Maybe you should get yourself some electronic scales that measure to 4 d.p., a burette for your milk, add an error estimate at the end of your day... I'm pretty obsessive about measuring stuff just because it's easy to get into the habit of overestimating if I don't. It makes me feel a lot more secure, though, so I think it's worth it just from a mental standpoint.

avskk

I'm what I would call generically accurate. If something says a serving is 1/2 cup (120g), I weigh out 120g (even if I log it as 1/2 cup). If I'm cooking from scratch I weigh and record everything. However, if I buy a single-serving package or drink or whatever, I don't weigh it to be sure it's really the weight it claims to be unless I have reason to suspect it's way off. I may become more strict about this as I come closer to my goal, since at that point a small margin of error will be more significant, but right now I'm still fairly fat and am finding it pretty easy to lose consistently.

ETA: I do log everything that goes in my mouth, though, barring diet sodas, teas, black coffee, water, and mustard. I just don't bother to verify pre-weighed items on my scale. It's frankly a matter of convenience; the only time I eat anything pre-weighed or -portioned is at work, and I am unwilling to lug my scale in to verify my daily string cheese or occasional packet of Cheez-Its. I log them as whatever serving size the package claims to be and move on.

Spiderkeys

I rarely weight my food, it's annoying enough having to count calories and having to weigh everythinve ng also, I estimate and usually over estumate when I log, just to be on the safe side, I like to be under my calorie goal of about 200-300 everyday, so I can feel sure i've not overeaten.

lucan07

I weigh everything religiously and also take great care to calculate exercise calories accurately using avg HR and known Vo2max. To log with guesstimates would be pointless in my opinion and if I am going to do this I will do it right, so far so good just approaching 100lbs down in 10 months. The effort is worth it if you create the deficit you will lose weight and if you put the effort in to exercise your fitness will improve so far my vo2max has gone from poor 23.7 to excellent 46.1 and my energy levels are better than I could have hoped for!

MACnificence

I would love to find out my Vo2max aswell , I don't eat back exercise calories but it would be interesting to see what my fitness level is like now

How did you find that out ?

Seesawboomerang

I eyeball and estimate most of the time, but if I've got no clue, and I'm at home, I weigh.

When I was losing (I'm in maintenance now with a vague intention of dropping a few lbs), I weighed as much as I could. It became fairly obsessive so I quit it, but I did at least learn to make fairly accurate guesses.

When I eat out, I'll log as much as I can, but often wild estimates. It might not be accurate but keeps me a little more accountable.

I do log lower calorie foods such as salad and even black coffee but this is more because I like to keep a record, not because a few dozen calories here and there is going to affect my choices.

velocityc6

Glad I ran across this. I never weigh, don't own a scale. I make all entries from the food database, if it isn't listed I add it form the label of the food. How do you estimate when at a restaurant that does not post nutritional values? In may case I search the database for the closet match I can find and enter that.

staceypunk

When I was losing the bulk of my weight I logged everything, and weighed or measured most things. I used google conversions a lot to get the most accurate food entry I could. If it was take out or eating at an event I would take the time to search multiple entries in the food database and find what the average was or log the higher one to be on the safe side. Now that I am happy with my weight and my body I still measure and weigh but not everything. For me, it was so crazy how mathematical my whole weight loss journey is. I know it's not so for everyone but I am lucky that if I stick to my plan I have great results.

Turning down coffee at a friends house because you might log creamer wrong is not good. You need to loosen up a little. Overestimate if you must. Especially for something that is not going to have a huge effect on your day.

Mischievous_Rascal

I'm curious how successful you've been. That seems a bit obsessive.

No, I don't own a food scale. But if I have a pound of beef and use it to make 4 burgers that I eat throughout the next two weeks (I freeze a lot of food), I figure the calories even out. I do use measuring spoons/cups for everything else. And I've never stopped myself from eating something because I would go 10, or 100 calories over one day, and sometimes I give myself a break and eat out or don't log. I didn't gain this weight overnight, and I'll lose it at a healthy pace, both physically and mentally.

Sounds about right to me!

latewinter

i dont weigh anything i know that 4 table spoons of porridge oats is roughly 30grams lol otherwise i use this as a rough estimate and since the last day of november i've lost 4lbs so i'm pretty proud of that lol

ErnieM88

I weigh foods when I am at home, but when I am out and about I just guestimate it and hope for the best - it's always been successful for me, but then I have quite a bit to lose.

I echo what someone else said previously about just using half the weight on a meat packet, if it has for instance 2 chicken breasts and I am only having one of them.
And the only reason I have fruit and veg on my food diary is because I like to know what I have eaten, i dont worry about the weights, normally I just pick the first option!