Logging Accurately..step by step guide

ayalowich

Nice post. Very informative.

I will say that after 9 months of logging that I've concluded that anyone who is cheating is only cheating themselves. The scale isn't going to lie so why fool yourself putting in inaccurate #'s. OTOH, it isn't worth obsessing to the nth degree over either. Make the best attempt you can and just remember to put things in your log (always keep the phone app handy) in real time so you don't forget later. But while I weigh as much as I can, once I've had an item, I'm not going to do much other than eyeball it and log it in. I can tell what an 8 ounce chicken breast looks like and a 2 ounce piece of flank steak. After 5 months at the same weight, I'm confident that I am within 5-6% either way on my calories. Whatever I am doing is working. Remember that if your partner or spouse or whomever isn't doing MFP, we can be seen as annoyance so I try to keep my rummaging through the trash bin for bar codes to a minimum. Right now my wife usually just keeps them out for me so I can scan and enjoy the meal

Great to see so many contributing members.

cweaver1981

Good information!

SezxyStef

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for posting this. How can I save this????????

Now that you have commented on it it will be under "my topics" for you.

Or you can put it as a favorite in your list for the internet I suppose...

It will be on your wall as a post as well...

My favorite posts I often just take the link from the webpage and paste it in a notepad on my computer...if that is an option fo ryou.

And I am glad you found it useful.

petefromguelph

bump thanks!

ShannonMpls

How do you log a lick or taste?

Say I had a single bite of macaroni and cheese. How would that be logged?

You don't. It is part of living. If your single bite of mac & cheese is bothering you or impacting your weight loss then it was more than a bite or lick or taste. If it happens enough times in a day to impact you then you need better meal planning and a discussion with yourself about how you approach food.

As a cook (not professional ) at home I used to "bite, lick, taste" lots of things and it does impact weight loss when you do it a lot.

I think that phrase is to make people aware that if they are "nibblers" and say oh it's only a bite...those bites add up.

So give them up or try to log them...it's easier to give it up. I mean I can take a pretty big bite out of my husband flamer thrower if I wanted...

There's a third option: don't log them. As a home cook myself, there is no way I would give up tasting as I cook. I'm also not going to mess with logging a bite here or there, or a sip of my husband's beer. To each their own, but I've had wonderful success with logging MOST of the time but not being obsessive about logging every single thing that passes my lips.

I mean, look at it this way. Nutritional labels are not exact. Some foods have have actual caloric values that differ from the estimated values by as much as 50 percent, though for most the difference is less significant. Still, even absolutely perfect logging does not mean you're actually logging 100 percent accurately.

My point with all of this is not to say that we shouldn't strive to log as accurately as possible if logging is how we choose to lose and maintain weight. I weigh nearly everything I eat and log pretty darn accurately when I log. Instead, my point is that we need to balance it with life, and this is one area where I firmly believe this adage applies:

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

I'm proof that logging accurately MOST of the time works pretty well too. If you want to log every single bite, by all means - go at it, if it works best for you. Just don't labor under the false assumption that because you're weighing your packaged food, it has exactly the number of calories the label says it does (odds are it does not).

SezxyStef

There's a third option: don't log them. As a home cook myself, there is no way I would give up tasting as I cook. I'm also not going to mess with logging a bite here or there, or a sip of my husband's beer. To each their own, but I've had wonderful success with logging MOST of the time but not being obsessive about logging every single thing that passes my lips.

I mean, look at it this way. Nutritional labels are not exact. Some foods have have actual caloric values that differ from the estimated values by as much as 50 percent, though for most the difference is less significant. Still, even absolutely perfect logging does not mean you're actually logging 100 percent accurately.

My point with all of this is not to say that we shouldn't strive to log as accurately as possible if logging is how we choose to lose and maintain weight. I weigh nearly everything I eat and log pretty darn accurately when I log. Instead, my point is that we need to balance it with life, and this is one area where I firmly believe this adage applies:

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

I'm proof that logging accurately MOST of the time works pretty well too. If you want to log every single bite, by all means - go at it, if it works best for you. Just don't labor under the false assumption that because you're weighing your packaged food, it has exactly the number of calories the label says it does (odds are it does not).

yes this is true...if you choose not to it wont kill you.

By no means I am not saying that everything has to be 100% but getting as close as you can comfortably is the key...but if at some point you stop losing or it slows down this is the first place to look...

Mind you that woudl be a lot of BLT's..(bite, licks and tastes)

MaryGrace1965

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for posting this. How can I save this????????

Now that you have commented on it it will be under "my topics" for you.

Or you can put it as a favorite in your list for the internet I suppose...

It will be on your wall as a post as well...

My favorite posts I often just take the link from the webpage and paste it in a notepad on my computer...if that is an option fo ryou.

And I am glad you found it useful.

I found it MORE than useful and have already been double checking what I have been logging. Lord have mercy what a shock that has been. I hate to know how many calories OVER I have been eating. Thank you so VERY much for posting this. It is under my topics now. Yay!!!!!!!!! You just made this soon to be skinny girl very, very happy!!!!!!!!!!

Susan2BHealthier

Great info....thanks

2932Angela

Thank you! This is excellent!

Mygsds

Thanks so much for your time to do this. I too read your posts here and have learned from you. Everyday is a learning experience.

Ely82010

Very nice information, especially for new people. I have been here for almost 4 years and I have corrected many wrong entries in the database, and I wish I could delete all the false duplicates to make things easier for me and other users..

But please don't assume that if somebody has an entry in her/his food diary listed as "homemade," that is something from the MFP database. Most of my foods are really my recipes, so the entries in my diary will be for example "homemade creamed broccoli soup,” or “homemade beef and vegetable stew," etc

. I don’t enter my recipes in the MFP database, but I keep them in my Recipe builder for further use (I wish I could edit it without deleting and adding ingredients all over again). So sometimes “homemade” it is really something made at home by the user.

skippygirlsmom

Thank you so much! This is great.

Boosier3

Thank you so much for the wonderful info!! I always wondered how to know what entries were legit. Out of curiosity, what does the asterisk represent on entries?

spirit095

Thanks for doing this! It's very helpful

SuperC_85

Bump

FoxyLifter

Tagging for reference.

Great post, Stef! :drinker:

JamericanBoy

bump

Time2LoseWeightNOW

lindabeth333

MizMimi111

bump

skiextrm

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this!! Great timing for me since I got my first food scale yesterday.

eluna72

Thanks so much! I am guilty of using the "homemade" ones but I will stop doing so and make sure my input is accurate!

raggiemom

good info here...thanks for sharing it.

iTStaRTsN0W

***

MsJourno

Bump, Thanks for this!

kethry70

Also, while I think your post is wonderful and informative, there is one other exception I will point out. One of my few exceptions to "accurate logging" is shredded cheese. I log it as cups, but I do weigh it out, simply because on the nutrition label it states: 1/4 cup (28 g). I will weight out 28 grams, but log it as a quarter cup. The calories are exactly the same either way, but it is easier to find the 1/4 cup entries than search for one with grams. To use your words, it might look like a duck and quack like a duck, but I'm pretty sure it's not a duck Other than that, I enjoyed your post and agree fully.

This is me too. Jelly, jam, peanut butter, ice cream, etc all list 2 measurements for a serving. I ALWAYS weigh out the serving in grams but usually log in the equal tbs,cup measurement.

I also build my own recipes. They aren't normally marked homemade but they may look pretty generic despite the weighing and calculating that went into them. The only recipe I use a generic for is a middle eastern dish called kibbeh. It gets made in such large quantities at a time and with hand-trimmed meat, and is then split between 3 households that I just can't bear the thought of trying to do the calculations each time. So I just deal with knowing that one item might be off. Gotta live dangerously once in a while LOL

ETA: great post overall. Thanks for taking the time - it should help a lot of the newer folks

morethenjustmum

BUMP
I thought i was getting more accurate by the day.. But i have been schooled learned 4 new things.

Thank You

Ely82010

Thanks so much! I am guilty of using the "homemade" ones but I will stop doing so and make sure my input is accurate!

Nothing wrong with "homemade" entries if they were really made in your kitchen. Most of my recipes are logged as homemade, because that is what they are.

Read my posting in page 2.

Tiernan1212

Thanks for the info, great post!

The biggest gripe I have is the way some things will look in my diary. I use the barcode scanner A LOT. What bugs me is I will weigh out my 14g serving of Country Crock, and then when I scan it, it comes up as tbsp. So someone looking at my diary might think I'm not weighing my food. I have come across quite a few of those. I guess I just have to realize that I know I'm weighing, regardless of what others looking at my diary might think.

kitlynnJ

. I don’t enter my recipes in the MFP database, but I keep them in my Recipe builder for further use (I wish I could edit it without deleting and adding ingredients all over again). So sometimes “homemade” it is really something made at home by the user.

You can edit individual ingredients even after a recipe has been entered into MFP. I do it all the time if I make a recipe again but need to make a substitution. It is annoying though that you can't change the number of servings once it has been entered. I am too lazy to add and remove though, so I do the math for the new serving size and just keep it in my notebook for the few days until I have eaten all whatever it was.