pseudo-logging

A_Rene86

sigh. If you're saying you know you won't have enough calories left for dinner after your afternoon snack, and your goal is weight loss, then obviously the solution is not going to be not logging your calories. That's turning a blind eye to the problem. You already know what the problem is when you say you have 1.5 servings of cereal. Cut down your portions earlier in the day so that you have enough calories at the end of the day left, or increase your activity level to give yourself a larger margin. Not logging your calories is just ignoring the problem and you will get more frustrated because you won't lose weight.

She isn't wanting to cut calories right now. She wants to see how much she is eating while NOT dieting, so she can make changes LATER to create a deficit that works for her.

She just wants to see what normal days look like for her before beginning a weight loss program. Get it now??

You can be as snotty as you want, miss been-here-three-months, but the point is, it doesn't work that way. She already knows she's eating more calories than she is setting for herself to lose weight. It doesn't make any sense to ignore the calorie counts and look at a day's worth of food and la-la-la. She needs to start the way we all do, with her activity level set, add in her calories as she goes, and cut portion sizes down to keep her total calories below her goal for the day. That's how she will reach her overall goal, which is to lose weight. She already knows how much she is eating now while not dieting, she's been doing that regularly every day up until now. If she's wanting to lose weight, she needs to make changes now. These little games are just a way to put off making changes until later and keep doing what she's doing.

She may have been here for three months, but that appears to be long enough to understand the OP's question and attempt to help.

Even if "we all" started the same way (which isn't true at all), the OP is not required to fall in line. There are no rules about how one must start.

The OP is doing what she does for her reasons. And that's okay.

What she doesn't need is anyone's approval.

Amen. Length of time here has nothing to do with being able to read, understand, and respond to a post/question in a helpful manner. Beating the OP up about making excuses (as if you know anything about her) isn't going to help anyone!

Kalikel

Good for you, OP!

It's your weight loss journey and you do it your way. If someone else has a problem with that, let them have their problem. It'll happen here on the boards and in real life. You'll be happier just letting them have whatever problem they have with your weight loss and believe it or not, so will they. Some people aren't happy unless they have a problem, lol.

Keep up the good work!

HellaCarriefornia

Good luck to you. This is how I started out as well. I just logged to see what my patterns and habits were and what steps I could take to make changes.

In response to the topic you originally posted a few days ago, if seeing the calorie count go over makes you discouraged, you could just manually go in and custom pick a random calorie amount and adjust it later when you are ready to work within a specific weight loss range.

Keep it up!

rhtexasgal

Only you know your own body and the best way you will be able to stick to a healthy eating plan. I too started out slowly at the beginning of 2014 but I did log all my food into MFP. After a few weeks, I studied the calories I ate, the fat, etc. and then tackled how to make healthier versions or substitutions. After a few weeks of that, I saw where I was and determined what foods had to go completely, which ones were just on occasion and what others were healthy and helped fill me up and satisfied me.

Finally, at the end of April, I was situated diet wise and then started adding in the exercise. Now, I have lost about 15 pounds and have another 15 to go. I always allot myself 100 calories each day for whatever I wanted so I did not feel deprived. Most days, I do not eat that 100 calorie treat. And on the days I do, there is no guilt because it is built into my diet plan. I also allow myself one stupendous cheat meal a week.

JenniferIsLosingIt

Maybe you could try just keeping a pen-and-paper log of what you eat throughout the week, then at the end of the week enter it into MFP. That way you can keep track of what you're eating, but won't know until later the calories/nutrition info.
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Great Idea!]

Archerychickge

Mybe I'm missing something, but isn't the point of using MFP to change the way you eat to begin with?

why wait? Why do you need an idea of what you are eating? For me, once I was truly ready to start my weight loss journey, I knew I was eating too much and needed to change immediately. I didn't need to have any baseline to know I was eating too much and by how much. I needed to change NOW.

Sounds to me like a bit of a delay tactic, but maybe I'm wrong.

Sorry if that came across as less than encouraging, but when you make up your mind once and for all to change, nothing should get in the way.

joanna_82

Hi OP

Just to say hi and well done for taking the step to change your diet.
I am in recovery from binge eating and keeping a non calorie food diary was my start to address my diet.
I did this on my phone as a list for a month, then joined mfp when I felt able to not be triggered by counting calories.
I'm now 100 days on and have kept my diary, made small but significant changes and feel great.

For me, this method worked, so I hope it helps you.

Good luck

Jo

rdmitche1

I don't really understand why you wouldn't just log everything but not care if you go over if you want to see how many calories you've been taking in. Eat the 1.5 servings and then just not pay attention. You say you aren't cutting calories but then you say you don't have enough calories left after afternoon snack...that doesn't make sense.

I also just read that you want to just record food so you can see where to make changes by baby steps. How will you know if you don't know how many calories those foods contain?

That is exactly what I was thinking? You don't want to see the calories, but you are paying attention to them????

mccindy72

I don't really understand why you wouldn't just log everything but not care if you go over if you want to see how many calories you've been taking in. Eat the 1.5 servings and then just not pay attention. You say you aren't cutting calories but then you say you don't have enough calories left after afternoon snack...that doesn't make sense.

I also just read that you want to just record food so you can see where to make changes by baby steps. How will you know if you don't know how many calories those foods contain?

That is exactly what I was thinking? You don't want to see the calories, but you are paying attention to them????

Yeah, I tried that route earlier. watch out for some retaliatory responses.

Joannah700

I don't really understand why you wouldn't just log everything but not care if you go over if you want to see how many calories you've been taking in. Eat the 1.5 servings and then just not pay attention. You say you aren't cutting calories but then you say you don't have enough calories left after afternoon snack...that doesn't make sense.

I also just read that you want to just record food so you can see where to make changes by baby steps. How will you know if you don't know how many calories those foods contain?

That is exactly what I was thinking? You don't want to see the calories, but you are paying attention to them????

It sounds like she is trying to build in repeated behavior (tracking foods) without modifying her behavior first, so it will become a habit, and then layer on her behavior changes.

Or - she can be doing it to track the influence of specific macros. If I had been tracking my food prior to my current goals - I would know how much protein I was consuming, how many carbs, sugar, salt, iron and begin to see patterns in my energy, sleep patterns, and weight just using the macros and calories as a measure.

For example, I know I never get enough protein - yet, when I recently did a hydrostatic test - I learned that I have less than 22% body fat, and have 107 lbs. of lean mass. To me, this is incredible that I've been able to keep that up with probably 50 g of protein daily prior to tracking (I'm guessing). If I had measured and tracked prior to dieting, I would be able to have more data to find out the true impact of diet on my personal body composition. Instead, I'm going to have to wait 6 months or a year to find out how 'successful' my changes in diet are in my long term goals.

Well - that's assuming she likes to analyze. And might be a bit of a nerd.

34blast

I don't really understand why you wouldn't just log everything but not care if you go over if you want to see how many calories you've been taking in. Eat the 1.5 servings and then just not pay attention. You say you aren't cutting calories but then you say you don't have enough calories left after afternoon snack...that doesn't make sense.

I also just read that you want to just record food so you can see where to make changes by baby steps. How will you know if you don't know how many calories those foods contain?

I agree do this

Kalikel

Mybe I'm missing something, but isn't the point of using MFP to change the way you eat to begin with?

why wait? Why do you need an idea of what you are eating? For me...

The OP is not you. She will be doing many things in her life differently than you do them.

She asked a question.

She didn't ask for everyone's opinions or approval.

LaReinaDeCorazones

There's a site I used to use before mfp called dietdiaries.com it's a community, you can have your diary set to private and there is support. And then once you're ready to start counting you can come back here.

HeidiCooksSupper

Set your calories to 9999 -- and then just ignore that column.

kommodevaran

If you're intimidated by the numbers, calories, tracking, and just need some baseline portion control, maybe the 21 days fix' colored containers or Rosemary Conley's portion pots would work better for you than MFP? After all, this is a calorie counting website.

Docbanana2002

Sounds like a good plan, OP. I don't understand why so many aren't getting it. You just wanted to gather data on your current eating habits so you could have info that could help you make changes. Makes sense to me. I didn't start my weight loss like that since I wasn't on MFP at the time, but I did use that approach to my nutritional goals after switching to vegetarian last Jan. Just logged without looking at things like iron, protein, calcium, etc. I wanted to see what data I got from just eating on my current plan for a week, making the choices I usually make... I learned that I was naturally making good choices with most nutrients but that my iron was WAY low. So I did some studying and developed a plan to add more iron-rich foods to my usual diet.

Dragn77

I started out this way.. Way back in the day when I first started on any path to eating better, I joined a cal logging site like this one, and right away was logging what I ate, but yeah, was conscious of what I was eating and changed my habits to fit the log. Problem is if I wasnt logging, which wasnt always possible at the time (this was before smart phones, apps and all that fun stuff that makes it easy nowadays) I thought I was eating better when I really wasn't cause Id start gaining, lose enthusiasm and give up.

Only because I go through "pen and paper" phases, did I do what was suggested in here, to write down everything I was eating. Eventually, I remembered the site I was on and put in all the stuff Id been eating into my log a couple weeks later and realized my problem.Id eat next to nothing (waay less than the 1200 min) then make up for it plus some either at the end of the day or on the weekends.

Being able to see what I do mindlessly/naturally, helped me hone in on what I have to put a real effort into changing in my natural habits. For many people "diet" or "eating healthy" consists a lot of the calories in / calories out- just eat less. But for me personally, my focus is on making sure I eat throughout the day, every day.

So I can definitely see the benefit of psuedo-logging... I can also see why it would not be for everyone, but for me, it was key for me to get to the root of what my problem is so that I could proactively do something about it. And now, for me logging is even more beneficial than when I first did it, because I have a clear goal based on what my personal bad eating habits are.

Wkwthme

Hi OP! I just wanted to encourage you in your journey. And say that I admire your dedication. Best of luck...work your plan and you will be successful.

999tigger

Your diet so do it your way.

Its still interesting to log and see the numbers imo because it gets home the message just how much over you might be and which bits contain lots of calories and what you can do as an alternative.. Thats something you should want to know. If you never learn how much calories stuff contains then you arent going to get onto the nutrition side of things as well.

At some stage if you want to start losing then you are going to have to stop consuming more than you are burning. That will mean creating a deficit. Id set yourself some deadling to shify from the pseudo logging to real deficit management. Good luck.