Weighing and measuring food

Need2Exerc1se

Do you measure and log everything you eat?

If yes --

How do you find the time, or the will? Does it not drive you crazy?

At what point do you plan to stop, or is your plan to measure everything for the rest of your life?

What type of diet do you eat? How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

mkdm291

I think like anything else, I try my best.
If I'm making myself a sandwich for work, I do so the night before. I weigh the meats, cheese, and log the bread. Then I can log my lunch at any point.
Weighing food at dinner is relatively easy. It only takes a few seconds.
If I'm out to dinner... that's different. I'm not bringing my scale to a restaurant with me. But those are the times that I try to make the best choices I can. When out to dinner I have 2 options. 1) Focus and try to take the best options and attempt portion control or 2) sometimes that huge plate of chicken parm with a side of pasta is just too tempting. If I choose option 2, I just move on and try to burn a few extra calories the next day.

Need2Exerc1se

Weighing food at dinner is relatively easy. It only takes a few seconds.

Can you give me an idea of what a typical dinner would be for you?

KylaDenay

Do you measure and log everything you eat?

Yes I do! Sometimes I am to busy to but when I am consistent, I do!

If yes --

How do you find the time, or the will? Does it not drive you crazy?

I make the time. If you want to lose weight, you will have the will power. Yes it drives me crazy as all hell!!! I am exhausted by it and I just want to give up, but with 16 lbs to lose, why would I.

At what point do you plan to stop, or is your plan to measure everything for the rest of your life?

When I know that I can stay consistent and maintain my weight without having to do it. Who the hell wants to do it for life?! I have better things to do

What type of diet do you eat? How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

NO DIETS!!! Ingrediants? what? who cares. Eat what you want as long as it fits your calories and macros. I mean that is unless you have a medical issue and cannot do that.

PaytraB

Yes, I did.
I used it to learn about portion size and calorie allowance. At first, I weighed everything and looked at the size to get a visual of a "portion". Later, I guessed a portion and then weighed it to see how close I was (and adjusted the weight to be a true portion). Over time, I got pretty good at knowing a portion size.
I kept weighing and measuring until I'd lost the weight and about a year into maintenance to make sure that I was solid in eyeballing/guessing my portion sizes.
Now, I'm not measuring any-more but am remaining aware of the portions that I take.

How did I find the time? It doesn't take very long at all. Only a few minutes. I had a paper & pen in the kitchen, wrote the weights on it and logged it when I got to a computer. It takes seconds to jot down the weights.
The will came from wanting the weight off and seeing it come off.
What kind of food? Normal stuff. Veggies, meats, junk food. When we made pizza, I'd weigh the individual ingredients and use 1/4 of a pizza as a serving size (on the recipe tab). The average meal: meat, starch, veggies (1-3). Salads could have multiple ingredients; maybe 6 or so.

Keep at it.

mkdm291

Sure! Baked chicken with a salad, baked fish, steak. Usually with a side of salad. I always stick to the listed serving size for the dressing. I'm sure not everything is perfect, but I try to make it as close as possible.

PaytraB

If I'm out to dinner... that's different. I'm not bringing my scale to a restaurant with me. But those are the times that I try to make the best choices I can.

....and this.

Need2Exerc1se

What type of diet do you eat? How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

NO DIETS!!! Ingrediants? what? who cares. Eat what you want as long as it fits your calories and macros. I mean that is unless you have a medical issue and cannot do that.

Everyone has a diet. I was not looking for a diet name, more of a description. Maybe a sample of a typical meal or menu.

I use a lot of ingredients in almost everything I make. Measuring and logging every little thing seems like a lot of trouble. Overwhelming, even.

I am just trying to get an idea of how others manage it, and of those that do, if their diet significantly differs from mine.

shadow2soul

Do you measure and log everything you eat?

I weigh/measure everything I eat at home. Eating out I don't, because that's just a little too obsessive for me. That and I don't want to carry a scale with me everywhere. I do however log just about everything. I don't log crystal light or things the FDA says can be labeled 0 cals (these things should be less than 5 calories).

How do you find the time, or the will? Does it not drive you crazy?

Well my food scale is flat, so I just set my plate on it and press tare after each thing I add. It only adds an extra 1-2 minutes per meal/snack. It is a habit now.

At what point do you plan to stop, or is your plan to measure everything for the rest of your life?

I will probably do it forever.

What type of diet do you eat?

I'm not on a "diet." I'm eating at a deficit, but I'm still eating the same foods I did before. I'm just eating less of them. This includes fast food, pizza, ice cream, steak, chicken, salads, and a wide variety of fruits/veggies. I pretty much will eat anything I think tastes good. If I don't like the taste, then I don't eat it (cauliflower).

How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

Average is probably around 5. If I had to guess that is. Really depends what I'm eating. A bacon cheeseburger with fries is usually at least 6 different things.
A lot of the fruits and veggies don't have a label, but they are generally pretty easy to find in the database. If I can't find it I do a quick google search with "fruit name" nutrition and it pulls up the FDA's nutritional data for the food on my screen. I use that info to create my own entry for it.

carimiller7391

I'm fairly new (again) to MFP. I weigh and measure everything I eat unless it's prepacked serving. Yes, it's a pain..... but so is being mobidly obese for me. It's a lifestyle for me. I just do it. I have better results when I weigh and measure everything.

As far as when I go out to eat, I just try to make the healthiest choice possible.There is a mobil appl, called Nutriscore, it gives the nutritional value for most resturaunts. Maybe that would help also.

Cari from DE

PrizePopple

Do you measure and log everything you eat?

If yes --

How do you find the time, or the will? Does it not drive you crazy?

At what point do you plan to stop, or is your plan to measure everything for the rest of your life?

What type of diet do you eat? How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

I have been, yes. I just set a bowl on my scale, zero it out, and then add my food to the bowl be it meat for a sandwich, chicken breast for dinner, a hunk of cheese, baby carrots ... whatever I'm eating. Some things I measure like milk, cooked pasta. I've got to serve it so I might as well use measuring cups/spoons to do so.

I still make a lot of the same food I was making. I add to my recipe box, and if I change something - say I use ground turkey instead of ground beef - I can quickly alter the recipe, log it, and be done.

Yeah, it's a little annoying sometimes to have to weigh, measure, and log everything that goes into my pie hole, but I quite enjoy seeing the scale going down. So I think I'll keep it up.

Need2Exerc1se

Sure! Baked chicken with a salad, baked fish, steak. Usually with a side of salad. I always stick to the listed serving size for the dressing. I'm sure not everything is perfect, but I try to make it as close as possible.

Do you weigh every ingredient in the salad? Do you tend to have the same ingredients in the salad, or are they different each time?

mkdm291

Sure! Baked chicken with a salad, baked fish, steak. Usually with a side of salad. I always stick to the listed serving size for the dressing. I'm sure not everything is perfect, but I try to make it as close as possible.

Do you weigh every ingredient in the salad? Do you tend to have the same ingredients in the salad, or are they different each time?

No. That's what I mean about not being perfect. There is an entry for a 9 oz tossed salad. I choose that with whatever dressing I use. I only use veggies in my salads. So I figure if I am a decimal or two off because of an extra carrot piece, I don't let it bother me. Naturally, if I ever would put croutons, cheese, avocado, or any of the other high caloric foods that can go in a salad, I would log/measure those separately.
I'm relatively new to this, so I may be doing this wrong. But I've lost 7 pounds and feel better than I have in a while. So I think I'm doing something right.
Good luck!

Slacker16

Do you measure and log everything you eat?

Unless I eat out, order out or eat an entire package, yes.

How do you find the time, or the will? Does it not drive you crazy?

Habit like any other, really.

At what point do you plan to stop, or is your plan to measure everything for the rest of your life?

My cooking has improved a lot since I stopped eyeballing ingredients, so I don't plan to stop.

What type of diet do you eat? How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

I eat a "whatever" diet, usually fast/junk food for lunch, grains and meat or eggs for dinner and booze. I occasionally eat vegetables that don't come with a label.

lemurcat12

Do you measure and log everything you eat?

Mostly. I eat at restaurants and friends' houses, and sometimes don't log (I quick add an estimate) and of course never measure those.

If yes --

How do you find the time, or the will? Does it not drive you crazy?

No, I don't find it particularly time consuming or burdensome. I generally cook my meals, I have a scale on the counter, and I just weigh stuff when I'm chopping or otherwise prepping. Back when I used to measure or estimate it was actually more time-consuming/burdensome.

At what point do you plan to stop, or is your plan to measure everything for the rest of your life?

I will stop when I stop finding it interesting, as I think I could maintain without it. However, I currently do find it interesting and suspect that playing around with the effect of different macro combinations and trying to improve my body fat percentage even after I'm at goal and so on might be part of keeping me interested in maintenance over time. We'll see, but I'm not that concerned about it.

What type of diet do you eat? How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

No special type, not sure what you mean by this. Ingredients vary a lot--much of the time I cook quickly after working late, so I do a basic meat, veggie (or veggies), and starch, and I don't log herbs and spices. For breakfast I do a vegetable omelet, fruit, some sort of additional protein (also simple to log and always about the same calories). But sometimes I have time to do fussier meals and I like to on occasion, since I enjoy cooking. I have a variety of cookbooks from which I get ideas (usually I don't do recipes) from a wide range of cuisines.

Need2Exerc1se

What type of diet do you eat? How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

No special type, not sure what you mean by this. Ingredients vary a lot--much of the time I cook quickly after working late, so I do a basic meat, veggie (or veggies), and starch, and I don't log herbs and spices. For breakfast I do a vegetable omelet, fruit, some sort of additional protein (also simple to log and always about the same calories). But sometimes I have time to do fussier meals and I like to on occasion, since I enjoy cooking. I have a variety of cookbooks from which I get ideas (usually I don't do recipes) from a wide range of cuisines.

I'm trying to find out if my diet is very different than that of others who measure everything, because it seems so time consuming and cumbersome to me. Most of my meals are prepared from scratch and many contain a lot of ingredients.

I don't cook from recipes so I may add ingredients at any time in the cooking process based on taste - Oh, it's needs a little more onion - now I need to weigh more onion. That type of thing.

Cortelli

Like others, I do my best. I find weighing foods at home to be simple and easy. Get a plate; zero out the scale; add something; memorize or jot down the weight; add something else to the plate; rinse and repeat. Last night was grilled chicken with olive oil and rosemary, steamed asparagus with mayo as a dip, some strange packaged garlic bread my wife wanted to try. Estimate the oil since it was just brushed on, weight the chicken after adding it to the plate; add the asparagus andnote weight; add mayo and note weight; add bread and note weight; pour a Guinness to go with it; enjoy my meal; sometime later make my way to MFP to log the foods and weights. Easy peasy and not yet annoying for me (after almost a year).

I've gotten to the point where I don't weigh everything and feel comfortable that my estimates are close enough; but I also track my actual weight and expected weight based on my logging and should get a sense that I am straying too far from accuracy before too much damage is done.

I've weighed through cuts and a bulk and now cutting again, and forsee I'll be pretty diligent about logging for a long time to come yet.

KylaDenay

What type of diet do you eat? How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

NO DIETS!!! Ingredients? what? who cares. Eat what you want as long as it fits your calories and macros. I mean that is unless you have a medical issue and cannot do that.

Everyone has a diet. I was not looking for a diet name, more of a description. Maybe a sample of a typical meal or menu.

I use a lot of ingredients in almost everything I make. Measuring and logging every little thing seems like a lot of trouble. Overwhelming, even.

I am just trying to get an idea of how others manage it, and of those that do, if their diet significantly differs from mine.

No not everyone has a diet. Some just eat less than what they did before. Not everyone weighs and measures everything. It may not work for everyone. It is just accuracy. Do what is right for you. But you should know that a lot of package items, once weighed, are a lot different in calories then the package states.

You can only do what works for you, not what others are doing. If you can lose weight with just estimates than keep on keeping on. If you cannot then you would just have to buck up and use the scale.

_lyndseybrooke_

I measure 100% of my liquids and weigh 90% of my solids (measure the other 10% when a scale is not available to me) when I'm eating at home or at work. The only estimations I make are when I eat out, and I try to overestimate and use nutritional information that restaurants provide.

It really doesn't take that much time. No, it doesn't drive me crazy. It's just another thing I do. It's less time consuming than logging, and I do that every single day as well. If I didn't have 5 minutes to measure/weigh my food for the entire day (that's all meals combined), I'd seriously need to reevaluate my life. No one is THAT busy.

I plan on weighing/measuring long term. I'm not so obsessive about it that I take my scale with me everywhere (I recall someone saying they were going to bring their scale to Thanksgiving dinner and restaurants - give me a break), but I don't know how much a tablespoon of peanut butter is unless I weigh it. If I don't know how many calories I'm eating, I'm more likely to gain the weight back. Been there, done that.

My meals don't typically consist of a lot of ingredients. I like to keep it simple. As for raw foods with no label - I don't eat nearly enough of those. I find myself getting better at estimating what one serving is before I even weigh it. I think that's a good sign. Maybe one day I won't need to weigh certain things, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

ksy1969

You just need to do the best you can. It is never perfect.

I can say this though, get over it and make time. You say it seems cumbersome, well isn't the extra weight cumbersome as well. The fact is if you want to lose weight, you need to eat at a caloric deficit and for the most part for that to happen you need to track what you intake. That is the secret. The most successful people at weight loss track their caloric intake and do their best to have it below what the body burns in a day.

There are all kinds of tools to make it easier. I use the recipe tool a lot when cooking meals. Once you create a recipe you can always go back to it and if it is a little different next time you can modify the original. It saves a lot of time.

I personally eat just about anything. Last night I had a full fat bratwurst and baked tator tots. Oh my!! I weighed the tator tots twice. I weighed them before they went in the oven and then when they were done. I wanted to see how much weight they lost after being baked. This is where some people really screw up logging intake. They need to be really careful if they are logging cooked or un-cooked weight. Turns out there was a 25% shrinkage in the tots. If I would have used the package serving size after they were cooked, instead of 130 calories per serving it would have been about 160, but I would have entered them as 130. To many of those kinds of mistakes in a day can add up really fast.

The night before we had a chicken breast stuffed with Jalapeno & cream cheese wrapped in bacon. I didn't make them my self, but I did the best I could eyeballing the calories. Which is fine as long as you weigh and measure most of the time.

Basilin

What type of diet do you eat? How many ingredients in the average meal? How many raw ingredients that do not contain a label?

No special type, not sure what you mean by this. Ingredients vary a lot--much of the time I cook quickly after working late, so I do a basic meat, veggie (or veggies), and starch, and I don't log herbs and spices. For breakfast I do a vegetable omelet, fruit, some sort of additional protein (also simple to log and always about the same calories). But sometimes I have time to do fussier meals and I like to on occasion, since I enjoy cooking. I have a variety of cookbooks from which I get ideas (usually I don't do recipes) from a wide range of cuisines.

I'm trying to find out if my diet is very different than that of others who measure everything, because it seems so time consuming and cumbersome to me. Most of my meals are prepared from scratch and many contain a lot of ingredients.

I don't cook from recipes so I may add ingredients at any time in the cooking process based on taste - Oh, it's needs a little more onion - now I need to weigh more onion. That type of thing.

Ah. That's a very different type of cooking! I think in your case, estimating might be a good way to do it. Like an earlier poster mentioned, weigh your ingredients out to get a good idea of quantities, and then when you feel like improvising you can jot down an estimate of what you added extra. You can also think of it as boosting your cooking skill to be able to gauge how much you're adding to each meal. Like that chef on TV who can measure volumes of ingredients accurately just by eyeballing it.

Think of it this way: all the calories and nutrients and macros given are estimates anyway. There is no way to tell if your piece of meat has the same amount of iron or fat in it as the piece of meat that was analyzed to determine the caloric content etc. of that cut of meat. So being totally exact down to three decimal places doesn't really make things more accurate. It's more like a rough sketch to give you an idea of what you're consuming and to hold you accountable for it. Personally, I think it's fun to see what my meals contain (especially improvised ones!) and then maybe you can perfect some recipes by tracking exactly what you're adding.