How do you record your food?

lolollama

Do you plan what you're going to eat the day before you eat it or do you just log it as you go?

I have been doing it as I go but finding that I have way too many left over calories at the end of the day!

kendrafallon

Mostly I plan ahead, so I know if I've got cals to spare or not if I'm under my goal, is usually due to exercise.

snookumss

I log as I go, sometimes my later meals will be carefully plotted prior to cooking it, but I use MFP to figure out the total calories of my options before I start to cook something to better fit the calorie slot.

Hannerling

I have my favorites for breakfast and lunch so I know those in advance. Generally, just snacks and dinner are decided daily but early on in the day.

RachelT14

I plan my evening meals for the week ahead and each day i decide which mela i havent have will be tomorrows dinner and add that. Then if it is quite low cal i have a higher cal breakfast to even the day out. If the evening meal is quite high in cals i have porridge for breakfast, lunch always comes in around the same amount. I did find myself havign to eat 200 cals i didnt want to eat last night though as i was very under

bluefox9er

I plan ahead if i can/feel like it...if i change, then I log the changes, and If I'm over...ho-hum :-)

engineman312

if i'm working, i do everything the night before, just because during the day i may not have computer access, and its easy to stay on target if everything is pre-logged. i also over estimate what i'm going to eat, because i always end up taking at least one or two things off, or have a smaller dinner then i had intended.

tavery3700

I log as I go, because I eat what I want.

I watch my calories and portion control

I may be wrong but It works for me.

ncwingnut71

I make my breakfast and lunch before I leave the house, so I log those in the morning. If I don't eat something I bought, like a snack or something, I take it back off.

I usually know early afternoon what I want for dinner, so I will go ahead and log that then, too.

tounyae1979

I plan my meals days ahead because that way you already know what you're going to eat. You're not just looking around trying to figure out what you're going to eat to meet the calories for that day. Saves time.

much2gain

I mostly plan ahead because during the work week I eat the same breakfast and usually the same lunch that I made on Sunday nights for the week. It also helps me stay away from the treats that are constantly in the office. If I know I have already input my breakfast and lunch, I'm less likely to slip and have to log in again to add sugary sweets. However you do it, just be honest about it. If you eat it, track it.. right down to the creamer in your coffee, the olive oil you may cook with, etc.

southerngirlspa

I'm just beginning here but so far I've been logging as I go. If I'm tempted to eat something that I'm pretty sure isn't very good for me I check the calories and fat on here before I go for it so I can see if I have enough for the day or not. If I have a bunch of calories left at the end of the evening I drink a giant glass of skim milk cause I LOVE it.

loombeav

I log as I go, because I eat what I want.

I watch my calories and portion control

I may be wrong but It works for me.

This. I have an eating plan I follow and for the most part stick to those calorie guidelines, which right now are 400 for breakfast, 600 for lunch and dinner and 200 for snacks (2x a day) I'm in the resting phase of the plan so my intake is a about 500 calories higher then normal.

lrd2010

I only plan ahead if I know there's going to be a big meal in a day. Like if I'm going out to dinner to have drinkies and dessert, I will allocate breakfast and lunch accordingly and make sure that I at least try to make up for it with exercise or cutting back for a few days afterwards.

Intuitive eating is the goal really. I'm not quite there yet....

JulieSD

I log in the morning as I eat breakfast. I find that I usually have about 200-300 cals left over so I know to add more snacks and what exercise I have to look forward to. OR I also like to preplan because i'll think I can have x amount of something, log it and it have a zillion more cals than I thought it would. lol

HMonsterX

I never know what i fancy for dinner until dinnertime, so planning days ahead just isnt possible.

However, as stated earlier in this thread, if i know it's going to be a biggie (eating out etc), then ill makes some small changes during the day, giving me more leaway when it comes to that dinner.

bluegirl10

I usually plan it the night before and log mostly everything in the morning... Then again Monday thru Friday my foods don't vary much, so only the weekends are little tougher to log and stay on track.

bcattoes

I log as I go. I've never been much of a planner. I rarely even have a plan for dinner when I get off work at 5:00. I usually log dinner the next morning when I'm at work so I never know how many calories I've eaten, but I usually come pretty close to the MFP goal.

dls06

The best way is to plan before you shop that way you only have food in the house that won't get you in trouble to begin with.
Makes planning meals easier.

kendernau

I am a mix of planned and ad hoc. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks are preplanned during the week, as I prep the night before, so I do not have to do it in the morning when I am getting ready for work. I don't log them until I am at work, but I usually have a pretty good idea where I am in terms of calories.

On days I bike to work, I pack a little extra (particularly protein), and I have a healthy snack stash in my desk in case I need a little extra to counter a craving.

Dinner is then based on whatever I have left over in terms of calories when I get home. I'll cook a regular meal for myself and wife, and just change my portion size to match how much I am allowed.

My problem is the food we have in our house. We have a toddler, who was born SGA (Small for Gestational Age), who is under a nutrition plan that is basically opposite of mine He is on a high carb, high fat, calorie dense diet to help him catch up to the norms for his age, so we have a lot of food (and particularly snacks) that I have to "forget" we have to avoid temptation.

Rilke

I eat intuitively, so no planning more than a meal ahead.

iysys

i do a little of both. in the past months i have entered as i go. right now i am trying to make sure we eat at home to save money for the coming holidays. so i am entering ahead of time with a meal plan.

i do find when i plan ahead i make the best food choices and thus have a hard time figuring out how to get enough calories. like today after my standard breakfast, a healthy well rounded lunch and dinner and a small snack i still had over 700 calories to use. i decided to add in a bit of couscous to the dinner menu but that still leave me with 595 for the day...and that is before i work out.

i think this is the kind of thing that might call for an apple and some peanut butter as a evening snack.