We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Manually counting calories

cherapple
cherapple Posts: 670 Member
edited September 2024 in Food and Nutrition
Does anyone count calories manually? MFP is so easy, and I love it, but I feel like it's so convenient that I never really get a true idea of the amount of calories in my foods. MFP does all the work, and I don't have to know a thing! :laugh:

Of course, I have a general idea of how to make 300 calorie meals now (I eat 5x a day), but I'd like to be able to look at a food and automatically know about how many calories it has. Over time, I hear from people who have done it that it becomes automatic. That would be the ultimate in knowledge, to be a walking nutrition encyclopedia! :laugh:

When I did Weight Watchers, it got to be very automatic to count points, but calories involve more precision and more math. I would just need to do it for a little while, but I'm dragging my feet about it. :grumble: :smile:

Replies

  • cherapple
    cherapple Posts: 670 Member
    Does anyone count calories manually? MFP is so easy, and I love it, but I feel like it's so convenient that I never really get a true idea of the amount of calories in my foods. MFP does all the work, and I don't have to know a thing! :laugh:

    Of course, I have a general idea of how to make 300 calorie meals now (I eat 5x a day), but I'd like to be able to look at a food and automatically know about how many calories it has. Over time, I hear from people who have done it that it becomes automatic. That would be the ultimate in knowledge, to be a walking nutrition encyclopedia! :laugh:

    When I did Weight Watchers, it got to be very automatic to count points, but calories involve more precision and more math. I would just need to do it for a little while, but I'm dragging my feet about it. :grumble: :smile:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    I did that once before, years ago. Had my little book and wrote down every calorie. Got to be I could look at a plate and know how many cals in the dish.

    I also obsessed about food. So I find it a relief that someone else does the counting.

    Now that I am eating cleaner, I find even when I try to go over, my cals are within 100 of my goal,
  • Wolfena
    Wolfena Posts: 1,570 Member
    When I was actively losing weight, I used a program like MFP to count my calories for about 7 months straight. Eventually, I started to memorize what most foods had in them, or if I had the container in front of me I could see it.

    After that, I started to mentally tally them as the day would go on. I'd still use the program once every few weeks for a day or two to double check that I was still doing OK, and not over or underestimating things. I was doing this while in maintenance mode.

    Now that I am again actively trying to lose a few pounds I am tracking on MFP. My calorie limit is only about 1300 and I find that I cheat less if I am recording it. I don't intend to log my meals forever and once I get to where I want to be again I'll go back to mentally tallying.
  • I was counting manually....I had a notebook and everything, with my favorite foods nutritional information and everything. However for the calorie counting I love MFP better. I do still go to the manual way for other information like the vitamins I'm getting in and other stuff like that. I think if it's going to be a life change it has to be a little bit of both...and a little bit of lots of other stuff, too.

    ...and I for one I'm not ALWAYS at a computer...so I have to write my stuff down during the day sometimes and then plug it in here for the reports and a more visual opportunity to see my success.

    I am starting to learn which foods have what and how many calories in them...i.e. I know when what I ate isn't what MFP put in...so then I research or even add it.
  • I do it sometimes just to train myself for that day Im out at a friends house and maybe not have internet access just so I can enter them eventually. Im usually really close when it comes to veggies and fruits as long as I know approx how much weight was in the portion. I dont eat packaged meals very often at all and I think it's things like that that are much harder to judge, the same with resaurant food. Often they are prepared in such a manner that their process can pack on calories with different marinades and brazing sauces etc.
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
    I did it for a while before I found Fitday or MFP. I kept it all in my head for the most part because I never had paper handy. It was sort of a chore though, lots of mental math and lots of time. I am really super good at eyeballing portions now!
This discussion has been closed.