Is MFP a hindrance or a help?

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  • meerkat70
    meerkat70 Posts: 4,616 Member
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    Some from column A, some from column B. Yes, logging definitely boosts intellectual awareness of the caloric economy you're participating in. However, what would really help me is increased moment-by-moment awareness of whether or not I felt full, and encouragement in that moment to stop eating after I felt comfortably fed. And that's not something you're going to automatically get from knowing that 1 doughnut = 250 arbitrary units of something. You have to learn how to feel what those units mean to your body.

    The moment by moment awareness comes with time. I'm pretty good at 'guessing' how many calories (and indeed how many points, since I used to do WW) there are in food.

    And I'm far better at knowing whether I'm really hungry, or just wanting something.
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
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    it's a hinderance. i have homework that needs to be done!
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
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    Omg i wudnt b able to lose weight without mfp. If i didnt use it i o i wud jus guess howmuch calories r in each food n i no id put on weight. Like i did over xmas wen i didnt log for a wk.
    It defo helps me x

    You are thirty. Don't type like that.
  • dg09
    dg09 Posts: 754
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    MyFP will never be a hindrance for me. Thanks to this place I learned how to count calories, that literally changed everything for me. On diets, I would be lucky to lose 20-30lbs before just giving up because I was just going about everything the wrong way. Diets were a burden, counting calories isn't to me.

    I did obsess over logging everything for the longest time, but something good came from it. I know what to expect nutrition wise from certain foods without even reading a label now. Because of this obsession, I'm confident I will never get like this again because I'm more educated on what I'm putting into my body now.
  • shiseido_faerie
    shiseido_faerie Posts: 771 Member
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    I think MFP is a great tool. I have been on MFP for over a year. Now I can pretty much approximately calculate everything without MFP to maintain my weight. I prefer to use MFP when I am trying to lose weight since it more accurate....but when I am in maintenance mode, I tend to just mentally calculate throughout the day.... I think MFP helps to teach you and hold you accountablee and then it just become second nature.

    This is what I have found as well. The longer I log, the more aware I am of how many calories etc my normal day to day foods have. It seems to be becoming second nature to me.
  • shiseido_faerie
    shiseido_faerie Posts: 771 Member
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    Omg i wudnt b able to lose weight without mfp. If i didnt use it i o i wud jus guess howmuch calories r in each food n i no id put on weight. Like i did over xmas wen i didnt log for a wk.
    It defo helps me x

    You are thirty. Don't type like that.

    This made me lol because I just wrote a blog about it for my work.
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,250 Member
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    With very few exceptions (ie things I haven't even the slightest clue how to log) I log EVERYTHING I eat. On most days, I plan my meals out before I even eat them.

    Today I started thinking, am I becoming too dependent on MFP? Could I eat right, and not overeat without MFPs help? Does my diligent logging make the program a hindrance or a help?

    Anyone have any thoughts on this?

    MFP makes me accountable, it helps. I reached my goal once before, then instead of maintaining, I ate a load of crap and put weight back on (not all of it, but most), because I was no longer logging my food, I was sort of in denial - no log, no calories taking in sort of thing, pathetic really and sad :frown:

    This time I shall be using MFP to maintain once I reach my goal.
  • ash190489
    ash190489 Posts: 587 Member
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    Definitely a HELP! I am absolutely obsessed with it! I love it. However, when I should be planning for school, I usually end up on here reading forums! But it's so much fun!
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,250 Member
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    Omg i wudnt b able to lose weight without mfp. If i didnt use it i o i wud jus guess howmuch calories r in each food n i no id put on weight. Like i did over xmas wen i didnt log for a wk.
    It defo helps me x

    You are thirty. Don't type like that.

    pmsl!

    To PinkPrincess who typed in text speak, sorry I have to agree with EngineMan. It is very difficult to read when you type like that, it makes me read disjointed.

    Are you posting from your phone?
  • IronmanPanda
    IronmanPanda Posts: 2,083 Member
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    MFP is a hindrance. Also, my wife is sabotaging me, as is Rae6503 and MissKortney.

    Too much *kitten*?
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    I'm going to say no because people kept food diaries long before MFP came along. MFP just made it easier.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    These forums are a time vacuum! That makes it a hindrance to my job but not my weight loss. :)

    As far as logging goes, I was very diligent while I was losing weight. It kept me accountable more than anything else. Now that I'm in maintenance I still log most days but will often only during work hours to let me know how many calories I have left for dinner and a night time snack. Weekends I'll often skip, as well, but I start again on Monday so I can stay on track.

    I firmly believe that as soon as we take our eye off the ball (i.e. the food log and the scale) for any length of time, we set ourselves up to gain weight. Most of us just don't have the ability to really judge what we're eating, especially when eating out and our clothes fit over a range of weight so 5 - 10 pounds can easily sneak back on if we lose focus.
  • jimandpam87
    jimandpam87 Posts: 62 Member
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    It's definitely a help for me. Like others have said, when I consistently log in and record my calories, I lose weight. When I try to do it mentally, I end up either maintaining or slowly gaining. For me, it's not really about knowing how much I'm eating. I find, especially at this point in my diet journey, I'm pretty accurate when it comes to estimating the number of calories I eat everyday. It's much more of an accountability thing in my case. When I know I have to physically see the list of foods I've eaten that day, I am much less likely to go overboard and eat junk. It's really easy for me to kind of be in a state of denial when I'm not actually seeing what I'm eating. For me, MFP keeps me accountable for the most part, and that's why I'll always use it as a weight loss tool.
  • joanthemom8
    joanthemom8 Posts: 375 Member
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    I have logged in for over 700 days. Most days, i complete my food diary. I notice, however, when I go a few days without complete logging, I end up gaining. I can trust my judement for a while, but then I end up underestimating what I am eating. There are many studies that show that keeping a food journal or diary is one of the best ways to lose weight. MFP just makes it easier to that.
  • angel79202
    angel79202 Posts: 1,012 Member
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    I lose when I log everything..when I slack, the scale shows..
  • devil_in_a_blue_dress
    devil_in_a_blue_dress Posts: 5,214 Member
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    hindrance to failing, i suppose
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    With very few exceptions (ie things I haven't even the slightest clue how to log) I log EVERYTHING I eat. On most days, I plan my meals out before I even eat them.

    Today I started thinking, am I becoming too dependent on MFP? Could I eat right, and not overeat without MFPs help? Does my diligent logging make the program a hindrance or a help?

    Anyone have any thoughts on this?

    Well looking at your ticker, you weren't doing too well with the weight control thing before MFP. Neither was I. So....
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    I like the way John Walker puts it in "The Hacker's Diet" (free online at http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/). His basic approach is to start from the premise that overweight people are that way because their "eat watch" (appetite, telling us when to eat and when to stop) is broken. Counting calories is a way to compensate for a broken appetite.

    In his chapter "Perfect Weight Forever," Walker notes that it would be cruel to take a nearsighted person, give him or her glasses for a month and a half, and then take them away on the grounds that they've had enough time to learn to see without glasses. Well, as long as our appetites don't function properly, we need something to compensate for that fact. Food logging has been clinically proven to do so.

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