Question about logging in food

Chiny

Sometimes I get discouraged from logging my food in since some of the things I eat I don't know how to log. For example, we have potlucks once a month at work. Everyone will bring in a dish. How can I log that if I want to sample a few things. My issue is logging in homemade foods. Or going to a family members house for dinner. Most of the time I'm ok if I can look on the box and log it in. I don't want to carry my food scale around with me, people will think I am crazy :laugh:

BrendaLee

You have to become good at guesstimating in those circumstances. If you have half a cup of homemade potato salad, find an item in the food log that seems like a reasonable match.

Zara11

Just guess. Obviously, nothing you ever log in is perfect, but chances are you're not going to be off by 200 calories constantly. At least, one hopes not! :laugh:

Chiny

Hmmm! Maybe because I am so black and white with things. :laugh:

stormieweather

I go to an all-you-can-eat buffet regularly. I keep a little notebook with me and mark down everything I eat, and how much - ie: tablespoon peas, 1/2 blueberry pie, 1 stalk broccoli. Then I come here and enter it all.

Pain in the butt, but I really need to be accountable for what I eat and how much. So yeah...

Chiny

I go to an all-you-can-eat buffet regularly. I keep a little notebook with me and mark down everything I eat, and how much - ie: tablespoon peas, 1/2 blueberry pie, 1 stalk broccoli. Then I come here and enter it all.

Pain in the butt, but I really need to be accountable for what I eat and how much. So yeah...

That's a good idea I can even use the notebook in my phone.

Phoenix_Rising

I created a personalized food for my called "Generic Food Marker". It's worth 100 calories. I estimate what I've eaten and log x number of my food markers to enter the calories onto my diary. I notate what I've eaten in my diary notes (bottom left).

stormieweather

What I do is find a similar food in the database and use that. For example, If I have Apple Pie at the buffet, I'll look for that in the database (restaurant, not diet or frozen or homemade) and find one that looks similar (1/12th serving size instead of 1/6th if the pie size was really small-I even count slices in the pie to be sure) and use that.

Word of warning-some people input their foods with only the calories noted, so if you're tracking carbs, fat, protein, salt, etc., those missing stats will throw you way off.