How do you track food?

nancycola

Hello,
I've been on MFP for about 8 months now. I'm wondering how accurately you all track your food. Do you weigh everything? If there are labels, that's easy but if I eat out or cook at home it can be hard to be accurate unless I make up ALL the recipes on MFP which would be a drag. I mostly guesstimate.

Any advice? I think I'm getting some things wrong. I have a food scale, but do you weigh and measure EVERYTHING?

cmeade20

I weigh all meat and put each piece in a ziplock baggie with the weight written on it so I know what it weighs as soon as its out of the freezer. I use measuring cups for all my fruit and vegetables. I use measuring spoons to measure all peanut butter, condiments, dressings etc. Everything I eat gets weighed or measured. The ony time it might not be accurate is if I go to a restaurant that doesnt have its nutritional info posted online.

weeblex

We do the zip lock meat trick too, makes cooking easier.

I have to admit being lazy when it comes to metering the veg and stuff through because its usually the add ins that raise their calories so the difference between 1/2 cup of peas and 1 cup is small enough to worry about.

The one that surprised me a little was the calorific content of dressings, mayo, ketchup, mustard etc. I now log those.

breyn2004

If I'm eating out (at a chain) I always use the online nutrition info. If that's not available, I guesstimate. However, if I'm at home I use my digital scales and measuring cups for EVERYTHING. It only takes a view extra seconds and it was a huge eye-opener. I do the same for my husband's food. Sometimes you just have to guesstimate, but if I can avoid it, I do.

Happy Logging!

Edit: And I always enter my recipes into MFP. I try to prepare things in a lower calorie, healthy way...(skim milk, 2% cheese, low sodium/sugar, etc) so I like to know that I have accurate numbers for the way I prepare meals.

iLoveMyPitbull1225

Some people do weigh everything. I do not personally have a food scale but I do measure cups and such to a T for best accuracy.

When I cook at home, I log everything I put in a dish and usually divide it into more portions. For instance, I made a massive casserole last night that said it makes 6 portions, I thought WOW thats a huge serving, so I made it 9 instead. much more practical and it was easy to divide up.


I feel that if you do not track as accurately as possible, you likely won't get the results you want, as it is easy to over/under estimate.

edit: what she said^^^ about restaurants. always research ahead of time.

becki1815

When you're talking about loading your recipes into MFP, just load in the ones you make the most often. Most of us make the same dishes over and over. Load those ones in, then measure your portions.

TraceFace11

I weigh or measure everything but fruits or vegetables when I'm making food. At restaurants I try to go off the nutrition info if it's available or try to find an equivalent type of food elsewhere. I've been in a program that counts most fruits and veggies as 'free' foods, as long as you're aware of how you feel and if you're overeating or not. I've really had to learn to be aware in the last little while, since there's a reason I got to where I was in the first place.

47Jacqueline

I buy all my meat, chicken and fish in quarter pound portions and put them in baggies - each one is a serving. I measure stuff with measuring spoons and cups, sometimes I guesstimate. I'm pretty accurate. I use the brands on the database if my food falls into that category.

80lbslost

I don't use a scale but I use measuring cups/tablespoons. When cooking meat I just use the nutritional info on package as my calorie source. When eating out I have to estimate since I would look ridiculous whipping out a measuring cup to measure my rice and curry chicken LOL.

Koldnomore

I weigh everything. I will even weigh the measuring cup to make sure that my amount is equal to what the package says 1 cup should weigh. It's entirely to possible for me to take more than 15g of peanut butter when I use the 1TBSP measure so I weigh it instead.

I write down everything when I cook and then enter in the recipe. For things that I already had made and frozen (like my chili) I'll try to find something similar in the database and then when I make a new batch I will label it properly. For places that don't list nutritional information I will either not go there, speak to the chef about getting the information from him via email or whatever or if possible try to find something similar if it's a food I desperately want to eat - Like the PHO soup that the cafeteria at work has on Wednesdays!

Anna800

I weight everything, it doesn't take much time. Yes I enter recipes into mfp as well. If I'm not accurate in my food enterting my weight loss won't be successful. It's all a math game. Calories in exercise out.

apedeb09

I don't have a food scale (wish I did) so I don't weigh anything but I do use measuring cups so I can get an accurate serving size. What I thought was a serving before surprised me once I broke out those measuring cups and saw what the true size was.. lol

cestlafete

Adding to the baggies crowd, I furthermore portion all junk that I impulsively buy when I'm having an off day and then write the amount of calories on the portion sized bag. I've found that it cuts back a lot of the 'oh, I want a snack! how about some chips!' kind of binging because, 1. It's pre-portioned, and 2. I have to be real about the calories when I grab it, not as an afterthought. It works great for anything you get in bulk, really, especially if you do a lot of smoothies and use real fruit.

I have also found that 'snack size' baggies are ~1 cup, so I use them to portion lunch-sized pasta when I make a big pot of it. That way, when I'm on my way to work, I just grab a baggie and I know that it's a lunch-sized portion of x.

And speaking of lunch, bento boxes with little cups are a godsend for not cheating on amounts!

cmpollard01

If I'm eating out (at a chain) I always use the online nutrition info. If that's not available, I guesstimate. However, if I'm at home I use my digital scales and measuring cups for EVERYTHING. It only takes a view extra seconds and it was a huge eye-opener. I do the same for my husband's food. Sometimes you just have to guesstimate, but if I can avoid it, I do.

Happy Logging!

This is what I do as well-learned the trick from my sister who lost about 85 pounds for a kidney transplant!

melissaw1232

weigh meat in 3-4oz portions, measure everything else with measuring cups. after a while you can eyeball a plate and know about how much rice, veggies there are.. cereal I measure and bag before I eat, same with nuts and other snacks, makes a world of difference

nxd10

I have gotten very good at estimating serving sizes and check myself a few times a week to make sure. The hardest things are sandwiches or things at restaurants - but I don't eat out often.

I just made lunch and wasn't sure how many almonds I'd added to my lunch. Turns out I had a much smaller serving than I thought I did after I stuck them in a measuring cup.

Grains (rice, muesli, pasta) can be tough, but if you keep measuring you get good at eyeballing.

I even add things like ketchup or sauces.

nxd10

Portion size guide: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/portion-control/NU00267

nancycola

Thanks everyone! This really helps!
I guess I can't be lazy anymore and must weigh and measure EVERYTHING! I must have been really forgiving when eyeballing.

Things like peanut butter can be annoying to measure b/c they're hard to get off the spoon and 1 tb is painfully little. Ha ha!

On that note, olive oil is painfully high in calories for 1tb. Does anyone have any oil-free or oil-lite salad dressings they can pass along? I love salad.

breyn2004

Depending on the type of salad, I use plain red wine vinegar (no cals) or Bolthouse Yogurt Ranch (45 cals).

nxd10

I love straight balsamic vinegar on salad. I don't use any oil at all. Add your favorite herbs.

rose313

Bar code scanner, and measuring cups

nancycola

I love straight balsamic vinegar on salad. I don't use any oil at all. Add your favorite herbs.

Really? Just straight up vinegar with herbs? I tried just balsamic once and it was so tart for me. It stung my mouth. But maybe I put in too much. Herbs would really add something. What do you add? Chopped basil? Parsley? Thyme? What a good idea.

I saw a Food & Wine issue that featured this new ingredients chefs are using to make vinaigrettes and other sauces. Was it agar? It's supposed to help prevent separation of ingredients. No cals! Anyone ever use this?

slkehl

I read labels on everything but when eating out and making complicated recipes, I guess. I probably overestimate, but I figure that's better than the other way around.

Pebble321

My long term strategy has been to get used to eating a regular sized portion, so I tend to weigh things every now and again to check then eyeball things most of the time. I know that I'm not going to carry a scale around with me every day of my life, so I need to get used to what a serving size looks like.

Re dressings: usually I'll make a dressing with about 1 tsp olive oil plus lemon juice or some kind of vinegar with herbs for flavour. That serves 2 and doesn't add too many cals.
Other suggestions: plain balsamic is great, but you might want to try different ones to get a good tasting one that stands alone.
I've also used 1 tsp low fat mayo mixed with red wine vinegar - it makes a nice pink creamy dressing with pretty low cals.
Low fat yoghurt mixed with lemon juice is pretty good too.

shaynak112

I estimate. But I eat a lot of fruits and veggies. "1 carrot" is simply 1 carrot. I don't eat meat so I don't need to weigh them.
I read what's on the labels of things.
If I'm estimating, I try to always put calories towards the higher end.

MelbourneBelle

The one that surprised me a little was the calorific content of dressings, mayo, ketchup, mustard etc. I now log those.

Good tip, thanks. Its the thing I usually let slide.