Frozen Vs. Fresh

evolve33

Hello everyone, happy Friday!
When counting calories, I find it difficult to log fresh foods i've made myself. For lunch today i'm having salad with 10 different ingredients and chicken and veggie soup with 8 ingredients. The thought of trying to measure each thing and enter the amount in MFP makes me not want to log at all. Pre-packeaged foods are easy to keep an accurate count on, but I don't want to eat that all the time. Is this just laziness?

AwesomeSquirrel

Yes I think you are being lazy.

If you take some time and enter your recipes they will be a breeze to add next time. And surely you are measuring out your food anyway, so what's an extra 2 minutes to log it?

DesireeLovesOrganic

I find that entering on my computer instead of my phone is easier for things that have a lot of ingredients. If you use them a lot they show up on the your main page and then you can just check box all the ingredients at once.

mfpseven

How rude, not going to call you lazy because you aren't, it can be very bothersome to get all the little ingredients. I find making recipes helps out later though for sure.

Ralphrabbit

I always stick it in the recipe page & then they are there for the future. Nothing would induce me to eat processed foods in order to avoid this. Life is about being healthy not quick!

LadyIntrepid

Once you get the hang of it, it takes less and less time and you can copy meals, create and save recipes to use again, etc. Frozen meals are convenient, but tend to have a ton of sodium and more calories, not to mention cost more and never offer leftovers like homemade food. I'd save using frozen meals for an absolute pinch, if at all (I used to eat them all the time, now never and I don't miss it), and just get into a groove taking the bit of extra time it takes to log fresh.

BTW, frozen veggies are another story. They maintain nutrients when frozen, so have away at them! (So long as they're not mixed with all sorts of sauces and such.)

allifantastical

I find that entering on my computer instead of my phone is easier for things that have a lot of ingredients. If you use them a lot they show up on the your main page and then you can just check box all the ingredients at once.

I agree with this. Computer is way easier than using your phone for big lists like that. Good luck.

hiker359

It's a pain at first, but after you enter it, just save it as a meal and that way you can enter it automatically the next time.

dani_alaine

I actually feel the exact same way. I have to admit sometimes I bit the bullet and logged and others I didn't. I will say the times I have logged it anyway, I was happy after the fact and then next time when I wanted to make that recipe I would already have it stored for easier tracking. It makes it worth it in the end. Just remember, the better you track, the better results you see

melsmith612

If you're committed to logging your food then you pretty much have a limited number of options:

1) Eat a lesser variety of foods in each meal
2) Create recipes once to make logging faster in the future
3) Log everything individually every time you make something

You could also keep a little notepad handy to just write ingredients down as you're making something and then add it all into MFP (either your diary or the recipes section) later when you have time or feel like it.

Acg67

Frozen foods/veggies/fruits are processed and therefore bad for your health

rmhand

Package labels are 20% incorrect on average so I don't think using packaged food to ensure accuracy is going to be any help.

junipearl

I prefer when this happens BECAUSE I can measure everything out myself.

I hate going out to eat and ordering a salad or a bowl of fruit and trying to discretely count the amount of canteloupe or tomato that is in it lol

auroranflash

It's not laziness, it's just the truth - it can be very tedious to try to measure and estimate your own home-cooked meals. If you prepare your own food often (which is almost always healthier and tastier in the long run), the best thing you can do is - take the foods you will be preparing most frequently, measure them out to the best of your ability, add them to your recipes, and then continue to use those to log it in the future.

After a while, you will have built up many go-to healthy meals and snacks, and you will already know the amounts to use because you just make it the same way you logged it.

Planning ahead really is a huge contributor to success and helps take some of the mental stress away from calorie counting, macro balancing and the like.

Some meals, though, you just have to estimate. On these, I'm more about the calories than the macros, and I tend to slightly overestimate rather than risk underestimating, but there's always the chance I'm way off.

Anna800

I use the computer and entering ingredients is no big thing. You have time for everything else in life.
Frozen foods have too much sodium.

AllonsYtotheTardis

any recipe I'll use more than once, I enter it as a personal recipe. Makes it sooooo much easier to use it again later!

Heather_Rider

Hello everyone, happy Friday!
When counting calories, I find it difficult to log fresh foods i've made myself. For lunch today i'm having salad with 10 different ingredients and chicken and veggie soup with 8 ingredients. The thought of trying to measure each thing and enter the amount in MFP makes me not want to log at all. Pre-packeaged foods are easy to keep an accurate count on, but I don't want to eat that all the time. Is this just laziness?

I have what i call a "standard salad" i enter into the "recipes" section the lettuce, tomato, cucumber.. ect.. all the things i put into it.. then i just click and add... when i want to add additional things, like say im in the mood for black olives, i just have to log that one thing.

If you are getting to where you dont wanna log, you need to remind yourself why you are here in the first place.

Also, if you have the mobile app, you can scan your items, so thats quicker.

nixerific

Frozen foods/veggies/fruits are processed and therefore bad for your health

Not sure if sarcastic or serious.

AllTehBeers

I hardly ever buy fresh vegetables, just for the simple reason that if I don't end up using it, I wasted money I don't have. I can buy a weeks worth of canned or frozen for the same price and not worry about it going bad. I can aslo just quick add the number of calories on each different type of vegetable rather then looking up everything separately.

EatClenTrenHard

write it down on a paper, then when u have time just put it in on computer. dont even bother with scanning labels, unless its labeled packaged food., i mean like soup or something that u cant measure otherwise./

bcattoes

Once you've logged food for a while you'll get a feel for how many calories a dish contains and you could just do a quick add calories. It probably won't be 100% accurate but it's better than eating only premade dinners just for the ease of logging.

If it's something you make often, log it once in the recipes section and save it.

AllTehBeers

Frozen foods/veggies/fruits are processed and therefore bad for your health

Not sure if sarcastic or serious.

Lol he's totally being sarcastic

postrockandcats

I don't think you're lazy, just overwhelmed at the thought of logging 30 different things at a time. I was the same way until I found the recipe section. I use it a LOT. It's quick to do and it's always there. I'll even do it on my phone and use the scan feature to get barcode labels if I'm making something with ingredients that have them. It's not so bad once you do it!

postrockandcats

PS- I use a mixture of fresh and frozen. Frozen artichoke hearts? Frozen chopped spinach for soups/ cooking? GENIUS. Frozen Green Beans and Brussels Sprouts? Not so much.

Gramps251

Hello everyone, happy Friday!
When counting calories, I find it difficult to log fresh foods i've made myself. For lunch today i'm having salad with 10 different ingredients and chicken and veggie soup with 8 ingredients. The thought of trying to measure each thing and enter the amount in MFP makes me not want to log at all. Pre-packeaged foods are easy to keep an accurate count on, but I don't want to eat that all the time. Is this just laziness?

I have what i call a "standard salad" i enter into the "recipes" section the lettuce, tomato, cucumber.. ect.. all the things i put into it.. then i just click and add... when i want to add additional things, like say im in the mood for black olives, i just have to log that one thing.

If you are getting to where you dont wanna log, you need to remind yourself why you are here in the first place.

Also, if you have the mobile app, you can scan your items, so thats quicker.

Same here. I have a basic salad (Lettuce, tomato, greek olives) and then add or remove items based on that.

MetilHed

Frozen foods/veggies/fruits are processed and therefore bad for your health

Exactly ! Even the so-called "Natural" peanut butter. Guess what they do ? They mash up a bunch of peanuts. Then they ultra-process it even more. They put it in a jar.

iAMsmiling

Frozen foods/veggies/fruits are processed and therefore bad for your health

Exactly ! Even the so-called "Natural" peanut butter. Guess what they do ? They mash up a bunch of peanuts. Then they ultra-process it even more. They put it in a jar.

Personally, I won't eat any food that I don't pull from the ground myself. It bothers me even to shake the dirt off of the peanuts before eating them, but the grit is horrible if you don't.

MetilHed

Frozen foods/veggies/fruits are processed and therefore bad for your health

Exactly ! Even the so-called "Natural" peanut butter. Guess what they do ? They mash up a bunch of peanuts. Then they ultra-process it even more. They put it in a jar.

Personally, I won't eat any food that I don't pull from the ground myself. It bothers me even to shake the dirt off of the peanuts before eating them, but the grit is horrible if you don't.

I forgot the worst part, they shell the peanuts too. We are losing soooooo many nutrients that way !

bcattoes

Frozen foods/veggies/fruits are processed and therefore bad for your health

Exactly ! Even the so-called "Natural" peanut butter. Guess what they do ? They mash up a bunch of peanuts. Then they ultra-process it even more. They put it in a jar.

Some even add a little salt!!! :noway:

Tilran

Frozen foods/veggies/fruits are processed and therefore bad for your health

Exactly ! Even the so-called "Natural" peanut butter. Guess what they do ? They mash up a bunch of peanuts. Then they ultra-process it even more. They put it in a jar.

Some even add a little salt!!! :noway:

Beep bop boop...thread officially de-rerailed.

bulbadoof

I just guess. 1 large zucchini, 5 mushrooms, 2 carrots. If I'm off, I'm off by like, ten calories, bfd.

As for meat, it says the total package weight on the price tag. I divide that by the amount of servings I made it into and call it good. I cook only for myself, so I'll end up eating the whole package eventually anyway - doesn't matter if one piece is bigger or smaller.