You're probably eating more than you think.
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I can understand the logic if trying to be more accurate but how critical is it when the exercise calories are only a rough estimate at best?
Well, that's the idea, trying to be even more accurate on one side of the equation because the other side has some bad potential for being inaccurate.
Of course, if you can log well, and come in from the high side, it really doesn't matter what the burn calories are or the most accurate eaten calories are.
If you logged you ate 2000 and that should have caused 1 lb loss in 2 weeks, even if it was really 2200 or 2400, and you lost no weight, you remove 250 calories from your diet, accurate calories.
Now the numbers may say 1750, but because of sloppy logging, it could be 1950 or 2150 really.
But you've just created a real deficit now.
Prior to my purchase of my scale I was suppose to be losing 1lb a week eating 1380+exercise calories. I was losing 1/2lb...
Post purchase I lose 1lb when I keep in my deficet....sometimes more depending on my exercise.0 -
I can understand the logic if trying to be more accurate but how critical is it when the exercise calories are only a rough estimate at best?
Well, that's the idea, trying to be even more accurate on one side of the equation because the other side has some bad potential for being inaccurate.
Of course, if you can log well, and come in from the high side, it really doesn't matter what the burn calories are or the most accurate eaten calories are.
If you logged you ate 2000 and that should have caused 1 lb loss in 2 weeks, even if it was really 2200 or 2400, and you lost no weight, you remove 250 calories from your diet, accurate calories.
Now the numbers may say 1750, but because of sloppy logging, it could be 1950 or 2150 really.
But you've just created a real deficit now.
Prior to my purchase of my scale I was suppose to be losing 1lb a week eating 1380+exercise calories. I was losing 1/2lb...
Post purchase I lose 1lb when I keep in my deficet....sometimes more depending on my exercise.
Looks like on ave, you've been over logging your calories by 250 / day before the scale. Has the food portions been noticeably smaller?0 -
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Buying and using a food scale was a huge eye opener for me! I'm so OCD about it, that I had to add a couple of grams to my hummus one day after accidentally licking the spoon after weighing it out
I must be ocd too then. I always measure a few grams under a serve of yogurt because I always lick the spoon after0 -
Will try this!One of the most usefull and least utilized tools on this site is the recipe builder. It's awesome!! You plug in your ingredients and amounts and servings and it calculates it all for you!!
I did not know this tool was here until you mentioned it. I was looking up each ingredient and putting them in a spreadsheet to add up the calories, but that is time consuming so I don't always do it, and then I guess on the calories and nutrients. This tool is very helpful and will making tracking easier. Thank you!
What helps with it greatly too.
Weigh the pot, pan, dish that it will be cooked in. Then weigh the finished product.
Now when you put it into that Recipe Builder, you can adjust the serving size to hit the calories you want out of it, and if 1/6 of the dish, you now know exactly the weight of your serving.
And suggest putting that serving weight in there too.0 -
What! Never suspected my protein! WowThis is a great video showing the inaccuracies and how the calories add up when measuring v weighing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
YES! This is the video that made me go out and get a scale the next day.
Wow omg! No more guessing for me. Im taking the time to measure by grams!!! And yes! I always lick the peanut butter spoon! Holy Hannah!!!
Even protein powder, don't trust their measuring scoop.
Majority on friends list checked after I found how short changed I was with the scoop compared to weight, they all found they needed to use a lot more - none of us were getting the protein we could/should/wanted.0 -
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thank you for this!0
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Seriously. If you weigh yourself. Weigh your food.
This should be on a t-shirt!
Thanks to Sara and SS for this group. It's made my first few days on MFP relatively painless.1 -
This is probably an ignorant question, but what is the difference in using a "food" scale versus say something like a postal or general use scale?
That is, I have a scientific scale I could use that reads down to 10,000ths in either grams or ounces. Will a food scale offer other advantages, like converting to TBS or cups based on the food weighed? Just curious if I may be missing something or if the basic weight is all that matters.
That said, I've never tried weighing foods, though I am trying to plan as much eating in advance. I have been measuring often with spoons/cups, but sadly have also eyeballed "about a cup", "about 1/3 a tomato", etc. I'm sure my cals are way off.0 -
There are people who really don't use any condiments (at least any with calories). It is only fairly recently that I started using any condiments with calories to record. Although my Bragg's apple cider vinegar has 0 calories, I think of it as less than 5, so maybe 4. Even when I didn't record zero calories in condiments, I always kept that 4 grams in mind. Same with soy sauce, stuff like that. Generally when I wasn't recording them I would just figure in my head 20 calories a day which was probably too much early on since I didn't use much of 0 calorie ones. Now I use some ketchup and mayo, I tare the item on the scale then add the condiment and get the grams.0
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This is probably an ignorant question, but what is the difference in using a "food" scale versus say something like a postal or general use scale?
That is, I have a scientific scale I could use that reads down to 10,000ths in either grams or ounces. Will a food scale offer other advantages, like converting to TBS or cups based on the food weighed? Just curious if I may be missing something or if the basic weight is all that matters.
That said, I've never tried weighing foods, though I am trying to plan as much eating in advance. I have been measuring often with spoons/cups, but sadly have also eyeballed "about a cup", "about 1/3 a tomato", etc. I'm sure my cals are way off.
I may just not have a very fancy scale but mine just does weight in grams or ounces.0 -
I didn't see it elsewhere but a helpful hint for weighing things like yogurt or peanut butter that stick to the spoon or whatever is to put the whole container on the scale and zero it out. As you take it out you'll have a negative number on the scale which is how much you've actually removed from the container. That way when there's a spoonful for the bowl and a spoonful for me I have a more accurate representation of how much I've actually taken out of the jar.
Thank you for posting this!!!0 -
This is probably an ignorant question, but what is the difference in using a "food" scale versus say something like a postal or general use scale?
That is, I have a scientific scale I could use that reads down to 10,000ths in either grams or ounces. Will a food scale offer other advantages, like converting to TBS or cups based on the food weighed? Just curious if I may be missing something or if the basic weight is all that matters.
Food scales are cheap and simple, which is why people usually recommend them - they're affordable, mostly just have an On/Tare button (And sometimes an option to switch between grams and ounces) and you won't care if you spill food on them.
But there's no reason to use on over another type of reasonably precise scale you already own.0 -
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great video 0
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This couldnt be more true!!
I would also like to point out that even pre-packaged foods can be "off". For example, I eat cheese sticks and each one is 70 cals. I noticed recently that some of the cheese sticks seemed bigger than usual. I took two from the same bag and weighed them and there was 20gm difference!!0 -
I DO NOT like this post. However, I think there is a whole lot of truth in it. Even when you are conscientious, it is hard to be accurate. And all those bites and bits, if I don't log them immediately sometimes I forget.
I am a pretty good logger, I think. After all I lost over 40 lbs logging. But now I am struggling. I think it is because there is so small a margin of error once you are at, or even close to, goal. It is so easy to be inaccurate.
First, I think the lower my calorie goal, the more I unconsciously manipulate my logging (perhaps by fudging observing size, or maybe it is because there's are several different MFP entries for a food, and I choose the one that is way lower than the others).
And if you eat casseroles, or other foods with several ingredients, thre is always some guesswork, unless you enter it into the recipe calculator EVERY TIME. For instance, if I make chicken spaghetti, lots of factors can change my recipe--perhaps I ran out of leftover chicken, and so I throw in extra cheese to compensate. Or maybe I have company and need to stretch the meal a bit so I add more pasta. You get the idea! My original recipe entry is now only a ballpark figure!
And then like today--I ate leftovers for lunch (trying to save $$$$!). Well, the leftover plate was one I made up for hubs, and thus it was larger than one I would have made for me. I only ate part of it, but now tell me, did I eat 1/3 a cup of rice, or 1/4?? And how much sauce did I actually eat?
So I believe there will always be some inaccuracy unless you eat only one ingredient, totally measurable food!
I think the bigger question is--how do we make this work in real, everyday life? Yes you can control everything for a season while "dieting", but will you really live the entire rest of your life like that? Even though I still keep it healthy most of the time, there is no way I will be able to exert that kind of control each and every day til I die! And I'm not sure that is mentally healthy anyway!
I can only hope that I am consistently inaccurate, and thus can find a way to eat that will work!
Many people say use hunger/your body as a guide. Unfortunately, my body doesn't always make a distinction between true hunger, and just wanting more!
So it is a journey.
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Here is a scary thought--if you enter 10 items and are under by 10 calories each, you have already lost 100 calories of your deficit!0
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I have to measure more accurately. I am guilty of measuring the exact way the video shows and yes, I have stalled.0
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Just came across this old post- I weigh but occasionally get lazy this was very impactful, ThanksThis is a great video showing the inaccuracies and how the calories add up when measuring v weighinghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
WOW...this is eye opening! Thanks
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Why track the raw weight of meats instead of the cooked weight?0
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Why track the raw weight of meats instead of the cooked weight?
The amount of moisture you cook out is highly variable, more than the initial starting potential difference in moisture.
But then again, the amount of fat you don't keep that was there is variable too.
Makes ground beef interesting to try to log.0 -
Question: Some items/recipes state a certain number of servings and give a cup measurement of some type. IE: Recipe states its 4 serving and serving size is 1/4 cup. What we do is measure the total volume in Grams then divide by four and and serve that is that acceptable?0
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chrislorentz wrote: »Question: Some items/recipes state a certain number of servings and give a cup measurement of some type. IE: Recipe states its 4 serving and serving size is 1/4 cup. What we do is measure the total volume in Grams then divide by four and and serve that is that acceptable?
That's the best way. Well, you measure the total weight in grams, not volume, right?
What's also nice with that method, you can weigh the ingredients going in to the pot individually, and come up with total calories.
Then after cooking and change of weight from lost water, or added water for that matter, you get final weight. (weigh the pot first to subtract that weight)
Divide both by 4, or whatever amount gives the calorie size you want for a serving - done.0 -
Perfect that is what I do. Yes I measure everything in Grams our ounces.
Thank you.0 -
I think it's important too that even if you are logging fairly accurately we tend to 'forget' the days we did not stick to the plan. I'm aiming for 1540 calories of food a day. But because of many days where I did not stick to the plan, and ate way too much, my average over the last month was closer to 1750. That's still overall a deficit for me, but I think those few people saying "I eat 1200 calories why am I not losing weight" are forgetting cheat days or occasionally binge day that will mess up your average and explain why you're losing slower, or sometimes not at all if you don't have much room in your deficit.0
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This is a great post, thanks OP!0
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yes this is very true.. I did'nt lose wight for about 2 months the loss had stalled then when I brought a food scale started weighing most my food and logging the extra grams of food the weight started dropping I actually lostedThis is a great video showing the inaccuracies and how the calories add up when measuring v weighinghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
5 lbs i know a few of them was water weight but is np for me as long as the scale finally had moved.... I added up i had been eating over about 150 calories everyday and sometimes even 300 extra which were big shockers!
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