Logging - how do you know what you ate?

twinkiemon

How do you know with non-prepackaged foods exactly what you ate and how do you log that in? Like tonight we had steak with red potatoes cooked in the microwave. So I go to log it in and I put 'Steak-grilled-3oz' - I took a small-ish piece - I'm guessing it was about 3 oz, but I'm not sure. Same with the potato - I had one on the smaller side but was it really a 70 calorie potato? Same with things like a piece of chicken or fish. The reason being I still live with my parents and I don't do the cooking (I get home so late and mom doesn't work so it doesn't make sense for me to cook dinner - I take care of the dishes after).

The reason I ask is I've hit a plateau - I've been logging EVERYTHING (no cheating) but I'm not sure if I've been logging the correct stuff when we eat what's not packaged. I left 77 calories open on my diary today just in case these foods were not accurate. Although a lot of the foods I eat are packaged with nutrition info.

It could be exercise related too - one the coaches at the Y suggested mixing up my cardio - bumping up the intervals on the elliptical and trying a few different machines.

But anyway as far as food goes, are the values pretty accurate?

MyChocolateDiet

food scale. but in my case i do division of whatever portion we bought at the market. see my math teacher was right, i was gonna need to pay attention because I did need it one day.

bnorris2013

Best thing you could do is run over to walmart and grab a kitchen scale i prefer the electronic ones i think they are either $10 or $15 because you can get exact portions down to grams

but if your budget is a little tight they have the other ones that is s scale and you set the little measuring cup on it and it measures kinda like a spring weight not as accurate but will give you round about what you got and those are around $5

grimendale

A food scale would probably solve most of the trouble you're having.

Crankstr

A food scale would probably solve most of the trouble you're having.

Mads1997

You weigh your foods. I weigh my steak and most meats after they are cooked. I weigh all my veges raw before cooking. If i'm cooking stew or soup etc I weight the meat raw. Go and get yourself a set of kitchen scales they are pretty cheap about $10.00 it will help you greatly logging your food.

chelseybennett1

A food scale like every one else said, and also do you log any oil or butter used in cooking? Sometimes its easy to forget to count those calorie laden foods especially if someone else cooked it.

onwarddownward

I agree, get a food scale.

twinkiemon

We have a spring kitchen scale - I'll ask my mom if she'll be willing to weigh my meats from now on to help me out. She usually doesn't use butter or anything when she cooks - usually calorie-free cooking spray - if she does use butter or oil it's VERY little (and she does let me know so I can log it).

CAS317

Yes...as the others have said, go and get that food scale YESTERDAY!!! As far as determining the calories of things such as deli meat (turkey, ham, etc.) if it's not already in the database I always google the nutrition information for whatever it is. Like just the other day I had an apple. Oh and btw, I'm very precise so I wanted to know exactly how many calories it was. I weighed it before I ate it. Then when I was done with it I weighed it again. I subtracted the difference and used algebra to determine what exactly I ate. I know that's a little hardcore but it works for me. I'm sure you could google something like porterhouse steak to get the exact nutritional value. Then just weight and calculate.

sun_fish

I agree, get a scale and start weighing everything. I also just wanted to see these guys again!

A food scale would probably solve most of the trouble you're having.

MyOwnSunshine

Buy food scale. Weigh or measure your portions. Ask your mother what ingredients she used to prepare the food.

melindasuefritz

food scale= no guessing on ounces

kay930

A scale is the best way to know exactly how much you are eating. If you can't get a scale you can also compare your serving size to other things like 3 oz of meat is about the same size as a deck of cards...her is a link to a page I found this might help you. http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=177

twinkiemon

A scale is the best way to know exactly how much you are eating. If you can't get a scale you can also compare your serving size to other things like 3 oz of meat is about the same size as a deck of cards...her is a link to a page I found this might help you. http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=177

Thanks - that's a great help!

TheStephil

As the above posters mentioned, a food scale. I hardly use measuring cups anymore (unless the packing does not provide weight per serving) and rely on my food scale 100%. It's amazing how different the "measured" and "weighed" amount differ even when you are using prepacked food. It's a must have.

970Mikaela1

I weigh EVERYTHING ....all the time...no matter what.

unmitigatedbadassery

At the risk of beating a dead horse: food scale and measure everything.

As a side note, leaving 77 calories "available" isn't going to help you. It's about food QUALITY more than QUANTITY and calories are only a fraction of the whole scheme.

michellekicks

You can actually just get a nice flat one and put your dinner plate on it, zero it out and dish up your meal and record the weight of each portion once it's cooked. You can zero it again between dishes - so put the meat on, record the weight, zero, put veggie #1 on, record the weight, zero, add veggie #2 or side #2 or whatever, record the weight...

I have one like this:

rainavsfood

Exactly. Too many people worry about being under their calorie goal but that's not even what they should be watching. Macros are more important as well as what kind of foods you're actually eating. I weigh/measure everything I eat. Dipping a spoon into the peanut butter jar does NOT mean that you had one tbsp of peanut butter.

At the risk of beating a dead horse: food scale and measure everything.

As a side note, leaving 77 calories "available" isn't going to help you. It's about food QUALITY more than QUANTITY and calories are only a fraction of the whole scheme.

jules77az2004

I won't say what everyone else did. hahaha!! So... because your mom is making your meals and I assume plating them up for you to eat when you get home and since you have a spring loaded scale, just weigh each thing you're eating. So quickly just take them off the plate and put them on the scale and write it down. You can always enter it later or enter it while you're weighing... which ever is easiest for you. It doesn't take too long. And it'll give you what you need for logging. Or use a measuring cup for things like vegi's... I make my own plates, but i do weigh everything before I eat it (even steak after it's cooked). I have a digital scale so I just add the plate onto my scale and write down the weight of everything I'm adding onto the scale. Everything from my meat to my taters to my vegi's. Or if your mom is really supportive, work together to find a solution that works for both of you. Everyone can use someone helping them along the way and to be honest... most of us have portion distortion problems. So maybe it'll be a good thing for your mom to help.... could help your whole family re think and re learn what portion sizes really are. Good luck.