Logging calories you...um...lost.

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valkyrieh86
valkyrieh86 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Serious but kinda gross question: How do you track something you barfed up??

So last night was a huge family party, it was my moms' AND my uncles' birthday party, and that family knows how to party. So needless to say, I kind of knew I'd be quite bad, but I still planned to log things to the best of my memory. Well, alcohol was definitely some of those calories, and just as I was thinking about how there was no way I could remember everything I had all day and in what amounts when I had a pretzel here, a carrot with dip there.... what do you know. Logging it got a lot more loose. It would appear I'd lost basically everything in my stomach, which was most of what I'd eaten that day, or at least for the last several hours (including the really bad stuff like birthday cake).

BUT! I'm sure some of that got absorbed. But obviously not all of it. So how in the hell am I supposed to log it? Either the pickings from the party, or the loss of pickings from the party. And while one may argue that I should log all of it anyway and be accountable, and that's true, I'm all about the math when it comes to this. And I don't want to mess up my numbers by saying I had a bunch of calories I didn't wind up keeping.

Advice would be very appreciated.

Thanks. And um.... sorry.

Replies

  • ChristinaR720
    ChristinaR720 Posts: 1,186
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    There's really no way of accurately logging what stays in your system after you've thrown up (or had the runs). It's probably not what you want to hear, but my advice would be to log what you remember eating and move on. This is one day in the rest of your life. It won't make or break this process for you.
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
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    There is no way and also this is a little obsessive. I'd either log it or choose not to log it and just move on from that day.
  • UNLESS19
    UNLESS19 Posts: 118
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    when i throw up i still log but make a not of it, i know it's hard but just think i can eat a bit more cause some of it, all of it or none of it entered my system however i need to fill my stomach again. just count it, eat carefully for the rest of the day and carry on :)
    That's what i do anyway
    <3
  • cburky911
    cburky911 Posts: 89 Member
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    Buy a bucket and put it on the scale to get a base weight for the bucket. After barfing, weight the bucket again. Subtract the weight of the bucket and now you know the weight of what you barfed up. Now, if you ate chicken and it appears to be mostly chicken that you barfed up, subtract that much chicken from what you originally logged as having eaten. If you ate chicken, rice, peas and chocolate cake, then separate those "return" items and weigh them each individually to determine how much of each portion came back up undigested and are now "calorie free". While the amounts may not be exact, they will be within the margin of error and the difference in what you have logged and what you subtracted due to alcohol extraction will be inconsequential.

    In all seriousness, unless you're throwing up on a daily basis I wouldn't worry about what you threw up.
  • steinsopp
    steinsopp Posts: 14 Member
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    It takes a little over 4 hours for food to completely leave your stomach after you eat (though some things move faster, some slower), and most of the nutrients are absorbed after that point. Anything you ate before B-4, you should probably count fully. There's no way to be accurate about everything else. Liquids pass through more quickly, solids have to be degraded to a certain size before they can empty so it takes longer. Simple sugars (like the cake) will dissolve fairly easily, while chunks of fibrous/protein-rich/fatty foods will take longer. Maybe add up the calories for those last 4 hours, and take a percentage off the total? Not accurate, but there's not really another way to estimate.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    I'd track whatever you can remember, eat more if you feel hungry and not worry excessively about it. Unless this is happening on a frequent basis for you, it's really not gonna hurt.
  • MayaSPapaya
    MayaSPapaya Posts: 735 Member
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    You really shouldn't log it...you have no idea how many calories were lost, and honestly its probably not that many where it would give you that many extra calories to work with. Pooping supposedly burns calories, but no one here is logging it.
  • Tamm04
    Tamm04 Posts: 182 Member
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    There is no way and also this is a little obsessive. I'd either log it or choose not to log it and just move on from that day.

    I had smile. My neighbor thinks my simply logging my food and exercise into an online diary is obsessive. She's freak if she heard I was worried about having thrown up food and how to log it.
  • Tamm04
    Tamm04 Posts: 182 Member
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    You really shouldn't log it...you have no idea how many calories were lost, and honestly its probably not that many where it would give you that many extra calories to work with. Pooping supposedly burns calories, but no one here is logging it.

    You know there MUST be someone ;) Wonder what you'd call it...well, ok maybe I'm not that curious.
  • AZKristi
    AZKristi Posts: 1,801 Member
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    Just log what you ate. Subtracting what you puked (even though it was not intended) sets a terrible precedent...
  • bregalad5
    bregalad5 Posts: 3,965 Member
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    I just didn't log what I ate last night. Had the same problem. Oh well. It happens.
  • MayaSPapaya
    MayaSPapaya Posts: 735 Member
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    You really shouldn't log it...you have no idea how many calories were lost, and honestly its probably not that many where it would give you that many extra calories to work with. Pooping supposedly burns calories, but no one here is logging it.

    You know there MUST be someone ;) Wonder what you'd call it...well, ok maybe I'm not that curious.

    I had some pretty immature guy friends in high school and I know plenty of code names for it people could use...but I will spare you of them since most people probably just had breakfast :laugh: :laugh:
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
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    There is no way and also this is a little obsessive. I'd either log it or choose not to log it and just move on from that day.

    I had smile. My neighbor thinks my simply logging my food and exercise into an online diary is obsessive. She's freak if she heard I was worried about having thrown up food and how to log it.

    Meh... to some people it is obsessive but it gets results. I no longer log because I logged religiously for 5 months and learnt what I needed to from it, I also hit my goal in terms of losing weight.
    Logging calories CAN be obsessive if you let it take over your life, it's about how you use the tool.

    Logging food you've thrown up... that IS obsessive in my opinion. Because you don't lose all the food you ate and there is no way to measure it. Also I feel that it would promote a lot of ED types to use the app.
  • runzalot81
    runzalot81 Posts: 782 Member
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    Who cares. If you're sick, go to bed and don't come back until you feel better.
  • MercenaryNoetic26
    MercenaryNoetic26 Posts: 2,747 Member
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    Buy a bucket and put it on the scale to get a base weight for the bucket. After barfing, weight the bucket again. Subtract the weight of the bucket and now you know the weight of what you barfed up. Now, if you ate chicken and it appears to be mostly chicken that you barfed up, subtract that much chicken from what you originally logged as having eaten. If you ate chicken, rice, peas and chocolate cake, then separate those "return" items and weigh them each individually to determine how much of each portion came back up undigested and are now "calorie free". While the amounts may not be exact, they will be within the margin of error and the difference in what you have logged and what you subtracted due to alcohol extraction will be inconsequential.

    In all seriousness, unless you're throwing up on a daily basis I wouldn't worry about what you threw up.


    :laugh: :drinker: :laugh:
  • marvybells
    marvybells Posts: 1,984 Member
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    . Pooping supposedly burns calories, but no one here is logging it.

    speak for yourself....:happy:
  • iWillGetCrowSomeday
    iWillGetCrowSomeday Posts: 311 Member
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    I don't think you can count any of it.

    But now you alternate water and pedialyte or coconut water to replace all your lost fluids and electrolytes :drinker: Feel better soon!
  • allshebe
    allshebe Posts: 423 Member
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    I would just put a note in the notes section and count the day a "loss", in terms of logging. Start fresh today and don't worry about it.
  • valkyrieh86
    valkyrieh86 Posts: 5 Member
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    Buy a bucket and put it on the scale to get a base weight for the bucket. After barfing, weight the bucket again. Subtract the weight of the bucket and now you know the weight of what you barfed up. Now, if you ate chicken and it appears to be mostly chicken that you barfed up, subtract that much chicken from what you originally logged as having eaten. If you ate chicken, rice, peas and chocolate cake, then separate those "return" items and weigh them each individually to determine how much of each portion came back up undigested and are now "calorie free". While the amounts may not be exact, they will be within the margin of error and the difference in what you have logged and what you subtracted due to alcohol extraction will be inconsequential.

    In all seriousness, unless you're throwing up on a daily basis I wouldn't worry about what you threw up.

    This. This is what made me see that it just can't be done, and that I was kind of silly for thinking it could be. Because yeah, this is pretty much what it would take. And that made me laugh pretty hard. So well done.

    Thanks everyone for your advice, though. But for the record, I didn't want to calculate the loss so that I could gain some edible calories back, I was done ingesting things for the night at that point anyhow. I have a metabolic disorder, and so I use this site a bit more strictly than others may. I was worried that when I went to my doctors to show them the graphs there would be a big spike that wasn't really there, or a void, because I have to rely on the math to beat this horrible bull****. So while I can see how some may see it as obsessive, I see it as diligence in my case.

    In case you were all curious, I elected to log the major stuff like the drinks, a burger, cake etc, but since I can't remember the snacking much anyhow (I didn't go overboard though), I left that off and am just kinda hoping it'll balance itself out.

    However, I gotta say, those of you saying I'm setting a horrible precedent for people with eating disorders: go fall into a vat of BBQ sauce. I said it was unintentional due to drunkness and didn't condone purging for a second (I did it exactly once, when I was 14, and immediately learned my lesson. What a dumb way to try and fix things). Don't imply I'm socially irresponsible because I had a friggin question. If that's where your mind went, that's *your* problem, not my fault.

    But seriously, everyone else: thanks.

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