I need your tips to stay on top of tracking food!!

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khryss44
khryss44 Posts: 5
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everyone, I need to pick your brain for tips and tricks to log food here on MFP everyday! I know how important it is, its how i lost all my initial wight, but I just cant seem to make it more than thee days before falling off again. I have the mobile app ( you would think that wold be enough!) What do you do to make sure you log your food everyday!??

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  • lilRicki
    lilRicki Posts: 4,555 Member
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    Plan your entire day...that's my key. I prep the night before and log everything so I know where I stand.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I just don't eat anything without logging it.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    You just have to make the time to do it. It's like exercise, nobody can do it for you. You have to do it.
  • jillianbeeee
    jillianbeeee Posts: 345 Member
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    I use both the website and the app to keep track of my foods. When I was on vacation I could not log on due to internet access for days at a time. It sucked! But what i do is log as while I eat, as soon as I eat and sometimes even log it while its cooking or waiting at a restaurant. This is the ONE time it is not rude to be on your phone at a restaurant or at dinner. If people don't understand who cares! You should at least be taking the time to do this 4 times a day. At breakfast, lunch, dinner and before bed to log snacks and water intake and to finish your entry. Try to remember just like eating healthy and exercising one of the most important thing about this lifestyle is logging! : ) Good luck and keep on top of it! you wont regret it in 6 months!
  • shellma00
    shellma00 Posts: 1,684 Member
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    Use the Barcode Scanner... Especially if you are just getting lazy and dont want to search for foods. I also tend to eat the same things several times, so I really like to just use the "recent" or "frequent" tabs. It makes it quite a bit quicker and I dont feel like I am looking for a needle in a haystack when I log.
  • calliekitten9
    calliekitten9 Posts: 148 Member
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    Hey everyone, I need to pick your brain for tips and tricks to log food here on MFP everyday! I know how important it is, its how i lost all my initial wight, but I just cant seem to make it more than thee days before falling off again. I have the mobile app ( you would think that wold be enough!) What do you do to make sure you log your food everyday!??

    I use the app when I am out and the website when I am home. I've used the app when looking at menus that don't have calorie contents...although it won't necessarily give me the exact same item....at least I have an estimate. The fact is...if I don't track...then I feel like I am not being accountable to myself. How else will I see trends in my eating patterns that tie back to my weight loss?
  • teresamwhite
    teresamwhite Posts: 947 Member
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    I struggle with this, too. I'm determined to stick with it this week, and really make this a habit. To make this easier on myself, I started writing everything into a small pocket notebook today, and then logged my food when I had a few minutes available.
  • silmarilliane
    silmarilliane Posts: 133 Member
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    when i have time off mfp (usually weekends), i go back when i'm next on and log all of it for those days. it makes me realise just how many calories i've eaten, and actually, sometimes it's not as much as i thought it would be.
    makes me feel more accountable for those bad days.

    hope you find your way of getting it to work :)
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
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    Plan your entire day...that's my key. I prep the night before and log everything so I know where I stand.

    Yep.

    I don't always prep everything the night before, no. But, planning is key. I eat really similar things every day at work (breakfast/lunch/snack), so it's easy to pack that stuff up the night before or in the morning without having to think too much. Then, I arrive at work every day knowing exactly what I will be consuming until 5pm as well as a plan for dinner. I log everything I've brought with me, log dinner (tweaking portions and such as necessary to fit calories and macros around what I'm eating the rest of the day), and boom, done. 9 times out of 10 I have a little room left over for an after dinner snack or an unplanned afternoon coffee or something, but I know that at 8am, so there are no surprises.

    Weekends are a little more work (because they're a lot more unplanned) but nothing I can't handle - I usually just log in on my computer maybe once in the afternoon and once before bed, depending on what I've got going on.
  • Jill_with_a_G
    Jill_with_a_G Posts: 58 Member
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    Take it day by day. I log everything to learn to change my eating behavior by looking back over what works and what doesn't. I don't eat it if I don't want to own up to it and log it. Think of it like a job for awhile. Would a receptionist keep his/her job if he/she couldn't find the time to answer the phone? Or didn't because he/she knew that the person on the other end wasn't nice?

    Find the time during commercials if watching TV, while cooking dinner, after you brush your teeth, while you are eating the food you should be logging :)

    It will all come together, no day may be the same, but you'll figure out what works for you!
  • Hildy_J
    Hildy_J Posts: 1,050 Member
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    My tip is honesty. If you eat something 'bad' log it - if you go over your calories, log it. Even if it's by 4,000 (yes I have done this more than once) - log it.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    Prelog my day every morning.
  • jillianbeeee
    jillianbeeee Posts: 345 Member
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    set your MFP diary as your homepage

    Great idea!
  • Maurice1966
    Maurice1966 Posts: 438 Member
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    What LilRicki said.
  • Azurite27
    Azurite27 Posts: 554 Member
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    I always log before I eat. And if I plan my food ahead (like my packed lunch for work) I'll go ahead and log that ahead of time. Then I can see if I can have a little extra later or cut back if needed.
  • foodfastfit
    foodfastfit Posts: 154 Member
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    Logging became such an ordeal that I now eat the same meals 5 days/week
  • Siansonea
    Siansonea Posts: 917 Member
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    Pre-logging is good, and it's a good way of budgeting the day's calories. If you know you're going to be eating out at a restaurant, you should definitely plan everything you're going to have. Don't wait until you're at the restaurant to bust out the app and try to find something suitable.

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