How accurate is your logging

I weigh everything I eat at home, and when I go out I look up what I ate, use my best guess, and add 25%. I don't freak out too much if I go over one week, because I know it will be better the next.

I make it simple for myself and just added a column called “20% Daily Overage Estimation” and multiply my daily calories consumed by .20. It works for me but as I see many are on a stricter regimen and I often find myself eating what is being served and have no idea except a best guess. In this case I just have to eat what gives me the most energy.

I am not accurate. I will get over the top precise once i get closer to my goal and it becomes harder to lose weight.

I do the best I can. I'm pretty good at logging everything I eat. I don't actually weigh much of anything. I do measure with measuring cups and spoons. With homemade or restaurant foods, I just estimate the best I can. I hope to put more recipes in here as time goes on.

I don't weigh anything really. Sometimes meat but not usually. I don't eat back my excersize cals and try to over estimate all if my food. For example this morning I put 3 TBS of creamer in my coffee and only drank about 2/3 of it, but I still log the 3tbs. It seems to be working so far at least. Now I just need to up my protein intake and lower my carbs. Sigh

Sometimes my boyfriend thinks I'm OTT esp as I have been known to weigh my lettuce

There is a point at which the accuracy of measurement becomes meaningless as the consistency of the food itself isn't high enough for the conversion to be meaningful in terms of reliably assessing your energy intake.

That's compounded by your measurement of energy out. Inevitably the BMR is a gross estimate, with output varying by day of the week. I walk the dog for longer on Saturdays and Sundays than midweek, and if I work from home on aa Friday then he gets a longer walk that day. If I walk up and down the stairs to meeting rooms once extra then my energy expenditure is higher, and even then it's different if I wander down with a colleague or go on my own when I'm doing two steps at a time.

What you describe in terms of your behaviour, is known as spurious accuracy. It gives the impression of accuracy, but in fact it becomes less than meaningful because so many other factors come into play.

As you're describing something that's affecting your behaviour to the extent where you're becoming a mildly offensive guest, then it's perhaps worth a rethink.

It's about fitting into a lifestyle, and objectives. For me the objectives aren't simply about the scales, if anything it's really not about the scales. I've gone from being unable to run to doing 10Kms consistently and knocking out 30Km per week. My suits fit me better, I'm not winded when I walk up seven flights of stairs to the office, my resting heart rate is down considerably and my blood pressure is significantly reduced.

As evidenced in the thread there are some weighting/ measuring zealots who would criticise my approach, but I'm seeing significant results in my objectives, without the need to weight anything.

The one exception to that would be last week when I made Christmas cake, and did weight out the ingredients

i dont weigh anything. i estimate a lot. however, im also set to sedentary when im not, so it all evens out.

My food needs to be exact!
So my logging is perfect!

very. it's so easy to underestimate because food manufactures sometimes lie with cal label. I include miniscule amounts of things too.. e.g. spices. although, I don't see why there is much need to log really small things that are probably 3 cal or something.

I'm what I would call generically accurate. If something says a serving is 1/2 cup (120g), I weigh out 120g (even if I log it as 1/2 cup). If I'm cooking from scratch I weigh and record everything. However, if I buy a single-serving package or drink or whatever, I don't weigh it to be sure it's really the weight it claims to be unless I have reason to suspect it's way off. I may become more strict about this as I come closer to my goal, since at that point a small margin of error will be more significant, but right now I'm still fairly fat and am finding it pretty easy to lose consistently.

ETA: I do log everything that goes in my mouth, though, barring diet sodas, teas, black coffee, water, and mustard. I just don't bother to verify pre-weighed items on my scale. It's frankly a matter of convenience; the only time I eat anything pre-weighed or -portioned is at work, and I am unwilling to lug my scale in to verify my daily string cheese or occasional packet of Cheez-Its. I log them as whatever serving size the package claims to be and move on.

I weigh everything religiously and also take great care to calculate exercise calories accurately using avg HR and known Vo2max. To log with guesstimates would be pointless in my opinion and if I am going to do this I will do it right, so far so good just approaching 100lbs down in 10 months. The effort is worth it if you create the deficit you will lose weight and if you put the effort in to exercise your fitness will improve so far my vo2max has gone from poor 23.7 to excellent 46.1 and my energy levels are better than I could have hoped for!

I eyeball and estimate most of the time, but if I've got no clue, and I'm at home, I weigh.

When I was losing (I'm in maintenance now with a vague intention of dropping a few lbs), I weighed as much as I could. It became fairly obsessive so I quit it, but I did at least learn to make fairly accurate guesses.

When I eat out, I'll log as much as I can, but often wild estimates. It might not be accurate but keeps me a little more accountable.

I do log lower calorie foods such as salad and even black coffee but this is more because I like to keep a record, not because a few dozen calories here and there is going to affect my choices.

When I was losing the bulk of my weight I logged everything, and weighed or measured most things. I used google conversions a lot to get the most accurate food entry I could. If it was take out or eating at an event I would take the time to search multiple entries in the food database and find what the average was or log the higher one to be on the safe side. Now that I am happy with my weight and my body I still measure and weigh but not everything. For me, it was so crazy how mathematical my whole weight loss journey is. I know it's not so for everyone but I am lucky that if I stick to my plan I have great results.

Turning down coffee at a friends house because you might log creamer wrong is not good. You need to loosen up a little. Overestimate if you must. Especially for something that is not going to have a huge effect on your day.

i dont weigh anything i know that 4 table spoons of porridge oats is roughly 30grams lol otherwise i use this as a rough estimate and since the last day of november i've lost 4lbs so i'm pretty proud of that lol