Logging Accurately..step by step guide

Nice post. Very informative.

I will say that after 9 months of logging that I've concluded that anyone who is cheating is only cheating themselves. The scale isn't going to lie so why fool yourself putting in inaccurate #'s. OTOH, it isn't worth obsessing to the nth degree over either. Make the best attempt you can and just remember to put things in your log (always keep the phone app handy) in real time so you don't forget later. But while I weigh as much as I can, once I've had an item, I'm not going to do much other than eyeball it and log it in. I can tell what an 8 ounce chicken breast looks like and a 2 ounce piece of flank steak. After 5 months at the same weight, I'm confident that I am within 5-6% either way on my calories. Whatever I am doing is working. Remember that if your partner or spouse or whomever isn't doing MFP, we can be seen as annoyance so I try to keep my rummaging through the trash bin for bar codes to a minimum. Right now my wife usually just keeps them out for me so I can scan and enjoy the meal

Great to see so many contributing members.

How do you log a lick or taste?

Say I had a single bite of macaroni and cheese. How would that be logged?

You don't. It is part of living. If your single bite of mac & cheese is bothering you or impacting your weight loss then it was more than a bite or lick or taste. If it happens enough times in a day to impact you then you need better meal planning and a discussion with yourself about how you approach food.

As a cook (not professional ) at home I used to "bite, lick, taste" lots of things and it does impact weight loss when you do it a lot.

I think that phrase is to make people aware that if they are "nibblers" and say oh it's only a bite...those bites add up.

So give them up or try to log them...it's easier to give it up. I mean I can take a pretty big bite out of my husband flamer thrower if I wanted...

There's a third option: don't log them. As a home cook myself, there is no way I would give up tasting as I cook. I'm also not going to mess with logging a bite here or there, or a sip of my husband's beer. To each their own, but I've had wonderful success with logging MOST of the time but not being obsessive about logging every single thing that passes my lips.

I mean, look at it this way. Nutritional labels are not exact. Some foods have have actual caloric values that differ from the estimated values by as much as 50 percent, though for most the difference is less significant. Still, even absolutely perfect logging does not mean you're actually logging 100 percent accurately.

My point with all of this is not to say that we shouldn't strive to log as accurately as possible if logging is how we choose to lose and maintain weight. I weigh nearly everything I eat and log pretty darn accurately when I log. Instead, my point is that we need to balance it with life, and this is one area where I firmly believe this adage applies:

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

I'm proof that logging accurately MOST of the time works pretty well too. If you want to log every single bite, by all means - go at it, if it works best for you. Just don't labor under the false assumption that because you're weighing your packaged food, it has exactly the number of calories the label says it does (odds are it does not).

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for posting this. How can I save this????????

Now that you have commented on it it will be under "my topics" for you.

Or you can put it as a favorite in your list for the internet I suppose...

It will be on your wall as a post as well...

My favorite posts I often just take the link from the webpage and paste it in a notepad on my computer...if that is an option fo ryou.

And I am glad you found it useful.

I found it MORE than useful and have already been double checking what I have been logging. Lord have mercy what a shock that has been. I hate to know how many calories OVER I have been eating. Thank you so VERY much for posting this. It is under my topics now. Yay!!!!!!!!! You just made this soon to be skinny girl very, very happy!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you! This is excellent!

Very nice information, especially for new people. I have been here for almost 4 years and I have corrected many wrong entries in the database, and I wish I could delete all the false duplicates to make things easier for me and other users..

But please don't assume that if somebody has an entry in her/his food diary listed as "homemade," that is something from the MFP database. Most of my foods are really my recipes, so the entries in my diary will be for example "homemade creamed broccoli soup,” or “homemade beef and vegetable stew," etc

. I don’t enter my recipes in the MFP database, but I keep them in my Recipe builder for further use (I wish I could edit it without deleting and adding ingredients all over again). So sometimes “homemade” it is really something made at home by the user.

Thank you so much for the wonderful info!! I always wondered how to know what entries were legit. Out of curiosity, what does the asterisk represent on entries?

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