Logging Accurately..step by step guide

Bump so I don't have to keep searching for this

Bump!
:flowerforyou:

What about logging spices? Like 1 tsp of onion powder, or 1 tsp of cumin. I know they have sugar in them, but since weight is so low probably a fairly insignificant amount of anything in them (except for flavour), and can't even weigh properly unless you have a jewelers scale.

I mean chances of anything being super accurate is going to be pretty much impossible. I figure if I figure in +10% to everything, figure should be ok.

Also what about local restaurants which do not have nutritional menu? For example, I ate at a local burger joint who makes all their stuff from hand. I don't know what filler they use, so would you just log like 1/'4lb of ground beef + bun + whatever toppings you have or? Also Chinese restaurants particularly would be ridiculously hard to log.

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SUPER helpful! Thanks for taking the time to share.

This should be a pinned thread.

I haven't read any of the responses, just the original post, but OMG, does anyone really do this? Every day, every meal, every snack, every dessert?

My mind boggles.

Yup, when I want to lose, it means logging every meal, every snack, every day and so I have logged the vast majority of days for the past 2 1/2 years just like this.

Also to address something in the OP, when I use "homemade" in my log, it is something that *I* made from scratch and carefully weighed out the ingredients and servings and added to the recipe builder and those recipes aren't added to the general food database available in MFP, so those entries really are accurately logged. I will not use someone else's "Homemade" entry though - I have no idea what's in that recipe or what a serving size is!

I haven't read any of the responses, just the original post, but OMG, does anyone really do this? Every day, every meal, every snack, every dessert?

My mind boggles.

Think of it as a how to and troubleshooting guide. Do you read your car manual and go "ZOMG! How do I do ALL of this everyday!!", no, you just drive to work and back and wherever else. Heck you probably didn't even read the manual. Same thing here. Some of the tips you may never need to do, or only do once in a while (like editing an entry). For me, this is also the website version and I almost exclusively log using the app. The tips are still helpful in the occasional case when I'm looking for a very specific entry and thanks to this write up I can attempt to find it. Or wondering why my macros pie chart is suddenly 99% fat, oh look, somebody created an entry with 160g of fat rather than 160 calories from fat, and I know how to edit it

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Wow...this is terrific--THANK YOU so much for posting this! :flowerforyou:

It's probably already been mentioned somewhere in this thread, but I have a food scale that I use heavily, and I will frequently weight out food that already has portion-controlled nutritional information - AND IT'S NEVER ACCURATE. Example: a pre-sliced slice of cheese on the package was listed at something like "1 slice, 21g, 70 calories". I weighed a slice on my scale to be 32 grams.

Small details, but it just goes to show that when in doubt, weigh away.

It's probably already been mentioned somewhere in this thread, but I have a food scale that I use heavily, and I will frequently weight out food that already has portion-controlled nutritional information - AND IT'S NEVER ACCURATE. Example: a pre-sliced slice of cheese on the package was listed at something like "1 slice, 21g, 70 calories". I weighed a slice on my scale to be 32 grams.

Small details, but it just goes to show that when in doubt, weigh away.

I so totally agree...I weigh it if it's in my house just because I tested some stuff like that....boggles my mind.

I have found the same. Especially with things like bread - the size of a slice will depend on whether you're at the beginning/end of a loaf or the middle so I weigh my bread then calculate a percentage based on actual weight and the weight suggested on the pack. For example, my bread is supposed to be 50g, but when I weigh a slice it's actually 45g, I will log it as 0.9 slice rather than 1 slice. The same goes for many other products. The nutritional information given on a pack is based on the average weight of the item when they calculated the nutritional values. In reality, it is likely to be different.

ETA: corrected spelling error

Thanks for the info. One question though. I tend to make alot of homemade soups on the weekend and bring to work for lunch during the week. How do I measure each bowl full of soup? I don't usually measure my vegetables, I just cut them and put them in until I think it's enough. So when I spoon it out in the mornings to bring to work, there's no way to measure how much of each vegetable/meat I'm eating...... Any ideas?

You're probably best weighing all the dry ingredients before you cook them. When it's cooked, weigh the entire lot and portion it out. Then weigh your portions and log it as a percentage of the overall weight. That's as accurate as you can get with a meal like that. If you portion out the lot when it's cooked, it saves you weighing/calculating every time you have a portion. I always put a label with weight/percentage on each portion in case they aren't all the same (chances are your last portion or 2 is slightly higher/lower than the rest)

Excellent post! Thanks for taking the time!! * flower for you *