Does anyone else over-log/under-log calories/exercise?

atypicalsmith
atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
edited November 14 in Health and Weight Loss
Tried to make the headline short, but here's the longer version: Does anyone else overestimate the calories they have consumed but underestimate the calories they burned through exercise? I'm not a very trusting person, and even when the package of pistachios says "1/4 cup = 160 calories", I eat just a little under 1/4 cup but log it in as a full 1/4 cup. Ditto with exercise. If I average 3 mph on the treadmill for 45 minutes, I enter 40 minutes. Or Zumba - how the heck can they possibly say how many calories are burned? So for a 60 minute session, I enter 45 or 50 minutes instead, depending on how hard I worked. Sometimes 30 if the instructor does backward cartwheels.

I'm just curious about this.

Replies

  • barbiereynolds701
    barbiereynolds701 Posts: 98 Member
    I over log food because my youngest is 10 months and doesn't understand how precious my food is to me.....so I let him nibble off my chips.....:)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I try to be as accurate as humanly possible.
  • DebzNuDa
    DebzNuDa Posts: 252 Member
    Yes, because just like you, I don't trust ANYTHING on labels and the only thing I trust is how many steps I take.

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  • Cortelli
    Cortelli Posts: 1,369 Member
    I also try to be as accurate as I can, while recognizing that I'm nowhere near perfect.

    As you build up a lot of time and corresponding logging info on MFP, there is an awful lot you can learn from large datasets about your calorie consumption and exercise "burns," but having accurate data (again, knowing it is not perfect but at least as accurate and consistent as you can be) makes that data more useful than when it has been fudged here and there, by this amount or that amount.
  • GreenMantle
    GreenMantle Posts: 13 Member
    I definitely over-log. I don't weigh my food and I'm not ever likely to (not practical for me in the long run,) so if I'm going to have 1/2 cup yogurt I log it as 3/4ths of a whole cup.
  • ogmomma2012
    ogmomma2012 Posts: 1,520 Member
    I would rather under estimate my exercise and chance over estimating my food, because if I did the opposite I wouldn't lose any weight. It's always best to assume you are eating more, especially when you aren't in a position to weigh your food or have access to nutrition information.
  • healthy_life2015
    healthy_life2015 Posts: 215 Member
    I would do this, but my calorie goal is 1200, and it is very important to me that I actually get to 1200 to make sure that I get all the proper nutrients and don't starve myself.

    Do you think you would be more trusting if you used a food scale? I find it to be so much easier and more accurate. You are right that the volume metrics provided on nutrition info are often off by a lot because they round. Weighing my food to the gram means I know exactly how many calories I am consuming.
  • JamieJam1102
    JamieJam1102 Posts: 308 Member
    I only over log when I'm not sure what I'm consuming. For example, if I go to a restaurant, I'll log the closest thing and eat under what it says. As for exercise, right now, I log all my exercise at 1 calorie, because I'm not super consistent with it quite yet.

    However, when I get into a rhythm, I'll probably still log calories burned at 1, and just increase my calories.
  • Alassonde
    Alassonde Posts: 228 Member
    I log everything fairly accurately, but I also always try to eat 100-200 calories less than my maintenance goal to allow for error. That seems to be working for me....when I was getting too close to my maintenance goal, I was gaining.
  • Khukhullatus
    Khukhullatus Posts: 361 Member
    I don't really over or under log, but whenever I round something off, I do it in the safe direction, round exercise down and calories up. At the end of a day, it probably changes things a hundred calories or so
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    Id rather be accurate because then you can rely on the data. Whatever you log, your body knows what you have eaten and burned whether you record it or not.
  • bainsworth1a
    bainsworth1a Posts: 313 Member
    I also try to be as accurate as possible and I don't do a lot of exercise but when I do exercise i do not add back calories. I figure this makes up for when I accidentally underestimate what I ate.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    I tend to do this, yes.
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    Alassonde wrote: »
    I log everything fairly accurately, but I also always try to eat 100-200 calories less than my maintenance goal to allow for error. That seems to be working for me....when I was getting too close to my maintenance goal, I was gaining.

    Which means your predicted maintenance level is not actually your maintenance level. If your weight is staying steady with eating 100-200 cals under, that is your maintenance level.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    I don't understand the point of logging if you don't want to be accurate. I log accurately whenever I can - which isn't always possible and I might over estimate when eating out or unknown calories, but not when I know the actual calories of something. I use the TDEE method so I don't bother with exercise calories.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    healthy_life2015 wrote: »
    I would do this, but my calorie goal is 1200, and it is very important to me that I actually get to 1200 to make sure that I get all the proper nutrients and don't starve myself.

    Do you think you would be more trusting if you used a food scale? I find it to be so much easier and more accurate. You are right that the volume metrics provided on nutrition info are often off by a lot because they round. Weighing my food to the gram means I know exactly how many calories I am consuming.

    I use a food scale, but still add a few calories as my baked salmon is brushed with butter and garlic.
  • kbmnurse
    kbmnurse Posts: 2,484 Member
    Nope.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    Ready2Rock206 wrote: »
    I don't understand the point of logging if you don't want to be accurate. I log accurately whenever I can - which isn't always possible and I might over estimate when eating out or unknown calories, but not when I know the actual calories of something. I use the TDEE method so I don't bother with exercise calories.

    For me, it's less about accuracy - most of these numbers are approximations anyway - and more about having a general idea about where I fit in with my budget. Remember, MFP is a tool. I don't care about an exact loss rate or maintenance rate - that's for the scale to tell me.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    I'm too type A on my logging, except for when in doubt (social situations, always quesstimate up). Exercise is always overestimated anyway, so half is a safe bet.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    i try to be as accurate as possible.

    i borrowed a friends HRM for a couple of weeks to get an idea of what my exercise was, so i use that number (i dont *usually* eat back calories though)

    i weigh almost all of my food, especially things that tend to be calorie dense

    i try to find the closest thing for meals out, or 'break it down' and log it as best i can (we eat out a lot, but its local restaurants primarily, not chains). a lot of times i think my count on things like that is high, but id rather it be high than low.
  • PennyVonDread
    PennyVonDread Posts: 432 Member
    Yes, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Most packaged food labels are off by about 10-15%, it's a much higher mislabeling at restaurants where lab controlled portions for the data are not so carefully measured by chefs during a dinner rush. As for calories burned, I log my exercise, but only tend to eat back about half my exercise calories. It's a difficult thing to accurately measure w/o hrm, so I just use it as a guideline. Weight loss is pretty on track for me despite these factors.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    PennyVonDread wrote: »
    Yes, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Most packaged food labels are off by about 10-15%, it's a much higher mislabeling at restaurants where lab controlled portions for the data are not so carefully measured by chefs during a dinner rush. As for calories burned, I log my exercise, but only tend to eat back about half my exercise calories. It's a difficult thing to accurately measure w/o hrm, so I just use it as a guideline. Weight loss is pretty on track for me despite these factors.

    Restaurants are the worst!
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