I don't weight my food

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  • isulo_kura
    isulo_kura Posts: 818 Member
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    Rockin2014 wrote: »
    I started my weight loss journey 10 weeks ago. In these 10 weeks I have lost 10kg (22lbs) just as planned. However, I hardly ever weigh my food. I measure with cups, spoons and my eyeballs and each and every week I have met my target. If I am eating something I've never had before and which I find impossible to figure out I will weigh it (if I'm at home).
    I sometimes wonder whether the focus on weighing your food is to big on MFP and I believe it may scare many people away because they find it too much of a hassle.

    Anyone else not weigh and still see great results?

    When you get nearer your goal and your deficit is smaller the margin for error is much less so at that point you may need to start weighing. So it may be better to start now because it will be easier to get into the habit, but whatever works for you
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I didn't weigh at first, but I switched to weighing because for me it's a time saver--much easier to dump things on the scale when I chop or cook than to have to mess with measuring them in cups or estimating. I'm also the kind of person who found logging much more burdensome when I had to guess with the cup entries and the like and didn't have an easy exact number to plug in for meat than when I can just weigh and use that.

    However, I don't think you need to weigh to lose, obviously. I wasn't having a problem losing (I also still had a pretty large deficit, so wiggle room) when I switched.

    I'm mainly popping in to say I don't see why the focus on weighing would scare people off. When I first saw people talking about it I thought they were nuts and that estimating was fine (I still think this is true for many--I think the key benefit of logging for me is making myself be mindful and weighing and precision just makes it more fun). I never thought I couldn't calorie count or use the MFP tool if I didn't weigh, however.

    I think the bigger problem with the MFP tool are the many terrible entries and that some people don't seem to realize that many of them are inaccurate or useless when they first start logging, not weighing vs. estimating. But also some people are just better estimators than others or less likely to assume the number is lower than reality. If you are someone prone to, say, wishful thinking, that should be something you take into account in deciding what tools you need to do this.
  • jrline
    jrline Posts: 2,353 Member
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    I have never weighed my food

    29509743.png
  • keithcw_the_first
    keithcw_the_first Posts: 382 Member
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    isulo_kura wrote: »
    Rockin2014 wrote: »
    I started my weight loss journey 10 weeks ago. In these 10 weeks I have lost 10kg (22lbs) just as planned. However, I hardly ever weigh my food. I measure with cups, spoons and my eyeballs and each and every week I have met my target. If I am eating something I've never had before and which I find impossible to figure out I will weigh it (if I'm at home).
    I sometimes wonder whether the focus on weighing your food is to big on MFP and I believe it may scare many people away because they find it too much of a hassle.

    Anyone else not weigh and still see great results?

    When you get nearer your goal and your deficit is smaller the margin for error is much less so at that point you may need to start weighing. So it may be better to start now because it will be easier to get into the habit, but whatever works for you

    This. If you get down to losing .5 lb a week, and not weighing food introduces an error equivalent to .25 pounds a week, then you may see some verrrrrrry slow progress vs. what's expected.
  • Rockin2014
    Rockin2014 Posts: 196 Member
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    jrline wrote: »
    I have never weighed my food

    29509743.png

    Wow. Congratulations! Amazing :)
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    I've noticed a trend of claims that people don't eat back their exercise calories. The reality is the inaccurate logging of intake means that the exercise calories are in fact consumed back.

    When the margins for error shrink, the issues show up ... just look at how many threads pop up on MFP every day of people who "stalled" or "plateaued" after early success. The trend in those threads is inaccurate logging of both intake and burn which didn't become evident until those margins for error shrank.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    Rockin2014 wrote: »
    Makes perfect sense that weighing might become more important the closer I get to my goal weight.

    How much more weight do you want to lose till you get to your goal?
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
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    Rockin2014 wrote: »
    I started my weight loss journey 10 weeks ago. In these 10 weeks I have lost 10kg (22lbs) just as planned. However, I hardly ever weigh my food. I measure with cups, spoons and my eyeballs and each and every week I have met my target. If I am eating something I've never had before and which I find impossible to figure out I will weigh it (if I'm at home).
    I sometimes wonder whether the focus on weighing your food is to big on MFP and I believe it may scare many people away because they find it too much of a hassle.

    Anyone else not weigh and still see great results?

    Starting out, when I had a lot to lose, I also got away with just using measuring cups, package serving size recommendations (serving of chips is 11 chips etc). However, once I got close to my maintenance range I had to buy a food scale because I had to become a lot more accurate with my measuring, in order to keep losing the last few pounds. I've been in maintenance for two years now and I've found that I have to use my food scale as part of my maintenance plan.
  • scratchdesk
    scratchdesk Posts: 18 Member
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    I have been weighing more and more items as I progress. I find that there are a number of difficult or inaccurate items that I can't measure without weight. Primary leafy greens and just recently some Honey Bunches of Oats Granola. That stuff says 1/2 cup or 50g. If I use a measuring cup I get about 25g in a half cup so it's pretty far off.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    jrline wrote: »
    I have never weighed my food

    29509743.png
    I always weigh my food.

    64078106.png

    If weighing works, weigh. If it works without it, don't.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
    edited May 2015
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    I don't weigh everything. It is working for now. If my weight loss slows or stops then I will start weighing more stuff.

    I just want to add that I am an experienced and frequent cook so I believe that I may be better than some people at eyeballing measurements or portion sizes since I am used to seeing what different measurements look like.
  • LuckyMe2017
    LuckyMe2017 Posts: 454 Member
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    Never weighed. Used measuring cups first week. I eyeball and estimate portions based on nutrition facts.
    I hate when the first response is you need to weigh food when someone posts a weight loss problem. However, I do realize some people are more successful at estimating measurements than others.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    I've lost about 50lbs and I don't weigh my food. I believe people who weigh their food have a false sense of accuracy.

    On the other hand, I guess you could say that I weigh my food once a week. I step on the bathroom scale every Saturday morning and if the scale has moved in the right direction, great. If it hasn't, then I need to adjust my food intake.
  • Childfree1991
    Childfree1991 Posts: 145 Member
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    I see no point in weighing food. I thought people were more concerned with health and calories. Take lettuce for example. It's healthy and one pound of it is only 77 calories. If someone is counting calories I see no purpose in weighing food (though I lost weight and bf without counting or weighing anything). I drink over half a gallon of water per day (which is around 5-6 pounds of water per day). Hasn't affected me.
  • martina1606
    martina1606 Posts: 22 Member
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    I don't weigh my food, I don't even count calories really. I just make sure I eat 3 healthy meals and 2 snacks a day and do lots of walking.
    Like you said, its too much hassle for some people and I really don't have the time.
    I have lost 35lbs so far so I must be doing something right.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    TimothyFish wrote: »
    I've lost about 50lbs and I don't weigh my food. I believe people who weigh their food have a false sense of accuracy.

    On the other hand, I guess you could say that I weigh my food once a week. I step on the bathroom scale every Saturday morning and if the scale has moved in the right direction, great. If it hasn't, then I need to adjust my food intake.

    How can you talk about something that you do not do? False sense of accuracy? What?
  • SkinnyWannabeGal
    SkinnyWannabeGal Posts: 143 Member
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    I lost over 30 lbs (some of it before joining MFP) without ever owning a kitchen scale. However, I have gained back some weight while on a long trip (I didn't count a single calorie while on vacation) so I'm thinking a scale and some major accuracy in my food measurements would help to speed along my weightloss this time around. Also, it would give me peace of mind since my weight tends to fluctuate a little.
  • randomtai
    randomtai Posts: 9,003 Member
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    TimothyFish wrote: »
    I've lost about 50lbs and I don't weigh my food. I believe people who weigh their food have a false sense of accuracy.

    On the other hand, I guess you could say that I weigh my food once a week. I step on the bathroom scale every Saturday morning and if the scale has moved in the right direction, great. If it hasn't, then I need to adjust my food intake.

    Why do you always have to throw in something extra? :huh:
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    edited May 2015
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    Childfree1991 wrote: »
    I see no point in weighing food. I thought people were more concerned with health and calories. Take lettuce for example. It's healthy and one pound of it is only 77 calories. If someone is counting calories I see no purpose in weighing food (though I lost weight and bf without counting or weighing anything). I drink over half a gallon of water per day (which is around 5-6 pounds of water per day). Hasn't affected me.
    My typical meal isn't a pound of lettuce. Water has no calories, so any weight from it above what your body normally holds would be transitory. I don't understand the relevance of your water intake at all.

    My purpose in weighing food when I count calories is to get a more accurate idea of the calories involved. How many calories are in that chicken breast? In that hunk of ribeye? In that peanut butter? If you can get close enough by looking, good for you. Many people can't.

  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    TimothyFish wrote: »
    I've lost about 50lbs and I don't weigh my food. I believe people who weigh their food have a false sense of accuracy.

    On the other hand, I guess you could say that I weigh my food once a week. I step on the bathroom scale every Saturday morning and if the scale has moved in the right direction, great. If it hasn't, then I need to adjust my food intake.

    How can you talk about something that you do not do? False sense of accuracy? What?

    One doesn't have to weigh one's food to know that food loses weight (but not calories) the longer it sits on the shelf. That is just the general nature of food.

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