I really just want a doughnut

Options
ilikeweight
ilikeweight Posts: 2 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hey everybody, I'm colin. I'm 25. And I'm not really fat or unhealthy, I'm just kinda, bleh. I'm looking to use this app to drop about 30 pounds to take me to roughly 195ish. I'm currently 6'4 and 225ish. Just wanna post this and say hello ☺. Also, I do a lot of cooking from scratch so I'm not quite sure how to specifically track my calories and macros on here. Anyone got any tips? Other than measuring every little thing I eat. I mean I have a food scale. I guess more than anything, I'm wondering how crazy accurate I need to be with food tracking? I have a physical job where I walk upwards of 20,000 steps per day and I workout too. Do I really NEED to know every gram of protein, carb, and fat? Or can I estimate it and still be pretty good?

Replies

  • Faithful_Chosen
    Faithful_Chosen Posts: 401 Member
    Options
    How accurate you have to be depends on how accurately you want to lose weight. Do you want to hit that fancy weekly goal you put in? Be accurate. Do you not really care and are you okay with slow going or not eating back any exercise calories to allot for logging inaccuracies? Then by all means, don't weigh everything. Personally I weigh everything I put into my mouth--the tare button is your friend!--abd it takes me maybe thirty seconds longer to cook a meal. I can also predict and modify my weight loss pretty accurately. I am a huge proponent of weighing as eyeballing is just insanely inaccurate. It might be good to weigh everything for a week and compare it to what you eyeballed. If you are close, you might decide not to weigh everything, but most people are way off. Good luck!
  • christabelle66
    christabelle66 Posts: 83 Member
    Options
    Most of us are shocked when we start weighing and measuring our food-- we think that we know what 1/2 a cup of rice or an ounce of fish looks like but we are rarely that good at estimating. I think I lost my first five pounds just from tracking and really wrapping my mind around portion sizes. Getting healthy is a commitment and requires a certain time commitment, particularly at the beginning when you are changing habits, but it does get quicker and easier to weigh your food, measure and track as time goes by. I also find that keeping an open diary helps me because I know that other can look at what I am eating.
  • ilikeweight
    ilikeweight Posts: 2 Member
    Options
    christabelle66 wrote: »
    Most of us are shocked when we start weighing and measuring our food-- we think that we know what 1/2 a cup of rice or an ounce of fish looks like but we are rarely that good at estimating. I think I lost my first five pounds just from tracking and really wrapping my mind around portion sizes. Getting healthy is a commitment and requires a certain time commitment, particularly at the beginning when you are changing habits, but it does get quicker and easier to weigh your food, measure and track as time goes by. I also find that keeping an open diary helps me because I know that other can look at what I am eating.

    You're right! And about a year ago I was tracking everything I ate and I felt like I was accurate but then I "fell off the horse" and I'm looking to get back on. I'm just curious if you think that my level of activity kinda negates what I eat. Cuz my body burns about 2,800 calories per day just to sustain itself. Then throughout the day I burn probably 2000 plus calories from my job and my workout. And I know I don't eat more than 5000 calories per day. I mean, ultimately you're right. Keeping track is the best way to lose weight but do I really have to keep track if I'm so active? What are your thoughts?
  • harlequin0318
    harlequin0318 Posts: 415 Member
    edited August 2015
    Options
    Well if you're not losing weight when you aren't tracking your food...then you need to start tracking your food. ;)
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Options
    Well, give it a go and see how you do. If you don't lose weight, then tighten up your accuracy. At tghe beginning, accuracy is less important as you generally have a greater margin of error. However, as you get closer to your goal (ie have less weight to lose), it becomes more important to be as accurate as possible.

Categories