How is LOGGING a way of Life???
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I adore the recipe builder. I alter recipes all the time. When I make something, I make a ton of it and freeze it. The baked ziti recipe makes 30 servings and I will eat .5 serving at a time. Granted, hubby eats too, so it doesn't last too long! If I want to add hot italian sausage this time, then I alter the recipe for that one time. When I want to add more ground pork, I alter it again.
I have to meet some daily goals. I can't bank calories; I can't just eat more protein tomorrow or fewer carbs tomorrow to make up for today. It's every single day for me at this stage. As long as that's true, logging will remain a way of life. I admit, I do it now without even thinking about it. More than one day, I've gotten to the end of the day and thought, "Did I log everything?" As I go back through my eating day, I did log everything, I just don't remember doing it because it's second nature.0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »20yearsyounger wrote: »atypicalsmith wrote: »All you need for maintenance is a scale. Weigh yourself every day. If after a week your weight has gone up, then curtail your calories until it gets back down. Simple.
I do a lot of business travel so weighing every day isn't too simple. I also like to pay attention to nutrients while eating out. I haven't seen my regular scale in 3 weeks. I can easily over consume on meals and drinks and I don't mind the logging as long as I am not driving myself crazy doing it. Its really all about having a way for regular monitoring - whether it is a scale or logging in a diary.
Eating out is the worst you can do! Restaurants make the simplest of meals into 2,000 calories. Three times a day, and guess what, you're going to gain weight. Do not the hotels you stay at have a scale somewhere?
I travel for work and eat at restaurants and it hasn't been a problem during weight loss or maintaining. Does it sometimes require attention to detail and creativity? Yes. But it can be done. You aren't doomed to gain weight if you travel for work.0 -
Back in my day, I used to have to walk 5 miles in 3 feet of snow up hill both ways in 100 degree heat and 500% humidity to figure out my calories.0
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I use my laptop (or desktop when I'm at work). ZERO patience with the app...it sucks. I've noticed most of my friends who only tried MFP on the app wind up quitting within a couple of weeks.
I used to be absolutely religious about logging every bite, every day, and did it for 2 full years...it does become "second nature" as others have said...but now that I am in my maintenance zone I log 5-6 days per week like that and then say screw it for Saturdays when I'm usually traveling and/or eating a couple of restaurant meals. I've learned enough to know somewhat how many calories I take in during those days.0 -
After about 2 weeks, I had almost all my food listed in the frequently used. I choose entries of 1 or 100 grams servings so it is easy to adjust. I use my laptop for recipe building and food entry. I have a small notebook that I record my food weights on and then do entries later if my laptop is not handy. I also pre measure in baggies and bowls, pre log and adjust for actual weight of foods if necessary to help me plan for a busy the day or week.0
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Yeah, I hear ya. I don't know how people do it. I stopped logging for a while and now only occasionally log. But I rarely measure or weigh my food. It's just too much time spent on food for me. I've been losing without it.0
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ogmomma2012 wrote: »How does it take 30min to make a recipe? With the new layout on PC it's much easier. If you want to guesstimate, by all means guesstimate.
There is a new layout? I must check this out.0 -
Liftng4Lis wrote: »Once it's in there, you won't have to repeat it. I use my laptop in combination with my phone (scanner). It takes just minutes a day.
I do this as well. I enter the recipe, let it match whichever ingredients it wants, and then go on to the app and click "replace" and then scan my items.0 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »
This time around of losing weight I decided to do nothing or eat nothing that I could/would not do or eat for for the rest of my life.
I love this attitude. It is my new philosophy too.0 -
It can take 10 minutes for me to update a recipe though. Half the time, I can't change the serving size on my computer. It just doesn't change anything when I save. So I have to go to my app and look through pages and pages to find it (hello, search function???), but if it's a recent recipe, it's not even there, so I have to uninstall and reinstall MFP for it to show up.
SO FRUSTRATING.0 -
You saying a person doesn't need to log while maintaining??? Okay but im in a deficit and my goal is fat loss...atypicalsmith wrote: »All you need for maintenance is a scale. Weigh yourself every day. If after a week your weight has gone up, then curtail your calories until it gets back down. Simple.
the premise of the original question was lifestyle overall, not the weight loss portion which is very short relative to the whole of your entire life...0 -
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This is my own personal view, as I know it works for lots of people. But logging is not sustainable for me. I have never logged in my life even though I calorie count (roughly) and macro count (roughly). Tediously logging everything would take all of the joy out of food for me. I see a lot of people just enter numbers and have not learned a thing about nutrition and how the body reacts to certain things. I have learned enough (because I'm an adult) to be able to eyeball food/ glancing at packets etc be pretty accurate. There is no point religiously logging unless you are gaining knowledge and learning throughout the process. It's a bloody liberty that I have to cook my own food and eat my terrible end results. I'll be damned if I have to record it too!
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its a habit, not a way of life. enter it into the recipe database and then (as long as you stick to the recipe) you can use it over and over without re-entering.0
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callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »its a habit, not a way of life. enter it into the recipe database and then (as long as you stick to the recipe) you can use it over and over without re-entering.
This was the problem for me. I don't use recipes so every dish is a little different each time I make it. And I make a lot of different dishes. My grandmother and mother were both "little bit of this, little bit of that" cooks, so that's what I learned. Makes tracking too much trouble.0 -
How much time a day do you spend on social media? That 30 minutes will add a lot more value to your life than the same 30 minutes on Facebook.0
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Need2Exerc1se wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »its a habit, not a way of life. enter it into the recipe database and then (as long as you stick to the recipe) you can use it over and over without re-entering.
This was the problem for me. I don't use recipes so every dish is a little different each time I make it. And I make a lot of different dishes. My grandmother and mother were both "little bit of this, little bit of that" cooks, so that's what I learned. Makes tracking too much trouble.
weigh it all and log it once. unless you make DRASTIC changes, it will be close enough for subsequent times, and you can always keep in mind it may be slightly off. its all an estimate anyways, really. i am married to a chef and learned to cook from him and dont use recipes, but for nearly everything we routinely make, i made a recipe and logged it.0 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »its a habit, not a way of life. enter it into the recipe database and then (as long as you stick to the recipe) you can use it over and over without re-entering.
This was the problem for me. I don't use recipes so every dish is a little different each time I make it. And I make a lot of different dishes. My grandmother and mother were both "little bit of this, little bit of that" cooks, so that's what I learned. Makes tracking too much trouble.
weigh it all and log it once. unless you make DRASTIC changes, it will be close enough for subsequent times, and you can always keep in mind it may be slightly off. its all an estimate anyways, really. i am married to a chef and learned to cook from him and dont use recipes, but for nearly everything we routinely make, i made a recipe and logged it.
I tried it for a while. Just too frustrating for me.0 -
It can take 10 minutes for me to update a recipe though. Half the time, I can't change the serving size on my computer. It just doesn't change anything when I save. So I have to go to my app and look through pages and pages to find it (hello, search function???), but if it's a recent recipe, it's not even there, so I have to uninstall and reinstall MFP for it to show up.
SO FRUSTRATING.
Really? I edit my recipes all the time and it takes less than 2 minutes.
For example, when I make sesame chicken, I have to change the weight of the chicken every time. I don't have to change the weight of the other ingredients because those stay constant. I go into my recipes, hit edit, find the chicken entry and change the amount. Hit save and log it.
It's really not that hard. I've never had the app not show me a recent recipe, so you might want to ask about that.0 -
different things work for different people, but if you find yourself not losing weight, you may want to revisit it....
its also easier to log recipes on my laptop than phone.0
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