does anyone else log like this?

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glitzy196
glitzy196 Posts: 190 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I see a lot of people make comments about peoples diaries saying "I see you have a lot of cups and tablespoons on your log..." which I think leads to the assumption that it is bad logging.

I was flipping through my diary and notices a lot of things say TBS, Cup or whatever. lets say i'm going to have cereal. box says serving size 3/4 of a cup (31 grams) so I measure in grams, but sometimes once i scan it it records it as a cup. Or like if I weigh in grams what the container says is a table spoon ...and so on and so on. Like if the serving of butter is listed in tablespoons..I weigh how many grams they say should be a tablespoon, but it is still logged as a tablespoon.

does that make sense? am I doing something wrong? I have had really good success, I do log everything i eat..and weigh just about everything, I don't weigh individual servings..maybe when I am way closer to goal and I need to really tighten up..but I still have about 60ish pounds to go.

Like if a can of soup says 2.5 servings. I just count the whole can. I don't actually weigh it.
I do weigh, cereal, cheese, fruit, condiments, meat, pasta..anything that isn't 'obvious'.

and hooray for small victories, my idea of a serving size of jelly was 1/3 of what the label stated. I think my eyes are getting better!
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Replies

  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,658 Member
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    I'd weigh the soup.

    Yes, sometimes people log generic entries while actually weighing in grams, but it needs to be established whether this is what's happening. Usually, it isn't.
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
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    There are a couple of things that I log as tablespoons because grams are not an option in the drop down menu, but for the most part I log everything by weight.
  • morkiemama
    morkiemama Posts: 897 Member
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    I log in grams/weight. I measure the item and then figure out the number of servings in grams. However, I log it as whatever measurement is in the database already as long as the nutrition information is accurate. For example, even though I weigh out a serving of cereal, if the entry has servings in cups I will leave it as entered. So even though I weigh, my food log sometimes shows cups, etc.
  • mz_getskinny
    mz_getskinny Posts: 258 Member
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    I've never been one to weigh my food. Occasionally I will.....but it's rare LOL I'm apparently pretty good at eyeballing though :)
  • Pawsforme
    Pawsforme Posts: 645 Member
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    Yes, I totally get what you're saying.

    Almost every day for lunch I have a salad with some feta cheese on it. I weigh it (28 g) but the entry in my diary says .25 cups. It doesn't really matter because all the calories and macros are the same. And yet if I opened up my diary people would be blathering on and on about me not weighing. And that type of confusion is one reason I'll likely never open up my diary. It wouldn't make sense to anyone but me, but I know it's pretty darn accurate.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    I do similar. As long as it's working for you then it's fine as far as I'm concerned. When people pick up on it it's usually because someone is asking why they aren't losing. If I stall in my weight loss then I have somewhere to go because I know I can tighten up my logging even more. Knowledge is power and all that.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    I do the same as you. I'm not making new entries in grams for everything when I know that '1/4 cup' of cheese really is 28g.

    For soups, well, typically I weigh it, but I'm still confused on whether it should be weighed or measured.
  • glitzy196
    glitzy196 Posts: 190 Member
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    I think if i measured soup, I would have the urge to dump the liquid thus magically making weigh less..even though that is unlikely where the calories are at. (think chicken noodle or something)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    edited August 2015
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    there is no issue if you're weighing something correctly but the entry is in cups or whatever...this issue arises when people log .25 cups of something that should be 28 grams or whatever...but they're actually using the cup and packing it or rounding it or whatever...for which they would actually be eating more than .25 cups...more than 28 grams...if that makes sense.

    I've never weighed a can of soup...even if it's off by a bit, I would think it pretty negligible and it certainly hasn't hindered me.
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
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    Francl27 wrote: »
    I do the same as you. I'm not making new entries in grams for everything when I know that '1/4 cup' of cheese really is 28g.

    For soups, well, typically I weigh it, but I'm still confused on whether it should be weighed or measured.

    This is what I do as well.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    edited August 2015
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    I weight when it is convenient and record in grams or ounces (however I weigh it). Despite being excellent at math, I'd rather not do excessive math just for the sake of it. I mostly use volume (cups, tbsp, etc...) when it isn't practical for me to weigh it. Like when my wife makes rice for dinner and she makes it all in one pot.

    I'm also losing weight at a healthy clip, so I'm positive I'm estimating calories close enough. Based on the past 6 weeks I've been eating ~825 calories under TDEE, which is good enough for me.

    My wife on the other hand, has struggled for the past few months. She needs to weigh everything because something is going wrong. I actually think it is not logging the little things she snacks on here and there. Her estimates for her smoothie were pretty dang close, but could have been off by up to 100 calories depending on the day.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I do it the same as you for many things. For example, an ice cream that is serving 1/2 cup (100 grams). If I measure out exactly 100 (I usually don't bother, but sometimes it's easier than pulling out a calculator for something that has a more irregular measure), I just log 1. If I have 105 grams, I log 1.05 of the 1/2 cup serving.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,459 Member
    edited August 2015
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    I've always just logged using measuring cups/spoons and have been successful. That's worked for a small deficit from food + daily moderate exercise.

    But now, with a very small deficit , not much to lose, and not being able to exercise much, which means I now have almost no margin for error, I may have to get a scale.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
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    Pawsforme wrote: »
    Yes, I totally get what you're saying.

    Almost every day for lunch I have a salad with some feta cheese on it. I weigh it (28 g) but the entry in my diary says .25 cups. It doesn't really matter because all the calories and macros are the same. And yet if I opened up my diary people would be blathering on and on about me not weighing. And that type of confusion is one reason I'll likely never open up my diary. It wouldn't make sense to anyone but me, but I know it's pretty darn accurate.

    Agreed.

  • CurlyCockney
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
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    I don't have many calories to play with, so I want to be as accurate as I can. In the UK packages all have the nutrition per 100g, so it's easier for me to weigh and calculate with that rather than do maths for portions of variable serving sizes.
  • erialcelyob
    erialcelyob Posts: 341 Member
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    Nothing wrong with what you are doing whatsoever, people are just picky and judgy :P
  • amillenium
    amillenium Posts: 281 Member
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    Pawsforme wrote: »
    Yes, I totally get what you're saying.

    Almost every day for lunch I have a salad with some feta cheese on it. I weigh it (28 g) but the entry in my diary says .25 cups. It doesn't really matter because all the calories and macros are the same. And yet if I opened up my diary people would be blathering on and on about me not weighing. And that type of confusion is one reason I'll likely never open up my diary. It wouldn't make sense to anyone but me, but I know it's pretty darn accurate.

    Exactly this! My diary is accurate but for my use--I ended up making it private for this reason...I think there is a tendency to jump to conclusion and no one knows exactly what you are doing but as long as it makes sense to you and it works then go for it! :)
  • runwithtoppa
    runwithtoppa Posts: 50 Member
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    Sometimes if I can't find the right measurement, I will look at the calories in the database instead. So there will be something that says cup/tbs but I didn't pick that option because that is what I used. I picked it because the calories were the same as I consumed.

    The food database is a mine field anyway, I have seen so many food items with crazy calories and nothing else noted on them. It drives me mad looking through trying to find the right things that actually have the correct calories and nutrients listed.

    I always over estimate my calories and under estimate my work outs though, so I have plenty of room for error.
    I am losing weight at a nice slow pace. So if anyone wants to assume I am logging badly solely based on the fact it said CUP in my diary, that's up to them to judge without having facts.
    My method is working, I am losing at a healthy rate :) and that is all that matters.

    When I need to maintain, I might be more accurate!
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    erialcelyob wrote: »
    Nothing wrong with what you are doing whatsoever, people are just picky and judgy :P

    In every case where I have seen where someone is asked if they're weighing their food, it's because they have asked the community for help and advice because they aren't losing weight. I wouldn't call this "picky and judgy," not weighing food is a pretty common trend among people who aren't getting the results they want. If someone is actually weighing their food and logging it based on the cup/tablespoon, it's an easy clarification for them to make when it is brought up.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Yep, I do this too. Today my diary has 1.05 English muffins. It weighed 60 grams instead of the 57 listed on the nutrition info. Now, if I see a diary and it's all in those even amounts, then I question whether or not they're weighing.

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