Just curious about how you log

I log everything to the point of obsession, I have always done it when I used MFP. I skip the same things you mentioned though, lettuce and tea. Oh, and my vitamins and iron.

If I put 11g of olive oil instead of the 10g I logged, I go on the app and add them.

I log everything but spices (because I don't know how many calories they have, if I do, I log it), black coffee, 0 calorie stuff. I don't log the vinegar I use because the bottle says 0 calories a serving, although I doubt it's accurate... need to look into that...

Caveat - I've always chased consistency rather than accuracy and worked from actual results rather than blind faith in numbers.

When losing initially:
Logged fairly comprehensively (very educational to see what my portion size was compared to the suggested portion sizes!).
But gave up logging water and zero calorie drinks very quickly as it seemed ridiculous and still does.
Happy to guess-timate amounts of very low calorie foods (salad for example)
Would have a rough guess after holidays/vacations when logging suspended.

After hitting initial goal:
Consciously relaxed logging, more eye-balling and estimating. Still tended to weigh high calorie items (cheese, cereal as examples). Used quick add calories rarely.

After hitting final goal relaxed logging even more. More likely to use educated guesses and quick adds. Really as much interested in macros as calories.

After a long while maintaining successfully I stopped logging completely. Found habits and choices entrenched enough to maintain easily. Not so easy to lose a few pounds after a holiday/vacation though but there's other tools and tricks to create a temporary deficit without logging.

I've done it a couple different ways. Bottom line--when I'm cutting, I strive for maximum accuracy; when maintaining, the need for accuracy is less. Inevitably, my weight creeps up 5 pounds... maybe in 3 months, maybe in a year. At 5lb up, I switch to a slight deficit with as much accuracy as I can.

I have gone periods in maintenance not logging at all and logging only the first 1200 kcal in which I try to hit all the macros/micros I care about. I will count low-calorie vegetables for the fiber, for example, but not stuff that contributes few nutrients or used in tiny amounts(vinegar, garlic, spices). I also estimate things that don't vary much in weight and that I use a lot (milk in coffee, tortillas, oil spray in pan). Once I have the nutrition covered, I know I have several hundred calories for extras and only give them a rough count. My tracking data for these periods isn't very useful since the count is pretty inaccurate. I concluded it's not that much more effort to log accurately and have good data.

My exercise doesn't vary, so I use TDEE rather than logging exercise.

I now only weigh certain things like pasta/cereal now, 3 yrs of logging means I can eyeball most things really well and saying I've been maintaining my loss for 2 years I'm obviously doing something right

For my meals I eat most of the same kinds of things so its just a matter of copying each day. For all my main meals I've used recipe builder and that just gets added to when I try new recipes. All the grafting was done ref logging foods in the early days but now its a 2 minute job....

I have weeks when I don't log anything at all and then other weeks I'll log everything, I like to keep an eye on macros.

I log every single item, regardless of what it is.

If my weight loss depended on me keeping logging my food, I would do it for all the time it takes - sooo worth it

I don't log spices and gum.

I've been at it for 3 months and I try to log everything. But when it comes to things like salads and things like that I'll search for a general item like homemade garden salad instead of taking it appart to log it. If it takes me too long, it won't be fun anymore and I'll just quit. I do log tea of coffee because if I add sugar and cream, it's calories. And I'll pre-log the days I know I'm going to eat out so that I know what I can eat the rest of the day or how much cardio I have to do to burn enough extra calories to allow myself that meal. Whatever I'm doing I guess it's working cause I've lost about 10lbs since starting.

I try to write what I bite, but in general don't log spices, sugar free gum or a Tic Tac or two. I will log my diet soda, teas & coffees just so I'm aware of what I'm consuming. Since there are carbs are my salad veggies, I'll pretty much just weigh it all regardless since I've got the food scale out (i.e lettuce)

I always end up with extra calories at day's end so figure I'm covered. I realize that no matter how anal we are about weighing/measuring/logging....it's really not as accurate as we'd like.

As long as I stay within my goal weight I figure I'm doing something right. I hit what I thought my goal range was in 3/2014 and since then have dropped another 15+ lbs while trying to get the hang of maintaining & being where I'd like to be.

I log as accurately as possible. I will have been logging for 1 year on Monday and have been maintaining within a range of 2 lb. up or down since last December. I do meal plan so if I'm not eating out I try to pre-log in the morning so I know if I have any wiggle room. MFP and logging has really helped me with portion control.

I don't log anything but weight after the first six months, during which I logged everything down to 1-2 guessed calories. Ignoring water and diet soda. EXCEPT special days when I go big off low carb, about 6-10 days a year, to see the macros and gauge the next day's reaction in appetite, weight, other things.

I can be slights sloppy with my logging (I don't weigh everything and I fairly frequently use generic entries) but I am consistent.

I don't log diet drinks, water, and spices.

I recently started chewing a crap ton of gum and started logging that because it was getting out of hand.

I used to log everything when I was losing including gum, spices, pickles, soy sauce, hot sauce, everything!
Now that I'm maintaining, I dont weigh spices, lettuce on burgers, lemon juice, peppers etc.
However, I still try to weigh almost everything I eat. For example when I make myself a salad, I weigh all the lettuce and tomatoes and croutons

sijomial wrote: »

Caveat - I've always chased consistency rather than accuracy and worked from actual results rather than blind faith in numbers.

When losing initially:
Logged fairly comprehensively (very educational to see what my portion size was compared to the suggested portion sizes!).
But gave up logging water and zero calorie drinks very quickly as it seemed ridiculous and still does.
Happy to guess-timate amounts of very low calorie foods (salad for example)
Would have a rough guess after holidays/vacations when logging suspended.

After hitting initial goal:
Consciously relaxed logging, more eye-balling and estimating. Still tended to weigh high calorie items (cheese, cereal as examples). Used quick add calories rarely.

After hitting final goal relaxed logging even more. More likely to use educated guesses and quick adds. Really as much interested in macros as calories.

After a long while maintaining successfully I stopped logging completely. Found habits and choices entrenched enough to maintain easily. Not so easy to lose a few pounds after a holiday/vacation though but there's other tools and tricks to create a temporary deficit without logging.

Thanks for your honesty!
I'm somewhere between final and long term according to your outcome and I'm happy with that. I enjoy the math of my eats/burns but although I'm not afraid to return to "checking myself" this (logging) will not be a forever and ever regimen for me (if I've gotten it right).