How do I chart nibbling and noshing?

Options
NotPhyllis
NotPhyllis Posts: 23 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Food samples at Costco, just a literal bite of the beef stew I made(1 piece of meat,1chunk of potato, etc.), pot luck and buffet dinners with just a bit of this or a taste of that, a single scallion pancake homemade by a friend, etc., etc., etc.

Any suggestions on how to chart these will be very much appreciated.

Friends' Christmas cookies are the next challenge looming.
«13

Replies

  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
    Options
    Personally, I don't. If it's too much of a pain for me to log or even estimate, I don't eat it. Other people might have better advice for you than that, but that's my method.
  • ki4eld
    ki4eld Posts: 1,215 Member
    Options
    Once you're good at weighing and judging food portions, you can just quick add calories. If you have to estimate, over-estimate your calories. That "bite here and there" is exactly why people gain/don't lose weight.

    Seriously, that's exactly why I eat before parties and don't do samples. I need to know exactly what I'm getting each day and nibbling doesn't fit into it.

    For stuff from friends, I get the recipe, put it into MFP, and calculate that way. If I can't get a recipe for it, it doesn't go into my mouth.
  • booksandchocolate12
    booksandchocolate12 Posts: 1,741 Member
    Options
    Don't nibble and nosh?

    Not being snarky; that's my suggestion. You don't need to do it, so why do it? You'll have a much more accurate handle on what you're eating that way.

    I'm not saying it's easy. I'm still a work in progress in that regard. But it is do-able.

    Here's my tip for staying away from samples at Costco, supermarkets, etc: Just before you walked up to the table, a little kid picked his nose and then touched all the samples.

    I haven't eaten a supermarket sample since I came up with that idea.
  • Suuzanne37
    Suuzanne37 Posts: 114 Member
    Options
    It exists in the database; search for Costco samples. It's an estimate but it is present.
  • amyk0202
    amyk0202 Posts: 667 Member
    Options
    I would also say not to nibble. I usually pre-plan my food for the day & that includes snacks. If you like to nibble, log everything beforehand & keep your snacks with you so you can do it whenever you want. All those extra bites here & there can really add up.
  • littleladie13
    littleladie13 Posts: 11 Member
    Options
    I know sometimes you just want to try the sample. I like the quick add option.
  • FGTisme
    FGTisme Posts: 87 Member
    Options
    Do you have the app on your phone? If you do, scan barcode of the item you ate at Costco and approximate the portion size(1/8 to 1/4 usually). That's what I do at Sams club sample Saturday. (My family loves the sample carts!! It's the only reason my kids want to go! Sometimes, we don't even buy anything; just go for the samples. We are sad like that.)

    As for other things, just do the best you can with an estimate/close equivalent or quick dad like others have said.
  • MarcyKirkton
    MarcyKirkton Posts: 507 Member
    Options
    I just estimate. If the nosh is chips, I guess at how many I ate. When in doubt, I overestimate the amount eaten. At this point, I can actually tell by my hunger pangs about where I'm really at with daily calories. For example, I overestimated some cake deal at work. By the evening, I was officially out of calories. However, I could tell by how I felt that probably wasn't right. I went ahead and fixed a low-cal meal and, sure enough, dropped weight the next day.

    I think this gets easier. At first I really added in every ingredient. But I'm not watching macros except if I go over sodium. I already know that I have to eat protein to keep away from, "I'm starving. I don't care. " mode. So now I will take estimates, say from some frozen version of a nibble.

    I don't want the diet to control my life. I'm dieting to feel back in control. And, for me, I don't worry so much about eating every calorie allowed. If I'm noshing, then I probably won't really want much lunch or supper or whatever.
  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member
    Options
    NotPhyllis wrote: »
    Food samples at Costco, just a literal bite of the beef stew I made(1 piece of meat,1chunk of potato, etc.), pot luck and buffet dinners with just a bit of this or a taste of that, a single scallion pancake homemade by a friend, etc., etc., etc.

    Any suggestions on how to chart these will be very much appreciated.

    Friends' Christmas cookies are the next challenge looming.

    BLTs, as they are called, (Bites, Licks, and Tastes) are a big part of the great unknown calorie source of people trying to lose weight who can't figure out why they can't. If you're going to do it, (and I'd advice against the samples at the store - who knows if the sample people even wash their hands), then you need to log it. Tasting while cooking - that's a tough one. You almost need to quick add a guesstimate on the high side to be safe.
    As far as your friend's cookies - that's not a small item to add in like a BLT. Actual whole cookies - you're going to have to look up the kind of cookie and add in something close.

    Better to be close than not to add in anything at all. And in the long run, you need to stick to your calorie goal; that means saying no to some things that you used to say yes to.
  • Pawsforme
    Pawsforme Posts: 645 Member
    Options
    I log them by doing a mental estimate--and always, always, always erring on the side of guessing too high rather than too low--and using the "quick add" function. But I'm not one who is overly concerned about macros, and I've been food conscious for enough years that I think I make very close estimates.
  • Lourdesong
    Lourdesong Posts: 1,492 Member
    Options
    As has been said, better not to nibble and nosh. But behaving ideally isn't always in the cards, so...

    A good deterrent to BLT's (as @mccindy72 referred to them, I never heard that before but I like it) is to set a calorie number for them, like 50 cals for every BLT. In my opinion if it's too complicated to figure out the correct calories for them then it's easier to just ignore these little nibbles and noshes and pretend they don't really count.

    So, make them count so that you're deterred from getting at all comfortable with this behavior.
  • anewday23
    anewday23 Posts: 16 Member
    Options
    FGTisme wrote: »
    Do you have the app on your phone? If you do, scan barcode of the item you ate at Costco and approximate the portion size(1/8 to 1/4 usually). That's what I do at Sams club sample Saturday. (My family loves the sample carts!! It's the only reason my kids want to go! Sometimes, we don't even buy anything; just go for the samples. We are sad like that.)

    As for other things, just do the best you can with an estimate/close equivalent or quick dad like others have said.

    This exactly. They are selling the stuff, the package is right in front of you.

    Homemade stuff is harder. I look it up on here and try to pick something comparable or I don't log it, but try to log everything else that day.
  • Frelise
    Frelise Posts: 80 Member
    Options
    ki4eld wrote: »
    Once you're good at weighing and judging food portions, you can just quick add calories. If you have to estimate, over-estimate your calories. That "bite here and there" is exactly why people gain/don't lose weight.

    This is what I do, otherwise it's a hassle having to log a million little bites. Just guess-timate reasonably. :-)
  • BigMama24mfp
    BigMama24mfp Posts: 27 Member
    Options
    I usually leave a couple hundred calories left at the end of my budget to accommodate such things. However, I agree with just trying to stay away in the first place. Too much of a hassle.
  • Queen_Celeste
    Queen_Celeste Posts: 33 Member
    Options
    For tasting while cooking, you can measure out your food then take a spoonful out before you eat. Then you are tracking the taste from earlier.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    edited November 2015
    Options
    I tried the quick add in the beginning, but I got paranoid about what @mccindy72 said. I didn't want to screw myself out of my deficit for the sake of a few seconds of noms. I wanted to be accurate over indulgent. Just in that one area at least. I will eat whole cookies, once they've been weighed and logged. But I found BLT's way too much of a pain in the brain to bother with. It just didn't seem worth it for all the extra effort of trying to figure out how much and how many calories blah blah. I didn't want to have to think/stress about it so I just blow off the costco sample people now. The only BLT's I get now are to check my 2 yr old's food temperature (darn right I use my tongue, that forearm thing freaks me out, I don't trust it) and that is so little I don't worry about it.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    edited November 2015
    Options
    booksandchocolate12 wrote: »
    Don't nibble and nosh?

    Not being snarky; that's my suggestion. You don't need to do it, so why do it? You'll have a much more accurate handle on what you're eating that way.

    I'm not saying it's easy. I'm still a work in progress in that regard. But it is do-able.

    Here's my tip for staying away from samples at Costco, supermarkets, etc: Just before you walked up to the table, a little kid picked his nose and then touched all the samples.

    I haven't eaten a supermarket sample since I came up with that idea.

    Yeah, it's funny how people go so ballistic if someone doesn't wipe off a gym bench but have no problem eating from every sample table at a store.
  • kristen6350
    kristen6350 Posts: 1,094 Member
    Options
    Great thing about MFP, it's so hard to log those kind of things it almost forces you to not eat it. Including "sampling" while you are cooking. Or eating some of your childs lunch. You just don't. I'd use this as a learning tool and don't eat it next time. It's much easier to say no than to have to figure out how to log it.
  • Therealobi1
    Therealobi1 Posts: 3,261 Member
    Options
    for those of you worrying about hygiene, i guess you dont eat out at restaurants. If the chefs are anything like the ones on telly who like to touch everything with their bare hands, god help us all.
    regarding samples at Costco are they supplying you a meals worth of food. Costco in london, i wouldnt even worry about it, other than at christmas time when i take a few handfuls of lindt chocolate balls. The other stuff half the time doesnt look edible.
  • snowflakesav
    snowflakesav Posts: 645 Member
    Options
    I sometimes quick add 300 calories in for a trip to Costco if I sample. Most the time I avoid it. There is so much stuff I don't really want to try.

Categories