Tips on pre-logging?
megbugs
Posts: 102 Member
Hello -
I haven't mastered the skill of pre-logging and would like to get advice from those who have success. I keep reading that people pre-log the night before or days in advance but I'm not sure how they do it... It's not until I make the food that I bring the scale out and measure the ingredients (be it lunchmeat on a sandwich, or vegetables in a salad, or specific ingredients in a recipe). How does one pre-log their meals before they start weighing everything? I'd like to add that I love to cook and even if I use a recipe with nutritional information, sometimes I don't get exactly the weight of the meat they call for or add more chicken broth while cooking because it's not the right consistency....so there are deviations to every recipe I use. Would love any advice and keep up the great work everyone
I haven't mastered the skill of pre-logging and would like to get advice from those who have success. I keep reading that people pre-log the night before or days in advance but I'm not sure how they do it... It's not until I make the food that I bring the scale out and measure the ingredients (be it lunchmeat on a sandwich, or vegetables in a salad, or specific ingredients in a recipe). How does one pre-log their meals before they start weighing everything? I'd like to add that I love to cook and even if I use a recipe with nutritional information, sometimes I don't get exactly the weight of the meat they call for or add more chicken broth while cooking because it's not the right consistency....so there are deviations to every recipe I use. Would love any advice and keep up the great work everyone
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Replies
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i only prelog for that day. and i go back and fine tune measurements when i prepare it.
but, ive been doing it a year now and am pretty good at guesstimating the weights of stuff, so its usually pretty close, and gives me a good idea of what my day will look like.
i dont worry about minuscule recipe changes like adding a dash more chicken broth (now adding things like more butter or oil i DO add back in). for me, i make it up in other places since i rarely eat all i dish up and log, anyways. i also dont eat back exercise calories - so i know i have a lot of wiggle room - but thats ME - some people need to be much more precise.0 -
I prelog weeks in advance. I put a standard weight for my ingredients and change it once I make it. Usually doesn't change too drastically.0
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I will ballpark prelog a lot of things. Like I'll say "150g apple" then go back and correct it when I weigh it on the day of. It gives me a round about idea of what I can eat that day.0
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I pre-log with an estimated weight and then edit it the next day when I actually weigh it. I have found the longer I've logged, the more accurate my estimates tend to be. If I do wind up being significantly off, I will reduce or increase my serving size of something else to keep my calories in the same ballpark for the day.0
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I tend eat and log until lunch, and then pre-plan for the remainder of the day.0
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ForeverSunshine09 wrote: »I prelog weeks in advance. I put a standard weight for my ingredients and change it once I make it. Usually doesn't change too drastically.
^^^^^This is awesome!!!!
@ForeverSunshine09
I know it's something I should try or at least a week out again. I used to do a week out and it's so much simpler to just be able to know what to buy, log and not have to think about it every single day.
Girl! You got me motivated again to pre-log a couple days and then more as I get back into the pre-logging.
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i pre-log (and pack) everything the night before except for dinner which i figure out later on0
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"How does one pre-log their meals before they start weighing everything?"
When I pre-logged, I had a tendency to follow that plan instead of eating spontaneously. The planning was useful.
It is an estimate even with weighing. I think I am doing well if my best estimate after eating is within 20 percent of actual calorie uptake ( given age, ability to metabolize each item, and so on).
One MD on the telly stated "It is impossible to count calories." Of course we can, the accuracy is in question. If we are losing, that is accurate enough.
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Thanks, I appreciate all of your comments. I'm going to start today and hope for the same success
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I've found that pre-logging is pretty effective if you actually pre-prep the food itself in advance. I make several days' worth of breakfasts & lunches in advance during the work week, measuring/weighing the quantities. That way I'm just pulling a bunch of tupperware containers out of the fridge for breakfast & lunch. Weighing everything every meal takes too darned long, and I always, always underestimate if I eyeball quantities, lol.
I also spend some time on Sunday choosing dinner recipes for the week (I really love cooking too, om nom), and then enter the dinner recipes into MFP so that I can see how it would fit with the rest of the day. That means I can make adjustments to the recipe if it's out of whack. ("The cheese adds how many calories?? Dagnabbit.")
Personally, I've found that pre-logging is my most reliable route to weight loss. Every time I get bored and stop, I gain weight. (Curse you, cheese, you delicious temptress.) Hitting 1200 calories is just a pain if I haven't gamed it out in advance, and I always, always underestimate if I eyeball quantities.0 -
I just prelog an average portion and adjust as I go. Typically I end up adjusting dinner to meet my calories (bit less veggies or a lower calorie kind than I planned, skip the rice, etc). Tomorrow I'm making shepherd's pie and I will have to adjust the recipe but I still logged my old recipe to give me an idea... I'll just replace that entry once I've modified it.
After a while you know how much you usually put in your sandwiches or what portion of meat is satisfying to you and it's easier to get a closer estimate. And I'm pretty good now at cutting a 100g portion of chicken or steak too.
Honestly though I don't prelog that much... I did it this week (only the protein) because I bought 5 packages of stuff on Saturday and had to plan according to the use-by dates, and it was easier to plan my meals if I logged it early. Otherwise my mood might change or something else might seem more appealing or I'm just starving at 4.30pm and don't have time to make anything fancy, so it's actually pretty rare that I stick to what I had planned (unless I have to, like this week, if I don't want stuff to go bad).0 -
My wife and I are both on the weight loss journey which is a big help. We also both get up early and put in fairly long days at work.
What we do is cook large batches of what we like on the weekends, portion them out and freeze them.
Sunday we move the lunches for that week to the fridge. Breakfast (also at work) is usually something like citrus salad or a breakfast sandwich (Kellogg has some that are only 170 calories) or the like. So Sunday afternoon we can pre-log a weeks worth of breakfast and lunch. Dinner is usually a protein and salad so most times we can plan that ahead as well.
We find that knowing the calories of all those portions makes it easy to plan.0 -
TermagantRex wrote: »I've found that pre-logging is pretty effective if you actually pre-prep the food itself in advance. I make several days' worth of breakfasts & lunches in advance during the work week, measuring/weighing the quantities. That way I'm just pulling a bunch of tupperware containers out of the fridge for breakfast & lunch. Weighing everything every meal takes too darned long, and I always, always underestimate if I eyeball quantities, lol.
I also spend some time on Sunday choosing dinner recipes for the week (I really love thinking about food, om nom), and then enter the dinner recipes into MFP so that I can see how it would fit with the rest of the day. That means I can make adjustments to the recipe if it's out of whack. ("The cheese adds how many calories?? Dagnabbit.")
Personally, I've found that pre-logging is my most reliable route to weight loss. Every time I get lazy and stop, I gain weight. (Curse you, cheese, you delicious temptress.)
Great tips! Yes it is time consuming to measure/weigh, prepare, and enter every meal throughout the day. Might be best to chop all the ingredients (say strawberries) at once and put them in little baggies with the weight listed on them, or prepare 5 small salads for the week instead of once a day..... I definitely need to noodle this new hobby of mine 0 -
There are many great dishes (or at least semi-prepared), which you can cook in advance and freeze. The trick is to always store them already in portions for one meal - this way it's easy to pre-log in advance. I always have in my freezer a few cups of home-made tomato sauce and (weighed, formed and packed separetly) burgers, etc. so I can easily plan my food for next day without worry how many grams/calories it will be.0
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My wife and I are both on the weight loss journey which is a big help. We also both get up early and put in fairly long days at work.
What we do is cook large batches of what we like on the weekends, portion them out and freeze them.
Sunday we move the lunches for that week to the fridge. Breakfast (also at work) is usually something like citrus salad or a breakfast sandwich (Kellogg has some that are only 170 calories) or the like. So Sunday afternoon we can pre-log a weeks worth of breakfast and lunch. Dinner is usually a protein and salad so most times we can plan that ahead as well.
We find that knowing the calories of all those portions makes it easy to plan.
Wonderful, I wish you both lots of success! It's great to be working as a team 0 -
Sometimes I prelog what I think I'll want to eat the next day. But then I usually erase it all the next day because my taste magically changes over night *shrugs*0
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janejellyroll wrote: »I pre-log with an estimated weight and then edit it the next day when I actually weigh it. I have found the longer I've logged, the more accurate my estimates tend to be. If I do wind up being significantly off, I will reduce or increase my serving size of something else to keep my calories in the same ballpark for the day.
This^^ and I sometimes log several days in advance, depending on what foods I have in the house or intend to purchase on my next shopping trip.
I tend to eat the same breakfast every day at the moment which makes it very easy to pre-log.0 -
I log the for my day in advance in the morning usually. I have dinners planned for the whole month and I mostly eat food from home so the choices are norrowed down. I log in order of dinner, lunch, breakfast and finally snacks. I know that I usually eat a certain number of calories at each meal and feel satisfied. I try to make sure I get enough protein.
I use reasonable portion sizes when I pre-log. I look at my diary when I get my food and eat the amount I logged.
If I consume a different amount than pre-logged for some reason, I alter the log to reflect what I actually consumed. That might mean changing other items to stay the right calorie count or something.
If it is a recipe I'm going to use more than once I put the correct recipe in the recipe builder. Since my meals are planned I buy enough ingredients, follow my recipe every time and weigh/measure ingredients so it doesn't vary that much.0 -
Hello -
I'd like to add that I love to cook and even if I use a recipe with nutritional information, sometimes I don't get exactly the weight of the meat they call for or add more chicken broth while cooking because it's not the right consistency....so there are deviations to every recipe I use. Would love any advice and keep up the great work everyone
What I do is I "prelog" the version that is already in the database. You can do this for any recipe already in the database, or "quick add" the calories that the recipe you have estimates. Skinnytaste, cooking light, etc.. have a lot of recipes already in the database. Then, I actually use the custom recipe builder each and every time I cook (I always use different amounts of things, make substitutions, etc..). Once you have the base recipe for one you use a lot, it doesn't take more than 3 or 4 minutes to adjust. Then, I replace my prelogged estimate with my actual recipe amount.
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I don't do it days or one day in advance.. maybe just pre-log my dinner or lunch that day. I never know what I even want to eat. If I know ahead for dinner that may be my only pre-log. I personally don't feel I will follow the plan if I do it ahead a day or two. Just me.0
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ForeverSunshine09 wrote: »I prelog weeks in advance. I put a standard weight for my ingredients and change it once I make it. Usually doesn't change too drastically.
You're the first person I've met on MFP that does this. I'm slacking because I don't have most of next week logged, but I typically have my meals logged about a month ahead of time. I don't think I've ever logged all of my meals on the day I actually eat them. I always hear about people getting to the end of the day and not having enough calories for a decent dinner. Nope, not me. I'm super anal and organized with everything else in my life, and logging is no different.
OP - I'm confused about your confusion regarding how to know what you're going to eat if you haven't weighed it yet. Simple...you log what fits and weigh out that amount when you get to it. If you logged 2oz lunch meat yesterday, weigh out 2 oz lunch meat today. Easy as that. As for recipes, I use MFP's recipe tools for things like that. If I need to change a recipe, I just go in and edit it, then re-log it with the new nutritional information. I typically follow recipes to the gram, so I rarely have to do this, but it would be pretty simple to do.
Pre-logging is actually really fun to me. It's like a puzzle - finding just the right combination of food that will fit my macros to my liking (I'm not always spot on, but close enough). I'll make changes as necessary, but most of what I log I end up eating. Some people's lifestyles make pre-logging difficult, such as people that travel a lot or have really active social lives. But for people like me, it's perfect. All I do is work, lift, eat, and sleep. I'm married, so I don't have to worry about dates, and I don't have the patience to maintain a lot of friendships, so it's not as if I have some girl's night causing issues with my macros. And that's how I like it. Quiet and simple. I'm an old lady at heart. 0 -
I'm out of the house for breakfast and lunch every day, so I make my food and log it the night before. If I ever want to log before I make my food I just estimate and then fix the numbers when I make it - but the estimate is always either spot on or off by just a little because when I log ahead I always know about how much going to eat. The only reason it's ever off more is if a food package doesn't actually have the amount it says on the label.0
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I try to pre plan my dinners a week to 10 days in advance. Most if the recipe's I use are loaded into a program I have called Master Cook, which, if you add it accurately, gives a usable nutrition summary. I then pre-log those meals into MFP and fine tune depending on portion sizes.0
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I prelog breakfast (which never changes) and dinner. Whatever room is leftover tells me what I can have for lunch. Knowing in advance whether I have room to indulge in a little dessert makes the treat guilt-free, which tastes better.
After each meal I log back in and compare reality to my prelog, adjusting as needed. I've been logging for almost two years now, so my estimates are typically very close to true.0 -
@LyndseyLovesToLift - I agree with you. Once I pre-logged this week while planning my menu and grocery list, it all came together. I made a ham the week before and just diced it and divided it into 1.5 oz servings along with spinach and onions to cook with an egg in the mornings. That's 10 breakfasts for my family done and logged. And you're right about consistently measuring during prep for sandwiches/salads/etc. It's actually not difficult at all.
I've lost 30 pounds without pre-logging, but feel like this set me up for future weight loss. It's nice not to have to think about what I'm going to eat every day -- just go to my diary. I often have 200-300 calories leftover to play with for snacks throughout the day. I'm also more likely to eat leftovers using this method because they're already measured out and logged. Really enjoying it so far -- thanks all for the comments!0 -
What an interesting concept, I hadn't considered this before. I usually have an idea of what I'm going to eat but keep it kind of loose because sometimes I change my mind and eat different things within the same calories. Maybe I should try this!0
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callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »i only prelog for that day. and i go back and fine tune measurements when i prepare it.
Ditto. It's not perfect the night before, but I find it super helpful in staying in my calories.0
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