How honest are you with MFP food tracking?

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  • Elvirka_xoxo
    Elvirka_xoxo Posts: 58 Member
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    20likenow wrote: »
    I log everything to the best of my ability. The other day I had two French fries and I logged them lol.

    Thank you for being the most honest person on here ;)
  • TaraTall
    TaraTall Posts: 339 Member
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    Agreed. When I started, I wasn't that honest but now I have improved tremendously. And, noticed a difference.
  • Aetheldreda
    Aetheldreda Posts: 241 Member
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    I log with honesty and as accurately as I can, with the exception of the week between Christmas and New Year. I am only fooling myself otherwise.
  • obriendp762
    obriendp762 Posts: 9 Member
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    At this point, where I am actively working to loose significant weight, I log everything but water or no calorie drinks. I need to be honest if this is going to work. I also overestimate if I am unsure that the item in the food dictionary is correct. I also prefer to cook and eat at home. My weakness is cocktails and wine, which are woefully under represented in the dictionary, so I pick the closest thing and increase the servings.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 4,981 Member
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    I am as honest as I possibly can be. If I eat out at a mom and pop restaurant I usually look up several similar choices and then log it as the highest one. I did just guess during Thanksgiving and Christmas because I didn't want to take my food scale and weigh my food when I was at someone else's house, but I try to overestimate if I'm not sure. But I log everything I eat even if it is one single saltine cracker.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    The only person you're cheating by not logging everything is yourself.

    If you're worried about what other people think, just close your diary.
  • itsmemaringle
    itsmemaringle Posts: 69 Member
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    I log everything! My diary is open to friends. I'm tracking because I want to lose weight and tracking takes the guessing out of the equation.... For me Stop tracking = Stop losing and really may as well not bother at all.
  • darkchocthunda
    darkchocthunda Posts: 20 Member
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    itsmemaringle wrote: »
    I log everything! My diary is open to friends. I'm tracking because I want to lose weight and tracking takes the guessing out of the equation.... For me Stop tracking = Stop losing and really may as well not bother at all.

    This, there's no point in doing this if you're not accurate. You won't lose the weight either.
  • CooCooPuff
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
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    I'm not super accurate with logging diet sodas or vitamin waters. Otherwise, I try to be very accurate.

    I don't care if someone doesn't like the amount of sodium or sugar I've eaten this week. I weigh less than I did in high school; I am the only person in my immediate family not at risk for diabetes; and have improved from my days of secret eating and binging that caused me to balloon to my heaviest in my early twenties, and from the period of undereating that caused me to lose my period and shed a lot of hair only a few years later.
  • jessetfan
    jessetfan Posts: 373 Member
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    I try to be very accurate because I really want to lose weight. I don't eat the healthiest diet on here, but I keep my calories in check, and I've lost 30 pounds. My diary is for me, not for everyone else, so if someone wants to judge me for it, that says a lot more about them than it does about me. If I don't log it that doesn't mean I didn't eat it, it just means I'm not likely to remember it when I wonder why I didn't lose.
  • sanfromny
    sanfromny Posts: 770 Member
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    I used to feel bad and not log the ice cream and cheesecake. I would just not log my exercise if I had exercised that day and called it even but I realize now it's just like I tell my kids....If you don't want to own up to it then don't do it. Now I log everything, including condiments. How? I use ketchup, mustard and mayo packets...already pre-measured!

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,998 Member
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    darkchocthunda wrote: »
    itsmemaringle wrote: »
    I log everything! My diary is open to friends. I'm tracking because I want to lose weight and tracking takes the guessing out of the equation.... For me Stop tracking = Stop losing and really may as well not bother at all.

    This, there's no point in doing this if you're not accurate. You won't lose the weight either.

    Well that's not quite true.

    If you eat less than you burn, you will lose weight.

    I don't log ' dishonestly' ie I don't deliberately omit anything I eat - but I don't log accurately. I practice very lazy logging - every slice of bread is the same, every mandarine is a medium one, I estimate on meals out etc.

    But I did lose my desired weight doing this.

    I do agree that if one is not losing weight as intended, tightening up logging is one of the first steps.
  • ElizabethOakes2
    ElizabethOakes2 Posts: 1,038 Member
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    I'm very careful with my logging, but that's mostly because my husband and I are doing this together, and he often uses what I've logged as the basis for his log. I do all of the shopping, cooking, and meal planning, so it's much easier for him to look at my log and copy, say, the ingredients for the salad I made for dinner to his log.
    I've worked in restaurants and prep kitchens for a lot of my life so I can pretty much eyeball 2.5 oz of cooked mahi-mahi and two cups of spinach, but he can't, and his logged '2.5 oz' serving of fish will end up being a consumed 6.8 oz serving if I don't weigh everything I cook and record how much we ate.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,890 Member
    edited January 2016
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    When I'm on a mission to lose weight ... I'm very honest. I lost 26 kg in 2015 that way. :)

    I log right down to the 5 grams of margarine I put on my bread this evening. :grin:
  • KareninLux
    KareninLux Posts: 1,413 Member
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    Trying hard to be as accurate as possible to figure out what works the best and how much flex I can enjoy. Little slippage related to exercise logging because I really don't want to buy a fitbit. I am a control freak enough and would be over the top with a fit bit or something like it. I am trying to be a little loose with the control freakish ness. lol.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I log honestly. The diary is for helping me not to impress anyone.
    I want to be able to look at it and see what I did and what works best for lifelong eating habits. Realistically, I am going to eat cake some days. If I only log carrots and not the cake that isn't going to help me learn to eat cake in appropriate amounts.
  • OyGeeBiv
    OyGeeBiv Posts: 733 Member
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    I log for all the reasons others have said...AND because I have memory loss, and some evenings I actually can't remember what I had for breakfast.
  • 20months
    20months Posts: 62 Member
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    a_little_less_lauren wrote: »
    I'm honest. I can pretend all I want, though, it won't fool the scale

    Spot on!
  • suziecue20
    suziecue20 Posts: 567 Member
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    If I wasn't as accurate as I can be I wouldn't be able to review my six days calorie total to see if I can have a scrummy treat [not cheat] on the seventh day.
  • spzjlb
    spzjlb Posts: 599 Member
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    Elvirka_xoxo wrote: »
    I realized something. If I eat something bad, I try to hide it by not inputting the information to MFP. But who am I kidding, calories from that chocolate cake is not gonna disappear just because I didn't track it.

    So I'm curious. How many people on here do the same thing or put their best days without being honest with themselves and being in a state of denial? I know I do that. Although I did just put down Boston Creme Donut into my Meal#2 so here goes all of my sugar for the day!

    I so know how you feel!!! If I don't log it, I didn't eat it... But, I always do. I recently ate a big pile of potato chips - I'm in maintenance and so seriously thought about skipping logging because of the chips. But I logged honestly and moved on. I worked out a little longer the next day and also realize that maybe buttery popcorn would be a lower calorie, high volume snack another time.

    This is is a really good issue to think about. I truly believe that those who succeed with long term weight loss/fitness are honest with themselves and log food and exercise properly. Those who ignore "little" things and assume that a little cheating can't hurt really do themselves a disservice in the long run. It certainly is fine to splurge or go over calories, or to skip a workout, but we have to do so mindfully and note it. Otherwise, progress is a bigger challenge and we are more likely to stall/get frustrated.

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