Does anyone track offline?

I have a FitBook.I also track here though.

Back when I first needed to lose weight I wrote everything down. I don't track anything now.

Tracking stuff on a notebook is all I do, and a bit of Excel

" it takes just a few seconds to google and then I could start a small list of these that I frequently eat, with their calorie numbers." Eggxactly !!!

I have two pages on my notebook with bookmark for the major items.

Eg

pork 2.3 cal/gram,
rice 1.3,
beef 2.5

The rest comes from bottle, package

...you got the idea.

I have lots and lots of index cards with random foods and weights written on them, I just grab one, write it down, and then log it later, if it's a food I don't normally eat, I'll write down the calories next to it.
As much as I like writing things on pen and paper, I'd be too finicky about how things are laid out, I'd want to change the format, etc. and probably drive myself nuts redoing it. Let's not get into the math of adding things up. 2+2=18, right? Whatever ends up working best for you, though!

I used to track off-line back in the mid-1980s before I had a computer.

When I got a computer, I started tracking in an Excel spreadsheet.

Then I tried out a few other online programs similar to MFP, but didn't like them very much because they were difficult to use.

And when I signed up here, I figured I'd be here for just a few weeks because this one was likely as difficult to use as the rest ... but I was very pleasantly surprised to find how easy MFP was to use, how extensive the database was (some of the others didn't have Canadian or Australian foods), and how accurate things were.

In the first couple weeks, there is a bit of searching and entering, but once you've got a collection of what you usually eat, then it's just a matter of clicking "Quick Add" and selecting the previous day or last Tuesday or whatever ... then making minor changes as necessary.

And now I've finally got a smartphone, so I can use the barcode scanner ... I'm finding that rather fascinating.

If you prefer writing down your calorie info. check out the link for a notebook called the DietMinder. I use it along with MFP to keep notes and track my sleep, exercise, etc.

amazon.com/DIETMINDER-Personal-Fitness-Journal-Exercise/dp/0963796836

ReaderGirl3 wrote: »

I think MFP is great, but now that I'm back to tracking my calorie intake, I've spent quite a bit of time entering items that have incorrect calorie information to my food diary, realizing the calorie counts are off, deleting said entries from my food diary, and then having to manually input new ones (going off the packages I have). The whole process is grating my nerves. Today, as I entered my second 'corrected' entry I had a possible light bulb moment-since I only track calories (not macros), why can't I just write down my calories in a notebook? I'm having to double check all my packages anyways, so this seems like it would eliminate a lot of hassle. For the things that don't have packages (veggies etc), it takes just a few seconds to google and then I could start a small list of these that I frequently eat, with their calorie numbers.

Does anyone else track offline in a notebook or something similar? How do you like doing it this way? Is there a negative to this I'm not seeing?

I don't experience your issue. A lot of what I eat is whole foods, and I get the syntax for them from https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods and then match them against MFP system entries. When I buy a new packaged food, I check the package against MFP entries the first time I use it and then it is there in my Recent foods.

On the rare occasion that I find a system entry with a decimal or units error (for example liquid measurements instead of grams), I send Support an email and they generally fix it within 24 hours.

I use a notebook too I keep it in my purse and find it easier and quicker to just jot down calories. For me it just works better than signing into MFP every time I eat something. I still Google calorie amounts if I don't know, but I write it down. I don't see a downside. *Edited to say I also felt the same way as you, the process of correcting and finding the right item gets on my nerves, and I would stop tracking altogether because it became such a hassle sometimes.

for whole foods, i use the entry that matches the usda data. for packaged foods, I scan the barcode using the MFP app on my phone. for restaurants, I estimate and choose an entry that looks close to what I think it should be. then all those selections are in my "recent" list. I very rarely have to actually manually create an entry. Takes me all of 5-10 minutes a day to log.