I understand and then I don't (scales and weighing and calorie worrying)
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emmylootwo wrote: »emmylootwo wrote: »Edit:
Just wanted to add that I think, for me, it's bordering on obsession and eating disorder territory to weigh individual packages of food like a bag of chips or a tub of yogurt. My food scale is primarily used for things that need to be portioned out (like chips from a family sized bag or homemade recipes) or veggies, meats, cheese, rice etc. I was told to weigh slices of a bread because they could be wildly off, but at least with the brand I'm using, every single slice has been spot on. I don't bother with it anymore.
If I like playing with numbers and do not get stressed out about my calories, and if weighing packages of food does not keep me from eating like anyone else, does not keep me from socializing around food, does not cause me health issues, etc., how is it "bordering on obsession and eating disorder territory"?
I think FOR ME it is bordering on obsession and eating disorder territory. FOR ME. I have a history of bulimia nervosa and struggle with losing weight now in a healthy mindset. Please don't "pick fights" if you're not going to read my original post.
I can understand where you are coming from. I had disordered eating and really worried that weighing would become an obsession (anorexia by scale) and contribute to a relapse. Thankfully, that hasn't happened, but I can definitely see why someone with a history of eating disorders might choose to avoid something that could act as a trigger.5 -
I don't think it's really so much about something being 3.2 ounces vs 3.5 ounces...at least it wasn't for me. For me it was about logging 4 ounces of chicken because that's what the packaging said was a serving size...when in reality a whole chicken breast is more like 8 ounces so I was eating double. Other calorie dense things like nuts and nut butters, pasta, etc were also an issue for me.
I never weighed every little thing and really never weighed packaged items or made sure my V8 was exactly 11.5 ounces or anything like that...I just weighed certain items which I knew were potential pitfalls...mostly really calorie dense items.
Using a food scale taught me how to better estimate things visually, so I don't use it as much anymore.5 -
Height 5'6"" starting weight 204 Current weight 170 Ultimate weight 155
Do I weigh my food-never
Do I log? Often
Do I keep about under my allotted calories yes
Is it working for me right now-absolutely
I am very disciplined about walking most days-or biking or something.
I weigh myself daily.
If I plateau then I MAY buy a food scale.1 -
I started so close to my goal, need to stick to my calories to ensure weightloss etc. blah blah blah. Everyone else has said this.
Apart from that very good reason, I love weighing everything because then I KNOW what to expect. When I started, the only reason why I started was because this way I don't have to guess what i'm eating and hope it equals weightloss. I don't have to be that person who skips all the treats, eats only salad and then binges four days later. I was not going to start this just to lose a couple of kilos if it meant being miserable (and then going back to old habits anyway). Basically, I love it because I know how much pizza I can fit into my day and still lose weight. Love me some pizza.8 -
emmylootwo wrote: »
Edit:
Just wanted to add that I think, for me, it's bordering on obsession and eating disorder territory to weigh individual packages of food like a bag of chips or a tub of yogurt. My food scale is primarily used for things that need to be portioned out (like chips from a family sized bag or homemade recipes) or veggies, meats, cheese, rice etc. I was told to weigh slices of a bread because they could be wildly off, but at least with the brand I'm using, every single slice has been spot on. I don't bother with it anymore.
I bought an individually wrapped cookie (a big one) that I weighed out because it looked suspiciously large. It was nearly 100g over the stated package weight, and that's a big caloric difference when we're talking about something like a cookie.
Same with individually wrapped potatoes for the microwave. They are ALWAYS 50g+ above the weight on the label.
I used to skip eggs, but I switched to another brand and discovered that while the old brand was consistent enough to avoid weighing, this one was consistently 60g per egg instead of 50g. Etc.
I ordered a pretzel from Auntie Anne's a couple of weeks ago. It was huge and delicious, and I ate it all, but I weighed it first. It was a good thing. On their website, the stated weight was something like 150g. My pretzel weighed 225g. Like the cookie, that's a huge difference.
I will skip weighing individual slices of packaged bread pretty often, to be honest, but I'll often weigh one slice out of the package just to check. They're usually 1 or 2 grams off, so I let that go. Bagels are another story. Last one I weighed was 15% larger than the package stated.
I won't say I weigh 100% of everything all of the time, but 90% sounds about right.
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I started so close to my goal, need to stick to my calories to ensure weightloss etc. blah blah blah. Everyone else has said this.
Apart from that very good reason, I love weighing everything because then I KNOW what to expect. When I started, the only reason why I started was because this way I don't have to guess what i'm eating and hope it equals weightloss. I don't have to be that person who skips all the treats, eats only salad and then binges four days later. I was not going to start this just to lose a couple of kilos if it meant being miserable (and then going back to old habits anyway). Basically, I love it because I know how much pizza I can fit into my day and still lose weight. Love me some pizza.
SO much this as well. If I want a giant slice of cake, I can weigh it and make it fit!2 -
janejellyroll wrote: »I weigh 108. When I weighed an orange I ate recently, I found it was 40 calories more than what I had initially logged (based on eye-balling the fruit). For my calorie goal, that's a big deal.
Others may have more wiggle room, but when you are dealing with fewer calories, accuracy can be important.
Yes and no. I only had about 14lbs to lose at the end of 2009 and by the time that I joined MFP I had already lost 6 lbs without counting calories. I lost the rest and got to maintenance by just measuring, estimating, and even using some generic entries in this database. I didn't get a food scale until I reached maintenance and that was almost 6 years ago. The only reason to get the scale was to count my macros.
I am now hooked to the scale few times a week. I don't take the scale with me when on vacation, eating out or a friends house; heck I don't even estimate or log when I don't make the meals myself. I am trying to break the scale "umbilical cord."
So it is possible to lose weight and even maintain without a scale, but I agree that it may take more time; so if people don't mind and have good eating habits and are aware of what and how much they are eating, just let it be.
After all we are all special snow flakes...1 -
"Thanks for sharing your opinion on this. And if you don't get it, you just don't get it! Not rocket science here.
Not to be snarkie at all, don't do it and for those of us that got many years under our belts, we will stick with what we know and what works for us!
And by the way, some us do train! And some do have health issues and some just want to stay or be as healthy as they can, they reached a goal and want to keep it that way."
Unfortunately..you do come off as snarkie..and I am fairly certain, that's how you intended it to be. I believe I mentioned, my opinion, and also gave instances of where it could be important. I also did not accuse anyone of NOT Training? So thanks for your reply..and I am fairly sure, you intended it to be snarkie. It is what happens on forums like these, when people assume they know what others mean, or imply and rush to judgement.1 -
"When you have a large amount of weight to lose, and reduce your calories as drastically as you did, then weighing matters less. A 308 pound man can lose if he estimates food. It is also possible just to cut out stuff like soft drinks or candy and lose without really counting calories.
The challenge is when you are trying to lose a pound a week and you only weigh 150 pounds. Then every gram really does matter.
Being 200 calories "off" a day matters very little when you are 300 pounds. But once you reach the lower range 200 calories extra a day can be the difference in loss and gain."
I believe I said this very same thing in my original post? (If you re-read my original post) My question is..at 150 pounds..why are you trying to lose one pound a week? Is it training for something? Is it an ideal weight you simply want to reach? I said I understand and yet I don't? Is it life or death if instead of 1 pound a week..it's 1/2 pound..or 3/4 of a pound? Once you reach whatever goal you set..are you then going to be at the mercy of a food scale for the rest of your life to maintain a certain weight?
Again..I am not attacking anyone for whatever they do? I just truly would like get where some folks are coming from. If it's to help with your mindset..I can understand that completely. Losing weight and eating right is a mental battle as well as a physical one.0 -
BiggDaddy58 wrote: »"When you have a large amount of weight to lose, and reduce your calories as drastically as you did, then weighing matters less. A 308 pound man can lose if he estimates food. It is also possible just to cut out stuff like soft drinks or candy and lose without really counting calories.
The challenge is when you are trying to lose a pound a week and you only weigh 150 pounds. Then every gram really does matter.
Being 200 calories "off" a day matters very little when you are 300 pounds. But once you reach the lower range 200 calories extra a day can be the difference in loss and gain."
I believe I said this very same thing in my original post? (If you re-read my original post) My question is..at 150 pounds..why are you trying to lose one pound a week? Is it training for something? Is it an ideal weight you simply want to reach? I said I understand and yet I don't? Is it life or death if instead of 1 pound a week..it's 1/2 pound..or 3/4 of a pound? Once you reach whatever goal you set..are you then going to be at the mercy of a food scale for the rest of your life to maintain a certain weight?
Again..I am not attacking anyone for whatever they do? I just truly would like get where some folks are coming from. If it's to help with your mindset..I can understand that completely. Losing weight and eating right is a mental battle as well as a physical one.
Asking questions and learning from other is great. However, I think you'll understand it more if/when you get to a point where you stop losing weight but haven't reached your goal weight yet. I think then the accuracy of weighing food will make more sense to you.
But, just wait and see. Maybe you will lose all of your weight doing exactly as you are now. There's no one-size-fits-all.5 -
BiggDaddy58 wrote: »"When you have a large amount of weight to lose, and reduce your calories as drastically as you did, then weighing matters less. A 308 pound man can lose if he estimates food. It is also possible just to cut out stuff like soft drinks or candy and lose without really counting calories.
The challenge is when you are trying to lose a pound a week and you only weigh 150 pounds. Then every gram really does matter.
Being 200 calories "off" a day matters very little when you are 300 pounds. But once you reach the lower range 200 calories extra a day can be the difference in loss and gain."
I believe I said this very same thing in my original post? (If you re-read my original post) My question is..at 150 pounds..why are you trying to lose one pound a week? Is it training for something? Is it an ideal weight you simply want to reach? I said I understand and yet I don't? Is it life or death if instead of 1 pound a week..it's 1/2 pound..or 3/4 of a pound? Once you reach whatever goal you set..are you then going to be at the mercy of a food scale for the rest of your life to maintain a certain weight?
Again..I am not attacking anyone for whatever they do? I just truly would like get where some folks are coming from. If it's to help with your mindset..I can understand that completely. Losing weight and eating right is a mental battle as well as a physical one.
I do plan on using a food scale for the foreseeable future even though I am maintaining. It's easier than trying to eyeball what I'm eating. I don't see it as being at the "mercy" of anything -- it's a freeing tool for me.6 -
Did you expect a bunch of high -5's?
It was a vaguely inflammatory post which put down a large percentage of readers main method of achieving their health goal and keeping control of their weight loss.
It's like when my training buddy told me she lost 2 inches from her hips with just training and no change to her diet. Delighted for her but still wanted to punch her in the face. Gently though.17 -
BiggDaddy58 wrote: »"When you have a large amount of weight to lose, and reduce your calories as drastically as you did, then weighing matters less. A 308 pound man can lose if he estimates food. It is also possible just to cut out stuff like soft drinks or candy and lose without really counting calories.
The challenge is when you are trying to lose a pound a week and you only weigh 150 pounds. Then every gram really does matter.
Being 200 calories "off" a day matters very little when you are 300 pounds. But once you reach the lower range 200 calories extra a day can be the difference in loss and gain."
I believe I said this very same thing in my original post? (If you re-read my original post) My question is..at 150 pounds..why are you trying to lose one pound a week? Is it training for something? Is it an ideal weight you simply want to reach? I said I understand and yet I don't? Is it life or death if instead of 1 pound a week..it's 1/2 pound..or 3/4 of a pound? Once you reach whatever goal you set..are you then going to be at the mercy of a food scale for the rest of your life to maintain a certain weight?
Again..I am not attacking anyone for whatever they do? I just truly would like get where some folks are coming from. If it's to help with your mindset..I can understand that completely. Losing weight and eating right is a mental battle as well as a physical one.
Lets just say I don't understand why you don't understand, and it makes absolutely no difference. I'm coming from --I do what works.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »cmcollins001 wrote: »My initial run with MFP I lost about 90 +/- pounds. Life stuff happened and I stopped logging and hitting the gym. However, I thought I "had" this thing. For the most part, I paid attention to what I thought I was eating, with a lot of eyeballing and guessing.
Fast forward to today. While I never gained all the weight back, I did gain a large chunk of it back. I've started tracking again and it has made the difference, down 20ish pounds in the last 2-2 1/2 months. Do I weigh everything? Nope. But I do make it a habit of weighing most things. I don't weigh pre-packaged food of the single serving variety, but if it's something where I only eat part of it, then yes, I weigh it when I am at home and have the scale handy. I'll never be one of those who brings a scale out to a restaurant...it's just not THAT important to me. I'll either not log it, count it as one of those days, and move on. The goal is to have more logged days than not logged days.
I still haven't gotten back in the gym, but tracking my food is what is currently working. I could probably lose more or eat more if I started back in the gym, I'm just...to be honest...too lazy for that at the moment. I don't want to take the time out to get it done. That's all on me. I'm in no hurry and so far what I'm doing is working; when it stops working, I'll do something else.
People lose weight different ways. That's not to say that it's still not calories in/calories out, but the way they go about CI/CO is different. Keto, paleo, IIFYM, vegan, etc., the goal is the same. The bottom line is to find what works for you, and when it stops working, change it up a little until you find something that you can maintain. Personally, I found what works for the dropping portion of the game, it's the maintaining that I need to work on.
I agree with most of your post, just want to point out that veganism isn't a weight loss plan. It's an ethical position. The goal is to avoid unnecessary animal exploitation, not to lose weight.
I wasn't referring to those of you who are vegan because it's an ethical position, I was referring to those who use it as a weight loss program of sorts.
Some, not all, but some "go vegan" to lose weight, that is the only reason I added it to the list. It's the same, in this particular scenario, as going gluten free when you do not have a gluten intolerance, because someone said it was the "healthy" thing to do.1 -
"All of this.
Got a huge deficit you can do, you've got a ton of leeway for incorrect estimates. Take advantage of it. No reason to be nitpicky and make things difficult if you're being successful.
When you don't have that much leeway, lots of people find that weight loss is not so easy. That's when weighing comes in. "
Once again, I acknowledged this in my original post? I think perhaps some are taking offense w/o really reading what I wrote? I said "I know the weight comes off easier, when you are really overweight" and then "Maybe if I get down to 198 and have serious trouble losing anymore , I'll get more serious about it. But this is a lifestyle change, it should not, after time, require food scales and worrying over juice in a can..should it?"
So I basically said in my original post exactly what you just said and a slew of people liked..which means nobody read what I posted..they rushed to post? This happens a lot in online forums.
My thought is..as the first replier to my post said "those of us that got many years under our belts, we will stick with what we know and what works for us!"
I never said CHANGE what you're doing. I didn't say it was dumb or incorrect or stupid. I simply thought, if you have years under your belt, I would think at some point you would be able to tell what you can eat, what is good for you, what to avoid, how much to eat and so on.
My intent was not to antagonize people..or question what they were doing? I have only read a few thoughts, but that surely looks where the responses are headed to me. Defensive replies to what is perceived as an attack on what they do? That was not the intent of my original post.1 -
cmcollins001 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »cmcollins001 wrote: »My initial run with MFP I lost about 90 +/- pounds. Life stuff happened and I stopped logging and hitting the gym. However, I thought I "had" this thing. For the most part, I paid attention to what I thought I was eating, with a lot of eyeballing and guessing.
Fast forward to today. While I never gained all the weight back, I did gain a large chunk of it back. I've started tracking again and it has made the difference, down 20ish pounds in the last 2-2 1/2 months. Do I weigh everything? Nope. But I do make it a habit of weighing most things. I don't weigh pre-packaged food of the single serving variety, but if it's something where I only eat part of it, then yes, I weigh it when I am at home and have the scale handy. I'll never be one of those who brings a scale out to a restaurant...it's just not THAT important to me. I'll either not log it, count it as one of those days, and move on. The goal is to have more logged days than not logged days.
I still haven't gotten back in the gym, but tracking my food is what is currently working. I could probably lose more or eat more if I started back in the gym, I'm just...to be honest...too lazy for that at the moment. I don't want to take the time out to get it done. That's all on me. I'm in no hurry and so far what I'm doing is working; when it stops working, I'll do something else.
People lose weight different ways. That's not to say that it's still not calories in/calories out, but the way they go about CI/CO is different. Keto, paleo, IIFYM, vegan, etc., the goal is the same. The bottom line is to find what works for you, and when it stops working, change it up a little until you find something that you can maintain. Personally, I found what works for the dropping portion of the game, it's the maintaining that I need to work on.
I agree with most of your post, just want to point out that veganism isn't a weight loss plan. It's an ethical position. The goal is to avoid unnecessary animal exploitation, not to lose weight.
I wasn't referring to those of you who are vegan because it's an ethical position, I was referring to those who use it as a weight loss program of sorts.
Some, not all, but some "go vegan" to lose weight, that is the only reason I added it to the list. It's the same, in this particular scenario, as going gluten free when you do not have a gluten intolerance, because someone said it was the "healthy" thing to do.
I think you're talking about plant-based diets. You're right -- so people do that to lose weight, but veganism would involve avoiding non-food forms of animal exploitation as well.1 -
Did you expect a bunch of high -5's?
It was a vaguely inflammatory post which put down a large percentage of readers main method of achieving their health goal and keeping control of their weight loss.
It's like when my training buddy told me she lost 2 inches from her hips with just training and no change to her diet. Delighted for her but still wanted to punch her in the face. Gently though.
That's a lie, but good for you for restraining yourself! Your comment made me laugh.2 -
BiggDaddy58 wrote: »"All of this.
Got a huge deficit you can do, you've got a ton of leeway for incorrect estimates. Take advantage of it. No reason to be nitpicky and make things difficult if you're being successful.
When you don't have that much leeway, lots of people find that weight loss is not so easy. That's when weighing comes in. "
Once again, I acknowledged this in my original post? I think perhaps some are taking offense w/o really reading what I wrote? I said "I know the weight comes off easier, when you are really overweight" and then "Maybe if I get down to 198 and have serious trouble losing anymore , I'll get more serious about it. But this is a lifestyle change, it should not, after time, require food scales and worrying over juice in a can..should it?"
So I basically said in my original post exactly what you just said and a slew of people liked..which means nobody read what I posted..they rushed to post? This happens a lot in online forums.
My thought is..as the first replier to my post said "those of us that got many years under our belts, we will stick with what we know and what works for us!"
I never said CHANGE what you're doing. I didn't say it was dumb or incorrect or stupid. I simply thought, if you have years under your belt, I would think at some point you would be able to tell what you can eat, what is good for you, what to avoid, how much to eat and so on.
My intent was not to antagonize people..or question what they were doing? I have only read a few thoughts, but that surely looks where the responses are headed to me. Defensive replies to what is perceived as an attack on what they do? That was not the intent of my original post.
Many of us using scales *do* know how much we need (or want) to eat. The scale is the tool that helps us ensure we are eating that much and not accidentally eating more. And of course we know what we want to eat and what we don't. The scale isn't choosing the food for us.5 -
I use scales not just because I don't want to eat over my calorie allowance, but also because I don't want to eat too much under it. I'm not good at guessing amounts, and see no reason to try if I don't have to (and as long as I have scales, I don't have to).3
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BiggDaddy58 wrote: »I simply thought, if you have years under your belt, I would think at some point you would be able to tell what you can eat, what is good for you, what to avoid, how much to eat and so on.
Because it's not about what you eat, but how much. I gained weight eating healthy, whole foods. I lost weight eating healthy, whole foods, just less of them. I I were to rely on eyeballing or satiety cues, I'd never be able to maintain my weight; that's what got me in trouble in the first place.
I did the math one time and I gained my weight eating only about 180 extra calories a day. Those 180 calories crept up on me slowly over time. 180 calories doesn't seem like much, but it's incredibly easy to eat 180 unneeded calories a day if you're not watching it. Weighing is how I watch it.
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