Calorie/Water Question

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  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
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    Divide the full meal into what YOU will eat as a portion regularly and then weigh your plate, that way you won't suffer from portion creep...or disappointment at a half full plate.

    I would keep activity level on not very active and add all your activities...better to forget to log something you did than get credit for something you didn't. ;)

    You only have to drink when you are thirsty...number of glasses of water was debunked...and all liquids other than booze count as well as water dense foods.

    Congratulations on starting! :)
  • godlikepoetyes
    godlikepoetyes Posts: 442 Member
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    When I cook a recipe, I find one that is very clear about servings--look online. Many will give you the serving size in grams. From there, use the recipe builder and stick to the recipe. OR, build your own recipes. I do this often and do have to estimate how many servings--you will get used to this. As a general rule, I overestimate rather than underestimate. As far as the activity level goes, set it at "sedentary" to start. Most of us are sedentary, even if we get regular exercise.

    It takes time to get used to MFP, how it works. There are some visual cues for serving sizes--3 oz. of meat is a deck of cards, 1 tablespoon is the size of your thumb. These cues will NOT take the place of weighing your food, but will get you into the mindset of what a portion looks like. I eat off of small plates or saucers. I bought some tiny bowls for ice cream, etc.

    Good luck. This program works for most of us. You'll figure it out.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited June 2016
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    Activity level:
    ALWAYS have your activity level at sedentary regardless of your exercise unless your job requires you to be on your feet all day. MFP gives you your base calories based on that then any exercise you add gives you extra calories if needed. MFP provides good guidelines how to setup your activity level. Read the descriptions to determine yours

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    Recipes:
    It will take some time and effort at first, but once you have your recipes set up it becomes a lot easier. Here is how I do it:
    1. Enter all ingredients of a recipe by weight in the recipe builder
    2. Weigh the pot/skillet/casserole I'm using to prepare food and write the weight down
    3. Weigh the finished dish in the pot
    4. Subtract the weight of the pot to get the weight of the food alone
    5. Enter number of servings based on the weight. In my case I like to use 100 grams as a serving because it's easy to calculate - if my recipe weighs 2500 grams for example, I would enter the number of servings as 25.
    In this example the whole recipe weighs 1300 grams so I entered 13 as a number of servings.
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    6. From then on, you won't need to re-enter the ingredients if you make this dish again. All you need to do is weigh out what you will be eating and use the appropriate amount. In this case I had 375 grams of this dish.
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    It seems involved, but it's not. It only takes time and effort at first, but as you gradually build your recipe arsenal it's as simple as logging it like you would any other easy to weigh food and you don't need to change it unless you make changes to something that has a lot of calories (example if I used 70 grams of oil instead of 35)



  • Losingweight1983
    Losingweight1983 Posts: 14 Member
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    Ok another question: do you eat every one of your calories minus the exercise ones? I have 37 calories left over for the day (am eating dinner right now) and wondering if I should add anything extra to make up that 37 calories or just call it good for the day?
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    Losingweight1983 wrote: »
    Ok another question: do you eat every one of your calories minus the exercise ones? I have 37 calories left over for the day (am eating dinner right now) and wondering if I should add anything extra to make up that 37 calories or just call it good for the day?

    I'd call it a day. Remember, calorie counting is not 100% precise. I mostly always leave a buffer at the end of the day to make up for any little inaccuracies i make here or there.
  • Losingweight1983
    Losingweight1983 Posts: 14 Member
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    Christine_72 wrote: »
    Losingweight1983 wrote: »
    Ok another question: do you eat every one of your calories minus the exercise ones? I have 37 calories left over for the day (am eating dinner right now) and wondering if I should add anything extra to make up that 37 calories or just call it good for the day?

    I'd call it a day. Remember, calorie counting is not 100% precise. I mostly always leave a buffer at the end of the day to make up for any little inaccuracies i make here or there.

    OK that is what I thought but I wasn't for sure. I'm still new to the whole tracking calories thing so I appreciate the feedback from everyone.

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