Portion control - how accurate is it?

SonaliDeuskar wrote: »

So day 2 of my weight loss plan. I walked/ran about 5 Km so the cardio part of it was taken care of. Now my difficulty as always is when to stop eating. Weighing out all my food seems excessively obsessive. But based on today, I just might have to start doing that, coz estimating quantities is pointless.
Also how does one count the calories in home cooked meals?

Recipe builder...

Also, if you want to accurately log portions you have to either weigh them out or measure them. Weighing is more accurate for most solids (though I always have and still just measure out my grains, rice, and stuff like that)...but really, if you didn't weigh out your chicken how do you know if you're actually logging what you eat...and all of those inaccuracies can add up...just look at how many "why am I not losing threads" there are here...people are woefully bad at estimating portions.

Also, you want to make sure you're selecting proper entries from the database...there are a lot of generic and otherwise erroneous use entries for things in the database...IMO, this is even a bigger issue than not getting the portions right. For awhile, you're going to want to cross reference your entries with something else...whether that be the packaging or the USDA site or other...cross reference and spend some time verifying things. After awhile you'll basically have our own library built and it won't be quite as much work.

SonaliDeuskar wrote: »

So day 2 of my weight loss plan. I walked/ran about 5 Km so the cardio part of it was taken care of. Now my difficulty as always is when to stop eating. Weighing out all my food seems excessively obsessive. But based on today, I just might have to start doing that, coz estimating quantities is pointless.

If you truly do not want to weigh your food, I suggest the following:

For two weeks, eat as you do right now but write down every single thing you eat each day. Most people eat the same foods over and over and in similar portions. So you could write "X food, 1/4 plate" and the next time write that you ate 1 serving of 1/4 plate or 2 servings or whatever. Be brutally honest. Then after two weeks look at what you've eaten and make the conscious decision to eat either fewer portions or smaller portions of the same food. This will only work if you are brutally honest about what you are eating each day.

Also how does one count the calories in home cooked meals?

Use the recipe builder.

Like you said, estimating is pointless. If you're gonna do it, you might as well not waste your time and weigh everything. You don't want to put all this effort into not losing weight and not lose weight (or not lose as much as you should be). Honestly, weighing everything was annoying at first but it gets so much easier. I'm only on day 45 and it's already something that I don't even have to think about.

SonaliDeuskar wrote: »

Hmm...that's good advice everyone. So have ordered a kitchen scale from Amazon. Will soon find out how disruptive that is and if I can make it an everyday practice. Since this is just day 2 of my first sincere attempt at dieting ...I really don't know what will work for me and what won't.

Good! Use it as a tool to learn from. As you consistently weigh and measure your food for a while pay attention to weights and portion sizes so that you can learn to eyeball more accurately.

And, you're right: this whole process is trial and error. Be patient and see what works and what doesn't work for you.

After a few months of weighing food I got pretty good at eyeballing. I still weigh calorie dense foods many times. Once I hit my initial weight goal I didn't weigh food at all and was able to maintain with eyeballing and healthy choices. So weighing food is not necessarily something you have to do forever. But it will be truly eye opening once you use your scale and see how much you OVER estimated food. I was eating double servings of cereal, peanut butter, etc. before weighing food. I am now trying to lose an additional 5-10 lbs so I'm back to weighing foods for a while.

I also use recipe builder for homemade foods. You just have to do it once for each recipe and then it is saved in your account. Most people cook only 20 or so different recipes on a regular basis so it doesn't take long to have all your recipes saved.

SonaliDeuskar wrote: »

Hmm...that's good advice everyone. So have ordered a kitchen scale from Amazon. Will soon find out how disruptive that is and if I can make it an everyday practice. Since this is just day 2 of my first sincere attempt at dieting ...I really don't know what will work for me and what won't.

You will get the hang of weighing really quickly. It may seem a bit tedious at first but just know that it will really help clear up discrepancies with food intake.

Also, with homemade meals I used the recipe maker for my meals..but I do it this way. I add in all the amounts that have been weighed...and INSTEAD of saying how many servings it makes, I just get a final total weight of what has been added (if the recipe is being cooked then I weigh it after it's been cooked). I put that total weight in the recipe name and I put the servings as 1. Then when I go to take out how much I want I weigh that amount and divide it by the total recipe weight and adjust the serving size being added for that meal, that gives me a much more accurate calorie account instead of just guessing the serving.

[Example - For logging dinner: total weight of recipe after cooking 1250g. My serving for dinner is 345g. I take 345g/1250g =.276 . I then round up to .28 and put .28 in the serving box (where before 1 was there). Press enter. That will log .28 of the total calories for the recipe. ]