High maintenance?

linlinjay wrote: »

Hi!
I really do want to lose weight but it seems a bit high maitenance to weigh all your foods to log them, so it also means that i can only eat at home so basically i'm gonna ruin my social life since i'm gonna stress about everything i eat. I don't think it's a way to live (no offense to people that actually do that) i don't know, i feel miserable being over weight even though i'm healthy..

Just start logging. Sometimes you'll just have to guess. But if you do your best and are as honest as possible with yourself, you will see loss.

beaglebrandon wrote: »

Shana67 wrote: »

It is pretty simple to weigh food. And to use the app as a good estimate when you're out. I mean.... if that's what you want (to drop weight), it's not so tough.

How do you weigh food? Do you have to take things apart?

For example, I have a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich in the morning.

Do I need to (1) take apart the sandwich into the croissant, cheese and meat parts, weigh the croissant separately, the cheese separately, and the meat separately, then put them back together?

Or (2) just measure it's weight in totality, compare with what the box says and adjust the calories accordingly? Because in #2, I might be off if the meat is smaller, but the croissant is larger, or vice versa.

You're overthinking it. Just eat the damn sandwich (or whatever one serving is) and log whatever is on the box for a serving. It will average out if one is ten calories more than another once in awhile.

I weighed cheese a couple of times until I felt I could eyeball 1oz. I don't weigh anything else and I go out and eat. I try to look for calorie count online or I add the individual ingredients and overestimate just in case.

I've lost 17 lbs so far in 45 days. I have 70 or so to go. It doesn't interfere with my social life except that I'm on my phone logging my meal, but hey my friends are on theirs too doing whatever:).

High maintenance maybe, but I've found that nothing stays the same. If I'm not actively trying to lose weight or maintain, I'm gaining. I figure putting some extra thought and time into what I eat and how much I eat is worth not being morbidly obese. If I'm spending 3 or 4 hours a week at the gym, I can spend 10 minutes a week with my food scale. But that's just me.

I usually either don't log if I can't get an accurate read or I log best guess.

I weigh everything at home. I leave my exercise calories for any discrepancies when I estimate eating out, which is very frequent given social, family and work stuff. Logging my food hardly takes any time at all. If I cook something at home, I build the plate on my food scale. I'm prepared to do this the rest of my life if I need to. My decision was "think about my food portions and take a few seconds to log them" instead of "I'll just keep gaining weight, it's easier".

I weigh my food most of the time. It is the best way to know how much you are eating.

HOWEVER... you shouldn't be obsessive about it. You can still lose weight, but you need a few guidelines.

1) Eat at home as much as possible - This is the ONLY way to even have a chance at controlling what goes in your body. Plus, you can weigh your food. Restaurants put TONS of carbs and fat into the food and it is usually totally unnecessary. Eating at home will save you money, be much healthier, and gives you the chance to weigh.

2) When you DO weigh your food, try to estimate it first. Play a little game with yourself where you get a serving, guess how much it weighs, then weigh it to see if you are right. After a few weeks, you will start getting really good and estimating.

3) When you CAN'T weigh your food, estimate high. You will almost always estimate too low naturally, so add about 20% to what you think. Also, if you can't weigh your food, I'll assume you are at a restaurant - add oil or butter to everything. Don't just log a chicken breast, but rather, log a chicken breast, oil, and sauce.

4) If you know you can't weigh it out and want to be really careful, order food that is low calorie density. In other words, if you order a salad and estimate wrong the consequences are pretty mild compared to estimating wrong on a slice of cheesecake.

5) Realize that "special occasions" like eating out, celebrating a birthday, etc., are not supposed to happen daily or even weekly. If you want to cut loose and enjoy some drinks, a good meal, and dessert, go for it, but keep it "special". It's not special if it is the norm.

You don't seem very ready to commit to a weight loss plan, as I read your post. You really want to lose weight and feel miserable, but at the same time, you don't seem interested in making the kinds of changes you need to if they will "ruin" your current lifestyle.

1. It's going to be WORK. Compared to not being in deficit, and eating at surplus, it's going to be higher maintenance than you're used to.

2. It's going to mean CHANGE. Of habit(s), including your social ones. With or without logging, a social life centred around eating out gets hard if you are trying to stick to a deficit plan. You may find you need to totally readjust how you socialize anyway - e.g. movies or activities - if you currently go out and eat or drink. You may even find your relationships and friend circles change.

When you eat out, most chain restaurants have nutritional info somewhere so take it from there. It's normally pretty accurate as they have portion sizes/specs that they have to stick to in order to make the projected profit. I hate having to weigh everything so when I can, I'll pre portion or eat things that are sold per portion iykwim? For example j just had a 'lean burger' which wasn't homemade and I can see from the packet the nutritional value of each burger so no need to weigh, 1 bun-no need to weigh, 1 slice of cheese, no need to weigh. Today I only had to weigh my bacon this morning as I cut the fat off so had to check weight after. It's not that bad, I promise