Don't use scales, am I waisting my time?

Is what you are currently doing working? I think that answers your question. Using a food scale is not time consuming, at all. Put the plate on the scale - turn on the scale - add the first food, log it into MFP - push the tare button on the scale - add the second food, log it into MFP - and so on and so on.

Wake up call:

I tried to lose weight for 10 months with clean eating, eyeballing portions, avoiding junk food, working out 3-5 times a week...

Guess how much weight I lost?

NONE

Then about 2 months ago I set my calories on myfitnesspal with a mild calorie deficit and got a digital scale and started measuring all my food and making sure I hit my calorie goal consistently. I kept working out but not more than I already had been...

I'm down almost 6 pounds.

It wasn't quick water weight either because I was already eating healthy foods and normal portions- it was slow but steady weight loss. My scale measures body fat % and muscle too and shows that the weight loss is mostly from body fat.

Would you rather keep wasting your time being frustrated and getting nowhere fast? Months and months of no weight loss? Or take the couple extra minutes a day that it takes to measure and log your food?

I know what I'd choose.

A digital food scale is not expensive and very easy to use- you can put your plate on it, reset it to 0, then serve your portion of food to easily measure. It gets faster the more practice you get with it too and eventually is just a habit.

I hope you try measuring and logging and hitting your calories- if you do all that the weight loss will just happen. It's so awesome!!

If you are losing then it works for you, once you stall it is usually recommended to weigh your food. For me, a scale is integral for cooking and not just weight loss as I weigh all my solids on a scale for recipes and baking.

I've never owned a food scale however when I lost my weight I created( like said above) rules to my eating/exercise habits...For example: NO SODA, 1200 calories a day logged thru this app, and a mile walk a night...I tried to increase my healthy foods and cut out junk food but if I really craved something, I ate it as long as it fit my calorie goals. Dropped 20 lbs quickly....It really made a huge difference to me in being more accurate when I started trying to lose that last 10lbs and was going to the gym...Before that, just being as diligent as I could worked just fine...I will say though, you prob should try to find time to atleast walk or something 3 times a week...You'll prob get results that way...

It will help if you measure but I rarely do. Until you substantially reduced the alcohol & crisps the weight won't come off.

It takes me no extra time to use a digital scale, so I never understand the argument that someone doesn't have the time. But that's just my experience.

I'm at goal weight, I don't use it all the time 100%, but I certainly did when I was on that last ten pounds to lose, because it gets real when you get to that point. Every bite has to matter in order to make progress.

Now I just use it for calorie dense things like cereal, oils, cheese, meat, nuts, peanut butter and that kind of stuff. Things that if I were to make a calculation mistake they could cost me hundreds of calories per week.

If guestimating portion sizes works for you then carry on, but as you've said you feel like you're not getting anywhere fast maybe you are underestimating how much you're eating and would benefit from giving food scales a go.
Honestly weighing your food doesn't take as long as you might think - if you're cooking pasta, instead of just pouring it in to the pan, put the pan on the scales and then pour it in. If you're making a sandwich, put the cheese slices on the scales before putting them on the bread. Things like that literally only take seconds but can make a huge difference.

MonkeyMel21 wrote: »

I have literally never weighed any type of food (have used measuring cups/spoons though when applicable) and have had great success. I'm mindful of it though, so I take that in to consideration when I log.

Same here! I think I overestimate what I put on my plate and it's working. However, if you aren't losing than you need to weigh and measure properly!

It takes me no time at all to weigh stuff. The time it takes to put turn on the scale and put something on it. Which is a few seconds longer than it takes to just dish up and log.

No it's not necessary but in the interests of getting to eat as much as possible and accuracy, I just prefer to as much as I can. I don't weigh everything but enough that I have never had an inexplicable stall.

IMO, logging is what's time-consuming, not weighing. Weighing is actually faster for me than spending the time estimating and plus I know all the 100 g based entries I've used and have easily available are accurate.

That said, no, probably not necessary. I lost weight at 2+ lb/per week or so for a while just kind of roughly estimating and using bad entries (although they weren't that off, because I'm not that much of a wishful thinker about such things). ;-) I've also lost weight just being mindful. But if it's not working a scale might be helpful (and be surprisingly easy). Personally I think it's way better for cooking than dumb cups anyway (I used it in the past for baking, so I'm an easy convert although if not logging I'm prone to not measuring at all when cooking, the classic "handful of this, pinch of that").

If you're not willing to invest the few extra seconds a day it would take to weigh and log your intake for the sake of your health and being there for your kids, then yes, you're wasting your time.

purelush wrote: »

Honestly I don't weigh my food. I'm a busy mom and truly don't have the time to go measuring my food. I generally use the fist size portions.
I think my downfall is bread, crisps and alcohol. Like most things, depending on my mood I can go overboard on these things.... anyway what I'm doing is not working!! I'm working out once a week.
Very frustrating not getting any were fast!! Grrrrr!! Need a wake up call!!

You're not losing weight because you're under-estimating your food intake. A scale would fix this. You could also just give up bread, or crisps, or alcohol. Pick your poison.

Your biggest problem isn't that you're not weighing. It's that you're not logging consistently, and even when you are, you're choosing inaccurate entries. (Things like "bran flakes - 1 bowl" and "homemade" anything, unless you personally added that recipe in the recipe builder). Start by logging everything, as accurately as you can, every day. If that doesn't work, you might want to think about a food scale, but at this point a scale isn't going to do much for you if you're not logging consistently.

I have never weighed my portions.i scan the bar code on the packets but not weighing and it never hindered my weight loss. I've lost over 16 stone .you have to find what works for you