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Is weighing/logging everything necessary?
Replies
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You should weigh some things. It can make a difference. I don't typically weigh vegetables, but I do weigh meat, fish, and potatoes.0
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Do whatever works for you. If you can lose the weight and keep it off without logging, that is great!.
Many of us can not.2 -
For me yes it is a must, I have been here before and when I stopped it all went amiss. Can I see a time when I don't have to weigh everything? Yes for some of the time. Logging though is here to stay for me, though it might be estimates on low cal stuff0
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i weighed everything for a year. It was a crucial learning experience. A general knowledge and awareness of calorie content wasn't enough to really appreciate how it adds up, and especially how my favorite and regular foods add up. I considered myself fairly well informed, and found out I had a lot to learn about serving size, and how "healthy" does not mean "low-cal" (hello trying to sub. avocado for mayo). But after a year, i started falling off the wagon - it was chore to weigh and log and starting to drag me down and avoid cooking the way I love, with many ingredients. Now having had that knowledge base developed, I keep a food journal, counting up cals estimates in my head. I think about what I'm going to eat for the day in the morning, have a plan, and instead of doing copious amounts of math at every meal calculating exactly how much of each ingredient I can use, I use moderation. I find the discipline not go overboard and cheat is easier now than weighing each and every ingredient and searching for accurate entries. But I couldn't do that without having had the learning experience first. And I still use the scale for high calorie ingredients that can easily throw one off. And I exercise regularly and don't count the calories from that. It's just there and helps offset flaws in my estimating. I guess it helps too, that I only eat twice a day, so it's easier to add up and keep tabs on what I've eaten. If you're a "small snack every 2 hours" person - that might require more diligence.1
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The simplest habit that offers the highest reward is the best.
If you hate weighing, don't.
If you hate counting, don't.
Countless other ways to lose weight and be healthy. You shouldn't have to reduce all of your food to numbers and strip the enjoyment from it.0 -
For weighing- I think it is initially a great idea for new people to get really good with their scale and weight everything. The reason most people end up here is they are unable to recognize serving sizes. As I figured things out I am less adamant about weighing everything all the time, I don't weight the lettuce when I make a salad anymore, but whats 5 calories? I still weight peanut butter every time, because I can still add an extra 100cals worth without realizing it.
For logging- I find logging just forces me to be mindful of what I am eating. I can often times pretty much sum up in my head how many calories are in something without truly logging anymore. And knowing my general calorie targets for meals/days can mostly stay withing range without logging. I definitely had to learn these skills and make my self log every day for a long time to get to where I am now. And it can be easy to forget things without the actual log there to remind you. I also follow similar to weighing now, a could celery sticks I don't beat myself up about not logging, a handful of nuts is another story.
As some others have mentioned, you see alot of advice about logging really strictly given because you see alot of thread about "I am doing everything and still not being successful", which is occasionally true, but more often than not its just that the person never really learned to really log well.2 -
mom23mangos wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »mom23mangos wrote: »BrunetteRunner87 wrote: »
I am sure that there are people who haven't logged everything and still manage to lose weight or maintain. I guess what I would like to know is why I see so many posts on here where people insist everything has to be weighed or logged, what is the reasoning for that, and why can't someone be successful without that?
Because although SOME people MAY be successful losing/maintaining weight without logging, you are pretty much GUARANTEED success if you do. Most people will take the guarantee over the chance.
Well, that's a sweeping and incorrect generalization.
How so?
If you log your calories accurately and completely you actually *are* guaranteed to be able to track how much you are eating, and therefore know if you really are in the deficit required to lose weight.
Don't know how that can be disputed.
If I misunderstood and the post meant "if you log your calories you will know how many calories there are" then I will concede the point. I took it to mean you'll be successful at weight loss. That's a whole 'nother ballgame.
The post meant if you log your calories accurately and log how much you burn through exercise as accurately as possible and actually use those numbers to eat less than you burn (yes, you actually have to do it), then you will pretty much be guaranteed weight loss.
Not arguing that many people find it too much work (myself included) and stop doing it and then are not successful at losing weight. Or people do log accurately and still eat more than they burn because they can't find ways to feel satiated. That happens as well. But what I meant is, if you want a guaranteed way to lose weight...weigh your food accurately and log it, log your exercise and make sure your total calories for the day/week are less than what you've burned. Success.
True. But that could be said of every single weight loss plan out there that provides a deficit. Follow it to the letter and you are guaranteed to lose. It's always true.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »mom23mangos wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »mom23mangos wrote: »BrunetteRunner87 wrote: »
I am sure that there are people who haven't logged everything and still manage to lose weight or maintain. I guess what I would like to know is why I see so many posts on here where people insist everything has to be weighed or logged, what is the reasoning for that, and why can't someone be successful without that?
Because although SOME people MAY be successful losing/maintaining weight without logging, you are pretty much GUARANTEED success if you do. Most people will take the guarantee over the chance.
Well, that's a sweeping and incorrect generalization.
How so?
If you log your calories accurately and completely you actually *are* guaranteed to be able to track how much you are eating, and therefore know if you really are in the deficit required to lose weight.
Don't know how that can be disputed.
If I misunderstood and the post meant "if you log your calories you will know how many calories there are" then I will concede the point. I took it to mean you'll be successful at weight loss. That's a whole 'nother ballgame.
The post meant if you log your calories accurately and log how much you burn through exercise as accurately as possible and actually use those numbers to eat less than you burn (yes, you actually have to do it), then you will pretty much be guaranteed weight loss.
Not arguing that many people find it too much work (myself included) and stop doing it and then are not successful at losing weight. Or people do log accurately and still eat more than they burn because they can't find ways to feel satiated. That happens as well. But what I meant is, if you want a guaranteed way to lose weight...weigh your food accurately and log it, log your exercise and make sure your total calories for the day/week are less than what you've burned. Success.
True. But that could be said of every single weight loss plan out there that provides a deficit. Follow it to the letter and you are guaranteed to lose. It's always true.
Except that the plan OP describes does not guarantee loss (or in this case getting to ideal race weight which may include loss) if followed to the letter. Neither do any plans that say 'eat X servings' without some kind of restriction on serving size.
Neither do plans that say you can eat unlimited amounts of 'X' - presuming 'X' has any calories whatsoever. There have been plenty of those diet plans out there, and there's always someone that eats enough of 'X' to either not lose or even gain.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »mom23mangos wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »mom23mangos wrote: »BrunetteRunner87 wrote: »
I am sure that there are people who haven't logged everything and still manage to lose weight or maintain. I guess what I would like to know is why I see so many posts on here where people insist everything has to be weighed or logged, what is the reasoning for that, and why can't someone be successful without that?
Because although SOME people MAY be successful losing/maintaining weight without logging, you are pretty much GUARANTEED success if you do. Most people will take the guarantee over the chance.
Well, that's a sweeping and incorrect generalization.
How so?
If you log your calories accurately and completely you actually *are* guaranteed to be able to track how much you are eating, and therefore know if you really are in the deficit required to lose weight.
Don't know how that can be disputed.
If I misunderstood and the post meant "if you log your calories you will know how many calories there are" then I will concede the point. I took it to mean you'll be successful at weight loss. That's a whole 'nother ballgame.
The post meant if you log your calories accurately and log how much you burn through exercise as accurately as possible and actually use those numbers to eat less than you burn (yes, you actually have to do it), then you will pretty much be guaranteed weight loss.
Not arguing that many people find it too much work (myself included) and stop doing it and then are not successful at losing weight. Or people do log accurately and still eat more than they burn because they can't find ways to feel satiated. That happens as well. But what I meant is, if you want a guaranteed way to lose weight...weigh your food accurately and log it, log your exercise and make sure your total calories for the day/week are less than what you've burned. Success.
True. But that could be said of every single weight loss plan out there that provides a deficit. Follow it to the letter and you are guaranteed to lose. It's always true.
Except that the plan OP describes does not guarantee loss (or in this case getting to ideal race weight which may include loss) if followed to the letter. Neither do any plans that say 'eat X servings' without some kind of restriction on serving size.
Neither do plans that say you can eat unlimited amounts of 'X' - presuming 'X' has any calories whatsoever. There have been plenty of those diet plans out there, and there's always someone that eats enough of 'X' to either not lose or even gain.
Totally off point from my post that you quoted, but yes.0 -
This makes a lot of sense to me. I think my biggest fear after seeing all these posts is that I can't be successful if I don't weigh/log everything that goes into my mouth. I did that for years and would have great success for losing weight but never kept it off because I got tired of logging and weighing everything. I'd prefer to just develop a healthy relationship with food and eat mostly good foods and I am hoping to hear from these people who have been successful with that. But as you said if they are successful they probably aren't posting!
I'm a few years into maintenance and I don't use my food scale all the time anymore, though I do keep a running tally of my calories and also eat a lot of pre-measured things like Lean Cuisines, canned soups, frozen veggies that come in bags with 3 servings (I add 1 bag per Lean Cuisine etc). I still weigh things like rice and oats, shredded cheese, nuts, chips etc., that I'm not good with eye balling accurate portion sizes. I also weigh myself daily and do 16:8IF, which are both checks and balances that I have in place.1 -
I'm afraid that currently, logging everything is a must for me. It's just too easy for me to over eat other wise. I don't necessarily weigh everything, but I do spot check to see how my eyeballing is. Would I lose weight faster if I did weigh everything? Definitely! My current life circumstances just don't provide me with that possibility.
I do hope that one day I'll be able to keep a healthy weight without needing to log/weigh to a high degree of accuracy. But I've made my peace with the fact that that day is a) very far in the future and b) might actually never come.0 -
LiftingRiot wrote: »I think most people just like to eat and cant handle eating healthy or with moderation.
Agree. I see a lot of people applying a "value for the money" mentality too, so they want the most for what they pay for - aka, big portions. Too many people will get realistic serving sizes of food and complain about small portions. Interestingly, it is more of an American thing from my observations because in my travels I have found other countries focus more on quality of food over quantity.
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This is where I turn to the experience of those who have been in maintenance for years after losing 50+ lbs. The National Weight Control Registry is an excellent resource as well: http://www.nwcr.ws/
When I started MFP I identified the habits that caused my weight gain - I looked beyond the symptoms and identified the root causes. When I hit my target weight I went I lost many of these habits and fell back into my old habits and put on ~40 bls. Now that I'm back into good habit mode I'm recognizing the behavior that caused me to slip and ensuring this doesn't happen again. For me this is all about athletic performance. CICO and tracking are nothing more than the principle and formula behind it.
The real trick of this is to find what drives you.
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This is where I turn to the experience of those who have been in maintenance for years after losing 50+ lbs. The National Weight Control Registry is an excellent resource as well: http://www.nwcr.ws/
When I started MFP I identified the habits that caused my weight gain - I looked beyond the symptoms and identified the root causes. When I hit my target weight I went I lost many of these habits and fell back into my old habits and put on ~40 bls. Now that I'm back into good habit mode I'm recognizing the behavior that caused me to slip and ensuring this doesn't happen again. For me this is all about athletic performance. CICO and tracking are nothing more than the principle and formula behind it.
The real trick of this is to find what drives you.
I'm a NWCR participant
Hopefully my data, along with the other participants, will help others who are still in the weight loss phase realize that it is possible to be a successful maintainer long term! 3 -
I find success in weighing food and logging what I eat. When I don't I always stall and or gain weight. So... not doing this for many years has never worked, no harm in keeping myself accountable, and drop weight at the same time by micro managing what I eat.BrunetteRunner87 wrote: »I see so many posts where people complain they haven't lost weight and then everybody comes in saying that EVERYTHING HAS TO BE WEIGHED AND LOGGED.
I know that CICO is typically the key to weight loss, but can you be successful without all of this? Who wants to have to weigh and log or even just log everything they put in their mouths for the rest of their life?
Who wants to be fat for the rest of their life? I sure don't. Seems a bit silly to question something that works vs doing nothing and wondering why you're not losing weight.
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I personally need to weigh and log to lose. It helps me be mindful of what I'm eating. I lost 30lbs 5 years ago by tracking and then maintained that weight for 3 years without tracking. During the tracking period my brain adjusted to the changes in food and portions from when I was tracking, and my recipes were all built to fit into my calorie goals. Tracking was the tool that helped me relearn the right eating habits so I didn't need to track forever.
I gained 7lbs back over 1 1/2 years because life got a bit nuts and I was eating out for breakfast and lunch 5-6 days a week, and dinner 3-4 times a week. I'm back to tracking to lose the extra weight but once I get to maintenance I'll stop. The good part about MFP is that I can print out my weekly menus so next time I need to drop a few pounds I can just go back and following them for a few weeks instead of tracking.1 -
If you lose and maintain without weighing or logging everything then I'd say no.
If your stuck and can't figure it out after a couple of months I'd say yes.1 -
After reading through this thread, I just wanted to add that using a food scale and logging is not tedious for everyone, nor does it strip the enjoyment out of eating for everyone. I am a little anal, I love to-do lists, checklists, columns of numbers make me happy, I'll make a spreadsheet out of anything. I don't stress eating at a restaurant or someone else's house, but when I'm home I weigh everything. I don't find it takes anymore effort or time than packing something into a measuring cup. I find pre-logging helps keep me focused on eating the way I've decided I want to. It doesn't keep me from eating "intuitively" or from choosing healthy foods, it just shows me at the end of the day that my beautiful columns of numbers are what I thought they were.
There are plenty of people who successfully lose and maintain their weight without weighing or logging. But other people will log for the rest of their life, and will still have a perfectly healthy and enjoyable relationship with food.
And if you're struggling, weighing & logging is in my opinion the best way to figure out where the problem is, which is why it's always insisted on in those threads.5 -
I don't weigh/measure everything but I do measure things that are very calorie dense such as nut butters, cream for coffee, cheese, butter.2
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Logging and measuring is important for me because the amount of calories I burn on a daily basis is so varied, to eat to maintenance by instinct only would be good difficult. Some days I burn 150 with lifting exercise. Some days it could be 1000+ with a 10 mile run.0
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From my experience, I always used to say I did not eat much and watched what I ate. I watched what I ate alright! Once I started logging in my calories and exercise on phone app, then I saw how I was eating about an extra 1,000 calories a day. Such as a cookie here, a piece of cake there, chips here and there, soda, potluck for morning breaks, seconds for lunch and dinner. Logging in food and exercise made me realize how I was eating much more than what I should have been. To my surprise I lost 45 pounds in less than 1 years' time by cutting back drastically in eating out, home cooking, eating clean, no packaged foods, weighing and measuring food. I have maintained 2 years now. I don't weigh and measure food as much because I have learned portion control by lots of weighing and measuring food. I still work out regularly, weigh once a week, if the scale goes up a pound or two continuously week after week, then I start weighing and measuring food to get back on track. I am able to look back and see how I gained a few pounds. Weighing and measuring food is the true eye opener. People tell me all the time they don't eat much but I see them eating the same extra calories as I used to eat in which I say until we log in our food that we eat is when we will truly know the intake. I eat whatever I want, I am not on a strict diet, I meal prep my meals for the week every Sunday that keeps me on track. From my experience, it's worth the time and effort than trying fad diets which is too much work for me. I don't want to be eating 6 meals a day, eating certain foods at certain times, etc. which I have done in the past. Food in moderation and exercise key and it's free to top it off. If we want something, we will find a way whether it is time consuming or not.2
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Not if your body and food are doing just fine as they are, especially if you've established yourself at a healthy leanness & food relationship and accomplishment of physical goals for a long term period.
It is if you're continually struggling and failing to get results, it is if you're continually getting lost in not knowing what to do or what's right for you. You can constantly wait for that magic heuristic diet that's just perfect for you trick you into eating reasonably all the time to solve all your problems, or actually just directly employ the one direct path to knowing the ballpark of what your calorie balance is and being able to guarantee moving your calories up or down and knowing what happens when you do.0 -
Those who are most successful here weigh & log everything until they develop a good judgement of portion control. For me that was about 3 months, for someone else it might be 3 yrs. Some people might prefer to weigh & log forever.0
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Most people that complain that it is not working are not accurate in their serving size - You state serving sizes and I see: grams
Many people that are overweight cannot estimate what a serving size without weihghing. The wiehing is tool to learn what a serving looks like. Often then it becomes clear what they have been overeating and by how much. Often people will also forget their cooking oils or use the infamous 0 calorie cooking oil spray, but then use 10 servings or so.
I don't weigh everything anymore After three years I am now much better at estimating, but I do audit myself on a regular basis.
But also I can't be bothere with weighing lettuce for instance. Som nutritional dense foods (oils, butter, nuts etc) I most certainly still weigh. Too easy to go over what I want to use.
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I weigh everything at the moment and have done for the last 5 months. I am overweight because I don't know how to eat. I know WHAT to eat, just not HOW to eat. I don't know how much is a normal serving for people who arent overweight. Until I learn that I will continue to log everything. That may not work for everyone - but it is working for me.2
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If you are capable of achieving a calorie deficit without weighing and logging, and if you are alright with getting unpredictable results sometimes, it's not necessary. However, if you reach a point where you want to post something like "help! I'm doing everything right but not losing!", weighing and logging everything can be your first line of troubleshooting to find out what might have been the culprit. Putting in the effort for months but not seeing results is frustrating and might feel like a waste of time. Taking 5 minutes to accurately document your foods might help you avoid that kind of frustration.
Personally, I weigh and log everything for several reasons: I like numbers, I like predictability, I like having control, and most of all, I like eating that cheesecake/party food/movie popcorn without wondering if it would derail my efforts. That kind of freedom and flexibility is very important to me.4 -
I don't count calories at all, nor weight neither logged but I am successfull. I just mostly eat healthy, a cheat meal now and again but I'm training 5 times a week. I use FTP for the blog, training & fitness tips. 0
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BrunetteRunner87 wrote: »I see so many posts where people complain they haven't lost weight and then everybody comes in saying that EVERYTHING HAS TO BE WEIGHED AND LOGGED.
I know that CICO is typically the key to weight loss, but can you be successful without all of this? Who wants to have to weigh and log or even just log everything they put in their mouths for the rest of their life?
I recently started a new diet plan aimed at runners. The idea is to eat enough carbs to fuel workouts, but to lose or maintain at a good weight for you to run without extra pounds weighing you down. The diet is based on 10 categories of foods that are supposed to balance in ratios at the end of the week. So assume you eat 55 servings in a week (obviously you're going to eat more but just assume), 10 should be vegetables, 9 should be fruit, 8 should be seeds and nuts, 7 should be lean meats and eggs, and 6 should be whole grains. Then if you want you can have 5 servings of dairy, 4 servings of refined grains, 3 servings of unhealthy meats, 2 of sweets, and 1 fried food.
I feel like, yeah logging and weighing would be important if I was planning on doing some kind of figure competition or even a weightlifting competition, but if I'm following this type of diet, not eating when I'm not hungry, and developing a positive relationship with food, isn't this better than weighing everything the rest of my life? Weighing and logging can really get you bogged down with numbers or exercising extra just so that you can eat extra pizza that day.
Is there anyone here who has not logged/weighed everything, but seen success?
few things..
CICO is always the key to weight loss.
CICO and logging are not the same thing.
you don't think that figuring out all those servings and categories of food is as cumbersome as weighing nad logging everything?
Weighing everything is important for people who are starting out so that they can understand portion size and how many calories are actually in each portion of food, and it is equally important for those who say "Help, I am not losing weight." Most people that are not weighing everything are consuming more calories then they assume.
Finally, once you teach yourself about portion size and learn how many calories are in each serving of food, weighing everything becomes less necessary. I have not weighed my food in the past six months and I have roughly maintained the same weight, maybe even lost a pound or two.3
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