How do you track EVERYTHING??
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TimothyFish wrote: »My attitude is that there is enough margin for error in both food calories and exercise calories to simply ignore some things. That may mean that MFP gets it wrong on how much I'll weigh in five weeks, but I figure I can adjust things based on the bathroom scale.
This is exactly my attitude as well.2 -
Yep. This is me. There's no such thing as one cookie or one sip of milkshake or one fry. It's all the cookies, the whole milkshake, and a basket of fries (and all the pizza too if we're just laying this out there). So for me, it's no sneaky sips or bites. It's way more about the behavior for me than the actual food...1 -
By order of (my) preference
*skip non meaningful bites, licks, or samples
*Take pictures/log as accurately as you can
*Quick add calories
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I take samples when I'm cooking - ie I was cooking barley and wanted to check for doneness, same thing with root vegetables in a soup. If I can't give it an accurate count (like the milkshake I'd overestimate at 1/4c, last night I just did a quick add of 100 calories, if I really had that much I'd have been surprised.
Edit: I was cooking barley, not barely. I did not barely cook the barley either.8 -
I always over-estimate the food in, and under log my activity calories....creates a lesser margin of error....and helps me to achieve success!0
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I for one say it's better to have a sip of a milkshake than the whole thing and better two pretzels than a bag. This is exactly what is meant both by "eating in moderation" and a "sustainable lifestyle" good for you! Log it to the best of your ability and move on.
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I do the same and to make things easy I just add on 1.2 instead of 1 for an entry. I don't overthink it and as long as I'm losing I don't sweat it. If I don't lose over a 6 week period then I'll review my logging which is where those entries stand out.
I think this is the primary driver of obesity - not the sit down meals, but the drive by grazing and cleaning up after kids. I even log the LifeSavers mints I eat as I know when I was not logging I would go through 20 of these sitting at my desk - that's 300 kcals in mints.3 -
annacole94 wrote: »Do you "if I can't measure it, I don't eat it" people ever travel? Eat out?
I just got back from a business conference. Meals were buffet. I eyeballed everything, and feel like needing a food scale to eat a conference lunch would have been... problematic. I went by general rules that made sense to me, like making sure my plate was half vegetables and choosing the items that were not swimming in cream sauce.
I don't eat at buffets. If I do have to eat out, I look up what I want to eat first and decide if it fits into my day. If it doesn't then I choose either a smaller portion of what I do want or a healthier/lower calorie choice altogether.
I'm an underestimater by default, when I really want to eat a lot I can convince myself that my portions are reasonable. I know this about myself so I know when I can and cannot be trusted, unfortunately I can't guestimate my portions even close to accurately (usually off by a whole serving) so until I know for sure I'm not going to deceive myself about how much I'm eating I will avoid eating in situations where I would be tempted to overindulge.
Not everyone is in the same situation and not everyone has such a hard time controlling what and how much they eat. Each person has to decide where their biggest weakness in their weight loss journey is and plan accordingly1 -
It kind of depends on how much of a deficit you are running, and how often you graze.
If you have a large deficit and are losing weight at an acceptable pace, it's probably no big deal.
If you are trying to lose 10 lbs and running a 250 calorie deficit then a few sips of milkshake and a couple of pretzels every day makes a difference.
If it's a rare occurrence then it's probably no big deal.
If you are taking a bite here and a sip there throughout the day every day, the calories can add up.
I personally think that if you do a lot of mindless sampling, it would be a good exercise to become mindful and cut down on that, but thats just my humble opinion. :drinker:0 -
TimothyFish wrote: »My attitude is that there is enough margin for error in both food calories and exercise calories to simply ignore some things. That may mean that MFP gets it wrong on how much I'll weigh in five weeks, but I figure I can adjust things based on the bathroom scale.
That part. I dont even log the milk and creamer I put in my coffee twice a day or my salad dressing. I know I will get blasted but I pretty much know how many calories I am using when I consume those things. I know I have a deficit every day and every week, so if I have an extra 200 calories each week then I am ok. I have actually tried weighing creamer and milk and salad dressing and I end up using more because I am trying to get to 1 serving.
That is just what works for me. To answer your question, I actually try not to nibble off stuff unless I really want it and if I do I don't log it. Have at it1 -
TimothyFish wrote: »My attitude is that there is enough margin for error in both food calories and exercise calories to simply ignore some things. That may mean that MFP gets it wrong on how much I'll weigh in five weeks, but I figure I can adjust things based on the bathroom scale.
That part. I dont even log the milk and creamer I put in my coffee twice a day or my salad dressing. I know I will get blasted but I pretty much know how many calories I am using when I consume those things. I know I have a deficit every day and every week, so if I have an extra 200 calories each week then I am ok. I have actually tried weighing creamer and milk and salad dressing and I end up using more because I am trying to get to 1 serving.
That is just what works for me. To answer your question, I actually try not to nibble off stuff unless I really want it and if I do I don't log it. Have at it
The only way you'll get blasted is if you say that after starting a thread where you are complaining that you aren't losing weight and can't imagine what's wrong
It's true though, some people can get away with being more lax and some people can't. So probably the best answer is to not worry about it, but if you're not losing as much as you expect to then the nibbling should be the first place you look!3 -
TimothyFish wrote: »My attitude is that there is enough margin for error in both food calories and exercise calories to simply ignore some things. That may mean that MFP gets it wrong on how much I'll weigh in five weeks, but I figure I can adjust things based on the bathroom scale.
That part. I dont even log the milk and creamer I put in my coffee twice a day or my salad dressing. I know I will get blasted but I pretty much know how many calories I am using when I consume those things. I know I have a deficit every day and every week, so if I have an extra 200 calories each week then I am ok. I have actually tried weighing creamer and milk and salad dressing and I end up using more because I am trying to get to 1 serving.
That is just what works for me. To answer your question, I actually try not to nibble off stuff unless I really want it and if I do I don't log it. Have at it
The only way you'll get blasted is if you say that after starting a thread where you are complaining that you aren't losing weight and can't imagine what's wrong
It's true though, some people can get away with being more lax and some people can't. So probably the best answer is to not worry about it, but if you're not losing as much as you expect to then the nibbling should be the first place you look!
This.
There's a spectrum of ways to use logging on MFP from meticulously to not at all. People may move across that spectrum at will depending upon their current needs. There's no wrong way.
The only time a problem crops up is when someone wants help figuring out why they aren't losing weight at the rate they expect but they haven't logged meticulously. No one here is a mind reader. We can't help with troubleshooting if the data isn't available.4 -
And that is why no counting exercise calories came handy, including in maintenance. 0
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I don't do BLTs.... Simples! It makes it easier when we have no kids and my husband tracks his food too - if we ate any of each others we'd probably be stabbed with a fork.5
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »I don't do BLTs.... Simples! It makes it easier when we have no kids and my husband tracks his food too - if we ate any of each others we'd probably be stabbed with a fork.
Hahaha... the posts where someone has meticulously weighed and assembled a meal they have been looking forward to all week and then along comes a heartless SO who takes a big bite out of their burger or whatever.... those posts pain me. I want to stab the SO with a fork!9 -
I think the goal is more about tracking 90% +/- so that you are aware of how many calories you're taking in each day. A decent walk, 15 minutes on a treadmill or elliptical, or some other exercise should negate those calories. We're talking 50ish calories give or take...it's not worth worrying about. However, if you had a whole milkshake and half a bag of pretzels, then we're talking more serious calorie intake.
As previously stated, if you take 2 sips here and a pretzel there all day to where you have a full servings worth of "just a bite", then you're taking in more calories than you probably should. This, of course, is completely subjective to your goals.
I wouldn't stress about a couple of sips and a couple of pretzels personally. It's just not worth the headache.- Set some goals and stick to goals as much as possible.
- Allow yourself to occasionally stretch these goals for sanity sake. (Key word being occasionally. Going over a couple hundred every once in a while isn't going to make or break you, it's when it becomes the rule instead of the exception that trouble starts).
- Exercise doing what you like, be that the gym, hiking, walks, running, bowling, swimming...whatever you know you will do on a regular basis.
- If you're going to eat back your exercise calories, don't eat all the calories you log. Eat half to 75%ish. It's hard to get an accurate count of calories burned, even with fitness trackers or heart rate monitors. Nothing is going to be 100% accurate so be mindful of that.
Don't expect miracles overnight, but you're as honest with yourself as you can be, you'll start seeing results before you know it.
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Several things come to mind in reading this. 1) You can be trying to be too perfect and that will cause more stress and could stop any momentum of your progress to your goals. 2) Bits, sips and nibbles can add up. I had a lady do that one day and showed how much hers added up in a day. It was a full sandwich bag of nothing nutritional and it was a lot of calories. Sometimes they can add up. The ones you mentioned don't sound this extreme. 3) The whole point that matters is getting healthy. If you are getting there or this is your way to keep from going overboard then don't sweat the small stuff. I binge every now and then so recording will stop me from doing it more often.
In the end you are only accountable to yourself and if you are reaching your goals then do it the way that works for you. There are days I forget all that went into my mouth and I am choosing to not stress about it any longer. There is no one to judge me on it but me and I choose not to judge myself. Ok off the soap box enjoy your life no matter what.4 -
Agree -- quick add is your friend!0
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Good question sounds stressful!! I personally don't track every little thing.1
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I track everything. If I have a few on my kids French fries I up it and say I had 1/8 of whatever size it was just so it gets calculated. If I have a sip of a milkshake I said I had 1 ounce. That way I'm counting everything and actually counting it slightly over just in case0
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I am definitely a grazer! It has taken some real discipline for me to stop wandering into the kitchen and grabbing a handful of crackers or a spoon of ice cream while dishing some out for my kids. For the instance I used as an example I know it was exactly two pretzels and two sips of milkshake. Last night my hubby's friend brought dinner over for the kids and they were eating fries and burgers. I carefully measured out 2 ounces of fries and half an ounce of fry sauce. It was worth it to me to know EXACTLY how much I was consuming. P.S. 2 ounces of fries was NOT worth the calories wasted LOL2
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I just log 25 or 50 calories (depending on the food) for every bite/taste/lick. It's a guesstimate but better than nothing.0
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I just find an entry in the database that lists how many pretzels are in 1 serving and log the appropriate fraction of a serving. Otherwise, I make a good guess at the weight in grams and log about 5 calories/gram of something similar. (I find 5 calories/gram to be a good estimate for cakes/cookies/chips/etc.. It would be too high for a milkshake since that has more water.)
Also, proxies are helpful. The other day, I logged 4 chocolate chip cookies - two to cover the cookie dough I ate while baking and two that I ate post-baking. No way was I making a separate entry for the cookie dough when I know exactly how big of a ball = one cookie.2 -
I just posted this on another thread but I wasn't tracking everything either and not losing. I decided to look a little closer at my "extras". Coffee creamer at night (I drink it black in the am) was 50 calories I wasn't counting. I would grab a few life savers through the day at work - 60 calories for 4. That's 100 calories I wasn't considering every day. That's not to mention the one graham cracker I may eat at night or the bite of something else. I bet I was easily eating 200 calories and not recording. I am now logging everything that passes my lips.6
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »I don't do BLTs.... Simples! It makes it easier when we have no kids and my husband tracks his food too - if we ate any of each others we'd probably be stabbed with a fork.
Hahaha... the posts where someone has meticulously weighed and assembled a meal they have been looking forward to all week and then along comes a heartless SO who takes a big bite out of their burger or whatever.... those posts pain me. I want to stab the SO with a fork!
Silver lining to this is...it's an extra deficit?
If you weighed and logged 100g of popcorn and your SO comes and grabs a handful...you can keep the logged amount but you ultimately consumed less.1 -
Sometimes when I take a little bite or two of something, I do like 5 min of jumping jacks, planks, squats, etc to burn some calories and then don't log that either. It helps me keep things balanced. It's not perfect but it's something0
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sammyliftsandeats wrote: »livingleanlivingclean wrote: »I don't do BLTs.... Simples! It makes it easier when we have no kids and my husband tracks his food too - if we ate any of each others we'd probably be stabbed with a fork.
Hahaha... the posts where someone has meticulously weighed and assembled a meal they have been looking forward to all week and then along comes a heartless SO who takes a big bite out of their burger or whatever.... those posts pain me. I want to stab the SO with a fork!
Silver lining to this is...it's an extra deficit?
If you weighed and logged 100g of popcorn and your SO comes and grabs a handful...you can keep the logged amount but you ultimately consumed less.
Children too. I get the 100 calorie bags and the little one is always begging for some.0 -
If I can't measure it, I don't eat/drink it
So what do you do when you go to a friend's or relative's house for a meal? It seems that you only go to chain restaurants or fast food places, because small local eateries (sometimes are the best) they usually don't have nutritional information listed in their menu or websites.2 -
It depends - a little taste of some things adds up really quickly, while others, not so much.
If I steal nuts from the cup of nuts I measure out for a recipe, that can easily be a hundred or more calories. A scoop of chocolate chips while I'm making cookies - again, could be several hundred calories. I had to start tracking the half-and-half in my work coffees because it adds up enough to make a difference.
Other things? A couple of pretzels, a cracker or two, one Dorito from my kid's snack bag? I don't generally worry about.0 -
If I can't measure it, I don't eat/drink it
So what do you do when you go to a friend's or relative's house for a meal? It seems that you only go to chain restaurants or fast food places, because small local eateries (sometimes are the best) they usually don't have nutritional information listed in their menu or websites.
Some of them bring a scale along whenever they go. Office, restaurant, relative's, friend's and inquire the host about the food if necessary.
I used to cringe when I first heard this but after some reevaluation I think it makes sense. Wt loss is too tough and health is too important. I'm all for whatever necessary to succeed.1
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