Are people REALLY counting calories here?
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Lesismore2011 wrote: »Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?
Why are you giving your kids used food?
This habit may speak to a larger tendency to pick, graze, or nibble your way through your day that can add a LOT of calories to your total. The best advice has already been given - stop doing this. It isn't satisfying, it's hard to quantify, and it's unnecessary. If you want a snack or a sandwich, make yourself one and log the calories. Easy peasy!16 -
This is something else that can be done with nourishment.. done by animals.. and some cultures do this to!
"Kiss Feeding" is a better name..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premastication0 -
I haven't found it difficult to count them, honestly. I typically just plan my meals ahead (which makes it easier in the long run). I'd try meal prepping, maybe start out with cooking enough meals for a few days and see how it works out for you.
That way you know the portions, and all the macros you need for the day. That's what's been working for me. Hope this helped!2 -
I only recently found this site and started tracking everything. Maybe I'm weird, but I think it's kind of fun. I work on logging everything the night before, so I can be sure it all fits in the numbers. This makes it easy the next day, when all I have to do is grab the food and run. Since I've started, I haven't eaten out or ordered in once, and I haven't missed it.3
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manderson27 wrote: »Nope I am just here for the pervy messages and nudz pics
I think I have my setting set up incorrectly. I'm not getting any pervy messages. :-(
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Lesismore2011 wrote: »I just find it crazy hard. How do you all do it? I neeeed to get this 40lbs off me.
I know the biggest negatives in my diet is the daily eating out at fast food places. That combined with my lust for sweets. I like to cook but sticking to my meal plans and counting calories seem pretty impossible.
What do you mean "how do you all do it"? Do you ever read the nutrition labels in the grocery stores? The calories are listed there. And you can look them up online as well.4 -
This is something else that can be done with nourishment.. done by animals.. and some cultures do this to!
"Kiss Feeding" is a better name..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premastication
Gross. :sick:0 -
Easiest is using the app on the phone (apologies to those if already mentioned) and scan the barcode - do check not everything is always right especially sodium which is only 39% of the salt figure. The tough part is measuring portion size which you soon get used to and can stop weighing.1
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Chef_Barbell wrote: »This is something else that can be done with nourishment.. done by animals.. and some cultures do this to!
"Kiss Feeding" is a better name..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premastication
Gross. :sick:
Reminds me of how my friend took this dog training class that explained you have to be the alpha dog and the non alpha dogs (beta dogs?) would eat after the alpha so having your saliva on their food was a trick to get them to recognize you as the alpha. So she'd suck on something (thank goodness not actual dog food, but a piece of meat) and then feed him.
I said "that's weird."
Of course the funniest part was that the dog was a shih tzu she got as a puppy. How hard is it to be the alpha dog with a shih tzu puppy?8 -
PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »I spend more time looking at memes while on the toilet than I do logging food on MFP. Once you've been doing it for a while and your main food choices are in you "recent" and "frequent" tabs, it's easy peasy.
This! Period. I spend an obscene amount of time on social media and watching TV. If I can't log my food daily, I just don't want it bad enough (the weight loss).3 -
cerise_noir wrote: »Being overweight is hard.
Calorie counting is hard (at first).
Pick your "hard".
Logging and calorie counting isn't hard. It just takes a bit of time and can be an annoying, but it's definitely easier than eating at a deficit in the first place, lol.
Calorie counting actually makes eating at a deficit much easier. Really, it's much easier to log my piece of cheesecake than to not eat it in the first place. But at least when I log it, I know how much I can eat the rest of the day without going over (or that I really need to go for a walk instead of watching TV).3 -
Before you track calories and figure out macros and all that stuff you must make a commitment to yourself to lose the weight. Sometimes it takes doing some soul searching to understand why you want to achieve a specific goal. When I found my reason for wanting to be fit all of a sudden things fell into place. If you don't track what you eat you'll never achieve the goal. You can do this but you have to believe you can3
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Yes! Being honest with yourself and getting out if your own head. If you aren't honest about how you got overweight and feel defeated before you even purchase the food scale then you aren't mentally ready to make the changes needed.haroldrios1692 wrote: »Before you track calories and figure out macros and all that stuff you must make a commitment to yourself to lose the weight. Sometimes it takes doing some soul searching to understand why you want to achieve a specific goal. When I found my reason for wanting to be fit all of a sudden things fell into place. If you don't track what you eat you'll never achieve the goal. You can do this but you have to believe you can
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cerise_noir wrote: »Being overweight is hard.
Calorie counting is hard (at first).
Pick your "hard".
Logging and calorie counting isn't hard. It just takes a bit of time and can be an annoying, but it's definitely easier than eating at a deficit in the first place, lol.
Calorie counting actually makes eating at a deficit much easier. Really, it's much easier to log my piece of cheesecake than to not eat it in the first place. But at least when I log it, I know how much I can eat the rest of the day without going over (or that I really need to go for a walk instead of watching TV).
I know. I was just echoing OP's excuse and pointed out that being overweight is also hard...1 -
Lesismore2011 wrote: »Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?
Not trying to be a jerk, but you really hand your son a sandwich with a bite taken out of it?6 -
It's threads like these that made me realize how beneficial the random nutrition class I took in college was. I had to get a science class with a lab, and it looked easy, ha. It was a nutrition SCIENCE class, so I was able to learn all of the fundamentals of nutrition without being forced to apply it to me (I was not trying to lose weight at the time, and had never consciously attempted it).
We learned about each macro, including the building blocks of a protein (and a lot of these scary "fake" ingredients that freak people out are actually just parts of protein). We learned that carbs and protein are 4 calories per gram, and fat is 9 calories per gram.
We learned about fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins and why companies can pump vitamin B12 into everything but vitamins DEKA need to be moderated (to a point. Toxicity is still pretty hard, but much more possible).
We learned straight up "this is what a carb does, this is what a fat does, this is what a protein does" with none of the baggage of which one is "better" than the other ('cause really, they all have their own purpose, and how much you need of each depends on your individual activities and goals).
We learned the science of metabolism, why people get Type II diabetes, and other nutrition related diseases. We learned about how ancient Americans, way before "science" was a thing, knew to soak corn in pickling lime (calcium hydroxide, sounds SCARY RIGHT) to activate the niacin and prevent a common vitamin b deficiency known as Pellagra (I didn't remember this one in detail but looked it up just recently to remind myself).
I've forgotten A LOT of what we learned, but the things I've taken with me have taken the anxiety out of losing weight and getting to the state of health I want to be at.18 -
I've been doing it for just under 3 months--I've had maybe 3 or 4 days where I didn't log, and each time I ended up overeating. So yeah, now I know. Log everything that goes into my mouth, no exceptions. No more idle grazing. I have lost 36 pounds so far. 84 pounds to go.
I actually find it extremely easy to log my own cooking--my food scale is my new best friend--and as others have said, chain restaurants and mass-produced things with barcodes are CRAZY easy.
Logging food my friends and family have cooked is hard, and logging food at restaurants that don't provide any nutritional info is 100% guesswork. To be honest, I have limited eating in this way for now.5 -
i do it on and off.
At the moment I cant be bothered but Ive got a general understanding of what I'm consuming.0 -
If you do anything long enough it just becomes a habit. The first 30 days were a bit confusing, but I got used to it. Now, it's just something I do everyday. Takes me no longer than 10 minutes per day, probably less.
But oh man, the results ARE worth it.2 -
I count calories and/or estimate them but I need to log whatever I eat even if it's not exact. Most of the time I don't log for a day because I think I know how much I ate. I'm always surprised, because I'm over, if I go back and log for that day.1
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Here's my suggestion to keep it kind of humane: give yourself two weeks. Set a calorie goal that is reasonable, and just simply log every single thing you put in your mouth. For two weeks, don't worry about The relationship between the calories that you want to be eating, and the calories that you actually are eating. Don't be alarmed by the big red numbers that will pop up on the right-hand side of the equation. Just simply use this two weeks to get a visual idea of what you are actually doing. You made it clear that you are aware of that fast food is your downfall. Doesn't matter. Log it. Without any expectations or putting yourself down. Don't look at your log as you go along. Then at the end of two weeks, you can look back at it, And see something. You might even be able to see part of your pattern that you could make even a small change to that will make a measurable change in your outcome.
Right now, you may feel like you are in a race toward summer and shorts and swimsuit season and you don't have time to waste. Doing this won't be wasted time. Blessings5 -
After time you'll find your staple items + the multi add option makes it so fast. I can log my day or last minute sub in less than 2 minutes... You just need to build a database2
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I switched from WW to MFP. Lost over 50 lbs there, then they changed the plan to one where sugary or fatty, even healthy fats, foods got a Points penalty, and proteins got a lower Point value, so the concept of a Point lost its meaning. A point used to equal roughly 40 calories, now it's anyone's guess. Anyway, now when I count calories I can see what my food is doing for me vs. my activity expenditure. I've broken a year long plateau. And I don't need a scanner to figure out nutrition info. All I do is look at the menu or flip over the package. Easy peasy. But logging takes practice, and you will get used to it. I find it pleasant now actually. I used to get so stressed over Points I'd quit before the day was out.2
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Bry_Lander wrote: »Lesismore2011 wrote: »Okay so just now for example i made my son a sandwich and took a bite then gave my daughter some souo and took a bite. How do i log my food when its on the fly like this?
Not trying to be a jerk, but you really hand your son a sandwich with a bite taken out of it?
...And is this the the attitude she gets when she serves it to him
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I must have a different definition of hard. Big picture it could not be easier, sigh.1
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Having to eat from the college cafeteria (private college requires a meal plan and living on campus) makes calorie counting hell some days. I can't bring my scale because I eat in a group and I already garner weird looks for tracking what I eat even though I'm just maintaining/muscling. My counts are often off, but I'm lucky that they've had little effect so far. Can't wait to move back home and be able to plan my meals and weigh stuff.1
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You'll get a feel for how many calories you're consuming. Different recipes or things from different restaurants. It all becomes routine. Track for a couple months and you probably won't need to after that if you actually pay attention to what you're eating0
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It definitely gets easier with time as you get used to it, so keep it up!
I logged for a long time but don't generally anymore, simply because I've done it long enough to eat intuitively and still have a pretty good idea of how much I'm eating
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The more you eat similar foods, the quicker it gets to log them. Avoid eating out because those are the most difficult to even attempt to log.0
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