Backpackers advice with MFP?

MarvinsAMartian · May 2017

*Sorry if something has been posted that answers this, I tried search.

Ok, so I'm planning a long haul trip to South East Asia in a month or so here and was hoping to get some advice/insight from other MFP users who've been. I'm mainly concerned with logging food. I've made a commitment to myself to be consistent and that means I have to at least try to log everything while I'm over there.

The reason this is a concern to me is because even with the pretty substantial database of nutritional info MFP has, I just KNOW I'll run into things over there that can't possibly be in the database. What then? I've manually logged an item before and no nutritional facts came with it (home made, and Filipino enough it wasn't on MFP).

Anyone else have success with their food diary in a foreign place? I don't want to just stop for the duration of my trip (6-8 Weeks) because I feel like I'm cheating myself.

Thanks in advance.

dutchandkiwi · May 2017

I travel reasonably extensively for work on occasion - When something like this happens I just log to the best of my ability (guess) add some quick calories (10-20% of said meal) and make a note in the notes field that it was a guesstimate

eok902 · May 2017

Hello. I've been on MFP for over a year and 7 months in (last November) I took a four week trip to Thailand. I logged as much as I could, such as breakfast which was usually Western style (e.g. Eggs or fruit and yoghurt) plus any beers, coffees etc but for a lot of the time I ate street food and didn't feel like trying to desperately log every morsel if it wasn't easily available in the database. I came back a month later and found I had neither lost nor gained a pound. I think logging some things daily kept me mindful of what I was eating overall and although I thought of my month away as a diet break, I stayed pretty much at maintenance.

If you're determined to actively lose through logging while you're away it might be trickier because, as you say, you won't be able to find equivalents for every dish. My advice would be to do your best or break down the dishes into ingredients if you're determined to log but make sure you enjoy the local food, which is a huge part of SE Asian culture. I found the food was pretty healthy and there's less tendency to overeat or eat desserts when you eat locally in Asia so you might naturally have a healthy experience.

Have a great trip!

ETA: I don't think not logging is 'cheating' yourself but I don't really understand what you mean by that. If it's impossible to log accurately you're not really cheating anyone.

MarvinsAMartian · May 2017

Thanks for the tips guys. As I figured it would be pretty hard to accurately log over there. I completely forgot about the notes section too so I'll definitely be putting "guessed" in there a bit.

I'm not really worried about the gain/loss while I'm over there either to be honest. Putting on or losing weight isn't really my goal, trying to curb overeating is. Filling in my food diary is more about mindset. I committed myself to being more consistent and to try to stay as true as I can about what I'm eating which is why I'd like to keep it going even halfway around the world.

My perspective with regards to the part about 'cheating' myself is why bother being on a diet if you can say, 'time out I'm not going to count the next few weeks?' I see it as you're in all the way or not at all. So personally, I want to be as accurate as possible because I'm in, I'm committed, and I wasn't naïve to think it could be done with 100% accuracy which is why I thought I'd ask you lovely folks.

So thanks again for the responses.

ModernRock · May 2017

Why not do a different kind of food diary or journal while you are on the trip? Instead of a failed attempt at strict calorie counting, keep a daily journal of how you felt about food each day? Too little? Too much? Tried something new? What relationships to food do you see among the unfamiliar people around you, and how is it working for them (or not), and how does it compare to your relationship to food? What can you learn from them? Recipes for foods you want to make when you get back home. In other words, use the opportunity to be mindful about food, but not necessarily through calorie counting.

eok902 · May 2017

^^^ This is a good idea, especially as you say you're more interested in not overeating than losing. Personally I find that although travel is a great excuse to try new food, I'm less likely to overeat as I'm more relaxed when on holiday. Travel is also a good time to reflect so a journal or taking notes might be all you need to stay mindful.

I hope you enjoy your trip and have some great food!

MarvinsAMartian · May 2017

All great tips guys. Appreciate the feedback. I'll definitely have to do some type of hybrid food journal over there. Thanks again.

MarvinsAMartian · September 2017

Following up on this thread too.

My goal to not over eat was a success. Turns out when you're eating food you're not used to there are days you just don't eat as much. Plus maybe it was the heat but I found my appetite wasn't as ferocious as here in Canada.

For anyone else wondering. It is possible to log with MFP over in SE Asia. I tried it out for a weekish but found it difficult because I had to make substitutions and guesses to do so. If your goal is to keep track to the T, this may be a difficult task if you're a particularly adventurous eater such as me. That said, the MFP database surprisingly has a lot of the brands over there (at least the ones in English), so theoretically it is doable.

For me though I ditched the logging and just committed myself to limiting my portions when I could. I spent a lot of time in Vietnam so this was actually pretty easy to do because they eat a lot of soup over there and after filling your stomach full of liquid there really isn't much room for solid food haha. One thing I also cut back on was bread. I eat a lot of toast for breakfast. For some reason I just didn't like the way they make bread over there. Was easy to lay off it for a while.

I travelled for two months and when I got back and weighed myself two days ago I lost 10 lbs since last checking (before my trip) so whatever steps I took worked. It's not like I didn't indulge my inner glutton either because I did.

If you're to ask me why I was able to do that I think the biggest factor to consider is that this trip was my way to check out of reality for a bit and reset my brain. By that I mean try to just focus on myself. Only things I had to worry about were, 1. Where to sleep and 2. Where to eat. Often its said that weight gain/loss is connected to stress. I'm only 26 so some of you are probably thinking "WTF do you have to stress about?" but that's not really the point. We all have things on our mind that affect us good and bad.

The thing I take away from this and hopefully others can too is that when you're on the journey to weight loss/gain and are on holidays that you need to really commit to checking out mentally as well. I was so worried about trying to keep my streak alive and log like a madman but when I let that go and just lived, and stopped worrying and trusted myself, things worked out in the end.

Hopefully my experience is helpful.

vivalavida82 · September 2017

Thanks for checking back in! It's great to hear from your experience!

I'm off to 10 days in Paris, spending time with friends and family. I'm a little worried about it.
Tracking will be easier that it would be in Thailand, because I know the foods. But french food is so freaking heavy! And the bread, mmmmmh! And the drinking. Yikes!

I don't want to gain back what I've lost so far :-s (just started a couple weeks ago).

I don't have a plan yet, and I need one. Suggestions welcome.

MarvinsAMartian · September 2017

vivalavida82 wrote: »

Thanks for checking back in! It's great to hear from your experience!

I'm off to 10 days in Paris, spending time with friends and family. I'm a little worried about it.
Tracking will be easier that it would be in Thailand, because I know the foods. But french food is so freaking heavy! And the bread, mmmmmh! And the drinking. Yikes!

I don't want to gain back what I've lost so far :-s (just started a couple weeks ago).

I don't have a plan yet, and I need one. Suggestions welcome.

I think it's definitely doable.

The big issue I had was finding certain things that can be bought at a food stall in the MFP database. Like how the hell am I supposed to know what's in it? It's technically home cooking. So it resulted in a lot of guessing and substitutions. I don't think you'll face that too often there.

I think what's most important to consider when you're in an unfamiliar situation like that is to dial back the expectations. At home you have a routine, its comfortable and its reasonable to expect you will meet your goals. Halfway around the world when you're trying to immerse yourself in the culture (which food is a huge part of) I don't think its reasonable to expect nothing will change. I think taking that mindset with you over there will help a lot because for me, once I stopped worrying about the little details it seemed to get easier.

There were definitely days I knew "*kitten*, that was a lot of calories," but the key thing to note about that is 'I knew' which means I was conscious of my actions. I had the mindset not to sweat the small stuff so I didn't, but I didn't throw out the habits I had picked up by learning to log just like that either. Also remember not to punish yourself for moments like that. As long as it's not an everyday thing its a minor speedbump in the road.

Just try to hold yourself accountable, if you feel like you can't this community is always here. Good luck and have a blast in Paris!

Backpackers advice with MFP?

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