Are you tracking food perfectly?

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  • ambermmattox
    ambermmattox Posts: 6 Member
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    I eat out often. I simply pick the best I can pick when we are out. I search "McDonald's" and "smoky bones" and "Wendy's" and then find the stuff I want to eat. If I only eat half, I plug it in as ".5"
  • JaxxieKat
    JaxxieKat Posts: 427 Member
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    At home I use a digital kitchen scale to weigh everything in grams. When I dine out I guess as best as I can. I will also do extra cardio at the gym and eat sensibly during the day.
  • cdkelly
    cdkelly Posts: 101 Member
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    Yes I weigh/measure absolutely everything and do meal prep meals for the week. That way I only have to weigh/measure that one day I make everything and then save it as my recipe in mfp so the whole rest of the week it's already predone and I don't have weigh or measure a thing. I just make sure I make super declicious but healthy meal prep meals to stay satisfied all week. So far so good. I also use the scan feature when adding the ingredients to make it more accurate.
  • raimondasa
    raimondasa Posts: 5 Member
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    I track precisely specific foods and I don't really care about others. I weigh peanut butter precisely, but I don't see a point of weighing most of vegetables.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,894 Member
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    slm14 wrote: »
    Do you all track your food measuring every item?

    When I'm actively losing weight, I track all my food measuring about 97.6% of what I eat.

    slm14 wrote: »
    How do you manage when eating out?

    I rarely eat out. Or if I do, I usually choose places which list the calories for their menu items. If I go somewhere that doesn't have a calorie listing, I look up the recipes for whatever I've eaten, and double the portions.



  • sabinaholtby
    sabinaholtby Posts: 73 Member
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    infinitynevermore wrote: »
    I measure most stuff since I went 3 weeks at the same weight and it really makes a difference. Eating out, i try to reconstruct the meal here; if I can't I guesstimate. As you said, that's all you can do. And there are so many suggestions floating around about how to control your portions when you go out.

    THIS IS ME RIGHT NOW! Three weeks no real loss. Think it might be time to crack down on my tracking. I've gotten lazy and too inaccurate. I need to seriously measure, and also stop buying chocolate.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    I'm very meticulous with my logging when I'm losing (down to diet 7up, black coffee, and sugar free gum) but it doesn't come from an obsessive place. I do it because I like numbers and calculating how calories relate to my weight loss. If I go out I just estimate, not problem. Having to estimate doesn't give me anxiety and logging accurately does not send me down an obsessive spiral. I think that's what matters, the mindset.

    When I'm maintaining I'm much looser with my logging. I log all vegetables as carrots, for example, and skip logging very low calorie things. I also sometimes guesstimate some foods in my head and quick add a rounded amount of calories (candies and chocolates almost never go over 5.5 calories per gram except for very dark chocolate, fruits average around 0.5 calories per gram except for bananas, and most breads don't usually go over 3 calories per gram). Some of my usual meals in my usual servings are always within a close range of calories so I quick add that as well. Some days I don't even log, just tally my guesstimates in my head for each meal.
  • crazyycatladyy1
    crazyycatladyy1 Posts: 156 Member
    edited May 2017
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    slm14 wrote: »
    Do you all track your food measuring every item? How do you manage when eating out?
    When I am preparing my own food I measure and try to do accurate portions. Currently I'm rounding and doing my best educated guesses when eating out. I think at least bringing awareness to my eating, even if it's not the exact calorie and macro count, can be helpful. Thoughts? What has been most successful for tracking without becoming obsessive for some of you all?
    Thanks. (I'm also super open to new MFP friends if anyone needs more buddies, just request).

    I'm in maintenance and I'm not tracking at all right now, except for some mental math throughout the day. Earlier this year I got away from the maintenance plan I had been following for several years to try something new (changed what kinds of foods I was eating and started tracking/weighing everything again), but I didn't like it so I'm back to 16:8IF, eating whatever I want within my IF window, weighing daily, mentally adding up calories throughout the day, and then if I get above my maintenance range and stay for a few days-cut back on obvious culprits/start using my food scale again until I'm back in my range (125lbs-130lbs).
  • Gamliela
    Gamliela Posts: 2,468 Member
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    zachbonner_ wrote: »
    I don't usually log vegetables

    I log everything. I'm loose about it though. So far I haven't had that show up in plateux or anything so I'm ok with using package nutrition facts and whats in the mfp database. I roughly know what is 100 grams and what a cup is, so the database is what I most often use.

    How do u know what your total calories are for the day if you don't log the veg? Just curious how that would work.

  • celestestar
    celestestar Posts: 41 Member
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    I'm not tracking food perfectly, whenever i have eaten out at a restaurant or someone else has done the cooking at home i just roughly estimate it all to be 500 calories per meal and add that has a quick add.
  • helenrenee007
    helenrenee007 Posts: 19 Member
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    I try to! When eating out I choose something as close as possible if it's not in there. 99% of the time i post exactly what i eat.
  • slm14
    slm14 Posts: 10 Member
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    Thanks so much everyone! Great to learn about the varying ways people managing tracking nutrition. I really appreciate the insight!
  • joemac1988
    joemac1988 Posts: 1,021 Member
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    slm14 wrote: »
    Do you all track your food measuring every item? How do you manage when eating out?
    When I am preparing my own food I measure and try to do accurate portions. Currently I'm rounding and doing my best educated guesses when eating out. I think at least bringing awareness to my eating, even if it's not the exact calorie and macro count, can be helpful. Thoughts? What has been most successful for tracking without becoming obsessive for some of you all?
    Thanks. (I'm also super open to new MFP friends if anyone needs more buddies, just request).

    I'm pretty good at eyeballing at restaurants but I'll also go on their website and a lot will have nutrition info. Things I eat often (like a Chipotle bowl) I have saved in My Foods.

    Be careful using volume measurements (like cups, etc) as weight is far more accurate. Follow cartergood on Instagram...
  • PrincessMel72
    PrincessMel72 Posts: 1,094 Member
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    ambermmattox wrote: »
    I eat out often. I simply pick the best I can pick when we are out. I search "McDonald's" and "smoky bones" and "Wendy's" and then find the stuff I want to eat. If I only eat half, I plug it in as ".5"

    MMMMM Smokey Bones! We have one within walking distance of our apartment and it's AMAZING
  • perkymommy
    perkymommy Posts: 1,642 Member
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    slm14 wrote: »
    Do you all track your food measuring every item? How do you manage when eating out?
    When I am preparing my own food I measure and try to do accurate portions. Currently I'm rounding and doing my best educated guesses when eating out. I think at least bringing awareness to my eating, even if it's not the exact calorie and macro count, can be helpful. Thoughts? What has been most successful for tracking without becoming obsessive for some of you all?
    Thanks. (I'm also super open to new MFP friends if anyone needs more buddies, just request).

    When eating out some place where there is a menu online I generally pick out what I'm going to eat and find out what the calories per ounce are at home the best I can or compare it to something on the food list. Some places actually state their calories on the menu which is nice.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    I'm in maintenance and I am still tracking everything as I did before. I'm not sure how to transition, to be honest.
  • crazyycatladyy1
    crazyycatladyy1 Posts: 156 Member
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    MelanieCN77 wrote: »
    I'm in maintenance and I am still tracking everything as I did before. I'm not sure how to transition, to be honest.

    Nothing wrong with long term tracking if you don't mind doing it. Otherwise, you can set other parameters to go by if you get burned out on the tracking. I do IF and daily weigh-ins to keep me on track in maintenance. If the weight starts creeping up (and stays higher for more than a few days), then I get strict again and start tracking, until I'm back down in my maintenance range.
  • newheavensearth
    newheavensearth Posts: 870 Member
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    I weigh and measure everything according to portion sizes on tbe package. Serving size is 85 grams? That's what I measure out and eat.I will not weigh prepackaged or single serving foods, its close enough for me.

    Eating out I check nutrition info on online menus or find the best and closest approximation if no info is available. Since I still on occasion put food in measuring cups then onto the scale to weigh it, I've gotten good at eyeballing what 1 cup, 1/2 cup or 4 oz looks like. That's how I handle portion control out of the house.
  • tramondonna1
    tramondonna1 Posts: 5 Member
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    The Keg has nutritional values on their on-line menu. It was very helpful when I was deciding which restaurant to go to and what to have.
  • kirobinson54
    kirobinson54 Posts: 11 Member
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    I was, and I was losing weight steadily. I started getting lazy about it, doing it only about 1/2 the time and even then was sloppy about the accuracy, and my weight loss stopped. I am back on the road to accurate, complete logging.

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