Let's be honest
Nexus902
Posts: 38 Member
hey every one I want your honest thoughts about this. Am I the only one who doesn't measure their food. I mean really I'm not measuring out how much katchup I am putting ony eggs but it's not a table spoon. Just like salad dressing how do they expect salad to taist good with just 2 tablespoons of salad dressing. Honest opinions please.
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Replies
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your on a food tracking website....just saying.
You cheat no one but yourself by not tracking, Condiments add up a stupid amount very quickly, Fair warning. If your hitting your goals awesome, If your not you know exactly where your issue lays.
Edit- I taught myself to love the taste of a big salad with just a tiny bit of salsa or homemade dressing, Its all in re-training your palate. Cant really do that without the effort
Edit 2- Measure out a tbsp of ketchup for example and then weigh it. Next time use what you use but weigh it out and compare. Chances are it will shed light in just how many excess calories your eating. Food for thought. Can then see how the many small things add up quick in your day32 -
I don't usually use any dressing on my salad. I use ingredients that coat the salad stuff and add flavour (like smashed avo, mustards, poached/soft boiled eggs, cheese etc). You can get accustomed to things different ways though - I don't need to drown a salad in dressing, I've got used to the taste and texture of minimally dressed salad.
But.... I weigh and measure. I don't get the results I want unless I do.10 -
I measure bbq sauce, salad cream, butter, slices of cheese, tomato ketchup, almond milk and most other foods I eat.
I don't measure cucumber, salad leaves or tomatoes. I add them to my sandwich and guesstimate 100g for them. I like to measure and weigh things, it's part of the winning formula so why would you not?11 -
I lost 40 pounds using MFP last year. I'm a 5'4" woman over 50 and went from 177 to 137. I want to stay here and have maintained since last November. I am extremely happy with my results and so is my doctor.
I used a measuring cup twice and that's it. No cups, no scales, no spoons. I do read labels, use the USDA entries as much as I can, and best-guess the rest. I love my food choices and am never hungry.
I understand the reasoning behind using a digital scale and ordered one from Amazon after reading all the positive comments on here, but the scale is still sitting in the box, unopened.
Is my method for everybody? Of course not.
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I actually find that 2 tablespoons of dressing is more than enough for my quite large salads. I had the same thought when I first started measuring my food, that there was no way I would even be able to taste the dressing. However, I find that I actually have quite a bit left at the bottom of the bowl when I finish the salad.6
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I measure bbq sauce, salad cream, butter, slices of cheese, tomato ketchup, almond milk and most other foods I eat.
I don't measure cucumber, salad leaves or tomatoes. I add them to my sandwich and guesstimate 100g for them. I like to measure and weigh things, it's part of the winning formula so why would you not?
This is what I've started doing as well. It's hard not to feel like I'm cheating or just being lazy, but realistically speaking, if I misjudge how much cucumber I put in my salad, it'll make my calories for the day be off by maybe 6 calories at the very most.6 -
If you're still achieving what you set out to achieve then I don't see that it matters.13
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I used to make dressings with vinegar and oil for salads but I've got used to just using a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Has a sweet taste and I find it's enough for 2 portions of salad without adding too many calories.4
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When it comes to really high calorie items, it is probably best to weigh it out. Mainly it is a foolproof way of knowing the calories aren't the problem. A lot of people have complained about not losing weight, and they were cheating themselves by underestimating on their diary. (Has anyone ever seen a 6 inch banana?
) The way to losing fat is taking in less calories than you burn.
Not everyone needs them, but some swear by it. I like having mine around.3 -
Going by the post title, the reason why some people don't see the use for a food scale is because they have so much weight to lose to begin with that a food scale may not be necessary for them. The closer to a healthy weight you get, the harder it is to be accurate with your deficit; this is where a food scale comes in handy. That's not to say that every person who is quite overweight doesn't need to use a food scale. Some people are so awful at underestimating what they're eating/logging that they cancel out even the greatest of assumed deficits.
As for this,"Just like salad dressing how do they expect salad to taist good with just 2 tablespoons of salad dressing.", two tablespoons of dressing is a LOT. Even before I lost weight I'd never use that much. If you have to drench your salad in dressing just to make it taste good, then forget about salad altogether and eat steamed or roasted vegetables instead. Because much like how frappuccinos tend to be milkshakes with a bit of coffee in them, your salad is now a bowl of dressing with a bit of greens in it. It's not worth it just to feel like you're eating something "healthy".
For me personally a food scale is paramount. I was using a food scale from day one because I already had one for my baking needs. I'm glad I used it because I embarrassingly started off my weight loss with a knockoff version of those 21 day fix containers just to try to refine my eating habits. I'd weigh my foods in the containers to be accurate with my calorie count. I wasn't the type of person to cram the containers, so by that system I was eating 900 calories per day which is far too little. Without the food scale, I wouldn't have know that, binged, and wondered why I felt so hungry all the time. A food scale is especially useful for calorie dense things such as nut butters; most people underestimate how much of that they actually eat.
Another good example of why a food scale is useful was my breakfast this morning. My favorite thing to eat in the morning is some type of protein/nutrition bar with a cup of black coffee. This morning's bar was a Wella Peanut Cacao bar. The nutritional facts are for a 55g bar but my bar was 69g! That added an extra 66 calories. Imagine that happening a few times per day and I'm easily out of maintenance. Some people may argue "Hey, some packaged items will be 66 calories less and it will even out!" Wishful thinking. Manufacturers can be fined for putting in less than stated, so there tends to be an exact amount or slightly more. In my case this morning, it was more than slightly. That's not even considering the rounding of food labels themselves which I believe are allowed to be off by 20% in the U.S.
TL;DR: You don't have to use a food scale, but the minute you think you're stalling or plateauing, it's time for you to buy a food scale because you're most likely eating more than you think.26 -
I started out by writing down everything I ate and restricting the number of servings but I did not measure or weigh. That worked for 30 lbs or so and then I had to tighten up my method and measure and weigh. Either method is fine and moving from one to another when needed is fine too.4
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I don't measure absolutely everything perfectly, no. Other things I do make up the difference.
I have to say, about the salad dressing: it tends to be high in calories. That's one of those things you really need to pay close attention to. Non-starchy veggies are small potatoes (so to speak), but the dressing is where you can run into trouble. That's part of the reason some salads wind up with the calories of a big mac. And if you feel the need you drench your salad, you might want to try different ways of mixing the salad to spread it out better, like shaking.
Of course, it's up to you what to do, and you don't seem to be asking for advice, but if you aren't getting the results you expect, the lettuce probably isn't the culprit.4 -
I lost 40 pounds using MFP last year. I'm a 5'4" woman over 50 and went from 177 to 137. I want to stay here and have maintained since last November. I am extremely happy with my results and so is my doctor.
I used a measuring cup twice and that's it. No cups, no scales, no spoons. I do read labels, use the USDA entries as much as I can, and best-guess the rest. I love my food choices and am never hungry.
I understand the reasoning behind using a digital scale and ordered one from Amazon after reading all the positive comments on here, but the scale is still sitting in the box, unopened.
Is my method for everybody? Of course not.
I want to add something to my comment above where I said I don'r measure but do read labels.
I eat a lot of salads (usually one a day, sometimes two) that often have spinach, shredded carrots, black olives, and many other things. I also eat prepared potato salads, but only once in a rare while. I really like fresh raw vegetables.
Once in a while I will use salad dressing like a low calorie one, balsamic vinegar, or olive oil and vinegar. I read the label first and best-guess a tablespoon or two and shake the salad.
However, most of the time I don't use salad dressing. I season my salads with salt and pepper or garlic salt/powder or some other spice and skip the high-calorie salad dressing. This is my preference, not just a weight loss tactic.1 -
I measure high calorie foods, especially ones I'm likely to over eat - if I'm having cake or muffins you can be damned sure I'm weighing them. I guess a lot of food, I eat in the work canteen and it's pretty plated so bothersome to weigh individual parts of the meal, but if I can weigh it I do. I log everything though, even ketchup - I probably tend to over estimate on quantities based on past experience/weighing
This level of lazy tracking works perfectly for now, if I stop losing as I want to the first thing I'll change is tightening up my weighing/measuring for a more accurate calorie count.2 -
Precise measurements are like training wheels. You need them up until you learn how to manage intake properly.5
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I don't concern myself too much with condiments except mayo and dressings. I don't count salt either. Everything else, I measure.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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I lost 40 pounds using MFP last year. I'm a 5'4" woman over 50 and went from 177 to 137. I want to stay here and have maintained since last November. I am extremely happy with my results and so is my doctor.
I used a measuring cup twice and that's it. No cups, no scales, no spoons. I do read labels, use the USDA entries as much as I can, and best-guess the rest. I love my food choices and am never hungry.
I understand the reasoning behind using a digital scale and ordered one from Amazon after reading all the positive comments on here, but the scale is still sitting in the box, unopened.
Is my method for everybody? Of course not.
I do this method. However, occasionally I do use measuring cups for things. I make the best guesses on amounts I'm eating and it's never really been a problem. Some people definitely do benefit from a food scale though. It really does help keep portions in check. I just think that maybe I'm pretty good at eyeballing portion sizes or overestimate what I eat. Who knows but it works for me.
That being said, if I do ever use salad dressing it's usually a tiny bit. I'm not a fan of a lot of dressing. Most of my salads don't need it and I do eat a lot of salads! Mostly homemade shredded Buffalo chicken salads or turkey taco salads. Neither need dressing.
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hey every one I want your honest thoughts about this. Am I the only one who doesn't measure their food. I mean really I'm not measuring out how much katchup I am putting ony eggs but it's not a table spoon. Just like salad dressing how do they expect salad to taist good with just 2 tablespoons of salad dressing. Honest opinions please.
Most condiments like ketchup, mayonnaise and salad dressings are very caloric. So if you're of the mindset that "how do they expect salad to taste good with just 2 tablespoons of salad dressing" you are definitely at risk of exceeding the calories you need to lose weight.
Just have a look at all of the threads here with titles like, "Why am I not losing weight?" to see that this is a very common issue.
You can log what you eat or not - your choice - but know that your body *does* log them even if you don't.
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I lost 40 pounds using MFP last year. I'm a 5'4" woman over 50 and went from 177 to 137. I want to stay here and have maintained since last November. I am extremely happy with my results and so is my doctor.
I used a measuring cup twice and that's it. No cups, no scales, no spoons. I do read labels, use the USDA entries as much as I can, and best-guess the rest. I love my food choices and am never hungry.
I understand the reasoning behind using a digital scale and ordered one from Amazon after reading all the positive comments on here, but the scale is still sitting in the box, unopened.
Is my method for everybody? Of course not.
I want to add something to my comment above where I said I don'r measure but do read labels.
I eat a lot of salads (usually one a day, sometimes two) that often have spinach, shredded carrots, black olives, and many other things. I also eat prepared potato salads, but only once in a rare while. I really like fresh raw vegetables.
Once in a while I will use salad dressing like a low calorie one, balsamic vinegar, or olive oil and vinegar. I read the label first and best-guess a tablespoon or two and shake the salad.
However, most of the time I don't use salad dressing. I season my salads with salt and pepper or garlic salt/powder or some other spice and skip the high-calorie salad dressing. This is my preference, not just a weight loss tactic.
Last time I got heavier than I was comfortable with about 6 years ago, I lost weight logging on MFP without weighing my food. I did use measuring cups or ramekins to guesstimate amounts. I'm back on MFP having regained 30 pounds, and I started off with just measuring cups, but I recently purchased a scale. It's let me know that in most cases, I was overestimating the calories of the food I was eating which was helping me eat at a deficit. However, I am enjoying using the scale because this time around I am really focused on hitting my fiber, protein, and calcium goals, and weighing my food helps with accuracy not just of calories but of nutrients.4 -
I didn't weigh my food either. Until I stopped losing weight. Then I started weighing and realized I was eating at least 400 cal/day more than I was logging. A fair chunk of that was in condiments. Idk. Maybe you guess better than I do, but eyeballing is horribly innacruate for me.3
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Don't measure your food if you don't like doing it. It's not a good idea though to ignore measuring food at first. I bought a food scale, I do t because ranch can have 110 calories for two tablespoons, if you don't know how much it is you could easily get 300 calories on your salad alone, then you will be posting on here, "why am I not losing weight I'm doing everything right." The scale is away to bring awareness and see what a serving size looks like. I'm down 18 pounds (weighed in today) and a large portion of my success was food scale. It's easy to eat more then 1oz of cheese without weighing and dressing.4
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I think 2 tbsp of dressing on a salad is plenty...but I've never been one to drown my salad in dressing either...I like the taste of the veggies and other things...I don't want to just taste the dressing.
I weigh and/or measure many things, but not all things. If it's calorie dense, it generally gets weighed out or measured. I weigh most of my meats and whatnot so that I at least have a round about figure in regards to protein (I don't log).1 -
The only thing I don't measure are raw vegetables, but anything else is weighed/measured. Its too easy to underestimate your food intake otherwise.4
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I track exactly because otherwise I will not lose weight, it's that simple.2
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My middle daughter is not obese by any means, but when she said both "MFP doesn't work" and "I don't log my condiments", I suffered the parental distress of having to suppress laughter.
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scarlett_k wrote: »If you're still achieving what you set out to achieve then I don't see that it matters.
This.
I don't measure butter, ketchup, salsa, etc. I do think I am good at eyeballing amounts because of years of baking, for example my husband and I will "argue" over whether there's a Tbsp. or tsp. of mayo in something and I've shown how I am dead-on with that sort of thing. He tends to underestimate, thinking a huge heaping spoonful of peanut butter is about a Tbsp when it's closer to two.
With shredded cheese, I don't measure or weigh it but I tend to round up. I know what a 1/4 cup looks like and whether I was under/over.
I lost 90 lb using this site, and I'm currently maintaining but in a zone where I'd like to lose a little bit more to feel totally comfortable. If I don't find I'm reaching that goal and am honestly logging well then I'll probably start measuring more, and/or buy a scale and weigh more of my food. But if everything's working out well for you, I see no reason to get obsessive about weighing and measuring every bite.
One more thought...with packaged food, it IS way more likely that you'll get a larger amount than the package says. I work in (non food) manufacturing industry and it's a legal nightmare if you're discovered to be shipping products that are consistently underweight. So it's more likely that yogurt is 6 oz, not 5.3, than it being 4.7 oz.
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While many people can and do lose weight by just eating a bit less of exactly what they used to eat before, I personally think that for long term successful weight loss most of us will have to make changes to what and how we chose to eat. This particularly applies to people like myself who were overweight for a considerable period of time.
I definitely weighed and measured when I was losing weight and I am continuing to do so, albeit less carefully, now that I am maintaining. This is not necessary for everyone; but, precise measurement allowed me to eat the most I could while achieving my goals... and that made me happy!3 -
two thoughts to add:
1) the closer you are to your goal weight, the more important it is to be on track. My deficit is 250 calories/day, which can be blown by guesstimating one thing wrong.
2) I found that measuring food for a while gave me a much better sense of how to estimate calories when I'm out. I dont measure everything at home, things like salad, cucumber, coffee, etc, but I measure oils, fats, cheese, nuts, meats, starches, fruit, milk, sugars, booze, etc. That has also helped me cut back on the mindless take a bite here or there of my kid's pizza or a half cookie or a slice of cheese. So, measuring helps with understanding the caloric values of different foods/portions, helps estimate when i can't measure, and helps with mindfulness about what I'm eating.7 -
I weigh & and measure about 90%0
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Are you losing without weighing/measuring those? Then you're fine. I have to weigh everything, or I'll overeat.7
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