Let's be honest

245

Replies

  • Iheartrunning36
    Iheartrunning36 Posts: 73 Member
    edited July 2017
    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.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    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).
  • an0nemus
    an0nemus Posts: 149 Member
    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.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,598 Member
    I track exactly because otherwise I will not lose weight, it's that simple.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,742 Member
    edited July 2017
    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.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,393 Member
    edited July 2017
    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!
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,937 Member
    I weigh & and measure about 90%
  • sophie9492015
    sophie9492015 Posts: 204 Member
    I also dont measure fruit or veg because i think a guess will do with low calorie items?

    I weigh meat and yoghurt, milk basically anything but fresh produce.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I weigh and measure everything than I can weigh and measure. If you're losing weight without measuring right now, then continue doing what you are doing, but at one point (and this is very likely) your weight loss could stall. If it does, you know what you need to start doing. Salad dressing in particular can be very high in calories. If you do a simple oil and vinegar dressing (classically 3 parts oil 1 part vinegar) and you use more than 2 tablespoons you're talking about 200 extra calories, if not more. It can add up and wipe out your deficit completely. Ketchup is forgiving at roughly 1 calorie per gram, but mayo is not if you're using mayo.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,581 Member
    edited July 2017
    I also dont measure fruit or veg because i think a guess will do with low calorie items?

    Fruits, especially, can be surprisingly caloric because of the sugar content, though. A medium-sized banana, for example, is over a 100 calories. ;)
  • DKG28
    DKG28 Posts: 299 Member
    the serving size given doesn't have to be what you use; they just have to give the nutrition info for some amount. I know some people drown their salads in dressing - I question whether they actually like salad, or if they've made it tolerable with dressing. If you don't enjoy a lightly dressed salad, and you're looking for lower calorie options, perhaps salads aren't right for you. I don't enjoy a lightly dressed lettuce salad, so I eat a lot of salads made of a variety of raw veggies that I do like. I shred them up - kind of like cole slaw, but with beets, carrots, etc. and dress them with balsamic vingar-mustard dressing, salt and pepper. If you have room in your calorie allotment for lots of dressing, then go for it.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    edited July 2017
    I weigh and measure just about everything. I estimate sugar free ketchup and sriracha, but they are low calorie condiments.

    To compensate for my somewhat loose logging (I might pour an extra ml or two of creamer in my tea and not bother to change the entry I use every day), I leave extra exercise calories on the table.

    I think everyone needs to do what works best for them. Not measuring and just trying to cut back never got me anywhere. Measuring and logging everything with painstaking precision was a bit too much for me, so I backed off from it into something a bit more relaxed with a fail safe to ensure that I was still in a deficit.

    If not measuring and just eye balling is working for you OP, that's great. As long as you're getting the results you want, that's all that matters.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,581 Member
    I weigh and measure just about everything. I estimate sugar free ketchup and sriracha, but they are low calorie condiments.

    To compensate for my somewhat loose logging (I might pour an extra ml or two of creamer in my tea and not bother to change the entry I use every day), I leave extra exercise calories on the table.

    Me, too. I only eat back @ 50% of my 'bonus' exercise calories to allow for inaccuracies in either my food logging or my exercise burn. :)
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    edited July 2017
    I weigh and measure just about everything. I estimate sugar free ketchup and sriracha, but they are low calorie condiments.

    To compensate for my somewhat loose logging (I might pour an extra ml or two of creamer in my tea and not bother to change the entry I use every day), I leave extra exercise calories on the table.

    Me, too. I only eat back @ 50% of my 'bonus' exercise calories to allow for inaccuracies in either my food logging or my exercise burn. :)

    Honestly, I went through a spell where I was logging things like garlic powder and pepper and it was just doing my head in. Or... oh, I know! Tasting a soup for seasoning.

    And they do have calories and it does add up.

    Now I don't worry about those because of my exercise calorie buffer and I don't have that logging dread. I need to log. I had a very brief flirtation with not logging and didn't really like it. I like this method just fine.

    I can trust my Fitbit, so I use 100-150 calorie buffer.
  • jenniferinfl
    jenniferinfl Posts: 456 Member
    I weigh or measure pretty much everything. However, every once in awhile I might have like 3 jellybeans out of the candy bowl at work. If that's all I have, I don't bother logging it. It's like 8 calories. I'm usually under my calories anyways and I've averaged a loss of 1.5 lbs a week for the last 16 weeks. I measure salad dressing and half n half and sugar and ketchup. I occasionally have a slice of cheese I don't bother to log, but, I'm using a cheese slicer and I know it's 0.1 ounces of cheese. If I have a second slice, I go ahead and log it all.

    If you've been doing this for awhile, then you know what you can skip logging. But, if you're going to start a thread like "I'm not losing weight and I don't know why" then hopefully you've gone back to weighing and measuring every single thing for a few weeks before posting that.. lol
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    I like this post, particularly the links at the end that show how greatly people tend to underestimate their calorie intake. But again, it's mostly an issue for those who aren't achieving their desired weight loss results.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    Nexus902 wrote: »
    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. ;)

    This.

    I don't weigh everything now, several years into maintenance, but I will always measure out condiments and dressings because most of them are calorie bombs!