Questions

greenlizard72
greenlizard72 Posts: 76 Member
edited November 22 in Health and Weight Loss
1. Measuring Everything. Really? It just seems impossible some days. For example, last night I worked late and came home to dinner already made. My wonderful wife made me a plate and I ate it. This was impossible to record with accuracy in MFP. Should I have not eaten it, choosing instead to make something else I could measure?

I know there is no good answer to this other than to create a process/habit where I can measure things, which is changing the lifestyle. I'm just struggling how to do this effectively in a very packed family and work life. Any ideas from busy people would be awesome.

2. Counting Walking Steps. I understand that we should subtract (eat back) any exercise calories, but does that apply to walking? I know walking is exercise. I just wonder if my activity level already includes a predetermined amount of exercise which would include daily normal walking. I turned on the iPhone step counting this morning and noticed it subtracted those calories from my daily target. It's not like I'm walking a marathon; so far it is only double digits. I was just curious.

Thanks for any experience/feedback.

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    2. If you are talking about walking for exercise, yes add it in. If it is part of your non exercise life (e.g., you are a mailman walking from house to house), no. This is where something like a Fitbit can be useful but it is by no means a necessity.

    1. Ask your wife what the ingredients are in food or help make the food, etc. It kind of depends on how accommodating she's willing to be. My husband writes down the gram weights of all of the ingredients for me when he cooks and then I do the work of building or adjusting the recipe once I get home. If you have foods that you commonly eat, build the recipes and save them and log from those (adjusting for quantities if you want/need to) or save the meals in MFP or build the individual food entries in MFP.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    weighing/measuring everything is usually recommended when people are "doing everything right" and eating like almost no calories but still not losing weight. In such an instance, they are obviously under reporting and eating more than they think they are.

    I've never done the step thing...I have no clue how many steps I take. When I did MFP I logged and ate back deliberate exercise calories. Your activity level, even if sedentary still accounts for a certain amount of steps...I believe sedentary is up to 3,000 steps.

    I'd probably only count my walking steps if walking was my primary exercise and I did a lot of it. I would have to be exceeding 3 miles per day to even consider logging it and eating back those calories. One of the reasons eating back exercise calories is important is that higher intensity exercise is a big stress on the body and breaks it down and you need those calories to rebuild...unless you're walking a ton, walking isn't a particularly high stress activity...especially just walking around and getting in steps.
  • kristen8000
    kristen8000 Posts: 747 Member
    1) When I'm trying to really be accurate, yes, I have been known to turn down already made food and make my own. BUT, you can estimate sometimes. Just don't make it a habit. We are all busy, have full time jobs and families, but the most successful people don't let anything get in there way.

    2) I don't record any activity in MFP. I don't have a fitbit, or any kinda of step counter. I couldn't tell you how many steps I take. I can tell you I've lost 18lbs in 3 months just by being very precise on the CI part of CICO.

    I hope you find something that works for you and that will come with time/practice/trial and error.
  • greenlizard72
    greenlizard72 Posts: 76 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    2. If you are talking about walking for exercise, yes add it in. If it is part of your non exercise life (e.g., you are a mailman walking from house to house), no. This is where something like a Fitbit can be useful but it is by no means a necessity.

    1. Ask your wife what the ingredients are in food or help make the food, etc. It kind of depends on how accommodating she's willing to be. My husband writes down the gram weights of all of the ingredients for me when he cooks and then I do the work of building or adjusting the recipe once I get home. If you have foods that you commonly eat, build the recipes and save them and log from those (adjusting for quantities if you want/need to) or save the meals in MFP or build the individual food entries in MFP.

    Thanks jemhh. She is as accommodating as she can be. We both work and take care of the kids and life, so I'd like to not make her life any more difficult because of something I want to do. I like your idea of setting up the recipes in food entries on MFP. We are creatures of habit.
  • yskaldir
    yskaldir Posts: 202 Member
    greenlizard72 wrote: »
    1. Measuring Everything. Really? It just seems impossible some days. For example, last night I worked late and came home to dinner already made. My wonderful wife made me a plate and I ate it. This was impossible to record with accuracy in MFP. Should I have not eaten it, choosing instead to make something else I could measure?

    Why don't you ask your wife to measure the food and write them down in the future.


  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    Some days I just throw in the towel on logging -- like when we get take out Chinese. One meal does not make you fat or skinny. A pattern of behavior does. So about once every week or 10 days, we have take out Chinese. I eat too much and the sodium packs on a couple extra pounds which I have to spend a couple of days expelling. The next morning I'm back to eating the new normal.
  • greenlizard72
    greenlizard72 Posts: 76 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    weighing/measuring everything is usually recommended when people are "doing everything right" and eating like almost no calories but still not losing weight. In such an instance, they are obviously under reporting and eating more than they think they are.

    I've never done the step thing...I have no clue how many steps I take. When I did MFP I logged and ate back deliberate exercise calories. Your activity level, even if sedentary still accounts for a certain amount of steps...I believe sedentary is up to 3,000 steps.

    I'd probably only count my walking steps if walking was my primary exercise and I did a lot of it. I would have to be exceeding 3 miles per day to even consider logging it and eating back those calories. One of the reasons eating back exercise calories is important is that higher intensity exercise is a big stress on the body and breaks it down and you need those calories to rebuild...unless you're walking a ton, walking isn't a particularly high stress activity...especially just walking around and getting in steps.

    Thanks cwolfman13.

    Yeah, I was just playing around with the MFP settings. I think I am going to turn it off. I am currently in a state of pain and fatigue, and high intensity exercise just is not a reality today. As the temp drops here in AZ though, I feel like walking can be a very good option to get moving and start heading in the direction of exercise. I seem to have let my body get in a state of muscle weakness and many pains. I need to work my way out of that to even think about exercising.
  • megbrewerr
    megbrewerr Posts: 25 Member
    I agree with the measuring statement. You create a habit with a few exceptions and thats the best I personally can do, and it works. I am also loose with counting vegetables. If I eat two cups of spinach and count 1 because I misjudged it, or broccoli/tomatoes for that matter, at the end of the day I'm eating vegetables instead of chips, potatoes, etc. Still a win in my problem and probably won't change this habit until I feel like it is absolutely necessary (basically, never)
  • Keladelphia
    Keladelphia Posts: 820 Member
    1) When I was losing I measured high calorie items whenever I could which i'd say was about 65 percent of the time. That other 35 percent of time, the times when I was out, the times when someone else lovingly made me food....I just estimated (usually an overestimate) and you know what? I never had an issue losing nearly 100 pounds. If you're losing weight by not measuring (some people wont agree) I think your fine. When you start pulling your hair our wondering why your not losing than maybe you say "honey can you let me know what ingredients/amounts are in this." Losing never came down to such a struggle for me that I needed to do that but maybe i'm just a fantastic estimator ;)

    2) I personally wouldn't count walking steps towards exercise calories. If you start to find that your rate of loss is too quick maybe i'd reconsider but i'd only count purposeful exercise until then.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    greenlizard72 wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    2. If you are talking about walking for exercise, yes add it in. If it is part of your non exercise life (e.g., you are a mailman walking from house to house), no. This is where something like a Fitbit can be useful but it is by no means a necessity.

    1. Ask your wife what the ingredients are in food or help make the food, etc. It kind of depends on how accommodating she's willing to be. My husband writes down the gram weights of all of the ingredients for me when he cooks and then I do the work of building or adjusting the recipe once I get home. If you have foods that you commonly eat, build the recipes and save them and log from those (adjusting for quantities if you want/need to) or save the meals in MFP or build the individual food entries in MFP.

    Thanks jemhh. She is as accommodating as she can be. We both work and take care of the kids and life, so I'd like to not make her life any more difficult because of something I want to do. I like your idea of setting up the recipes in food entries on MFP. We are creatures of habit.

    Once you do that, it gets a lot easier/quicker to log. There are some recipes that I adjust every time to account for varying amounts of ingredients (e.g., meatballs) but I also have many that I don't adjust because the ingredients are approximately equal each time I make them. You'll develop your own sense of comfort when it comes to that kind of thing.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    I never weigh anything but I was very thorough in logging and if anything would give my serving more calories than less. After a while I was pretty good at "that looks like 500 so I will call it 650". I would also look up in the data in the database on MFP and pick the highest value. If you are being fair and not cheating you can get close so don'r sweat it.
  • Kadoober
    Kadoober Posts: 289 Member
    Sometimes you are going to have to estimate and do the best you can.

    My husband delighted me last night, I had PT after work, so he shopped and made dinner. As we sat down to eat, he started listing out everything that was in it so I could log. He really paid attention to the quantities he used for me!

    It wasn't the most ideal, none of it was weighed, but I at least had estimates and I love that he went to the effort to remember what he put together so I could be as accurate as I could.
  • laurenebargar
    laurenebargar Posts: 3,081 Member
    edited October 2017
    I don't cook, seriously maybe once a month? so all of my logging is pretty much guessing. I've lost 48 pounds since March, I try to weigh when I can, but for the most part it hasnt made a big impact on my weight loss, but I over estimate.

    Edit to add** My husband does all of the cooking so I know generally what goes into it, and every once in awhile he will make a joke like "you better just log this as 4,000 calories" and I know he added butter or extra oil and I add a quick extra 400 calories or something, But I still always make sure I net 1,200.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    If your family is anything like mine there are a number of foods that are repeated in various combinations.

    Learn what your average serving weight of each is, then get to know what it looks like on a plate.

    I usually have 100g potato, rice, or pasta. Not only can I eyeball that pretty accurately, my SO can too. Same with my protein. That is usually 125g, and we are both good at that too.
    (Portions are small because I am)

    It is coming up to 9 years since I decided to lose weight so we have had plenty of practice. It has meant that the 8years I have been maintaining I have been confident doing so without having to measure/weigh or log whether I am eating out or at home.

    (I am the first one who would get my scales out and start logging if I was having problems with maintaining.
    There is no doubt to get good numbers to work from there has to be accurate input.)

    As for the steps, I have never used a step counter. What I walk in my daily activity is just that- part of my daily activity.
    When I am speed walking, training for a race, or just for exercise, I log it by distance covered (weight x .3) x distance in miles. It too has worked for years.

    I have always eaten back exercise calories, I need them - I'd turn into a blob on the settee without them.

    Cheers, h.
  • greenlizard72
    greenlizard72 Posts: 76 Member
    Thanks to everyone's response. I appreciate it. I got this.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    greenlizard72 wrote: »
    1. Measuring Everything. Really? It just seems impossible some days. For example, last night I worked late and came home to dinner already made. My wonderful wife made me a plate and I ate it. This was impossible to record with accuracy in MFP. Should I have not eaten it, choosing instead to make something else I could measure?

    I know there is no good answer to this other than to create a process/habit where I can measure things, which is changing the lifestyle. I'm just struggling how to do this effectively in a very packed family and work life. Any ideas from busy people would be awesome.

    2. Counting Walking Steps. I understand that we should subtract (eat back) any exercise calories, but does that apply to walking? I know walking is exercise. I just wonder if my activity level already includes a predetermined amount of exercise which would include daily normal walking. I turned on the iPhone step counting this morning and noticed it subtracted those calories from my daily target. It's not like I'm walking a marathon; so far it is only double digits. I was just curious.

    Thanks for any experience/feedback.

    I am the cook in my family. I have entered recipes into MFP using the recipe builder. I set how many portions it makes and then divide the dish into that. It can be time consuming at first to log but if you have the same things pretty often it will get easier to log quickly.
    Food that is not a mixed dish may be easier to log. For example a baked chicken breast, baked potato and green beans vs a mixed casserole. You can weigh out portions on a food scale very quickly for logging.
    Save more calories for dinner. I have a smaller breakfast and medium lunch and bigger dinner. A lot of recipes are 400-600 calories per serving so that is what I set aside for dinner. If you eat a lot of fried, breaded, butter, cheesy or creamy foods calories may be higher.
    http://www.skinnytaste.com
    http://www.budgetbytes.com
    http://www.kalynskitchen.com
    http://allrecipes.com/recipes/1232/healthy-recipes/low-calorie/

    Do you do about the same amount of walking every day? You could set your activity level to that level and not log walking as exercise. If it is more variable set your activity level without exercise lower and log any extra walking.
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