Supplements: to track or not to track?
babybuddha06
Posts: 28 Member
For those of you who take supplements, do you track them? Why or why not? What would be the benefit of tracking them?
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The only thing I've tracked is oil based caps, as they have calories/fat grams.
I don't track anything else - the mfp database isn't great for micronutrients and wouldn't track everything in my supplements anyway!1 -
When I used to take supplements that have "a lot" of calories, such as fish oil or protein powder, then I tracked them. Even one scoop of protein powder has like 35 calories. And if you take like three scoops of it plus maybe some fish oil and who know what else herbal nutrition powder or whatever then that might add to 200 calories or more. That's some pretty significant amount in my opinion. Obviously I would not track calories of multivitamin haha. But yea, depends from what supplement. And also how much. I mean, if all you add is one scoop of protein powder then that 35 cals might not make much of a difference.
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When I used to take supplements that have "a lot" of calories, such as fish oil or protein powder, then I tracked them. Even one scoop of protein powder has like 35 calories. And if you take like three scoops of it plus maybe some fish oil and who know what else herbal nutrition powder or whatever then that might add to 200 calories or more. That's some pretty significant amount in my opinion. Obviously I would not track calories of multivitamin haha. But yea, depends from what supplement. And also how much. I mean, if all you add is one scoop of protein powder then that 35 cals might not make much of a difference.
Protein powder, whilst called a "supplement", falls more in the category of food to me... But that would be logged too. (what sort of protein has a 35 cal scoop?)5 -
When I take my multivitamin I track it simply because I like to take a look at my Micronutrient list and see that I've reached my goal of 100% vitamin C, A, calcium and iron...3
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Well for me personally anything that is heavily processed does not count as food...livingleanlivingclean wrote: »When I used to take supplements that have "a lot" of calories, such as fish oil or protein powder, then I tracked them. Even one scoop of protein powder has like 35 calories. And if you take like three scoops of it plus maybe some fish oil and who know what else herbal nutrition powder or whatever then that might add to 200 calories or more. That's some pretty significant amount in my opinion. Obviously I would not track calories of multivitamin haha. But yea, depends from what supplement. And also how much. I mean, if all you add is one scoop of protein powder then that 35 cals might not make much of a difference.
Protein powder, whilst called a "supplement", falls more in the category of food to me... But that would be logged too. (what sort of protein has a 35 cal scoop?)
I remember I used to take protein powder which had 35 calories per scoop. Don't remember the brand anymore. I also used some who had 130 cals per scoop. Just kinda used the lowest example to show how even small amounts can add up ya know.
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I scan the labels and track vitamins, supplements, and even over-the-counter medication - not necessarily because I'm worried about the calories or macros for most items (I guess if we consider protein powder a supplement then I do need to track the calories and macros of that), but because it records the frequency and dosage of these items and I like to have a record that I may want to reference at some point in the future.2
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »When I used to take supplements that have "a lot" of calories, such as fish oil or protein powder, then I tracked them. Even one scoop of protein powder has like 35 calories. And if you take like three scoops of it plus maybe some fish oil and who know what else herbal nutrition powder or whatever then that might add to 200 calories or more. That's some pretty significant amount in my opinion. Obviously I would not track calories of multivitamin haha. But yea, depends from what supplement. And also how much. I mean, if all you add is one scoop of protein powder then that 35 cals might not make much of a difference.
Protein powder, whilst called a "supplement", falls more in the category of food to me... But that would be logged too. (what sort of protein has a 35 cal scoop?)
it would have to be a protein water of some sort with like 8g of protein or less..
OP, whether or not you want to track them is up to you. But if they do have calories, they still count.3 -
I don't bother. I have an app in my phone to remind me when and what supplements/medication to take, that's enough for me.1
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Calcium. Nice to know if I'm getting enough. I take a multivitamin daily but my diet often runs low.
Tracking multivitamins lead to making significant dietary changes when I first started logging my diet almost five years ago - I realized I was getting several times the RDA in calcium and vitamins C& D so I cut out those daily glasses of milk and orange juice for breakfast - I reduced a significant amount of sugar by eliminating the OJ and it also allowed me to replace a few hundred liquid calories with more satiating solid ones.3 -
What about tracking when it comes to collagen?0
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I only track to be sure I've taken them. The calories are within my "noise" level for all I take.0
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Not usually, I have one that is 20 calories, but I only lof it if I'm cutting it really close on my daily count0
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babybuddha06 wrote: »
Thats protein powder imo. One of the things I use is hydrolyzed collagen - I put it in coffee.0 -
livingleanlivingclean wrote: »babybuddha06 wrote: »
Thats protein powder imo. One of the things I use is hydrolyzed collagen - I put it in coffee.
I use hydrolyzed collagen as well. I guess what I am confused about is that though it is considered a protein, I have read in my reading on it that it is an incomplete protein. So, if it’s not a complete protein, would it still need to be logged?
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babybuddha06 wrote: »livingleanlivingclean wrote: »babybuddha06 wrote: »
Thats protein powder imo. One of the things I use is hydrolyzed collagen - I put it in coffee.
I use hydrolyzed collagen as well. I guess what I am confused about is that though it is considered a protein, I have read in my reading on it that it is an incomplete protein. So, if it’s not a complete protein, would it still need to be logged?
Why would you not log it? It's protein, and it has calories. Many sources of protein are not providing complete protein... Surely you don't disregard them?0 -
livingleanlivingclean wrote: »babybuddha06 wrote: »livingleanlivingclean wrote: »babybuddha06 wrote: »
Thats protein powder imo. One of the things I use is hydrolyzed collagen - I put it in coffee.
I use hydrolyzed collagen as well. I guess what I am confused about is that though it is considered a protein, I have read in my reading on it that it is an incomplete protein. So, if it’s not a complete protein, would it still need to be logged?
Why would you not log it? It's protein, and it has calories. Many sources of protein are not providing complete protein... Surely you don't disregard them?
No, I was looking at it from a supplement point of view. For instance: chicken, in any form, is more of a complete source of protein than hydrolyzed collagen because it is a whole food, not a supplement.
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I wouldn’t disregard the food choice, however, I could the supplement since it is optional and doesn’t have the same impact on my body like my food choices.0
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babybuddha06 wrote: »I wouldn’t disregard the food choice, however, I could the supplement since it is optional and doesn’t have the same impact on my body like my food choices.
Your initial question was about logging supplements. Collagen has calories, and is a source of protein - why would you not log it? It contributes to your protein intake and calorie intake.0 -
Initially, I was curious to know if it was important to track or not because I have read some people do and some people don’t. I honestly wanted to know because if I was already meeting my nutrition goals and staying at a deficit, how much that mattered and/or if it actually did matter.0
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I don’t track them because I want to incentivize taking them. (Although logging them could help you remember to take your supplements.... hmmm.) I usually leave room in my caloric calculation for supplements/etc to be “free”.0
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Well for me personally anything that is heavily processed does not count as food...livingleanlivingclean wrote: »When I used to take supplements that have "a lot" of calories, such as fish oil or protein powder, then I tracked them. Even one scoop of protein powder has like 35 calories. And if you take like three scoops of it plus maybe some fish oil and who know what else herbal nutrition powder or whatever then that might add to 200 calories or more. That's some pretty significant amount in my opinion. Obviously I would not track calories of multivitamin haha. But yea, depends from what supplement. And also how much. I mean, if all you add is one scoop of protein powder then that 35 cals might not make much of a difference.
Protein powder, whilst called a "supplement", falls more in the category of food to me... But that would be logged too. (what sort of protein has a 35 cal scoop?)
I remember I used to take protein powder which had 35 calories per scoop. Don't remember the brand anymore. I also used some who had 130 cals per scoop. Just kinda used the lowest example to show how even small amounts can add up ya know.
You took a protein supplement that only had 8 grams of protein?0
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