To log or not to log

Certain things are almost negligable so i wont log them. Gum, water, low to no cal vegies, etc. Mustard. Just adds unnecessary time to may daily routine. If it's over 30 cal per serving size thats when ill log it.

Everyone's situation is different and I think the level of attention required is also different. My approach is to log as well as I need to, to continue losing weight. I don't see the point in being pedantic and rigorous when I'm getting the results while logging pretty loosely. So most of the time I can ballpark my calorie intake and still see progress. I'll measure and weigh the big stuff and roughly log the rest.

This works just fine for me.... Until it doesn't work and my progress starts to slow. Then I'll tighten up my logging until things get back on track.

But as I said, everyone's different and I imagine there are others who can be even laxer in their logging than I am and still be fine and others who would find the way I log a total disaster.

I think it depends on the type of person you are, if you're mindful of small omissions in logging and it wouldn't add up to much throughout the day (say under 50 cals) then it isn't a big deal. If you are struggling with your weight loss then maybe being a bit more stringent would be prudent. I absolutely get where you are coming from though, it takes the fun out of enjoying a healthy meal and makes it a "chore" (at times) to be super pedantic about every little thing (oops, I just walked past a bakery - should I log it? Type of deal, lol) I for one will not log black coffee (it has something like 4 cals/cup and I drink max 2 per day - I just log the milk and/or sugar I add) or sriracha or mustard or say... one slice of tomato on a sandwich. My opinion... it's whatever works best for you Rock on with your bad self and best of luck to you on your journey!

MzTigerLily wrote: »

How specific are you? I made a omlette for breakfast and I put a bit of diced green onion and diced bell pepper in it. Do you attempt to count those items? What about things like spray butter or pam?

I don't log anymore, but when I did, I didn't really bother with little things like that...a big veggie omelette would be a different story, but a bit of green onion and diced pepper would be pretty negligible to my calorie target.

That said, I also maintain on 2800-3000 calories per day and lose about 1 Lb per week on 2300-2500, so I do have some wiggle room for error with small stuff.

I prefer to weigh and log everything, just for simplicity. Turning it into a series of decisions about "is this important enough" annoys me (may not annoy you ), and definitely takes more emotional energy for me (and possibly even more total time) than just weighing and noting everything.

Couple of tips:
* Spray PAM: Put the can on your food scale (set on grams), and zero the scale. Spray the pan. Put the can back on the scale. Note the negative grams - that's how much you sprayed - and log it as oil.
* Veggies: Assuming you're chopping those veggies. Chop the onions and the peppers in slightly separate piles on your cutting board. Put the cutting board on the scale. Zero the scale. With your knife, scrape the peppers onto the omelette. Put the cutting board back on the scale. Note the negative. Zero the scale. Scrape the onions onto the omelette. Put the cutting board back on the scale. Note the negative.

All of that will take less than a minute.

That said: It absolutely is NOT necessary to weigh/log everything, or even to weigh/measure things at all, if you can lose weight successfully without doing so.

For some people (maybe many people), they reach a point where they're not losing any more, and don't know why. At that point, folks here will almost always recommend they start weighing food meticulously for at least a period of time, because that's how one figures out why in a helpful, factual way.

Also, speaking again for myself only, I like to have the better nutritional information that comes with more meticulous logging, because nutrition is important to me in addition to weight loss. I'd rather do the tiny bit more work of logging everything, and get the calorie accuracy and the nutritional info. (Even though the food database is far from nutritionally perfect, it's more accurate than not logging a chunk of my eating.)

Moreover, by logging meticulously, I found I could - after a couple of months' experience - accurately predict my weight loss, assess the delay in reaching goal that would happen if I ate some high-calorie treats in order to decide if it was worth it, and predict my maintenance calories much more accurately than the TDEE/NEAT calorie "calculators" (really estimaters) could do. That was all worth it, to me.

P.S. Just for completeness, another food-weighing tip: For something like peanut butter, put the jar on the scale, zero, scoop some out, and read the negative. For something like block cheese, put the cheese chunk on the scale, zero, cut off/remove your serving, and read the negative. Skip the extra dishes and fuss that come from using cup/spoon measures, whenever possible. Some people think weighing food is obsessive, vs. measuring in cups. Why would doing something in a way that's both quicker and more accurate be more obsessive??