How accurately do you track?
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bear2303
Posts: 252 Member
Just curious to know how other MFPrs use this handy little tool. I would say I track with like 80-90% accuracy.
I started out tracking really really accurately but as time went on I got a little lazier and a little less accurate. If i make something from scratch I usually just take my best guess and choose something that looks like it has similar caloric value.
For me, tracking every single bite every day was daunting so I do my best but I also give myself some grace. Curious as to what works for you all?
I started out tracking really really accurately but as time went on I got a little lazier and a little less accurate. If i make something from scratch I usually just take my best guess and choose something that looks like it has similar caloric value.
For me, tracking every single bite every day was daunting so I do my best but I also give myself some grace. Curious as to what works for you all?
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I'd say 90% but who knows! I weigh the majority of things I eat and add recipes to MFP when I'm cooking so I'd like to say I'm pretty accurate. Sometimes you just have to guess though i.e. going out to a restaurant that isn't a chain! Hey, whatever works, right?!3
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90%. I don't weigh slices of bread or when I take quick swallows of milk from the jug. Also restaurant stuff is obviously a total guess.
I weigh absolutely everything else.7 -
90%. I don't weigh slices of bread or when I take quick swallows of milk from the jug. Also restaurant stuff is obviously a total guess.
I weigh absolutely everything else.
Im surprised that you say you only are 90% accurate if you weigh everything else! I would assume that with just those two exception that you would be closer to like 95% accurate. lol maybe I'm being too generous on my estimation for myself0 -
As accurately as possible, considering kitchen scales, or body scales for that matter, are not 100% accurate without being calibrated for total accuracy. Nothing is perfect. I don’t worry much about it, as I’m losing weight.4
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I am trying to be as accurate as possible with the reality that going out to eat is a crap shoot on real reflection. I usually opt on the most negative when in those situations as it makes me think carefully about whatever else I eat.
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I'm a geek about tracking, I even log spices. If I don't know the calories in a meal out I'll just quick add or pick something similar.2
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Honestly, when I'm not logging 100% honestly, I tend to over eat. Eyeballing serving sizes is my downfall. Of course I'm usually logging at about 95% accuracy because sometimes I just don't want to fully enter my recipe.2
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I’m pretty sure, given the caveats as in the post above about the accuracy of scales that I know down to the last 10-20 calories what I’ve ingested every day. That 10-20 would possibly be rounding up/down issues of the tenths of a gram from my food scale.
I weigh absolutely everything! Every thing!1 -
I weigh everything I eat. If I dont, I'm only sabotaging myself.1
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Don't know how to calculate it. But except for the one or two meals I eat "out" each week, I weigh & measure everything that goes in my mouth that has calories. I time and log all my exercise activity, too. So recording 19 out of 21 meals a week accurately calculates to about 95% accuracy.2
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I'd say 90%. We eat at home MOST of the time and when I'm home and weigh and log. I bring food to work and only eat what I bring and plan to eat (will portion it at home). But if we eat out, there's some guestimating.
I don't log seasonings, hot sauce, pickles, & mustard (unless I use a ton).2 -
Eh, I guess I'd say 90% as well. I do a lot of logging an overestimation. I usually do it with fruit and vegetables, where I know 150g for a banana is probably as high as I've gotten when weighing them, so I just log that and not weigh the banana, knowing that if I do get one that's a bit over 150g, there were probably a few below that as well. I just go by the label on bread and tortillas after I weigh them a couple times to know they're not crazy off base, I just label my eggs as "large eggs". Since I live alone, I eat the whole portion of things, so usually I'll just divide portions up with my eyeballs, as if one is a little large, the one that ended up a little small with make up for it.3
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Things I do not track: Mustard, 0 cal. Zero colas, 0 cal. Salt, 0 cal.
Some days, too often, I do not track much at all.0 -
When I was cutting 70lbs I was extremely accurate. When I went to maintenance/mini bulk I shot from the hip and did mental math for protein intake and that was it. I'm cutting 20ish lbs now and I'm fairly accurate but I wing it sometimes. Like my breakfast burrito this morning had way too much tortilla so I tore off a big chunk and logged 2/3 of the carbs in the burrito...stuff like that.0
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I don’t weigh bread or packaged things and just use the servings on the package. I sometimes log my gummy vitamins and sometimes not. I do weigh and log everything else including lettuce and celery, fruits, etc.
Most restaurants have calorie counts available now, thankfully, but the ones that don’t I give my best guess and overestimate to be on the safe side. I don’t eat at restaurants too often.
90-95% accuracy i guess.0 -
Not very, which is why I have not lost any weight in the last few months. So be warned.
<Note to self: GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER>
On the upside I am having a glimpse of what my future maintainence might look like.5 -
I have a long standing history of tracking with neurotic accuracy for years. I technically don't need to track anymore since I can roughly eyeball macros and serving sizes with 90% accuracy, but I keep logging it anyway because neuroticism.2
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within 1% accuracy is my goal everyday. I have never gone over deficit since I started and my first 50 lbs was lost keeping track in a notebook...... -72 lbs in total since april, so it works! Strict discipline is my method!5
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I use restaurant numbers, which I know are not accurate, package numbers, which mfp members warn are not accurate. I weigh and measure individual servings and recipes. I made bread yesterday. I weighed everything in it, said it had 16 servings. I will not weigh each piece, but will use 1/16th of total recipe for each slice. How accurate is that?4
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Probably about 80% accuracy. I often do meal prepping, so I'll make a big batch of something with a lot of ingredients. Logging all those and then breaking it into serving sizes is cumbersome, so I don't worry too much about it being perfectly accurate. My issue is simply over-eating on snacks and eating when I'm not hungry, so logging what I eat is working, even if my serving sizes are not 100%1
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