How accurately do you track?

bear2303
bear2303 Posts: 252 Member
in Food and Nutrition
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?
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Replies

  • yelliezx
    yelliezx Posts: 633 Member
    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?!
  • bear2303
    bear2303 Posts: 252 Member
    Terytha wrote: »
    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 myself
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    edited September 2019
    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.
  • waveringparagon
    waveringparagon Posts: 18 Member
    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.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 6,534 Member
    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.
  • betsymoomoo
    betsymoomoo Posts: 71 Member
    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.
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
    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!
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    I weigh everything I eat. If I dont, I'm only sabotaging myself.
  • tuckerrj
    tuckerrj Posts: 1,453 Member
    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.
  • kristen8000
    kristen8000 Posts: 747 Member
    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).
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    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.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
    edited September 2019
    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.
  • RealWorldStrengthLLC
    RealWorldStrengthLLC Posts: 552 Member
    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.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    edited September 2019
    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.
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
    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.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
    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?
  • ku140
    ku140 Posts: 65 Member
    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%

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