How accurately do you track?

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Replies

  • PumpkinAndPecans
    PumpkinAndPecans Posts: 39 Member
    When it is only me and grams are offered, I weigh the food at 100% accuracy. When it is family dinner time, I estimate the best that I can.
  • Ol_Griz
    Ol_Griz Posts: 4 Member
    I do my best to log as accurately as possible but the food values I find (I always take an average from MFP search suggestions if I don't have the exact info from food products) must be erroneous because after almost two months I am down 20 lbs. whereas my daily summary forecasts for even one month's work were well below my loss so far in nearly two. I don't cheat so it's either that or the exercise values I find (again, I use an average from my pedometer reading and MFP suggestion) are similarly out of whack. Or I have the dreaded slow metabolism? Frustrating because I would like more motivating progress, though I don't want to sound too worked up about it because it is still going in the right direction and this steady pace is perhaps more conducive to lifestyle change. Others find the same problem?
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    I would say I weigh about 90% of my food. If I'm portioning out a relatively low calorie dish, I might enter it in the recipe tracker but then use measuring cups to portion it out roughly equally, rather than weighing out the finished dish. I find that I'm not willing to take that much time away from my dinner to portion it by weight. I also don't weigh my prepackaged single serving items, or small amounts of low calorie veggies. Obviously, anything I didn't cook myself is also an estimate.

    However, I'm in maintenance, so I don't feel a need to be super strict. If I was still losing weight, I'd be much more consistent with weighing everything I could weigh.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    When I was logging, not accurate at all. I wouldn't weigh everything, I would skip items, I would skip meals, I would weigh things after cooking, quick add calories all the time. I used MFP as more of a food diary to be honest. And recently I use it to check in on meals or protein levels only. Obviously this method works well for me and it's not something that might work for others.
  • koalathebear
    koalathebear Posts: 236 Member
    Eating out, I guesstimate - usually erring on the side of the highest calorie option in MFP just to be safe.

    At home, when baking/doing my own cooking, I weigh everything.

    When eating something pre-prepared or snacks, I go by the serving suggestions on the package. I only tend to weigh if I eat something that's not in line with the serving suggestion. I'd say I have about 70 -80% fidelity these days. I was much more diligent in the early phases, but these days I am pretty good at not under-estimating what I'm eating.
  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,092 Member
    I’m not at all accurate. I guesstimate fruit and veg and only use a food scale for very high cal items.
    That said i rotate meals regularly and so I think they must fit within my calorie budget. I’ve been able to lose and maintain with this sloppy approach so I’m not stressing about it
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    I used to think that the all powerful forces of aversion and denial apply to other people but not to me.

    So, when I want to know the calories in something I weigh it.
  • neugebauer52
    neugebauer52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    I am just terrible with kitchen scales - especially if I cook not just for myself but for more people. Through MFP I have learned about "food stacking" and I try not to do that. Generally I try to have 4 or 5 ingredients on my plate which makes my logging somewhat easier. Over time I seem not to be able to account for 15 to 20 % of calories eaten - which has got to do with portion control. But I am working on it....
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,416 Member
    I tend to be accurate with the number of calories in a recipe, but then I guestimate the proportion of that meal that I'm taking. It tends to even itself out over the course of a week, but may not be 100% on for the day I'm eating it.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
    I loosely track, in my head! - 6th year at maintenance. If I see weight creep happen I go back to weighing and tracking more meticulously.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,978 Member
    Never been an accurate logger, either when losing nor in maitenance.

    My level of accuracy works fine for me.
  • Jackie9003
    Jackie9003 Posts: 1,105 Member
    It depends on my mood and what phase I'm in, if I'm focused and want to ensure I have a deficit I log absolutely everything, also if I have some social events and I need to juggle the week.
    If I'm in a rest period I'll log loosely to keep an eye on things.
  • fitpal4242
    fitpal4242 Posts: 109 Member
    Probably about 90%. For exercise, I only record intentional exercise (like I take a fitness class or run on the treadmill), so I don’t mind going over my calories by a few hundred on high-activity days. Yesterday, I was walking around for 5 hours, but didn’t have that recorded.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,978 Member
    OldHobo wrote: »
    So remember that the very best we can do is a very rough approximation when some internet bully is shaming you for measuring instead of weighing the artificial protein powder some other bully said you had to buy to sit at the cool kids MFP table.


    a lot of perception there, I think.

    Ive always been very open about my version of 'lazy logging' and no internet bullies have shamed me about it nor have any said I had to buy any sort of protein powder. :*

    What people do say if someone is not losing as expected - tighten your logging as most likely you are eating more than you think.
    and even as a lazy logger myself I see that as good advice if you have that problem - but if what you are doing is working, keep doing it.

  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,135 Member
    paperpudding wrote: »
    Never been an accurate logger, either when losing nor in maintenance.

    My level of accuracy works fine for me.

    Exactly, especially since reaching maintenance 9 years ago.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    paperpudding wrote: »
    OldHobo wrote: »
    So remember that the very best we can do is a very rough approximation when some internet bully is shaming you for measuring instead of weighing the artificial protein powder some other bully said you had to buy to sit at the cool kids MFP table.


    a lot of perception there, I think.

    Ive always been very open about my version of 'lazy logging' and no internet bullies have shamed me about it nor have any said I had to buy any sort of protein powder. :*

    What people do say if someone is not losing as expected - tighten your logging as most likely you are eating more than you think.
    and even as a lazy logger myself I see that as good advice if you have that problem - but if what you are doing is working, keep doing it.

    Agreed, I’ve said it in another thread before - you only have to be as accurate as what allows you to meet your goals. If I started struggling, the first thing I would do is tighten up my logging and weigh everything to ensure my estimations weren’t underestimation. Since I’m losing at the expected rate, I can be lazier. Some may not have to weigh at all and have success, but a lot of people post because they’re struggling, and I’m going to give them the advice I would give myself, which is to tighten up logging.
  • teresa19622015
    teresa19622015 Posts: 34 Member
    As accurate as I can without carrying a scale with me. For homemade food I put in all the ingredients and divide by how many servings, all the way down to the quarter tablespoon of oil from the one tablespoon used to fry the onions. You do get used to eyeballing things when out once you’ve weighed a lot at home.
    If I don’t track everything a bite here and a taste there and soon you’ve added a couple hundred calories to the day.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,974 Member
    Generally, "close enough" is good enough for me.

    Don't know what % of accuracy applies to the cals that I've been logging for the food that I've been eating this past 3.75 yrs during my current wt loss effort BUT the fact that I've lost nearly 50#' (or 25% of my wt) from 200 to 150# is proof that I have been logging my cals w/a reasonable degree of accuracy.

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