Do you try to be overly accurate while logging food.

MikePTY · October 2019

Not sure at all what you mean by "overly accurate", but I am pretty sure I am a no by any practical definition. I weigh what I can and what is practical to weigh, but a lot of what I eat is prepared by others so it involves a lot of guessing. Sometimes I may be higher, sometimes I may be lower, but from personal experience it has worked out for me in the end.

AllOutof_Bubblegum · October 2019

There's no such thing as "overly accurate". You're either accurate or you're not, and there's no point in logging at all if you're not being accurate. You might as well be guessing at that point.

nooshi713 · October 2019

I try to be as accurate as I can. 95% of what I eat is measured in grams and prepared by me. Once in a while I eat at a restaurant and have to guess a bit.

Katmary71 · October 2019

I've gotten to be overly accurate as much as possible. I log my coffee, tea, and spices, though I don't think I have to be that detailed to lose weight, I'm just used to thinking of what I used at meals and logging.

nighthawk584 · October 2019

right down to a piece of lettuce. it's helped me lose 77 lbs so far being this anal.

paperpudding · October 2019

AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »

There's no such thing as "overly accurate". You're either accurate or you're not, and there's no point in logging at all if you're not being accurate. You might as well be guessing at that point.

I disagree.

Of course what is 'overly accurate' will be a subjective and individual choice - nighthawk lost 77lb being anal to the last piece of lettuce, I lost 10 kg and maintained for 5 years being very approximate.

no, there isnt 2 polarised extremes: either accurate or not.

There is plenty of in between "accurate enough" which involves some weighing, some guessing, some law of averaging
Plenty of point in doing that if it works for you
As it does for me.

jmf552 · October 2019

No, not at all. The most I ever lost was on WW and they use points and it is all an approximation. I just realized that MFP does a better job of tracking, cheaper. There is no way to be perfectly accurate with food. Is that egg really 71 calories, or did the hen try extra hard and make it 73?

One thing I did learn from WW is you should measure stuff occasionally to develop a good "eye" for portion sizes. You should especially do this if you are meeting your tracking goals but still not losing. That could be one of the problems.

But it is tracking that counts, being accountable. Precise accuracy is neither attainable or necessary. Do you keep your finances on track by counting pennies? No, you do it by tracking dollars.

wilson10102018 · October 2019

Persons who are self centered but not introspective tend to think that other persons' behaviors can be judged in reference to themselves. This is an opportunity for the OP to recognize and accept that "overly accurate" is a phase disclosing that world view and that a person who weighs a couple of pickles and logs them is just doing what they chose to do and that it is "normal" for them. And, judging the efforts of others by pragmatic references to "results" is likewise misplaced.

Can't we just accept that a person who cleans their car interior with Q Tips just likes a really clean car interior?

ElReyDelMundo365 · October 2019

I do. I'm trying to make sure I get all my vitamins and minerals as well, so I want to make sure I track everything. Certain ingredients that may not contain much calories might contain alot of vitamins or minerals. Like lettuce on a sandwich. I want to know everything is accounted for so my body is working at it's best.

SnifterPug · October 2019

I log everything but operate on a basis of diminishing returns. On a relatively low calorie food like an apple I will just log the calories of an average apple, and I certainly won't weigh the apple and then the core to discover how much I consumed down to the last gram. Given that my exercise calories can only ever be an estimate I cannot see the point in sweating over a piece of fruit. But, each to their own.

ElizabethKalmbach · October 2019

My food scale is only accurate to +/- 5g, which is probably more accurate than my step tracking hardware and the wide variety of calorie burn estimates they give me.

I worry more about *consistency* than I do about *accuracy.* I keep plugging away and checking my results and recalibrating them to match my goals, and all that keeps me moving in the direction I want to go at varying rates of accomplishment.

sardelsa · October 2019

I'm not accurate at all. There was a time where I was maybe 75% accurate, but that would only last a few days or weeks until I got fed up. I typically used MFP as a food diary and there was nothing wrong with that, worked very well for me.

Now I don't track to lose, maintain or gain. Maybe the odd day or just protein to help me estimate in the future.

steveko89 · October 2019

I try to be as accurate as possible and have logged exhaustively since July of 2017 after five years of logging less diligently. Most here would probably consider that to be overkill considering I've stayed within the "normal" weight range for the duration of my time here but I find it to still be a helpful and necessary tool to monitor and maintain my weight and work towards my fitness and physique goals.

hesn92 · October 2019

I'm not accurate at all when I log. Consistency matters more to me than being super accurate and I'm just not going to take the time to weigh and measure every little thing. I might weigh a portion of something a few times to get the hang of how big a serving is, and then I eyeball it after that. Sometimes I can't be bothered to create a recipe and I'll just search the database for something that sounds similar... I know I could be off by quite a lot by doing that, but oh well. If I was having trouble losing weight I would obviously tighten up my logging to find the culprit.

MikePTY · October 2019

AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »

There's no such thing as "overly accurate". You're either accurate or you're not, and there's no point in logging at all if you're not being accurate. You might as well be guessing at that point.

This isn't true at all. Loose logging is absolutely better than no logging at all. Sure, measuring every single thing tends to lead to the least margin of error, and if someone is having trouble losing, it's a good idea to look at tightening their logging. But it's not always feasible for everyone in every situation.

My schedule between work and the gym (and my own somewhat limited cooking ability), doesn't lead itself to prep cooking for the work week particularly well. But I get amazing, cooked, full and complete meals delivered to my office for lunch every day for $5. But I didn't cook it myself so I don't know all the ingredients or exact proportions. So I guesstimate. Is it perfectly accurate? No. Has it been good enough to lose 40 pounds? Absolutely.

Not everyone needs super tight logging to lose weight. For some, yes, but dismissing it out of hand ignores all of us who have succeeded with looser logging.

BarbaraHelen2013 · October 2019

I’m as accurate as it’s possible to be, I think. Every single thing I eat is weighed and logged to the gram.

Having said that, I completely agree it’s not necessary to be as obsessive as I am about it in order to actually drop the pounds. As has been mentioned everything involved has its intrinsic inaccuracies so no, I’m not saying you need a scientific laboratory approach to achieve your goals.

However...for me it’s a mental attitude thing. If I loosen up the military precision, my attitude loosens too. It just keeps me on track to know I’m ‘doing it right’.

I’m old enough to know how my brain works and I know that if I don’t do it this way I slide and I may as well give up!

missysippy930 · October 2019

Not 100% accurate, but I’m losing and that’s good enough for me until I am no longer losing, or gaining.

kimny72 · October 2019

I try to be as accurate as I need to be to keep my weight where I want it. Some weeks/months that is more accurate than others.

KristaMac88 · October 2019

I am just getting back into the swing of things again on here but def think that logging of any kind and being concious of what your eating and roughly how many calories your taking in is better than not logging at all. There are times that we make a large slow cooker of stew and I dont have the time or patience to weigh everything out as im cutting it up and throwing it in then figuring out once its all together and im dishing it out how much i have- and usually my husband cooks supper, so unless its something simple like chicken with brocoli that i can weigh and measure a half a cup of exactly that food item, i guestimate. But most things I eat during the day like toast and PB or yogourt, coffee etc are easy to get the exact amount so I know roughly what I am at and that I am doing better and making better choices than before.

NovusDies · October 2019

About every 6 months I go back to logging every bite and being as accurate as possible for a week. It is a good refresher and it allows me to check my recent habits and see if I need to tighten anything down a little more. I almost always find at least 1 thing that I feel needs improvement.

I am not sure everyone would share my definition of loosely logging so I don't want to say that but I am not 100 percent. I umbrella some things like chips. If you looked at my log you would think I ate Lay's potato chips and nothing else for months. I change the serving size to get the calories correct but all chips, Doritos, Cheetos, etc. are logged at Lay's.

I also log averages on some lower calorie items. When I make a salad the carrots are logged at 70 grams even if the actual amount is slightly higher or lower. It is only if it is much higher that I change it. Some people eyeball some of those things but I weigh because I already have the bowl on the scale anyway.

With all that said I lose weight slightly faster than my logged deficit (.2 pounds per week normally) so my system works for me. When/if the day comes that I do not lose as expected I am prepared to tighten down my logging.

Do you try to be overly accurate while logging food.

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