Do you try to be overly accurate while logging food.
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I agree that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So if weight loss is effortless and moods and energy are good, no need to stress the small stuff.
I would add that it was super easy to lose weight when I had a lot of weight to lose and that the closer to Goal weight I got the more important all of this became. In the beginning with 70 pounds to lose, I used cups and tablespoons. I guesstimated meat portions and cheese portions and nuts and avocados and I ate the same foods I had been eating which was mostly wheat, fruit, nuts, treats and dairy and the occasional vegetable. I lost weight pretty easily. Well, yeah. I had a lot of body fat to use as fuel.
As I got to within 20 pounds of a healthy weight, I had to really look at my macros and nutrition and I bought a food scale and a body weight scale. I don't think I could have lost that last 20 pounds without those tools and logging food. I made 13 out of 14 meals per week myself. I was careful. I was also hungry so I needed to log or I'd eat too much because instinctively I felt like I needed more food. That last 20 pounds was really difficult for me.
Now I'm in Maintenance and I've dabbled with not being anal. I stopped logging completely for a while. I tried not using the food scale. I stopped weighing myself.
My experience over the last 12 years in maintenance tells me that I need to log food. It doesn't have to be to-the-gram, but I do weigh meats, cheese, avocado, nuts, starchy vegetables, fruit, and other calorie-dense foods. I do that as much for calories as for making sure I'm getting enough protein. I eyeball portions of most low-cal vegetables. I definitely learned how to do that through meticulous logging of food and my own weight.
It's not a burden. It's a life skill.3 -
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.
We are like, logging twins, lol. Saved me some typing. I'm also prepared to tighten up logging if I find I'm not losing at the expected rate, but fortunately, that hasn't happened yet.2 -
I used to make a big point of being as accurate as possible. But now I've been doing this long enough that my logging is a lot looser. Sometimes I log very little or inconsistently. Other times I decide to tighten things up and get back to logging at least 95% of what I eat. I used to also make a big point of logging all my exercise to account for those calories, but I play it pretty fast and loose with that now.0
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I try to be brutally honest. I’m not fooling anyone but myself.
And I’ve discovered even when I think I’m grossly overestimating, I’m not. (I’m looking at YOU, Lidl bakery peanut butter cookies. )
Currently sitting up the street from a car dealership while my car is in for a four hour repair. I’m afraid my “brutally honest” lemon bar and chai are going to be half my calories for the day, and it’s not even 11am. 😭4 -
I try to be as accurate as possible. Except with my morning coffee. I never measure my creamer (don’t worry I don’t pour loads in at most it’s 2 servings). Idk I just like to have this one thing, first thing in the morning that I don’t measure. But after that yes I measure everything and try to be as accurate as I can.0
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Not very accurate - I often don't bother including low calorie items, and guesstimate a lot of things, but it keeps me more or less at maintenance. I need to tighten up a bit now for a few weeks, as I would like to drop a couple of kilos before the xmas food and drink onslaught.0
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springlering62 wrote: »I try to be brutally honest. I’m not fooling anyone but myself.
And I’ve discovered even when I think I’m grossly overestimating, I’m not. (I’m looking at YOU, Lidl bakery peanut butter cookies. )
Currently sitting up the street from a car dealership while my car is in for a four hour repair. I’m afraid my “brutally honest” lemon bar and chai are going to be half my calories for the day, and it’s not even 11am. 😭
I hate how much it hurts to log those things. But like you said, we are only kidding ourselves by not logging honestly. Chai and lemon bars are among my favorite things. I hope they were tasty!2 -
I have been accused of being obsessive with my weighing (weighing grapes, half an apple, etc etc). I weigh everything in a recipe. I use USDA and then select the highest calorie count option. I will put in quick add calories anytime I find myself grabbing 1 potato chip out of a bag without thinking (though this happens less now).
All that being said, if you're not as accurate and it's still working for you, then doesn't matter what the rest of us do.Shortgirlrunning wrote: »I never measure my creamer (don’t worry I don’t pour loads in at most it’s 2 servings).
I thought that until I actually measured mine and discovered I was very very wrong.2 -
I have been accused of being obsessive with my weighing (weighing grapes, half an apple, etc etc). I weigh everything in a recipe. I use USDA and then select the highest calorie count option. I will put in quick add calories anytime I find myself grabbing 1 potato chip out of a bag without thinking (though this happens less now).
All that being said, if you're not as accurate and it's still working for you, then doesn't matter what the rest of us do.Shortgirlrunning wrote: »I never measure my creamer (don’t worry I don’t pour loads in at most it’s 2 servings).
I thought that until I actually measured mine and discovered I was very very wrong.
I like to weigh everything, even if I don't log it exactly that (I normally just log an average for fruits and vegetables - except avocado) because I like to test an see how accurate my eyeballs are. The more I weigh, the more accurate I've been getting with guessing the weight. It really helps me when estimating outside the home.
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Overly accurate? Is that like being a little bit pregnant?
I try to be as accurate as I can with the tools I have at my disposal. I do my best without being anal retentive about it.2 -
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.
I do this with the low calorie foods in my smoothies. I aim for 60 g strawberries and 30 g each kale & swiss chard, and +/- 4 grams is close enough for me.
I do make the protein powder come out exactly, and I get the exact weight of the banana.0 -
No, I don't!. The answers in the thread may help answer your question.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/44336057#Comment_443360570 -
I am as accurate as is reasonable for me and my life. I am willing to wing it and based on past experience (when I did “wing it” then later loaded the recipes and made accurate entries) winging it is about 10% off. Which when necessary - and in the grand scheme of things - is chump change.
I aim for accuracy when it’s possible. If not? I make reasonable estimates and life goes on.1 -
I try to be accurate as much as possible but sometimes that just isn't possible. I eyeball it when I can't weigh it and it gets tiring counting every chip. I usually can guesstimate pretty well and that's how it goes most of the time.0
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At the moment, I am recording every item I eat, but sometimes just estimating the quantity of that food. I find that just recording it helps to keep me mindful of portion sizes and what I am eating overall, and it is accurate enough for results - for now.
If I stop seeing the results I want, I will tighten it up and aim for a higher level of accuracy.0 -
I usually burn way more calories then i eat, so i dont try to be overly accurate. Most of the time i eat way below my recommended calories to lose 2lbs a week. People will say this isnt good, but a good whole food vitamin pack and plenty of water will make up for it.0
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RelCanonical wrote: »I have been accused of being obsessive with my weighing (weighing grapes, half an apple, etc etc). I weigh everything in a recipe. I use USDA and then select the highest calorie count option. I will put in quick add calories anytime I find myself grabbing 1 potato chip out of a bag without thinking (though this happens less now).
All that being said, if you're not as accurate and it's still working for you, then doesn't matter what the rest of us do.Shortgirlrunning wrote: »I never measure my creamer (don’t worry I don’t pour loads in at most it’s 2 servings).
I thought that until I actually measured mine and discovered I was very very wrong.
I like to weigh everything, even if I don't log it exactly that (I normally just log an average for fruits and vegetables - except avocado) because I like to test an see how accurate my eyeballs are. The more I weigh, the more accurate I've been getting with guessing the weight. It really helps me when estimating outside the home.
Twinsies again.
I have gotten really good at not only estimating the weight but also ballparking calories unless it is something or contains ingredients I seldom eat. I would be useless at desserts because I seldom have any desire to eat them. That is not virtue signalling. Desserts are just not my thing and they have not been for a really long time.
I test myself often. Like you I want this skill honed for anytime I am in a situation where I estimate. It adds to my comfort level knowing I can get close.
There are some things I like to stick to standard serving sizes. If I put cheese on my salad I like to see what 28 or 56 grams of cheese looks like when it is added. That also helps me when I am out and about and I get a salad with a lot more cheese on it than could possibly be accounted for in the calories. If I choose to eat it I know I will be logging additional cheese.1 -
I'll also add that I'm super weird about it. Like today I had two meals prepared by delivery services where I just weighed the finished meal and then eyeballed and guessed how much of each item was used and what ingredients.
But once I got home today, I was in the ktichen weighing out how many blueberries I was going to have. 😂
Not exactly the most logical way of doing it at times, but in its weird way it works for me.2 -
As accurate as is reasonably possible. It takes me no extra effort to log accurate numbers, so I might as well log accurate numbers. Sometimes it's not reasonably possible, like when I'm going out for a meal and can't weigh the content. In that case, I just guess at it. Being "overly accurate" most of the time allows me to be less accurate sometimes without affecting my weight management.I'll also add that I'm super weird about it. Like today I had two meals prepared by delivery services where I just weighed the finished meal and then eyeballed and guessed how much of each item was used and what ingredients.
But once I got home today, I was in the ktichen weighing out how many blueberries I was going to have. 😂
Not exactly the most logical way of doing it at times, but in its weird way it works for me.
I do that too. It makes me laugh, but that's just how my mind is wired. Ain't nothing wrong with giving your mind some peace even if it makes no sense. Whatever keeps you going!1
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