Does anyone else find it so boring and uninspiring to keep track of all your meals/calories.

No sympathy from me. I understand people saying it's tedious or that they don't want to do it forever. But get bored part way through logging a single day is not impressive. You have to be at least 18 years old to use this site, which means you are an adult and have to do plenty of boring and uninteresting things on a daily basis. Logging food isn't the only tool to help lose/maintain/gain weight but it is one that many people find useful. You need to find what works for you. For me, working on my weight and health is a higher priority than 3 minutes of boredom each day.

I did it...I don't do it anymore. I found it tedious and I got a little head case about some things, but I also ultimately found it to be informative. I haven't logged in almost 7 years, but the brief time I did log has helped me immensely with almost 7 years of maintenance and knowing what I need to meet my nutritional needs, even if I don't know exactly down to the exact calorie or gram of this and that.

It's fascinating to me.

I almost had a McDonalds breakfast sandwich because they were 2 for $4. But I saved it till I got to work to see how many calories it was. 460 calories, a calorie bomb. In olden days I would have just ate it. Logging helps me see more clearly what it is I'm putting in mouth. And no I didn't eat it, not even a little bit. (My taste tolerance for sodium is getting really sensitive, things I use to eat I don't want to cause it's too salty).

Are you here to manage your weight or ???? If you are here for your health then logging is important.

It doesn't take long. Sure it's boring, but just buckle down and do it. Like any other chore. No one likes scrubbng the toilet right? But we all do it.

It has been an effective tool to help me dramatically improve my health and quality of life. I can't find it boring or uninspiring for those reasons alone. It did take some time to learn and streamline but nowadays I barely have to put much thought into it unless I am entering a new recipe. I am not even sure I spend 2 full minutes doing it most days.

I say that with zero judgment. If it is not for you I hope whatever your goals happen to be you find a suitable alternative. Logging is not the only way to get from point A to point B. For me it was the easiest way but that was me.

I find it lessens my anxiety.
I don't have to get up tomorrow and wonder if what I'm eating works within my calories, or discover at dinner time I didn't save enough calories to eat properly. A few minutes in the evening, along with setting up the coffee pot for tomorrow morning, getting my to-do list in order, and laying out my clothes, makes tomorrow go smoothly, and I don't have to wonder about what to eat, I know, cause I worked it out already.

I like doing it. However, I'm autistic, so I like reducing it to numbers and knowing what I'm going to do ahead of time.

I do a ton of tedious boring stuff so that I don't die. This is just one of those things like remembering to take all my meds on time and not taking them with other things that will make them ineffective, and doing my PT for all the injured bits of me so that they will heal properly, and other stuff like showering so that people around me won't be offended. Cooking everything from scratch and shopping are also tedious, but they're part of being an adult human. At least I don't have to run down the chicken and skin it before I start cooking. I just have to take 10 seconds to weigh it and log it.

AlexandraFindsHerself1971 wrote: »

I find it lessens my anxiety.
I don't have to get up tomorrow and wonder if what I'm eating works within my calories, or discover at dinner time I didn't save enough calories to eat properly. A few minutes in the evening, along with setting up the coffee pot for tomorrow morning, getting my to-do list in order, and laying out my clothes, makes tomorrow go smoothly, and I don't have to wonder about what to eat, I know, cause I worked it out already.

I like doing it. However, I'm autistic, so I like reducing it to numbers and knowing what I'm going to do ahead of time.

I may or may not be autistic, but I thrive on numbers too. I find logging freeing because I don't have to wonder if I can eat something or not. Not logging causes me to restrict more than I'm willing to do. I don't think if it in terms of "boring", it's only a few minutes a day less than one minute at a time, so classifying it as "boring" is kind of odd.

I find MFP an exhilarating numbers game - there is always something new to learn, something new to experience. Above all - I am finally doing something entirely for myself; so very selfish, I know - but it does feel good!

I use a written journal to plan and track my meals.

To me it's actually freeing to know that as long as I know appx. how many calories I'm consuming each day I can fit in and eat anything I want and still maintain my weight (and lose weight when I was losing weight).

RelCanonical wrote: »

Guys I'm gonna go brush my teeth I'm so excited!

Nope.

Finally. I didn't think you were ever going to brush them.

I have my list of things that are daily chores. I get no actual enjoyment out of doing them but I do get a sense of satisfaction knowing they are done and, if applicable, knowing they have either improved or maintained something.

I think the thing that trips people up is that initially you are hunting and hunting to find and verify things. Eventually though, at least for me, one day becomes a variation of another that happened as recently as yesterday but probably happened within the last few days. I pursue variety but it is not like that makes each new day completely unique. I make a wide range of fritattas but they are still frittatas and so some ingredients can just be grabbed from a recent list or a previous day.

I guess I'm one of the weirdos because I actually do enjoy it. It doesn't feel like a chore at all. It's a security thing for me. I know I could eat within my calorie deficit without logging, but I also know that I tend to start slipping when I stop logging. Logging tells me whether or not I can have that piece of cake in the evening or if I should stick with popcorn. It tells me that, even when my weight stalls for a week or two, that I'm still in a deficit and it's going to drop eventually so I stick with it.

serindipte wrote: »

I guess I'm one of the weirdos because I actually do enjoy it. It doesn't feel like a chore at all. It's a security thing for me. I know I could eat within my calorie deficit without logging, but I also know that I tend to start slipping when I stop logging. Logging tells me whether or not I can have that piece of cake in the evening or if I should stick with popcorn. It tells me that, even when my weight stalls for a week or two, that I'm still in a deficit and it's going to drop eventually so I stick with it.

Same. I've been around since 2012 and can't see stopping any time soon. I was actually discussing this with my wife and she thinks she's gotten a lot better at being mindful of what/how much she eats over the last ~5 years (she's never been a fan of logging). On the other hand, I feel completely lost portioning something without quantifying it in some way. I'm also a very numbers-oriented person and she's not.