When do y’all log ur meals?

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NunyaWest
NunyaWest Posts: 87 Member
in Motivation and Support
Do y’all log yours meals when you eat them or at the end of the day? Or possibly beforehand?
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Replies

  • siyeonsimpp
    siyeonsimpp Posts: 211 Member
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    I log mine right after each meal, but sometimes I forget to log right away so I end up doing it late an hour or two.
  • KickassAmazon76
    KickassAmazon76 Posts: 4,558 Member
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    I try to log it as I eat it, or else I forget exactly what I ate. I try to weigh and measure everything right now... And there's no way I'll remember how many grams something was in an hour. Lol

    I do tend to eat the same things most days, so those are easier to remember.
  • Trish1c
    Trish1c Posts: 549 Member
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    I try to log as I consume but will enter later if that wasn't possible
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,109 Member
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    I log as I eat, when possible.

    For homecooked meals, I might not have had the chance to create the recipe yet, so sometimes I have to log (immediately) afterwards (I do take notes though while eating, of the weight of my portions). Which I try to avoid, I've gotten a few bad surprises where my portions turned out more calorific than expected.

    I also log afterwards when I'm eatng out (restaurant or with friends or family) since I won't use a scale then anyway. I log approximately afterwards, when I'm at home again.

    For leftovers or other items I know the weight of (snacks, frozen foods) I might log beforehand just to know how many calories I have left for the other meals of the day.

    I never log at the end of the day. How can you even aim at a calorie goal that way, when you've already consumed everything and no way to correct? Also very high risk you'll forget to log some of the foods, unless you take notes throughout the day.
  • kim_neill
    kim_neill Posts: 1 Member
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    At the moment I’m focusing on being more prepared (last minute decisions and being tired/stressed was leading to poor choices) so I’m logging either start of day or the day before. I’ve got a long way to go so want to make sure I’m planning well
  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
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    Most weekdays I pack my lunch while making breakfast, so I'll log both meals while I'm eating breakfast. Dinners and weekends I try to log right after I eat when I still remember everything!
  • HungryTraveler
    HungryTraveler Posts: 39 Member
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    I log when I prepare. So when I cook dinner I'll have MFP open on my phone so I can enter all the weights as I go. Work lunches I prepare the night before so I log them then. If I don't log it straight away I forget what each ingredient weighed :)
  • NunyaWest
    NunyaWest Posts: 87 Member
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    I try to log as I go as well. I find that There is not as much variety in my diet as I would’ve thought, so that make logging a bit easier.
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,259 Member
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    I'm of a different mindset. I log my entire day, if I can. I have 25+ pages of recipes, so it's not hard to log dinner since it doesn't go in item by item. I don't eat breakfast, and lunch is usually pretty similar, or leftovers of a dinner. I put in my "must eats" of the day: the things that give me the nutrition I need, but I also like to see how much change is still in the bank and how I want to use it: sweets after lunch? happy hour cocktail? munch after dinner with a show? Sometimes I put them ALL in to see what life used to be like (reality check). I find more often than not, that when the time comes, I don't want one of them, or I replace them with something that's a better nutritional choice (maybe I'm hungry between lunch and dinner). It also encourages me to get up and move. Even having 150 "extra" calories to play with can make a difference.
  • thrion
    thrion Posts: 1 Member
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    I log (most of my meals) first thing in the morning - I like to plan out my day because then I know that if there is something I want to eat later in the day, I can always make it work. And most places have menus online, so I can figure out what I am going to order in advance if I happen to be going out. It has taken so much stress out of my eating and I have been way more successful doing this.
  • Emheia
    Emheia Posts: 24 Member
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    I generally log mine as I am cooking, or as I am planning my order if I am eating out/takeout/etc. I like to know what a meal looks like in numbers before I eat it so I can make adjustments and plan the rest of the day accordingly.
  • Matty_Bowman
    Matty_Bowman Posts: 39 Member
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    I try to log mine right away. I makes notes when I’m cooking and then work it all out after using those details. Or if I’m out I take a photo to remind me later when I can punch it in!
  • swimmchick87
    swimmchick87 Posts: 458 Member
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    I always log the night before, if not earlier. Sometimes I'll log several days in advance. If the day of, I find myself really craving something different, I change my log BEFORE I eat, to make sure I can fit it into my day and/or plan whatever other changes I need to make it work. I'm surprised so many people eat and then log. That would never work for me.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,070 Member
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    I scribble on a piece of junk-mail paper (like back of envelopes) as I prep or cook, then log that online when I have spare moments later in the day. Sometimes I go straight to online with a simple snack and skip the writing. I almost never prelog: Pretty much only do it with last meal/snacks of the day if I'm trying to Tetris in my macros, maybe a treat, and intend to be strict about hitting calorie goal. I keep a little stack of suitable junk-mail paper handy in the kitchen, so I don't run out.
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
    edited January 2021
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    I log my food in advance as much as possible, and I keep a notepad and pen in the kitchen right next to my scale so I can write down what goes into the food that I cook. I'll write out the list of ingredients as I get my mise-en-place together, weighing out raw meat, dry rice/grains/pasta, and peeled/chopped vegetables. Pre-logging breakfast and lunch for the week is easy because I prep that on the weekends. I figure servings usually based on how many grams of the finished dish I end up with, entering the recipe as "[food] per gram/per 10g/per 100g" depending on what makes sense for what I've made. If it's something that makes an obvious and discrete number of servings, I do my best to make sure they're all approximately the same size and use that. For example, I prepped Salisbury steak for lunch the other week, 8 meals with 2 patties each, so I entered that recipe on here as 16 servings. I did weigh my meat mixture and do the long division to figure how big each patty needed to be to yield 16 identical patties.

    For restaurant food or food I didn't make myself, I guesstimate using entries for chain restaurants and industrial foodservice (Sodexo, Aramark, etc), and log as I eat as best I can. This is the only upside to my inlaws' cooking: everything either comes out of a box or is boiled, baked, or steamed as-is, and if any fat, sugar, sauce, seasoning, etc is to be added to anything they serve, I'll be doing it myself at the table. Otherwise, if I'm served a pork chop, the USDA entry for A Pork Chop is going to be reasonably accurate. I'm not whipping the scale out at family dinner or anything, I just know that 3oz of meat is about the size of a deck of playing cards and extrapolate and estimate from there.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    I pre log most of my stuff. It changes, amounts change, what I actually eat change, the recipes I use to get a ballpark figure for cals get changed as when I make it, I create my own recipe the majority of the time to get the actual calorie count.

    I don't CLOSE my diary until the end of the day or when I know I'm not eating anything else
  • KatyP86
    KatyP86 Posts: 164 Member
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    swimmchick87 wrote: »
    I always log the night before, if not earlier. Sometimes I'll log several days in advance. If the day of, I find myself really craving something different, I change my log BEFORE I eat, to make sure I can fit it into my day and/or plan whatever other changes I need to make it work. I'm surprised so many people eat and then log. That would never work for me.

    This is exactly how I do it as well 😊
  • AndreaTamira
    AndreaTamira Posts: 272 Member
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    I log while I am preparing the food. If that is just before eating then I log then, if I make a take-with-me lunch for the next day I log it the day I make it.
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    Generally as Im eating it, or right after. Of course, sometimes when I'm busy I have to sit down in the evening and fill things in.
    I have even prelogged when I know what exactly my meals will be (usually lunch leftovers etc.).
  • cannmom
    cannmom Posts: 18 Member
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    I do a combination of all 3. We are going out to eat tonight and I know what I’m having so I already logged that meal. It’s a pretty higher calorie meal so having it already there helps keep me on track for the rest of the day.

    I’m not sure what I’m eating for lunch today so I will log that when I eat. Sometimes I forget I log after eating.

    I think as long as you are consistently tracking it doesn’t matter when you do it.

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