Diary question

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jamzack
jamzack Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How many know what they are going to eat for the whole day. I mean do you do your diary first thing in the morning and just go off that or add to diary as the day goes on?
Just wondering! Have a great week!
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Replies

  • tmbg1
    tmbg1 Posts: 1,281 Member
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    I put food in as I go during the day. I'm not organized enough to pre log.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,675 Member
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    I usually log after my meals, though I'll sometimes add dinner beforehand since I usually know what I'll be eating then. Snacks are added at the end of the day. How much I can eat for snacks depends largely on how much exercise I got during the day which varies a lot.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Search Google for any number of sayings regarding planning and success or no planning and failure.

    They are generally true.

    Even on days you have to make unplanned choices - having planned out what will hit your calorie goal is better than attempting to make it up on the spot.

    I don't know exactly, but I know the meals I select for dinner will be about so many calories - I can pad out extra exercise calories with snacks.

    Whether you pre-log those range of choices you'll use that meet your goals, at some point may not matter - but many find it easier to deal with when they have time.
  • jlbattin
    jlbattin Posts: 11 Member
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    I used to pre-log, but I found that I ended up focusing too much on what I ate, how much, etc. Now I log throughout the day as I think about it. It helps me be more flexible on choices. It gives me the illusion of more control rather than being driven by 'the predetermined standard.' It seems to work for me. If I am involved in a situation where there is the potential for dinner with a higher calorie intake, I can somewhat plan for it in advance.

    In that respect, I use a combination of both strategies--some planning, but not specific to allow for freedom of choice and flexibility.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,634 Member
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    When I was losing especially in the beginning I had made in my personal rule that nothing would go in my mouth before it was logged, correctly, in MFP.

    A side effect was that I started eating an apple or other snack while cooking and not waiting to start the cooking process until I was completely famished (which led me to overeat).

    I would also test various dinner options to see what would be a preferred option for the calories.

    Over the years and at maintenance I just record what I've eaten either during or right after. In spite of a lot of experience and significant effort in keeping accurate logs, I still catch myself the next day seeing that there was an item that I missed the previous.

    In terms of pre-logging it doesn't help much that I don't pre plan food and dinner other than knowing that there's sufficient stuff in the fridge and pantry to be able to come up with something
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,158 Member
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    I like prelogging, which usually takes me under five minutes or so the night before. I do meal plan my week in advance since I am cooking for my family. If I have recipes saved already in the recipe builder, it's a cinch. But if we have an unexpected change, it's not a big deal to me to adjust. I find the largest amount of effort with logging is in the beginning as you get used to it and find the items that you use the most, add the recipes you usually eat, etc. But once you've been doing it even for a few weeks, it becomes automatic.

    I like to plan ahead in life generally, so prelogging really works for me. It would make me anxious to not have a rough idea ahead of time how many calories I would expect to eat in a meal, most of the time. But not everybody is like that, so you experiment and work out what works for you.
  • ridiculous59
    ridiculous59 Posts: 2,842 Member
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    I pre-log for the day while drinking my morning coffee. That's when I usually figure out what we're having for dinner and what leftovers are in the fridge, if any, for my lunch. I just build my day around that, though I'm fine with making changes if something else comes up.
  • Laughter_Girl
    Laughter_Girl Posts: 2,226 Member
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    I log as I go. I eat based on what I'm craving and/or what macronutrients I need to hit for that meal and can't predict that. I very rarely pre-log anything as I'm not that organized nor rigid. My hubby, on the other hand, is. He can eat the same thing for breakfast (oatmeal) and lunch (tuna) daily - probably dinner too, but I vary that meal - and is always so content with it. He even comments about it being delicious sometimes. That cracks me up every time. It's the SAME thing. 😄😄😄

    Either way, once you find which method works for you, do that. 😁
  • tiffdaski
    tiffdaski Posts: 20 Member
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    I have a general plan for the day's food but log as I prep/cook since I weigh it all as I go. I don't know enough of the details to pre-log too ahead of time unless I'm making a meal for the next day.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
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    I check the fridge/cabinet in the evening and loosely pre-log tomorrows meals, based on what I need to use up. In the morning, I check my logging to remind me, then I change everything around, add things, etc. according to what I actually eat.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,115 Member
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    I never pre-log a whole day's worth of food, I don't want to be that rigid in what I eat and I wouldn't even know how to do that since I don't know the precise quantities before I eat. I log as I eat, or for a prepared meal possibly even afterwards (if I still have to do the math and create the recipe) although I've had 'bad' surprises that way.

    I've been doing this for long enough that I know how to spread my calories throughout the day: 300 for breakfast (skyr, fruit, protein powder; or a protein bar), 600-800 for lunch (bread with whatever I feel like eating at that moment), 600-800 for dinner (I know the ingredients beforehand, but I don't know precisely how much I'll eat until the meal is prepared and on my plate) and whatever is left over is for my evening snack.
  • akf2000
    akf2000 Posts: 278 Member
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    Q: if you pre-log, and then don't log in for a few days, do you lose your streak?
  • danae16
    danae16 Posts: 62 Member
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    I like to pre-log because I am also hitting macros and its hard to "wing it" with those. So I usually have about the same 3 types of meals for breakfast and rotate week to week. Then I put in my lunch and dinner plans. Snacks are where I balance out with my remaining calories and macros. So if I am having a big dinner, my snacks are usually lighter and lower calories with things like veggies. If I have some extra calories I might have some nuts (which I love) which are higher calories with some fruit. I found that if I don't plan then I get to dinner and have 100 calories left.
  • sarah12277
    sarah12277 Posts: 211 Member
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    I like to pre-log for the day. Most days my breakfast & lunch are the same. I'll also be thinking of what I was having for dinner in case I needed to prepare something. I'll make changes afterward if there were any differences

    @akf2000 yes you do lose the streak. I originally thought the streak was for logging so I lost a 180 + streak due to a vacation I had pre-logged and forgot to go into the app. Streak is just for logging in, you don't even need to log anything to keep it.
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
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    I log in the moment while I’m preparing food. For me, pre-logging or meal planning is a sure fire way to make sure I don’t want to eat whatever it is when it comes down to it.

    I just wing the whole thing and yet, somehow I always come in at an appropriate calorie level with macros in the ballpark daily, and remarkably spot on over a week or so.

    I can’t imagine doing it any other way because I’ve always thrived on spontaneity, variety and new food experiences. Being too forward thinking just doesn’t work for me 🤷‍♀️
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
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    I pre-log as much as I can, as far in advance as I can. I usually work a week at a time, my weeks run Monday to Sunday and I weigh in on Fridays.

    I prep breakfast and lunch for the week on the weekends, so I can fill that in for the whole week on Sunday afternoon. I also make dinners that yield leftovers and pack those up immediately - if the recipe I'm using makes 4-6 servings, I plate up two for me and my husband to eat right away, then pack up the other two or four servings for us to eat later in the week, weighing everything to make sure the servings are all the same size. Then I can just copy tonight's dinner over to whichever night we eat the leftovers. This system has me cooking only 2 or 3 nights per week.

    Sometimes I'm really on the ball and can pre-log breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the entire week, because the dinners I have planned I make the same way every time, or I made a huge dinner that yielded tons of leftovers so we just eat that all week (like a stew or chili or something). I'll still measure ingredients and tweak the recipes as needed (maybe this time I used 350g of onion instead of 300g, etc), but using the previous recipe is close enough that I can see approximately how many calories I have left over unspoken-for (if any).
  • akf2000
    akf2000 Posts: 278 Member
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    sarah12277 wrote: »

    @akf2000 yes you do lose the streak. I originally thought the streak was for logging so I lost a 180 + streak due to a vacation I had pre-logged and forgot to go into the app. Streak is just for logging in, you don't even need to log anything to keep it.

    thanks, that does seem unfair but at least i know now!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,958 Member
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    akf2000 wrote: »
    sarah12277 wrote: »

    @akf2000 yes you do lose the streak. I originally thought the streak was for logging so I lost a 180 + streak due to a vacation I had pre-logged and forgot to go into the app. Streak is just for logging in, you don't even need to log anything to keep it.

    thanks, that does seem unfair but at least i know now!

    You can reset your own streak, though.

    Which seems like cheating but you can. From Help/Troubleshooting:

    https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032624931-My-login-days-in-a-row-counter-is-incorrect-How-do-I-fix-this-
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    Weekdays, I always plan my breakfast and lunch. Dinner is dependent on my wife's work schedule, who is doing the prep and we usually firm up those plans throughout the day via text.

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