September 4
Options
Mrs_Hoffer
Posts: 5,194 Member
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
0
Replies
-
The Importance of Tracking
We all know the 3 UAC goals:
- Tracking food intake (food logging)
- Staying within desired calorie goal
- Exercise 20+ minutes
We also know that it can be difficult to achieve all 3 of these day in and day out, which is why the UAC celebrates Champions who are working to build these 3 habits into their daily lives.
So what if you were to pick just one to focus on and make it a daily habit? Which one would be the wisest choice?
You would do very well to pick the first one, "Tracking food intake (food logging)".
For starters it is the easiest of the three. Simply track everything you put in your mouth. That's it! And it results in no discomfort whatsoever. Calorie restrictions are not as easy, and we all know that exercise is...well...it's hard because we have to get off the couch for starters!
There are also many studies showing results like this one where...
Keeping a Food Diary Resulted in a Doubling of Weight Loss
...or this one where...
Participants who simply tracked their food lost an average of 6 pounds while those who tracked their food as well as received nutritional advice lost an average of 7 pounds (only one pound more).
I won't speak to results of losing weight through exercise alone or diet alone (because that is not the topic). But there are consistently good results among those who simply track their food intake daily.14 -
I used to have a mindset: “I hate tracking my food and will not waste my time doing that the rest of my life.” However, now I understand and embrace it. It’s just a healthy habit like brushing my teeth. And it’s so easy now, not like the old days where you needed pen, pencil, and calculator. I will confess that often, my calorie estimations are like throwing a dart at a target, but I’m generally pretty close.13
-
@biketheworld it's funny how everyone looks at things differently. You find it easy to use the tracker on here; I find it frustrating. The nutrition database is so unreliable and I find I waste more time sifting out decent entries than it takes to just look it up and write it down! I wish there was an option to simply list one's macros for the day and be done with it.
Then again, I also like to scrub my dishcloths and cleaning cloths on a washboard and line dry my clothes!
10 -
Tracking may seem easy, but for someone like me, who had convinced myself that I was eating a reasonably healthy diet, it can be challenging to realise the truth. My portion control was way off the mark. 😂 Weighing/measuring, and tracking my food became a necessity in my quest for a healthier/fitter lifestyle.
I have tried tracking when I was younger, back in the day when pen/paper/calculator was the norm. It was a very long time-consuming process involving hunting through numerous reams of paper calorie tables. Not a jolly activity. (No handy Mr Google in those days.)
Tracking on MFP is not an exact process, but I find it is close enough to be a useful tool in gauging CI/CO. I currently try to do my tracking in advance, and adjust quantities as food is served. It is well worth the minimal time and effort involved. I have saved many of my recipes, and MFP remembers my frequent/recent entries, so tracking is quick and fairly easy. I also scan barcodes of bought foods.
Thanks to modern technology, it has certainly been one of the most useful Habits that I have developed.9 -
Ashleymullo6195
Logged food yes
Excersize for 20 min - no done 11 min
Under cal no over by 688 -
I like tracking, it helps me plan my day/week. I’ve used this app for several years and all my regular foods are easily accessible.
✅Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes?
❌ Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? I went to a beer festival; only had a pint but then ate something that was about 1,000 calories… chorizo hot dog and some chips.
✅ Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
1 pass used10 -
Yes X 3
Running for exercise.
I think a bit like @biketheworld I used to kind of hate tracking. Now I see it as a necessary boring mundane task.
Using the recipes on the app for things I regularly cook has been great.
I'll probably have to track forever. I regain if I stop10 -
04/09/2021
Exercise – yes, cycling, cardio etc
Tracked – yes
Calories – yes, well under.
I weighed in this morning – up by over 1kg since last Sunday before I went away. I will be tracking very carefully for the next couple of weeks.
I’m another fan of tracking – I also did it back in the day with paper and pen and books of calorie values. The advantage of MFP is that I can now easily track my protein, fibre etc. Tracking was absolutely necessary when I was losing weight (I’m a little old lady who needed to keep to 1,200 calories most days). Now that I have been maintaining for two years I can have holidays without tracking but I still need to be mindful of portion sizes especially of calorie-dense, high fat foods.
Tracking helps you to learn your portion sizes, high calorie foods, more or less satisfying foods, a really useful tool.
11 -
@biketheworld @lesdarts180 @TerriRichardson112 and @genevermfp i can relate to all ur comments. I am a big eater and love my food so tracking is the only way I can know how to stay under my calorie threshold. Picking at food/grazing wen im cooking and my sugar intake are 2 areas I'm currently trying to strengthen. All my grandparents and my bro hve diabetes and I'm a massive sweet tooth so i need to be extra careful. The sugar intake is only something I hve just started monitoring in September it's been an eye opener going back and looking at how much sugar I was eating sometimes double and triple the amount I shld be eating. Pretty shocking! @MadisonMolly2017 im pretty sure we hve spoken about sugar & salt intake and I know u monitor both very closely. I am finding the less sugar I eat the less I'm craving it and the more I ate before the more I was craving it. I think this is something u hve mentioned too. Xox7
-
@WhatMeRunning Awesome topic interested to hear wat the team has to share. Xo4
-
✅ - Exercise 20+ Minutes
✅ - Calories within budget
✅ - Tracked everything
3️⃣ Pass Days Remaining
@WhatMeRunning ~ Super discussion topic.
Great job on 3 x yes
@lesdarts180 ~
@Geneveremfp
@ashleymullo6195 ~ so close on the calories
@taurie ~ It's just 1 day lol. Hope you enjoyed the festival.
5 -
IDK, I suppose I will see what happens. I just can't envision what tracking looks like once I hit maintenance. It's one thing when I can weigh, measure, read labels, and know every ingredient that I am consuming, but how do I do it when I eventually eat something I don't personally prepare at home? How do you rock star maintainers manage?
5 -
All three done. I never used to track and logged but once I started and began to look at the calorie and nutritional value of foods it made more sense. I also find it to logged my exercise as I have a yearly goal of how many spin miles I do and how many walking miles that I classify as exercise to try and meet. So when I go over I connect with better food choices and more exercise.
On healthy foods here is a pic of my red and Yukon gold potato’s I grew in large containers.
9 -
Exercise:
Weight circuit, 20 minutes elliptical, 30 minute walk. Race day tomorrow! 10k run in preparation for the 15k. I am really nervous.
Tracking:
Calories: 10 -
You've got this 10k @bradkcrew! Just don't start in the first half of the crowd, and run at your normal pace, not the pace of the crowd. Enjoy the event and be sure to cheer others along too. The crowd itself and the cheering will help keep you and others going!
As for logging when eating food you didn't prepare, a lot of restaurant and prepared food is already in MFP. One thing I do when that can't help is to log the components or ingredients. Even if you're at best 80% accurate, you have such a better idea than just ignoring it completely.10 -
Exercise 30 minutes walk/11,000 + steps ✅
Tracked calories ✅
Stayed under calories ✅
10 -
4 Sept
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? yes
Pass days used:0
Importance of tracking? Let's just say I will be in maintenance for 4 years Oct 1. I have tracked pretty much every day. I do this because I absolutely hate weighing myself. So by tracking, working out, and watching how my clothes fit I can avoid the scale. I find that unless I have plans to do a specific cut (drop some weight for a race etc..) my logging is probably not as accurate as it was when I was losing. I don't absolutely measure everything but I know I am close.
Good luck with the race tomorrow @bradkcrew !10 -
donna25trinity wrote: »@biketheworld @lesdarts180 @TerriRichardson112 and @genevermfp i can relate to all ur comments. I am a big eater and love my food so tracking is the only way I can know how to stay under my calorie threshold. Picking at food/grazing wen im cooking and my sugar intake are 2 areas I'm currently trying to strengthen. All my grandparents and my bro hve diabetes and I'm a massive sweet tooth so i need to be extra careful. The sugar intake is only something I hve just started monitoring in September it's been an eye opener going back and looking at how much sugar I was eating sometimes double and triple the amount I shld be eating. Pretty shocking! @MadisonMolly2017 im pretty sure we hve spoken about sugar & salt intake and I know u monitor both very closely. I am finding the less sugar I eat the less I'm craving it and the more I ate before the more I was craving it. I think this is something u hve mentioned too. Xox
@donna25trinity YES. Definitely.
For refined sugars. I don’t find it to be true for fruit - for me, at least. I have read fiber in the fruit slows down response to the sugar.
Ditto salt. It usually takes me 3 days of sodium Uber 1,800 mg & sugars < 100g for my “mouth hunger” to disappear again.
So glad we have figured this out == greater chance of long term success!
🌸Best,
Maddie7 -
10
-
IDK, I suppose I will see what happens. I just can't envision what tracking looks like once I hit maintenance. It's one thing when I can weigh, measure, read labels, and know every ingredient that I am consuming, but how do I do it when I eventually eat something I don't personally prepare at home? How do you rock star maintainers manage?
@bradkcrew
Um…I kept doing what I did when I was losing. I weighed, measured, read labels (as needed) - I don’t focus on each ingredient I’m Eating.
What would you do now if you ate something you didn’t personally prepare? Maybe try it?
You don’t want to make a lot of changes in maintenance.
I will say after almost 6 years of tracking, it’s pretty darn easy.
The reason I keep tracking everything every day is I want good data. I want to know if my sugars are up or my sodium…or if my protein is too high for my kidney.
I’m doing all this for Health. The amounts of different nutrients are part of being healthy to me.
You can do it!!
🌸7
