January 4
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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
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Tracking!
If I eat the way I always have, I’ll gain all my weight back. I have 45 years of proof of this.
When I began in January 2016, I ate for enjoyment, for what “tasted” good. I ate out all the time. had no clear hunger or satiety signals. Didn’t pay much attention to nutrition either.
So, I needed to figure out a way to reduce what I ate and shift those less than stellar habits. I could not rely on my brain/body to steer me in the right direction.
Tracking ended up being the KEY to my success.
I think of it as a safety line, especially now in maintenance. I have had a few instances in the past year where I EASILY ate 2,600-3,000 calories in a day…
Tracking helped me realize that RIGHT away. Then I analyzed what happened & came up with a strategy to avoid this the next time.
In November 2021, after 5 years of tracking every single bite, a little voice creeped up, “I’m sick & tired of tracking.” That made me sit up fast & alarm bells started going off in my head!!!! Danger ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Nope, this is exactly when I am NOT going to stop tracking. In this instance I was 1.5-2.5 lbs over my high goal weight range. I was bummed out. A few days later, I realized our new scale weighs 0.8lbs high, so I only gained only 0.7-1.7 lbs over the 70 I’d lost. This was that dastardly voice who can try to fool us into giving up. I recognize it & never listen to it now.
Tracking takes me < 5 minutes a day. It has helped me maintain a regular daily 90 minute walking habit for almost 4 years, and most recently, it helped me get back into my Official Maintenance Weight Range. It has helped me keep sat fat, protein, & sodium consumption where they should be. In fact, my tracking is what alerts me if a new bread is loaded with salt… or a new brand of X has significantly more sat fat and/or calories.
It was responsible for a recent cardiologist’s report “Maddie is a very healthy & dynamic 65 year old …” 😃😁
Tracking may well be the most important technique for us to master!
(I do know some folks lose weight & maintain without tracking. But the folks I know who have kept their weight off without any yo-yo’ing have tracked. I do think it may be more important for those of us who lost more weight.)
Please share your perspective & experience with tracking.
Do you track everything? Every day? Or do you skip higher calorie times?
Do you weigh your food or eyeball it or both?
Do you look at your trends and/or averages?
What is the best thing about tracking for you?
What is the thing you are working on at the moment re: tracking?
There is a wealth of knowledge & different approaches in this group!
Please use us to help you enhance your tracking!!
And just because it’s interesting…
14 -
Hey @MadisonMolly2017 ... great opener! Can you share what book that is you're showing us a quote from?
Do you track everything? Every day? Or do you skip higher calorie times?
I track everything every day. Even when I've had a pass day, I make sure I track it all.
Do you weigh your food or eyeball it or both?
If I'm at home (which I am 99% of the time), I weigh everything. When I'm in a safe place (my Mom's, my Dad's), I bring my scale. If I'm out beyond that, I eyeball and always ensure to estimate on the high side.
Do you look at your trends and/or averages?
I look at my net calories to weight averages and use that to determine my revolving calorie goal as I go. I don't look at much more than that.
What is the best thing about tracking for you?
Feeling in control and knowing the math will work if I trust in it.
What is the thing you are working on at the moment re: tracking?
My husband has been cooking from recipes more often lately so I'm getting used to using that part of tracking.
As I said before, great opener and I couldn't agree with you more that for me, tracking is essential.
I've seen what leaving myself to my own devices does, and I am NEVER going back there. I can't afford to. My Mom's obesity and lack of mobility has limited her so much now that she's in her 60's and I want to walk a different path.
Question back to you:
-Body positivity movements and no-diet advocates sometimes demonize tracking, or the general public may find weighing your food "extreme". We obviously know this is what helps us live our best life. What would you say to someone with that perspective?8 -
Tracking consistently is still a work-in-progress for me. I’ll be really good for awhile, then have a few days when I stop before getting back at it. I’m in one of those pauses right now so I’m committing to getting back at it TODAY. My biggest problem is not wanting to enter everything when I do go off the rails. And that is a problem. It’s like there’s some mental or maybe emotional block that I give myself license to have a little binge and by not entering it, it’s pretending it didn’t happen.
It is FACT that when I track, I lose weight.
I used to hate to track and would try any diet that I didn’t require tracking. I cringed at the thought of tracking for the rest of my life and swore I didn’t want to live that way. However, I have changed that mindset, in part because of this group. I no longer “hate” to track and realize it’s part of a healthy lifestyle just like brushing my teeth every day. And with digital tracking, it’s really so easy and quick.
I will admit that my tracking isn’t completely accurate in that I have to guesstimate many entries. I measure what I can and scan or enter calories when available. But hubby does all the cooking and rarely follows a recipe, so I usually look through the database and find something that seems reasonable. My breakfast and lunch entries are pretty spot on, but dinner is more iffy.
@MadisonMolly2017 - isn’t it amazing how hard people had to work just for daily survival? We have it so easy in comparison. I remember reading something years ago that disputed the “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” theory. The author was saying that people used to have very physical lives, when there was a lot of work done early in the day and so yes, breakfast was important. Farmers (and I will attest to this since my dad was a farmer) were often up long before breakfast because they first fed livestock or did other chores. And then all 6 of us sat down together to a big breakfast. The authors point was that most of us don’t work that hard so early in the day, making breakfast not as vital. I always eat breakfast, but it’s no longer bacon and eggs and toast etc.6 -
I'm looking forward to reading everyone's responses to learn strategies. To your questions:
Do you track everything? Every day? Or do you skip higher calorie times?
I mostly track. When I make a salad for lunch I sometimes weigh out my greens, but usually visually estimate since it is such a low calorie item. I also sometimes don't bother tracking things like fresh herbs - similar reason. When I have a pass day, it's generally because I find it too hard to match the right entry to what I've eaten. This is mostly when I've eaten out or at a social gathering. We eat at home most of the time and I follow recipes that I can input into the recipe calculator.
Do you weigh your food or eyeball it or both?
Other than greens, almost always weigh. If the food item label has it listed by unit (like 12 almonds), I might weigh it once or twice, but if it is close enough to the serving size by weight I'll just go by unit count. At home it really is much easier to weigh though.
Do you look at your trends and/or averages?
No. I really should though.
What is the best thing about tracking for you?
Nothing? It does keep me on the straight and narrow, but I really don't like doing it. However, without it I really and truly go off the rails.
What is the thing you are working on at the moment re: tracking?
Serving size. I cook almost all of our meals and I'll input the recipe and serving size into the recipe builder. I haven't yet weighed all my pots and pans to get a net weight of the dinner to determine serving size by grams.5 -
ashleycarole86 wrote: »Hey @MadisonMolly2017 ... great opener! Can you share what book that is you're showing us a quote from?
Do you track everything? Every day? Or do you skip higher calorie times?
I track everything every day. Even when I've had a pass day, I make sure I track it all.
Do you weigh your food or eyeball it or both?
If I'm at home (which I am 99% of the time), I weigh everything. When I'm in a safe place (my Mom's, my Dad's), I bring my scale. If I'm out beyond that, I eyeball and always ensure to estimate on the high side.
Do you look at your trends and/or averages?
I look at my net calories to weight averages and use that to determine my revolving calorie goal as I go. I don't look at much more than that.
What is the best thing about tracking for you?
Feeling in control and knowing the math will work if I trust in it.
What is the thing you are working on at the moment re: tracking?
My husband has been cooking from recipes more often lately so I'm getting used to using that part of tracking.
As I said before, great opener and I couldn't agree with you more that for me, tracking is essential.
I've seen what leaving myself to my own devices does, and I am NEVER going back there. I can't afford to. My Mom's obesity and lack of mobility has limited her so much now that she's in her 60's and I want to walk a different path.
Question back to you:
-Body positivity movements and no-diet advocates sometimes demonize tracking, or the general public may find weighing your food "extreme". We obviously know this is what helps us live our best life. What would you say to someone with that perspective?
@ashleycarole86
Thank you for your responses. Mine are nearly identical.
Here is the book! My husband keeps it by his desk & reads bits as his code runs. This was the first time I looked at it & it’s fascinating. In fact, there’s a whole detailed section on the shift in food production since ~ 1870’s. Basically people ate plain, real food, meat, fruits, veg, hand baked goods (bread consumption skyrocketed as bread production was automated). Processed foods such as cornflakes replaced other foods. Foods that immigrants brought with them added flavors & higher carb/protein ratio.
This all yielded a huge ah-ha for me. Processed foods began Much Earlier than I thought.
I have returned at about an 85% level to eating as my great grandparents would have. Not eating out, simply cooked, plain ie not sauces, etc.
The bottom line: I’m more aware of businesses influence on America’s eating.
To your excellent question:
It would depend upon who I was speaking with.
1. If they were overweight, obese, anorexic, I would change the subject.
2. If they were someone who lost a significant amount of non-pregnancy weight & kept it off (without tracking) for 3 years, I’d say “I’m SO happy for you!!! You definitely figured out what works for you - like I did. Isn’t it amazing how different methods work for different folks?”
3. Normal weight person. I have used alcoholic analogy but she ignored it & still gifted me a chocolate cake. I explained I’m like an alcoholic with certain foods & with eating out.
4. I emphasize I am doing this for my HEALTH , not beauty.
I’ve always had a more beautiful & slim body image (than reality LOL) even though I was 70-80 lbs overweight. Confident.
In fact I stopped telling people how much I lost as they were SHOCKED- I am tall & knew how to dress to hide etc.
5. If they say you could become anorexic, I simply say there is no chance of that. And I laugh. I can easily eat 3K calories a day & have never had any eating disorders of any kind.
Also, even with tracking & daily exercise I have an 18 month 5 pound gain & lose
Cycle (so far).
6. I thank them for their concern. “All of my doctors are delighted that my BMI is under 24.9.” (It ranges from 23.x to 24.9) If they push me I explain that is top end of normal.
7 And if they really push me, I’ll ask them if their father weighed over 300 lbs & ate quarts of ice cream with caramel sauce ever night alone at a table or a 5’4” mother who would eat bits of butter from the stick as she cooked dinners. Cheese. Peanut butter. Secretly.
And neither exercised or ever enrolled us in any exercise classes e crept me (ballet) for a few years.
BTW I love my parents very much. Loving & all of us have good self-confidence. I believe my obesity was 1/4 genetics & 3/4 bad choices.
“We each have a different path. Please respect mine.”
One last note: some of my closest girlfriends miss our eating out & chatting. One has started gifting me chocolate candies - I made the mistake of eating a few at her house - and she brought over 60 for no reason. I indulged. Told myself never again. They are unhealthy & I didn’t even enjoy most of them.
I know she’s dealing with menopausal gain & I know the fact I’ve conquered this (so far!) makes some others feel bad.
She gifted us more chocolate on New Years. I ate 8 tiny ones- equiv of 3 of the 60 pack. Placed the others in a small ziplock out of sight. Haven’t had any since.
Slowly, I figure out how to deal with these “surprises.” Now that I know she will do this, I’m Prepared. Next time, I’ll re-gift or donate to food kitchen.
Sorry rambled here but my point is other folks can be unconsciously envious. Very few people are successful in this battle of long term maintenance especially in America’s social & toxic food environment.
Thank you,
🌸Maddie
What would you say?11 -
biketheworld wrote: »Tracking consistently is still a work-in-progress for me. I’ll be really good for awhile, then have a few days when I stop before getting back at it. I’m in one of those pauses right now so I’m committing to getting back at it TODAY. My biggest problem is not wanting to enter everything when I do go off the rails. And that is a problem. It’s like there’s some mental or maybe emotional block that I give myself license to have a little binge and by not entering it, it’s pretending it didn’t happen.
It is FACT that when I track, I lose weight.
I used to hate to track and would try any diet that I didn’t require tracking. I cringed at the thought of tracking for the rest of my life and swore I didn’t want to live that way. However, I have changed that mindset, in part because of this group. I no longer “hate” to track and realize it’s part of a healthy lifestyle just like brushing my teeth every day. And with digital tracking, it’s really so easy and quick.
I will admit that my tracking isn’t completely accurate in that I have to guesstimate many entries. I measure what I can and scan or enter calories when available. But hubby does all the cooking and rarely follows a recipe, so I usually look through the database and find something that seems reasonable. My breakfast and lunch entries are pretty spot on, but dinner is more iffy.
@MadisonMolly2017 - isn’t it amazing how hard people had to work just for daily survival? We have it so easy in comparison. I remember reading something years ago that disputed the “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” theory. The author was saying that people used to have very physical lives, when there was a lot of work done early in the day and so yes, breakfast was important. Farmers (and I will attest to this since my dad was a farmer) were often up long before breakfast because they first fed livestock or did other chores. And then all 6 of us sat down together to a big breakfast. The authors point was that most of us don’t work that hard so early in the day, making breakfast not as vital. I always eat breakfast, but it’s no longer bacon and eggs and toast etc.
@biketheworld
Thanks for your response!!
>> Tracking when we eat something we later regret
I believe there are two secret techniques here:
1. Self-kindness. We are on a path & the most important thing is we don’t give up.
If we can re-frame tracking from have-to to a want-to, a thing that makes us feel bad to a thing that helps us identify our needs & insures our success.
2. “I want the data” so I track. Companies spend millions to get data; it’s so valuable.
It enlightens us & overtime we get to the point “hmm my resting heart rate has decreased 2 beats per min each of the last 4 years. So I’m gonna keep walking!!!
Or “wait a minute, why is my sodium 2,600 mg?” Oh, I didn’t know that bread had so much salt in it.” —> find new brand. “Gee they aLL have a lot of sodium. Hmm I wonder if that’s why bread is considered a villain” ok let’s look into recipes I can make or “low salt” breads.
Gee the scale is going down I’m doing great
* checks mainly average. *gulp* monthly average is up —> cut a gl few more calories..etc.
DATA is POWER if we practice self-kindness!
BTW that’s why I don’t count pass days after the first 4. Clearly I’m struggling. I go back to looking & analyzing my tracking.?what’s happening here?
After a while your individual patterns show up. Then you solve for those triggers!!
Yes history is fascinating I’d love to hear more about living/growin up on a farm!!
Re: breakfast
The nutrition class I took said to eat within one hour of waking. I eat the biggest breakfast than I ever have & Idont go crazy afternoon /evening anymore.
Just makes sense to align our food input with when we expend energy!
Thanks again
🌸Maddie!!7 -
In the two and a half months I've been doing this I've tracked everything. I'll sometimes go with volume for lower calorie items where I know the overall weight and am taking a portion of it. I typically make up for mis-estimates as I consume the remainder in other meals.
I do eat out, perhaps 4-6 meals per week. I'm finding a lot of places measure their ingredients and can tell you weights and measures. I'm also finding I was generally not the first to ask. At first I felt funny about asking. But then I thought, they're selling meals, if they want to support their customers' health they'll provide the kind of info I want. It's rare I get push-back even when they don't know.
The best thing about tracking is the budget function it provides. It teaches me which foods are efficient in terms of macros and filling me up and which make it harder. After 10 weeks, I now have a lot of tools in the choice toolbox as a result of the budget process. I'm naturally quantitative. Give me some data better yet allow me to find data and I look for ways to make use of it. My kids tease me about it.
During these 10 weeks I've found using MFP plugs for a one pound/week loss rate resulted in an actual loss of over 2 lbs/week. I've let it happen, it's fast but it's been working, without much strength loss as determined in the gym. When maintenance starts I'll make a TDEE adjustment and get a fair amount more calories to eat than plug assumptions would provide. That should make things easier! Without tracking I'd be in the dark on this.
My current project is using the meal function on MFP's tracker to add control and make things easier. Meals I eat regularly, which is most of them, only take a few button presses to enter and I can compare meal calorie and macro totals at the beginning of the day, making them serve as building blocks for my daily plan. Pre-logging and the meal function work really well together.
Thanks Maddie!10 -
enlightenme3 wrote: »I'm looking forward to reading everyone's responses to learn strategies. To your questions:
Do you track everything? Every day? Or do you skip higher calorie times?
I mostly track. When I make a salad for lunch I sometimes weigh out my greens, but usually visually estimate since it is such a low calorie item. I also sometimes don't bother tracking things like fresh herbs - similar reason. When I have a pass day, it's generally because I find it too hard to match the right entry to what I've eaten. This is mostly when I've eaten out or at a social gathering. We eat at home most of the time and I follow recipes that I can input into the recipe calculator.
Do you weigh your food or eyeball it or both?
Other than greens, almost always weigh. If the food item label has it listed by unit (like 12 almonds), I might weigh it once or twice, but if it is close enough to the serving size by weight I'll just go by unit count. At home it really is much easier to weigh though.
Do you look at your trends and/or averages?
No. I really should though.
What is the best thing about tracking for you?
Nothing? It does keep me on the straight and narrow, but I really don't like doing it. However, without it I really and truly go off the rails.
What is the thing you are working on at the moment re: tracking?
Serving size. I cook almost all of our meals and I'll input the recipe and serving size into the recipe builder. I haven't yet weighed all my pots and pans to get a net weight of the dinner to determine serving size by grams.
@enlightenme3
Sounds great!
I agree on lettuce & herbs!
Yes, recipes do take more work. I weigh each item before placing into pot. Then pour the cooked food into a large bowl (if the pot is too heavy to weigh) & weigh the bowl+Food. Luckily the bowl goes in the dishwasher
4 -
enlightenme3 wrote: »I'm looking forward to reading everyone's responses to learn strategies. To your questions:
What is the best thing about tracking for you?
Nothing? It does keep me on the straight and narrow, but I really don't like doing it. However, without it I really and truly go off the rails.
Sorry to quote myself, but reading this back I realize I need an attitude change when it comes to tracking.7 -
@MadisonMolly2017 Appreciate the thoughtful and detailed response. I haven't really figured out my path on how to handle this yet, so this helps.
I started during COVID so of course my interactions have been minimal compared to normal. But, I have found mixed reactions - lots of people are just plain supportive, but we are starting to get comments about how "we can't have more to lose" even though both my husband and I are still in the overweight BMI category.
Everyone has an opinion - that's for sure. As I've mentioned before, I am a serial people pleaser and find it hard to advocate for myself, but that has to be part of my life now.7 -
A hours walk followed by 1.5 mile run
All food and drink logged
Under allocated calories4 -
enlightenme3 wrote: »enlightenme3 wrote: »I'm looking forward to reading everyone's responses to learn strategies. To your questions:
What is the best thing about tracking for you?
Nothing? It does keep me on the straight and narrow, but I really don't like doing it. However, without it I really and truly go off the rails.
Sorry to quote myself, but reading this back I realize I need an attitude change when it comes to tracking.
How awesome @enlightenme3 !!
A turning point, no doubt.
I know it was for me.3 -
In the two and a half months I've been doing this I've tracked everything. I'll sometimes go with volume for lower calorie items where I know the overall weight and am taking a portion of it. I typically make up for mis-estimates as I consume the remainder in other meals.
I do eat out, perhaps 4-6 meals per week. I'm finding a lot of places measure their ingredients and can tell you weights and measures. I'm also finding I was generally not the first to ask. At first I felt funny about asking. But then I thought, they're selling meals, if they want to support their customers' health they'll provide the kind of info I want. It's rare I get push-back even when they don't know.
The best thing about tracking is the budget function it provides. It teaches me which foods are efficient in terms of macros and filling me up and which make it harder. After 10 weeks, I now have a lot of tools in the choice toolbox as a result of the budget process. I'm naturally quantitative. Give me some data better yet allow me to find data and I look for ways to make use of it. My kids tease me about it.
During these 10 weeks I've found using MFP plugs for a one pound/week loss rate resulted in an actual loss of over 2 lbs/week. I've let it happen, it's fast but it's been working, without much strength loss as determined in the gym. When maintenance starts I'll make a TDEE adjustment and get a fair amount more calories to eat than plug assumptions would provide. That should make things easier! Without tracking I'd be in the dark on this.
My current project is using the meal function on MFP's tracker to add control and make things easier. Meals I eat regularly, which is most of them, only take a few button presses to enter and I can compare meal calorie and macro totals at the beginning of the day, making them serve as building blocks for my daily plan. Pre-logging and the meal function work really well together.
Thanks Maddie!
@Arc2Arc
You are Most Welcome!
I, too, use the data to craft meals that satisfy me the most, given some constrains, for the fewest calories.
Becomes a cool
Challenge!
Pre-logging is a serious game changer!
Over time, I figured out I only needed to pre-log my final meal of the day. Such a simple thing & you never go over your calorie goal inadvertently again!!
Best to you,
🌸Maddie5 -
ashleycarole86 wrote: »@MadisonMolly2017 Appreciate the thoughtful and detailed response. I haven't really figured out my path on how to handle this yet, so this helps.
I started during COVID so of course my interactions have been minimal compared to normal. But, I have found mixed reactions - lots of people are just plain supportive, but we are starting to get comments about how "we can't have more to lose" even though both my husband and I are still in the overweight BMI category.
Everyone has an opinion - that's for sure. As I've mentioned before, I am a serial people pleaser and find it hard to advocate for myself, but that has to be part of my life now.
@ashleycarole86
I know it’s difficult as a serial people pleaser myself. I have actually grown a lot in this arena in the past 2 years. I as allowing people to be rude or tell me what to do (when I didn’t need it) & then I’d get home & be upset & eat! So now I sit with the feelings & make changes.
I have let a few friendships go as one got mad at me for not setting up a get together but she never had. What?!! That can’t be right.
I walked with a friend a few hours last weekend. Not once did she ask me about me.
What?!!!
I’ve decided to be more selective.
Re: people’s opinions on your & your husband’s weight loss…
I’ve thought a lot about this.
And read posts on MFP in the past.
3 things
1. Most Americans are overweight or obese, so normal weight can feel skinny to them comparatively- not normal, which it is. You could calmly say “I go by my doctor’s recommendation; thank you for your thoughts.” And change the subject.
2. One thought experiment. If you/husband had always been current weight, folks would not be commenting. Sudden thinner is linked in some minds as illness or anorexia which is in the news a lot. Over time as you maintain, they get used to the new you & the fear of illness evaporates. Especially if you wear snugger clothes that fit. We have to be patient with them not your problem!
They WILL adapt.
3. It presents a good opportunity to set some boundaries, which can help in other areas too. It’s honestly none of their business.
I have not had anyone tell me I’m too thin. I have a little “prednisone belly” that keeps my transplant happy. However, I walked past MANY folks who know me well, and they did not recognize me. Maddie, Secret Agent Woman, working incognito!!
Aggressive — Assertive — Passive
It’s a scale. We need to shift to the middle.
1. “Thank you, but I only discuss my weight with my doctor.”
2. Husband says, “Oh come now, Margie, Ashley looks fantastic I’m so so proud of her. Do you know she (fill in your latest fitness accomplishments)!! It’s just terrific.”
You then smile at him with an eye twinkle & give him a huge hug.
3. “I notice my friends commenting on my weight. I’m not sure why? My doctor is thrilled. My bp is normal. I’ve never felt better!”
Full disclosure: I did this two times with our son when he lost weight, (and I regret doing so - gave apologized. He understood.)
I finally looked at the BMI charts, his energy, his frame. Never said a thing again. He’s a runner, rock climber, vegetarian, maintaining~ 10 Years now.
7 -
-
Solid advice @MadisonMolly2017 and plenty for me to think about as I continue forward. Thanks for your willingness to share your detailed experience!
Growth in assertiveness is definitely an area of personal improvement that I'd like to work on. I have already made some progress (for example in the past I would have hid away and pretended I wasn't even trying to lose weight which for someone like me was a passive behavior), but there's much more to tackle!4 -
January 4, 2022
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes, EPIC Endgame
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes
Habits to maintain this month:
Kitchen Closed? Yes
Did you go "nuts" with nuts today? No (3 days -free)
Within Sugar macro today? Yes (1 day)
Pass day 0/3 (this is for accountability to myself and my records).5 -
✅ Exercise: 60+ mins
✅ Calories: under goal
✅ Tracked
Remaining pass days: 3️⃣
I’ve been in maintenance for almost 3 years now, although my actual maintenance range has gradually dropped over that time.
I did a 3 month Bodytrax course in my local gym at that time, and found that my physical age was 8 years younger than my chronological age, and my body composition was good for my age, height, and sex. By the end of the course, I had improved physical age to 11 years younger.
1. I track everything every day, usually 1st thing in the morning so that I get in the basics and balance my macros/micros
2. I weigh/measure everything. Eyeballing isn’t my best skill. I have no forbidden foods, but I have replaced many of my previous foods with healthier versions/smaller portions.
3. The best thing about tracking is the data it provides to help me analyse the ups/downs in weight.
4. I record my weight daily, track trends on Happy Scale app, and have used my own spreadsheet to calculate 10 day averages.
5. Currently, I am tracking my body composition to improve fat/muscle %ages.
I hope this is useful
8 -
I think this is one of the best openers on tracking I have seen in a few months. Thank you Maddie for your excellent and well thought out post.
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? yes - I pretrack
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? yes
Please share your perspective & experience with tracking.
Do you track everything? Every day? Or do you skip higher calorie times?
Everything. I also try when I go off track to really track it but maybe a couple times a year I just cant get there. I accept that will happen and have not let it snowball into multiple days in several years of maintaining.
Do you weigh your food or eyeball it or both?
I still weigh it because some of it is SO deceiving.
Do you look at your trends and/or averages?
Honestly. Not really. I set a limit based on TDEE and try to get close to it.
What is the best thing about tracking for you?
Keeps me in maintenance. And if I want to try out some new things I can fit them in. I also prelog about lunch time so I can get things added up to see what snacks I have in the budget. To me it is like balancing my checkbook.
What is the thing you are working on at the moment re: tracking?
I am pretty happy with where I am in this regards. I will probably track the rest of my life but I somewhat enjoy it.7 -
Do you track everything? Every day? Or do you skip higher calorie times?
I track everything every day (except of course the occasional pass day). A few times I've suspended logging for the day once I'm over calories especially if it was because of a restaurant meal which is always more difficult to track.
Do you weigh your food or eyeball it or both?
I weigh the majority of it. If I'm sautéing a whole container of greens then I just use 1/2 of what's on the package (since I'm splitting it with my partner). Or with my cottage cheese I'll weigh the first three days of 110gms but just assume the last portion that I eat out of the container is also 110gms (in fact when I used to weigh it, it was actually UNDER every single time). For salad greens I tend to eyeball by cups because the calorie amounts are so small. For things like the 1/2tsp of maple syrup I put in my espresso I use the little demitasse spoon which I filled from a 1/2tsp measure one time to confirm the amount. I think for things of very low calories like greens, herbs and such eyeballing is fine. And no I don't weigh my eggs. I just use the size that's in the package but I'm sure every egg is slightly different. Also with weighing I always use grams rather than ounces as it seems to be more accurate at least on my scale. For restaurant food I often guess high and add extra quick calories of 100-200 at the end.
Do you look at your trends and/or averages?
Nope.
What is the best thing about tracking for you?
Keeps me on on the right path.
What is the thing you are working on at the moment re: tracking?
Pre-logging. I didn't used to do that but a few weeks back I got a big surprise on total calories on something I made that I expected to be much lower. So now I try to pre-log to avoid surprises. I'm not 100% on this yet because sometimes I don't decide what we're having until I am ready to cook. Or my plans change because my original idea was more ambitious than I'm up for. The benefit of pre-logging a recipe is that you can modify it if it will end up too caloric.
One additional thing about weighing is it really makes it clear how frequently we are getting shorted with our pre-packaged food.5
