Do you intentionally not record certain meals in your nutrition diaries? Why?
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cinalicikler
Posts: 30 Member
Hello everyone 
Do you like me not record any meals such as cheat meals in your macros? Would you like to explain why?
Do you like me not record any meals such as cheat meals in your macros? Would you like to explain why?
Do you intentionally not record certain meals in your nutrition diaries? Why? 38 votes
Yes, for sure
28%
11 votes
No, never
60%
23 votes
Other (Please explain in your comments)
10%
4 votes
0
Replies
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When I was losing weight, and in the first months of maintaining loss, I logged every day like it was religion, even if I had to estimate. That helped me understand my personal calorie needs (which turned out to be surprisingly different from what MFP and most other calculators estimate - that's rare, but it can happen, and getting a general idea of that early in loss is what made me be meticulous about logging until I was confident that I knew what I needed to know.)
I encourage people to log every day during weight loss, at least to start, even if the day didn't play out as they'd wish. The information and self-knowledge gained from logging is really valuable, IMO.
Now (year 7 of maintaining a healthy weight), I don't log every day. I still log most days. Some days, I don't. Mostly that's if the day was extra busy, or I ate a lot of unusual hard-to-estimate things so I'd be estimating pretty wildly, or things like that. I've gained the confidence that as long as the majority of my days fall where I need them to be, and I keep an eye on the scale and react if weight creeps upward for real, everything will be fine. It's true that the days I don't log tend to be higher-calorie days sometimes, because things like restaurants, potlucks, parties, etc., are the hard to estimate things.
I don't believe in cheat days/meals. To me, they're kind of like Santa Claus, a sweet and entertaining myth. My body counts them. That said, there are days when I eat over my calorie goal, occasional days when I eat 2 or 3 times my calorie goal, pretty rare days when my nutrition flies completely out the window in favor of beer and fried foods, etc. Those, in my view aren't cheating anything: They're decisions, I'm allowed to make them, and I need to consider the results that will flow from those decisions. It's not some epic battle of good and evil, it's not like I'm getting away with something . . . it's just food, choices, results.
For me, thinking of eating decisions as "being good" or "cheating" is unnecessary drama, and potentially as slippery slope toward disordered thinking about food and eating. That may not be true for others, and that's fine. Everyone's different, and that's one of the things that makes life interesting.
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Almost word-for-word what @AnnPT77 said.
I log everything right now since I’m aiming to lose. I don’t call anything a cheat, it’s just life. (One day around Christmas I logged a 3500-calorie day that included a ridiculous amount of wine and ice cream. Highly unusual for me, but there it is!)
I also estimate when I can’t use my food scale. And I do plan ahead when I know I’ll be doing it. For example, starting tomorrow I’ll be spending 3 full days with my extended family. We like delicious food. My dad makes really good martinis. I will be mindful, but not strict. And I’ll still log. For the past few days, I’ve been getting as close as I can to 1200 calories to prepare.3 -
@AnnPT77 thank you for your detailed descriptions
I believe there is much to learn from your experience.
@Rockmama1111 thank you for your kind additions
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Not logging a "cheat meal" doesn't mean it didn't happen. Take responsibility for what you eat and be accountable for it. If you're trying to lose weight, MFP is only going to work if you use the tools it gives you. You can't half-*kitten* it and expect it to work.
Once you've done the work and achieved your goal (which you can and will if you use the tools!), then you can be more flexible with how precise you need to be.
I hit my goal last year and quit weighing and logging as often because I had the experience and knowledge of knowing what foods I could eat to feel good, appropriate portion sizes, and how my new clothes should fit. After the holidays, I started logging and weighing daily again to make sure my extra treats I allowed myself wouldn't turn into extra pounds that never came off again.
Are you going to fail if you don't log every single calorie and weigh every single day? No. But it can make it harder to achieve your goal and take a lot longer.5 -
I always log.
I also use estimates sometimes, like if I grab something from a hot bar. I might even just use the entry in the database for "hot food bar."
I do use my scale most of the time. It helps me calibrate my eyeball so my estimates away from home are better. Ordering in an independent restaurant can be a challenge. I do the best I can, and I always log it. There is no "cheat." It's food. It has calories. I eat calories. I burn calories.
When I go on a multi-day raft trip, I use a much more coarse estimation. I wrote up a "recipe" called "Rafter Rations." It is 3300 calories. I made this "recipe" to include 100 grams of protein (400 calories), 100 grams of fat (900 calories), and 500 grams of carbs (2000 calories). My normal day with average activity and without much intentional exercise is closer to 2000 calories total; when I'm on a raft trip, I burn a lot. No telling what I eat; this is a very rough estimate. For a multi-day diving trip, my SCUBA diver rations recipe is 4490 calories. I tend to not gain or lose on these trips. Gross estimates, but they get logged.
It's just food. Enjoy it. Log it.
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I log everything. "Cheat" isn't a word I use. Food is food. Some days I'm over on my calories or fats or carbs but it still gets logged.
I have many years of logging on an Excel sheet. I like the data and the trends I can spot.
Being over my calories by 500-1500 in a day is not unusual. It happens on the average of once a week. I'm still at my goal weight 15 years after losing 80 pounds.4 -
You're only cheating yourself if you don't log it.
An estimate is better than nothing.
I honestly can't understand why someone wouldn't, and how that would be productive if you're serious about reaching your goals.
Maybe some people are worried about what their "friends" will think? I always kept my diary private.7 -
I plead guilty to that, to an extent. When there is no reasonable way to estimate what the intake was, I make an entry with "unknown" or I enter a large round number of 3000 kcal or so and enter "estimate". So, I can remind myself that something went wrong and I move on from there. I avoid it as much as I can, because a mistake can easily lead to a period of 2 weeks or longer before I get back to the expected curve. In the long run, it makes no meaningful difference, so I don't fret about it.1
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I rarely skip recording my calories because i must know the damage to deter me for “next time”.1
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If I'm logging, I don't see any point to only log the calories I like. No one is grading my diary. Even if I don't write it down, the calories still affect my body, so why wouldn't I want a complete picture of my eating, eating patterns, etc.
What I do find helpful is taking the long view. It takes 3500 calories above maintenance to gain a pound of fat. For me, that would be consuming 5700 calories. Given how high that threshold really is, a "cheat meal" (as you call it) probably delays my fat loss by a matter of hours in the grand scheme of things. If these overages are pretty regular, then something needs to be adjusted to address that. However, for the odd high calorie day, it's just a blip on the radar.3 -
That is what I am doing, but my view is that I therefore don't enter some calories, because I don't know them. I just enter "unknown" or an unlikely high number. In both cases, the meal is logged, just not with the proper calories, because that is what "unknown" means ^_^SuzySunshine99 wrote: »You're only cheating yourself if you don't log it.
An estimate is better than nothing.
I honestly can't understand why someone wouldn't, and how that would be productive if you're serious about reaching your goals.
That would be a terrible idea indeed. My food log is about my fat loss, no one else's. I don't really use MFP for tracking intake, I use a spreadsheet, but I have recently started to input again and opened my diary to "friends", because what I did and do works, and while I would like to discourage people from doing what I do, it does show that fat loss is possibly for everyone, even people that happen to be outliers, so I see it as an encouragement for others.Maybe some people are worried about what their "friends" will think? I always kept my diary private.0 -
BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »I plead guilty to that, to an extent. When there is no reasonable way to estimate what the intake was, I make an entry with "unknown" or I enter a large round number of 3000 kcal or so and enter "estimate". So, I can remind myself that something went wrong and I move on from there. I avoid it as much as I can, because a mistake can easily lead to a period of 2 weeks or longer before I get back to the expected curve. In the long run, it makes no meaningful difference, so I don't fret about it.
Then you are, in fact, logging! You aren't "not recording certain meals" as the OP asked. You just are making a guess because that's the best you can do. It's not a "secret" cheat meal. You eat it, and you log it. Are you precise and/or accurate? Likely not. But it helps maintain the habit, and lets you know that you do log all you eat, estimate or not.
In case anyone wasn't aware, there are entries in the food database called "adjustment." You can use these if for some reason you want to add a few calories because you're not sure how to log what you ate or, for example, the scale has been up for two weeks during maintenance, you want to put in a small daily deficit but don't want to change your regular daily target. It's an easy way to log some extra calories. If you have "friends" looking at your diary and are worried they'll judge you because your "cheat" meal was a box of mallomars and a quart of coca cola, just do an "adjustment" of 1363 calories. Oh. By the way, don't actually do that. Nothing wrong with mallomars if you like them, but don't eat the whole box like my dad says he used to do as a kid in the '50s.0 -
The only foods I don't log are ones with zero or negligible calories (e.g. coffee, though I do log any add-ins.)
Sometimes I get into a funk when I don't, or if I'm sick, but my goal is to log everything, all the time, even if I have to guess a little bit. Even with estimations, when I'm honest and consistent, I'm much more likely to stay on target than if I try to pretend I don't have to.0 -
BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »I plead guilty to that, to an extent. When there is no reasonable way to estimate what the intake was, I make an entry with "unknown" or I enter a large round number of 3000 kcal or so and enter "estimate". So, I can remind myself that something went wrong and I move on from there. I avoid it as much as I can, because a mistake can easily lead to a period of 2 weeks or longer before I get back to the expected curve. In the long run, it makes no meaningful difference, so I don't fret about it.
Then you are, in fact, logging! You aren't "not recording certain meals" as the OP asked. You just are making a guess because that's the best you can do. It's not a "secret" cheat meal. You eat it, and you log it. Are you precise and/or accurate? Likely not. But it helps maintain the habit, and lets you know that you do log all you eat, estimate or not.
In case anyone wasn't aware, there are entries in the food database called "adjustment." You can use these if for some reason you want to add a few calories because you're not sure how to log what you ate or, for example, the scale has been up for two weeks during maintenance, you want to put in a small daily deficit but don't want to change your regular daily target. It's an easy way to log some extra calories. If you have "friends" looking at your diary and are worried they'll judge you because your "cheat" meal was a box of mallomars and a quart of coca cola, just do an "adjustment" of 1363 calories. Oh. By the way, don't actually do that. Nothing wrong with mallomars if you like them, but don't eat the whole box like my dad says he used to do as a kid in the '50s.
That is a completely valid argument. It is why I said "to an extent" because it makes me uneasy to do what I do, but then, when the data is not available, it just isn't. I do the same in my snake research. I always record a snake's species and length, but when it is not possible, I still record whatever I can and put "unknown" in the other fields. My reasoning is that it is better to know something than nothing and also to remember why this entry has been made. At the very least it makes it possible to distinguish between inadvertent errors and known problems.
As for eating the whole box: I plead guilty. I eat the whole box, except for the box itself ^_^ but it is so rare that it doesn't matter. In the past few months, I have had a single bag of Werther's Original chewy caramels, 220 kcal, and I still have three boxes of "Smart Bran". I very rarely eat them, but when I do, I do empty the box. 780 kcal for a 300 g box more than half (65%) of which are fibre. It is a trigger food for me, I love it to death. It is the only "cookie" (sort-of) I still eat, but only maybe 2 or 3 times a year. Unfortunately for me, fibre gives me zero satiety, but since I eat this junk so rarely, who cares really?
As for people judging me, that has zero influence. I learned decades ago that such judgments have no influence on my biology <giggle>. The only thing I am a bit worried about is that I may be giving some people an idea to do the wrong thing. My case is somewhat unusual, and the last thing I want is that someone follows my example. On the other hand, what I do works, despite my difficult situation.0 -
BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »As for eating the whole box: I plead guilty. I eat the whole box, except for the box itself ^_^ but it is so rare that it doesn't matter. In the past few months, I have had a single bag of Werther's Original chewy caramels, 220 kcal, and I still have three boxes of "Smart Bran". I very rarely eat them, but when I do, I do empty the box. 780 kcal for a 300 g box more than half (65%) of which are fibre. It is a trigger food for me, I love it to death. It is the only "cookie" (sort-of) I still eat, but only maybe 2 or 3 times a year. Unfortunately for me, fibre gives me zero satiety, but since I eat this junk so rarely, who cares really?
Potato chips and other crispy salty things are my kryptonite. I don't have a sweet tooth as much as a snack tooth. I am actually pretty good at walking by all the chips in the store, looking at them, and even looking at the label to see what a serving will "cost" to my daily budget and then putting the bags back on the shelf and moving on. If they don't come home with me, I won't eat them. I feel god about that.
Sometimes I do bring home a bag. If I bring them home, they don't stand a chance. They usually won't make it until the next sunrise. I even weigh out 28 grams knowing that I plan to eat a second serving. After that, I can reseal the bag with my vacuum sealer. Trouble is, I actually know how to open a bag. It's rare, but getting more frequent, that I can stop after two servings. I log them even when I eat the entire five-serving bag. I have been known to log some servings "tomorrow," but my body doesn't know the difference if I eat them at 21:00 or 11:00 the next day. And you know what? It is entirely possible that logging them sticks in my brain and makes me better to be reasonable with consuming just two servings next time. Something changed because I've been able to do that with the last two bags of snacks I brought home.
Also, as you say, even if I do eat the whole bag, it's "only" 750 calories. So I almost certainly will end the day over my budget. If I do that every week (and it's nowhere near that frequent), it averages "only" 110 calories per day. If I am 110 calories over budget every day, that's a pound of gain in a month. If I shave off calories elsewhere, I can still go totally nuts (nuts, chips, whatever) and still end up without much or any damage. Oh. Yeah... I do always log it.
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When I was actively losing weight - if I had a meal or a day (event or something) that I knew would blow my calorie goal out of the water, then I would likely not log it. I felt at the time that seeing those red numbers would have a negative impact on my mentality and make it harder for me just to get back on track the next day so....I didn't do that to myself.2
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Salty chips are also a big problem for me. Salted (and unsalted) nuts are even worse. 1.2 kg jar is cleaned out in an hour or so, and then I move on to other foods because I can feel uncomfortably full on them but still be ravenously hungry. Slightly better are pork scratchings, but not by much: two bags (about 150 g total) give me satiation, but not satiety, and after eating them, I start devouring everything in sight.Potato chips and other crispy salty things are my kryptonite. I don't have a sweet tooth as much as a snack tooth. I am actually pretty good at walking by all the chips in the store, looking at them, and even looking at the label to see what a serving will "cost" to my daily budget and then putting the bags back on the shelf and moving on. If they don't come home with me, I won't eat them. I feel god about that.
Sometimes I do bring home a bag. If I bring them home, they don't stand a chance. They usually won't make it until the next sunrise. I even weigh out 28 grams knowing that I plan to eat a second serving. After that, I can reseal the bag with my vacuum sealer. Trouble is, I actually know how to open a bag. It's rare, but getting more frequent, that I can stop after two servings. I log them even when I eat the entire five-serving bag. I have been known to log some servings "tomorrow," but my body doesn't know the difference if I eat them at 21:00 or 11:00 the next day. And you know what? It is entirely possible that logging them sticks in my brain and makes me better to be reasonable with consuming just two servings next time. Something changed because I've been able to do that with the last two bags of snacks I brought home.
Also, as you say, even if I do eat the whole bag, it's "only" 750 calories. So I almost certainly will end the day over my budget. If I do that every week (and it's nowhere near that frequent), it averages "only" 110 calories per day. If I am 110 calories over budget every day, that's a pound of gain in a month. If I shave off calories elsewhere, I can still go totally nuts (nuts, chips, whatever) and still end up without much or any damage. Oh. Yeah... I do always log it.
Cheese is slightly different. I had similar problems as with pork scratchings, but I found out in the beginning of 2022 that I really can get "full and satisfied" on it and it is the only food that gives me that feeling. It feels like absolute heaven and I lose total interest in food for about 3 hours, 4 if I am lucky, but I need about 850 g of medium-hard cheese (Gouda, cheddar...) to get to that point (2 blocks of 400 g and a tad more). That is about 3400 kcal, and almost exactly 3 times what my energy intake should be not to gain weight. When I found it out, I decided to ban cheese, nuts, pork scratchings, chips outright. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made: I have no more stress around food. It gave me something that was unknown to me: food serenity.
Since then, my diet has been really smooth sailing. The hunger remains but it is tolerable and I have no more pain, nausea and vomiting when I am hungry. In all, it is like a "new me".
So now, I eat a box of Smart Bran when I want one, which is almost never. I log it, and move on, and because about 65% of the calories are from fibre, the actual ususable energy content is significantly lower than the nominal 780 kcal. As a result, I don't even see an effect on my scale (despite the claim that fibre absorbs lots of water).
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Not logging weekends or cheats is one of the reasons for the “Im in a deficit but am not losing” posts.
Like if I don’t record it, it didn’t happen mentality12 -
I find soon as you start not logging everything. That when you start to lie to yourself. That’s when accountability is lost. It’s important to be honest with yourself.
Their few things I do that just sorts that ohh they got a take away I fancy that I can’t have that! Yes you can just own your choice. Tonight I had a chicken Caesar salad. Yes I went lightly over todays fat carbs protein but still under kcals for the day. So like today I’ll plan do extra on top of my 20min exercises per day. But tomorrow is a new day.1 -
This is not a school assignment: I'm not receiving a grade from somebody else.
This is not choosing to file taxes or not: I'm not going to get arrested for eating an "unregistered cookie."
I am recording my food intake for my own benefit. If somebody wants to view my diary and judge me, praising or judging, it doesn't change my life any. (Note that if I were under a doctor's care, then this argument goes away.) I log for several reasons:
1. Maintain variety in meal prep...if I see I had the same dinner last week, I'm more inclined to plan something else
2. Ensuring I get sufficient protein on the day (essential for weightlifters)
3. I'm a math geek, I like to see numbers
4. Make sure I'm at least CLOSE to desired daily calories
...and so on. I am rather lax about recording minor things like how much soy sauce I add or if I really had one cup or a cup and a quarter of lettuce, stuff which is low-calorie-density, though high-density stuff like sodas, chocolate, cheese or the like I do proper diligence.2
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