Do you intentionally not record certain meals in your nutrition diaries? Why?

Hello everyone :blush:
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
«13

Replies

  • Rockmama1111
    Rockmama1111 Posts: 262 Member
    edited January 2023
    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.
  • cinalicikler
    cinalicikler Posts: 30 Member
    @AnnPT77 thank you for your detailed descriptions :smile: I believe there is much to learn from your experience.
    @Rockmama1111 thank you for your kind additions :smile:

  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,260 Member
    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.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,417 Member
    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.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    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.
  • mc00cali
    mc00cali Posts: 8 Member
    I rarely skip recording my calories because i must know the damage to deter me for “next time”.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,353 Member
    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.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited January 2023
    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 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 ^_^
    Maybe some people are worried about what their "friends" will think? I always kept my diary private.
    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.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,260 Member
    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.
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,155 Member
    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.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    mtaratoot 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.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,260 Member
    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.


  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 920 Member
    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.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited January 2023
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    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.
    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.

    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).

  • Ebonie_owlwehn
    Ebonie_owlwehn Posts: 32 Member
    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.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 11,630 Member
    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.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,282 Member
    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.

    I dont quite agree with the You must log everything mindset - I certainly didnt log next to nothing things llike diet soda or tomatoes.

    and there are times we all have to estimate - but I would estimate rather than not log it at all, which was OP's question.


    I guess it is a bit like a finance budget - dont bother recording tiny money items and estimate the cost of others - but missing out on big expenses altogether won't work, they still affected your budget whether you counted them or not



  • Sinisterbarbie1
    Sinisterbarbie1 Posts: 711 Member
    edited January 2023
    I log everything as best as I can, as regularly as possible except for true 0 cal items like unsweetened tea. I log near 0 items because a bunch of items at 5-10 cal a piece adds up over time, (or as the old joke goes, broken cookie parts which we all know have no calories, add up).

    I estimate high when eating out or otherwise not in control of my calories, and I log especially on days when I think I have gone over. It is actually almost always way closer to my budget than I expected.

    I used to be meticulous about logging everything in the right meal category, but since my diary is private I have become lazy and now often just log once or twice a day, putting things in whichever category happens to be open, So if you were to open my breakfast you would see I consumed three full meals today, complete with dessert and mocktails for breakfast and then apparently fasted the rest of the day. Boy, is she having a rough time with her resolutions you would think to yourself. . .
  • amdaless
    amdaless Posts: 12 Member
    I feel bad that I ate too much, or get lazy and don't feel like tracking everything. However reading all of your comments are helpful and educational. Thanks for the info.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,260 Member
    @amdaless

    Let the feeling bad part wash off like water off a duck's back. Quack! It won't help. Just try to learn from it. Of course if you don't log, you aren't sure you ate "too much," but if it's a whole lot maybe you do.

    Lazy and don't feel like tracking can be resolved by making it a habit. When I had to get to my office at 07:00, I often felt lazy and didn't want to go. I went. If I didn't there were consequences. Like they'd tell me not to bother to come in anymore, and too bad I had been accustomed to getting those monthly checks.

    If you don't feel like inputting things into the computer or the app right away, carry a scrap of paper and pen or pencil. I keep a pocket note-pad with me almost all the time so I can make notes of anything or make a shopping list or... Then I can put things in MFP later. I can't count the times I have given someone a page from my notebook because I always have some paper.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,282 Member
    log everything as best as I can, as regularly as possible except for true 0 cal items like unsweetened tea. I log near 0 items because a bunch of items at 5-10 cal a piece adds up over time, (or as the old joke goes, broken cookie parts which we all know have no calories, add up).

    I guess it is up to everyone where they draw the line and sure, multiple small things could add up - but if I had a salad sandwich for lunch, for example, I would log the bread and the cheese and not bother about the tomato, lettuce, beetroot etc
    Theoretically if I did that dozens of times per day it could add up - but IRL, I know I'm eating 1 sandwich for lunch and not hundreds of hidden tomato and lettuce calories anywhere else.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    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.

    Depending on one's mindset, I agree with the first bolded.

    Re: the second bolded - since you were under your calories, I don't understand the reason behind extra exercise. As long as you are under for calories, you can have any macro distribution you want and still lose weight.

    Also, if you are over on fat, carbs, AND protein but under on calories, unless you are talking about just a few grams and thus a rounding issue, there must be an error in one or more of your entries.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    I may have to estimate sometimes, or take my best guess on what database entry most likely is similar to something I ate away from home, but I don't intentionally not log a meal. I log something, and I'm fairly certain that it's always closer to reality than not logging anything.
  • amdaless
    amdaless Posts: 12 Member
    Since reading everyone's input, I am trying to log everything even if I go over and know bad. Hopefully, I'll look at that and be more motivated to better the next day. So far this is not the case, but it's only been a few days. The other thing, I am trying not to beat myself up or give up entirely just because I am less then successful on any given day. Plus some of my daily goals I am achieving. So each little goal will hopefully also encourage me to do better with the bigger goals. :blush:
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited January 2023
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    As long as you are under for calories, you can have any macro distribution you want and still lose weight.
    It is astonishing how many people don't know that, or claim they don't. I have even talked to dietitians who claim that calories are rubbish and there are at least two professors on the Internet who claim this as well. Needless to say, this doesn't help to improve their reputation.
    That said, we should never lose sight of the fact that total calories on a nutrition facts label, *should* almost always be different from the sum of the calories of the different macronutrients. The main reason for this is that "total calories" is or should be the value as measured in a bomb calorimeter, while the calorie values for the intdividual macronutrients are Atwater values and those are lower than the bomb calorimeter values because the Atwater values are estimates based on human digestion which are essentially the differences between the total bomb calorimeter energy in the food and the total bomb calorimeter energy remaining in the product that comes out at the other end of the tube. It is very easy to make that mistake, and I plead guilty myself to almost never mentioning that difference, but then, when I do mention it I am often called a pedant, so it is a bit of damned if you do and damned if you don't.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,260 Member
    amdaless wrote: »
    Since reading everyone's input, I am trying to log everything even if I go over and know bad. Hopefully, I'll look at that and be more motivated to better the next day. So far this is not the case, but it's only been a few days. The other thing, I am trying not to beat myself up or give up entirely just because I am less then successful on any given day. Plus some of my daily goals I am achieving. So each little goal will hopefully also encourage me to do better with the bigger goals. :blush:

    If you are a human, and I presume you are, you WILL have days when things go sideways. It's probably best to accept that so that they don't cause unnecessary concern. Even if logging your days when you don't end up doing what you "should" do doesn't make you more motivated in coming days, just making logging a habit and observing what you eat, what you log, and how your body responds will give you greater knowledge. That will let you make logical decisions and set appropriate goals as you progress.

    Definitely don't beat yourself up. That's counter productive. Do let yourself be honest with yourself. That's all it is. It's about building and reinforcing habits; it's not about motivation. Unfortunately, motivation is overrated.

    You get a new reset every day. You get to build habits and choose how you will respond to daily stresses. You even can make changes within ONE day. Sometimes that's harder. It is for me. For me it can be potato chips. For others it's Oreos. An example would be you react poorly to a stress and open up a package of Oreos and eat... more than you "should." Maybe even half a stack (quarter of the box). Maybe you mindlessly eat the other half of the stack. You could just say, "Aw screw it" and finish the whole package. The really hard part is to put the other half of the package back in the pantry, say to yourself, "Well, that was silly; I probably shouldn't have eaten that," and then maybe think about why you did. If this gets you insights, you may be more likely to avoid it in the future. It's not motivation, it's habit.