Is there things you don’t track?

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andreadenley
andreadenley Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Are people tracking calories in things like cornflour, spices, onions and peppers?

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  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,625 Member
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    If something has less than 10 calories I don’t track.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 2,926 Member
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    I track onions and peppers, even lettuce, cause I eat a TON of those things.
    I take the same pills daily. I don't track them. I don't track coffee, but I do track whatever I put in it.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,394 Member
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    Yeah, I do track those. Onions in a stew or curry can account for quite a few calories. And don't get me started on a mash pot that is about 1/3 onion. Cornflour also has quite a few calories, depending on how much you use. 10 grams are probably close to 38 calories. And now imaging you're only eating 1200 calories, and you have several things for 30-100 calories throughout the day. It all adds up.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,166 Member
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    andreadenley wrote: »
    Are people tracking calories in things like cornflour, spices, onions and peppers?

    I track onions and peppers for sure. For one, I eat boatloads of veggies. For two, I care about nutrition, and those are nutrient-dense so I want to see their impact in my food log.

    If you mean by cornflour what I mean by cornmeal, I don't understand why a person wouldn't track that: It's not super low calorie.

    I don't track all spices, but I track some because I want to remember that I ate them (for nutritional or recipe-repetition reasons), and I do track ones that I know are relatively more caloric.

    What I don't track: The small wedge of lemon or lime I put in my daily cold matcha, literally one blueberry I snack on while making breakfast, the few drops of bitters I put in sparkling water to add some flavor. I don't track breath mints anymore (did during loss), but I use very few of them.

    Also, now heading into year 8 of maintaining a healthy weight, shockingly I occasionally skip logging whole days if it's something that would be a super-approximate estimate anyway. I tracked every day like it was religion - even if estimating wildly - during a year of loss and the first months of maintenance. The majority of days leads to the majority of my outcome (not that rare unusual day), and I have the bodyweight scale as a backup at this point anyway.
  • ThomasSpychalski
    ThomasSpychalski Posts: 10 Member
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    I've been tracking everything besides the usually one day a week I drink...I count all my food that day but not the alcohol.
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,140 Member
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    I don't track spices unless I want to remember what I put in a recipe.
    I don't track supplements or the extra Benafiber that I put in the water. I track coffee (black with Splenda) because it is in the breakfast meal. I don't' track water.
    I don't track meals when I eat out unless the restaurant has the information in their website. I just make a note in the Comments section of what I ate.
    I usually don't track anything when I am on vacation.
    Sometimes I even forget to log dinner or a full day o:) I have been in maintenance for almost 14 years, so I deserve a break here and there..
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,612 Member
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    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    ThomasSpychalski wrote: »
    I've been tracking everything besides the usually one day a week I drink...I count all my food that day but not the alcohol.
    why not the alcohol? That can be a big calorie factor depending on what and how much you drink.

    True. One night of drinking can completely wipe out any deficit you had that week, and even put you in a surplus. But I think a lot of people don't track alcohol calories specifically because they don't WANT to know how many calories they're taking in from alcohol. I mean, if you don't track it, it doesn't count, right? And you hear on these boards pretty frequently that alcohol doesn't affect weight loss, you can still drink and lose weight. Even though they also say you need to track it, I think a lot of people interpret that to mean they can drink as much as they want.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,117 Member
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    I track everything except spices. (for very low calorie items I might be less strict with the precision though, for example lettuce)
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,340 Member
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    I’m in maintenance so I track vaguely. I sometime miss the odd chocolate or bit of milk in my tea, but I know my daily calories will be under by probably 100-200 each day. If I need to lose weight then I track absolutely everything to the nth detail. As the odd bit of milk, spoon of flour, scraping of butter, can all add up quickly. And those calories can be the difference between me losing slowly or not at all.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,625 Member
    edited March 5
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    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    ThomasSpychalski wrote: »
    I've been tracking everything besides the usually one day a week I drink...I count all my food that day but not the alcohol.
    why not the alcohol? That can be a big calorie factor depending on what and how much you drink.

    Lol, and I've never seen anyone pour 5 oz. glasses

    True. One night of drinking can completely wipe out any deficit you had that week, and even put you in a surplus. But I think a lot of people don't track alcohol calories specifically because they don't WANT to know how many calories they're taking in from alcohol. I mean, if you don't track it, it doesn't count, right? And you hear on these boards pretty frequently that alcohol doesn't affect weight loss, you can still drink and lose weight. Even though they also say you need to track it, I think a lot of people interpret that to mean they can drink as much as they want.

    2 glasses of wine a night equates to around a half pound of calories per week.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,166 Member
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    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    ThomasSpychalski wrote: »
    I've been tracking everything besides the usually one day a week I drink...I count all my food that day but not the alcohol.
    why not the alcohol? That can be a big calorie factor depending on what and how much you drink.

    Lol, and I've never seen anyone pour 5 oz. glasses

    True. One night of drinking can completely wipe out any deficit you had that week, and even put you in a surplus. But I think a lot of people don't track alcohol calories specifically because they don't WANT to know how many calories they're taking in from alcohol. I mean, if you don't track it, it doesn't count, right? And you hear on these boards pretty frequently that alcohol doesn't affect weight loss, you can still drink and lose weight. Even though they also say you need to track it, I think a lot of people interpret that to mean they can drink as much as they want.

    2 glasses of wine a night equates to around a half pound of calories per week.

    Yup. And that's a 5-ounce pour. Does anyone other than calorie counters pour a mere 5 ounces, when many wine glasses these days are 14+ ounces big? :D
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,625 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    ThomasSpychalski wrote: »
    I've been tracking everything besides the usually one day a week I drink...I count all my food that day but not the alcohol.
    why not the alcohol? That can be a big calorie factor depending on what and how much you drink.

    Lol, and I've never seen anyone pour 5 oz. glasses

    True. One night of drinking can completely wipe out any deficit you had that week, and even put you in a surplus. But I think a lot of people don't track alcohol calories specifically because they don't WANT to know how many calories they're taking in from alcohol. I mean, if you don't track it, it doesn't count, right? And you hear on these boards pretty frequently that alcohol doesn't affect weight loss, you can still drink and lose weight. Even though they also say you need to track it, I think a lot of people interpret that to mean they can drink as much as they want.

    2 glasses of wine a night equates to around a half pound of calories per week.

    Yup. And that's a 5-ounce pour. Does anyone other than calorie counters pour a mere 5 ounces, when many wine glasses these days are 14+ ounces big? :D
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  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 13,239 Member
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    I don't track water.

    I don't log spices or herbs except things like garlic since I use a LOT of garlic. I log fresh hot chiles, but I don't log dried chile powder. I don't log added salt.

    I log pretty much everything else, and I weigh almost all of it.

    If I remake a recipe that is already in "My recipes," I just log it from the recipe even if this batch is slightly different from the last one. It makes my life easier.

    I often also have a "correction factor" logged in of just some "quick add" calories to account for things I might miss or to get me into a deficit for a while since I'm otherwise in maintenance.

    I got tired of weighing pitted avocados and then weighing just the skin to get the amount I actually eat. I often just use an estimate that fits close to most of the avocados I buy the same size.

    I log my salad greens, but I don't weigh them. The entry I use is in cups, and I just guess. It lets me know I had a GIANT bowl of mixed greens. I weigh everything else that goes in, except I just count three anchovies if I tear three of 'em up. Too messy to weigh.
  • VegjoyP
    VegjoyP Posts: 2,714 Member
    edited March 8
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    I track my liquid and powfered supplements,, rebiotic fiber, condiments and all veggies. The only thing I dint is my sugar free gum. If I have sugar free cough drops or mints I generally don't track it either. Or 5 calories electrolyte water
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,082 Member
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    I try to track everything that has "countable" value. Thus while added herbs and spices seasoning or flavoring a meal do add something, I usually don't bother. But the herbs that make up a chimichurri ARE the food, so I count their contribution, although their cals are usually overwhelmed by the oil. Parsley in a tabbouleh, sure. And yes, onions and garlic always get counted, as well as such veg as carrots, avocados, potatoes, etc. which have more impact than perhaps a radish. I have made up a composite vegetable "recipe item" of my "usual" chopped veg assortment for salad, in an approximate mix ratio, and just say a portion of that, rather than logging miniscule amounts of the actual stuff. I don't think the calorie counts are that inherently precise anyway, some even say they're useless, but I use them as a general guardrail for daily eating. I drink my coffee black, 90% of the time, so I usually don't log that, but I recently learned that coffee apparently has soluble fiber in it, so maybe I should, LOL (cf Youtube video from "Zoe" on coffee). I have a pile of recipes built in MFP, so I don't need to do all the measuring donkey work each time I need to log a meal.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    ThomasSpychalski wrote: »
    I've been tracking everything besides the usually one day a week I drink...I count all my food that day but not the alcohol.
    why not the alcohol? That can be a big calorie factor depending on what and how much you drink.

    Lol, and I've never seen anyone pour 5 oz. glasses

    True. One night of drinking can completely wipe out any deficit you had that week, and even put you in a surplus. But I think a lot of people don't track alcohol calories specifically because they don't WANT to know how many calories they're taking in from alcohol. I mean, if you don't track it, it doesn't count, right? And you hear on these boards pretty frequently that alcohol doesn't affect weight loss, you can still drink and lose weight. Even though they also say you need to track it, I think a lot of people interpret that to mean they can drink as much as they want.

    2 glasses of wine a night equates to around a half pound of calories per week.

    Yup. And that's a 5-ounce pour. Does anyone other than calorie counters pour a mere 5 ounces, when many wine glasses these days are 14+ ounces big? :D

    Yup. And that was how I gained all my weight back and then some during the pandemic. Turned out I was really good at mixology and then at drinking wine. And I wasn't logging the calories OR measuring it at first (OK, so for a while) for stupid reasons best summed up as "meh, whatever, it all works out".

    Protip: It did not balance with my decreased workouts at all. No, no it did not.

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