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MyFitnessPal Community

Portions and nutritional value is hard work

maryjay52

I am really trying hard to make sure I follow the rules of portions and nutritional value of the food I am eating now. It is important for me to really pay attention to cholesterol and fats as well. I also am finding that it takes up a part of my day to pay attention to detail like this. Meat especially makes me realize how much of it I ate thinking I was eating an 'ok' amount when I was really eating enough for three meals. I am hoping that eventually I can see what I am putting on my plate and just know that it is beyond the typical portion size. Does anyone else deal with this type of thing? I got myself a food scale so going to go pick it up .

Replies

AnnPT77

Sort of?

I can't say I thought it was really super hard work, but it was work . . . at first. It took time and attention, yes. I thought of that as an investment in better health, generally. Then, over time, it took less time and attention, as my knowledge and skills developed. Now it's just habit, mostly - quite easy, not very time-consuming.

A few things, which may or may not apply in your case, but that I thought of as mattering for me in similar circumstances when I read your post.

Being exactly exact on calories and every nutrient every single day is not important. Being pretty close on average over a few days is fine. I'm not talking big giant swings between typical routine days, but - for example - a few extra grams of protein one day, a few under goal the next, no big deal. Nearly no protein or fats or fiber two or three days a week, big overdo on other days to "make up for it"? Probably not ideal.
Routine habits are a power tool for weight management. What I do day-in, day-out on repeat: That's the main focus. That one unusual day when I ate too much cake at a birthday party, or work out for 5 hours: That's a drop in the ocean. The ocean is the typical days I repeat over and over, eating mostly healthy foods at mostly reasonable calorie levels, getting some fun exercise when I can fit it in. Focus on the daily habits. That will have the biggest payoff, IMO.
In that context, on the eating side of things, I found it helpful to work out some routine eating patterns eating foods I enjoy that add up to reasonable calories and reasonable overall nutrition. Once those patterns are identified and practiced, they can happen almost on autopilot without daily micromanaging. I'm not saying I rigidly eat the same things every day. I'm saying I have a couple of breakfasts I like (complexity in the morning doesn't suit me), quite a few lunches that fit a good overall result, and quite a few types of dinners that fit in with that. There's a little bit of "higher calorie extra yummy dinner tonight, so lighter lunch today" kind of thing in there, but it doesn't take micro-managing now. I also have some snacks I can turn to if appetite spikes, things that either are low in calories but filling (big pile of raw veggies, say) or that are higher in calories but making a reasonable contribution to overall nutrition (maybe an apple with peanut butter on it)

I also didn't try to fix everything all at once. First priority for me was figuring out how to stay mostly full and happy on reasonable calories, eating foods I like. Next, I looked at the most important nutrition calories, for me that's protein and fats; I tried to adjust my eating patterns so those fell into place. After that, I started paying more attention to other nutrients, based on looking at my averages over several weeks and deciding where improvements were most important.

The underlying point is that unless medically diagnosed with some deficiency or relevant health condition, we can take a period of time to dial in better overall habits. We don't become instantly malnourished as long as our starting eating patterns are basically reasonable. Even with a deficiency or health condition, it can make sense to start, and make the necessary changes to that the first and most important priority. If weight loss is key, that's directly about the calorie level, with nutrition only indirectly affecting weight loss through appetite or energy level impact of nutrition.

One thing I'd say about your post: Protein above goal is usually OK, as long as a person doesn't have a relevant health condition, and as long as not eating so much protein that one can't get all the other necessary nutrition without going over calorie goal. Meats do tend to have more fats so higher calories, but there are protein sources with less fat, too.

Food scale can be helpful, yes. Personally, I don't worry too much about typical or package-listed portion sizes. I focus on calories and overall nutrition. If it makes me happy to reach the right calories/nutrition eating an extra-giant portion of some things compared to typical portions, and less of other things compared to typical, I'm fine with that. YMMV.

For sure, don't make this process any harder than it needs to be to reach your goals. It can be tempting and easy to over-complicate, but that sometimes hinders long-term outcomes.

Best wishes!

maryjay52

thanks for your two cents. I agree on not trying to deal with too much specifics but for me I need a visual of what 3 oz of something looks like. then I can swing it on my own after that. for fruits and vegetables most of that doesnt matter .. my cholesterol has been reported as high recently and while my bp is controlled through medication , i know it can be controlled naturally by exercise and diet. I decided to give it a whirl and see if i can do a difference and am giving myself 6 months to do that . lowering my cholesterol is important for me..it's not really high but it is higher than the specifications of a normal level. I have a few vacations and events i am going to and so i am trying really hard to prepare myself for it . if i am going to enjoy some of the foods at them i would like to do that with moderation and make sure i ramp up some activity beforehand . everything i am doing now is to get to the point where you are!

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48612078#Comment_48612078

FWIW, my cholesterol used to be routinely high before weight loss, triglycerides and blood pressure high, too. Even during the years when I exercised a lot and pretty intensely, they stayed high.

It won't work this way for the small - estimated less than 1/2 percent - of people who have familial hypercholesterolemia because of their genetics, but weight loss brought my cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure solidly into the normal range. IMU there can be some other people who are "responders" to dietary cholesterol whose blood levels fluctuate more with cholesterol intake, maybe also because of genetics.

Changes in what I ate before weight loss didn't cause much improvement, but that may be in part because my diet in those overweight days was mostly nutritionally reasonable: I just ate too much.

Staying at a healthy weight with reasonable nutrition/exercise has kept all those health markers in the normal range, without medications, for almost a decade since.

Mainstream nutritional advice is that saturated fat intake matters, but that in the non-genetic cases, dietary cholesterol doesn't have a large effect on blood cholesterol levels. High carbohydrate intake can affect blood cholesterol, perhaps especially refined carbs and sugar; but so can very low carb intake in lean people - there's some individual variation there, too.