Help! Opinions needed regarding diaries...

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MissD89
MissD89 Posts: 102
in Food and Nutrition
I have a question if you all don't mind answering... What are you guys monitoring? Like, in your food diaries.. Calories, Carbs, Fats, Protein, Sodium, Sugar, Fiber...? and.. Why? Since there's only a certain amount of things we can monitor at a glance, I'd like to know opinions on which is most important to keep track of and why.

Thank you!

Replies

  • daryna13
    daryna13 Posts: 30
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    Hmm, I don't monitor my fat as I usually have a low-fat diet which never goes over (huge carb/sugar junkie here). What I do monitor is carbs and protein, as well as iron because I was diagnosed with iron deficiency, sugar because my intake is usually significantly over and fiber for digestion. Hope that helps!
  • StevLL
    StevLL Posts: 921 Member
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    I watch cals, carbs, fats, protein, fiber, sodium. I always seem to do well with all but fats and sodium are my demons.
  • Mama_CAEI
    Mama_CAEI Posts: 235
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    The default ones are calories, carbs, fat, and protein. I added sodium and fibre to mine. I wanted to be aware of my sodium intake since it is soooo easy to go over the daily recs. And I sometimes have a hard time eating enough fibre, so I wanted to keep tabs on it. Fibre helps you stay regular, helps you feel fuller longer and helps flush bad stuff out of your body, so to me, that one is important. Making sure I hit my fibre is like a little extra nudge to eat whole grains. :)
  • CPrincipeDeSA
    CPrincipeDeSA Posts: 27 Member
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    I track the usual things, but added sugar and fiber specifically because I know we women don't usually get enough fiber in our diets and I'm trying to up that. And, I was curious about my sugar intake and have found it to be higher than I initially thought despite making an active effort to get it down. I guess I have to get more active about that.
  • mynameiscarrie
    mynameiscarrie Posts: 963 Member
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    I'm monitoring Calories (duh), fat, protein, carbs, and sodium
    I really only pay attention to sodium and i not going over on fat or carbs

    i don't track sugar because a lot of my sugar calories come from fruit, which they count as sugar even though it's good sugar, not candy bar sugar
  • surfrgrl1
    surfrgrl1 Posts: 1,464 Member
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    I pay attention more to:
    *calories
    *fat
    *fiber
    and I'm trying to be more mindful of protein, as I noticed I hadn't been getting enough in my diet lately.

    Sugars are always high in comparison to MFP normal settings, so I reset them to 100 per day after reading a post that made a lot of sense to me. -- I don't worry about sugars that come naturally, just the extra sweet goodies, which are my downfall.
  • BigDaddyBRC
    BigDaddyBRC Posts: 2,395 Member
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    KISS factor here...
    Cals
    Carbs
    Fat
    Protein
    Fiber
  • cranberrycat
    cranberrycat Posts: 233 Member
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    I track the usual ones, cals, carb, protein, fat... and I also track fiber and calcium.
  • MoooveOverFluffy
    MoooveOverFluffy Posts: 398 Member
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    i watch sodium (since it makes you hold water weight) and i also like to watch fiber, since to get your TRUE carb count you would subtract grams of fiber from your grams of carbs.... and protein because you need lots if you are working out to help repair/build muscle....
  • Rilke
    Rilke Posts: 1,201 Member
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    I track fat, sodium, potassium, calcium, fiber.

    I don't bother with carbs or protein because I find that they tend to naturally fall where I want them. It's just fat I need to keep an eye on. This leaves me more room for other things :)
  • PlunderBunneh
    PlunderBunneh Posts: 1,705 Member
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    Calories (default), Protein (I don't eat much meat, so I constantly have to track this), Carbs (huge bread junkie, trying to watch it and see what happens), Fiber (never get enough), Fat (low fat is most beneficial to me), Sodium (trying to lower mine).
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    I only track the macronutrients (fat, carbs, protein) and fiber. Don't really care about the rest.
  • poisongirl6485
    poisongirl6485 Posts: 1,487 Member
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    I have mine set up to look at Calories, Fat, Protein, Sugar, Sodium, and Carbs
  • jaramae
    jaramae Posts: 100 Member
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    I never realized how many people track their fibre.
    I focus on calories, carbs, protein, sat fats, protein sugar and sodium.

    sugar is sugar and as someone at risk for diabetes I watch it to ensure I don't go way over. Earlier on it was harder to stay under the limit but I never stressed about it. More exercise has helped me to keep it down.

    Asian cooking has a lot of sodium due to sauce mixes and over use of soy sauce. High salt intake caused me to have blood pressure issues in the past so I watch it closely now.

    Not all fats are bad so I watch my sat fat consumption as most food products these days are required to have minimal trans fats in them.

    The MFP allows me to monitor them all if need be and I often check my reports to see how I'm doing in most categories throughout the week(s).

    I'll consider watching my fibre content as I often don't get enough but for now I'll stick to what's working for me and consult with my doctor in a month or so.
  • Soccer_chick916
    Soccer_chick916 Posts: 159 Member
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    I watch my calories and my sodium. I read that a lot of belly fat is linked to high sodium. So I lowered my sodium to 1500 and I drink at least 8 glasses of water per day.
  • lulabellarama
    lulabellarama Posts: 96 Member
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    Calories, Carbs, Protein, Sat Fat (I'm not too worried about good fats), Fibre, Calcium

    I don't bother with sodium because so many entries, particularly the UK entries, have incomplete sodium information, so it seems disingenuous to track it.

    I also don't bother with sugar. Most of mine comes from fruit and I'm not going to cut that down.

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