Literally just joined this app

qr664vbjdd
qr664vbjdd Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself

I’m Tanya, 48, single and overweight. I have never counted calories so this looks super confusing, I don’t have premium. Because I’m single I only have one income, so I have been consuming lots of bread, pasta, cheap mince and chicken. I need to change my shopping habits by swapping out these ingredients without blowing my budget. Any tips for better foods that aren’t expensive or how to successfully add the correct amount of ingredients? My first logged meal was a chicken salad (that I made for myself and my daughter), While adding all the ingredients I was unsure if the actual quantity of each ingredient to log as it all went in one bowl then we took a serving from that… so I don’t know how to determine what portion of those ingredients to log 🤷‍♀️

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,935 Member

    Most recipes will have servings per recipe.

    The most accurate way would be to use a digital food scale, do you have one?

    Alternately, you could divide the completed recipe into 4/6/8/ or whatever size servings you like and then calculate the calories that way. There is a "Recipe" section on your FOOD navigation bar, enter all the ingredients and save it, then divide it up and log portions of the saved recipe (like, 0.25, 0.33, and so on.)

  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 2,193 Member

    All of my meals contained lots of bread, pasta, or rice and chicken while losing weight. As far as weighing, add it all to the bowl on the scale and weigh, use that to create a meal in MFP, then re- weigh the bowl after you take out your serving. The difference is how much you ate. Put that in as your serving in MFP. It's a learning process, just play around with it and you'll get there. Don't worry about being perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good. Just logging itself, even if inaccurate, will help you see what you are eating. And that alone helps you to eat less.

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 10,455 Member

    give yourself the time and the grace to learn to use the app effectively. There’s definitely a learning curve, but I lost weight simply by paying attention while I got up to speed.

    We have pasta often, but we weigh it and eat one serving. At first, one serving seems ridiculously small, but you get used to it.

    Exercise is great, but patience is the muscle you’ll really need to learn to flex!

    Give yourself a couple of months, versus quitting in frustration in a day, a week or a month. You’re throwing a hella lot at your body, and it’s not going to turn on a dime.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 38,328 Community Helper

    Just eating the right number of calories is what's required for weight loss. Foods with fiber tend to be more filling, so considering substituting higher-fiber but inexpensive foods for some of the bread or pasta might help. Beans are great. Dry ones, cooked, are super cheap, but even canned ones are very affordable. They have protein, too, in addition to fiber - many people find both those things filling.

    Potatoes are also fairly affordable, and don't deserve the hate they often get in "diet culture". They have fiber - especially if eaten with the skin - plus some solid nutrients. In research, they were identified as the food the most people found filling. The calories are manageable: It's the frying and the toppings that amp up the calorie level. Baked or boiled potatoes are good, and can be eaten in various ways. Plain Greek yogurt with a little seasoning is a good topping, or seasoned cottage cheese.

    When it comes to logging something like the chicken salad, you might try using the recipe feature in MFP. You can tell it what ingredients you're using in what amounts, and say the number of servings you plan. I use my food scale a lot, so usually I weigh the finished food and put the number of grams for the total dish into the number of servings. Then, when I take a serving, I weigh that in grams, and log that number of servings of the food. That works well. If you don't have a scale, they're pretty affordable, but you can also just estimate how many servings in the recipe, then serve yourself varying amounts of that serving size depending on appetite and calorie budget.

    Do give yourself some grace: There's a learning curve. It won't be instant, but you'll figure out practical ways to do this. As long as you keep working at that, you'll succeed long term. Many people here do - including those who've replied to you already - and you're just as capable as any of us are.

    Best wishes!

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