How do you track food?

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nancycola
nancycola Posts: 98 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,
I've been on MFP for about 8 months now. I'm wondering how accurately you all track your food. Do you weigh everything? If there are labels, that's easy but if I eat out or cook at home it can be hard to be accurate unless I make up ALL the recipes on MFP which would be a drag. I mostly guesstimate.

Any advice? I think I'm getting some things wrong. I have a food scale, but do you weigh and measure EVERYTHING?
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Replies

  • cmeade20
    cmeade20 Posts: 1,238 Member
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    I weigh all meat and put each piece in a ziplock baggie with the weight written on it so I know what it weighs as soon as its out of the freezer. I use measuring cups for all my fruit and vegetables. I use measuring spoons to measure all peanut butter, condiments, dressings etc. Everything I eat gets weighed or measured. The ony time it might not be accurate is if I go to a restaurant that doesnt have its nutritional info posted online.
  • weeblex
    weeblex Posts: 411 Member
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    We do the zip lock meat trick too, makes cooking easier.

    I have to admit being lazy when it comes to metering the veg and stuff through because its usually the add ins that raise their calories so the difference between 1/2 cup of peas and 1 cup is small enough to worry about.

    The one that surprised me a little was the calorific content of dressings, mayo, ketchup, mustard etc. I now log those.
  • breyn2004
    breyn2004 Posts: 162 Member
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    If I'm eating out (at a chain) I always use the online nutrition info. If that's not available, I guesstimate. However, if I'm at home I use my digital scales and measuring cups for EVERYTHING. It only takes a view extra seconds and it was a huge eye-opener. I do the same for my husband's food. Sometimes you just have to guesstimate, but if I can avoid it, I do.

    Happy Logging!

    Edit: And I always enter my recipes into MFP. I try to prepare things in a lower calorie, healthy way...(skim milk, 2% cheese, low sodium/sugar, etc) so I like to know that I have accurate numbers for the way I prepare meals.
  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    Some people do weigh everything. I do not personally have a food scale but I do measure cups and such to a T for best accuracy.

    When I cook at home, I log everything I put in a dish and usually divide it into more portions. For instance, I made a massive casserole last night that said it makes 6 portions, I thought WOW thats a huge serving, so I made it 9 instead. much more practical and it was easy to divide up.


    I feel that if you do not track as accurately as possible, you likely won't get the results you want, as it is easy to over/under estimate.

    edit: what she said^^^ about restaurants. always research ahead of time.
  • becki1815
    becki1815 Posts: 51 Member
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    When you're talking about loading your recipes into MFP, just load in the ones you make the most often. Most of us make the same dishes over and over. Load those ones in, then measure your portions.
  • TraceFace11
    TraceFace11 Posts: 3
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    I weigh or measure everything but fruits or vegetables when I'm making food. At restaurants I try to go off the nutrition info if it's available or try to find an equivalent type of food elsewhere. I've been in a program that counts most fruits and veggies as 'free' foods, as long as you're aware of how you feel and if you're overeating or not. I've really had to learn to be aware in the last little while, since there's a reason I got to where I was in the first place.
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
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    I buy all my meat, chicken and fish in quarter pound portions and put them in baggies - each one is a serving. I measure stuff with measuring spoons and cups, sometimes I guesstimate. I'm pretty accurate. I use the brands on the database if my food falls into that category.
  • 80lbslost
    80lbslost Posts: 93 Member
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    I don't use a scale but I use measuring cups/tablespoons. When cooking meat I just use the nutritional info on package as my calorie source. When eating out I have to estimate since I would look ridiculous whipping out a measuring cup to measure my rice and curry chicken LOL.
  • Koldnomore
    Koldnomore Posts: 1,613 Member
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    I weigh everything. I will even weigh the measuring cup to make sure that my amount is equal to what the package says 1 cup should weigh. It's entirely to possible for me to take more than 15g of peanut butter when I use the 1TBSP measure so I weigh it instead.

    I write down everything when I cook and then enter in the recipe. For things that I already had made and frozen (like my chili) I'll try to find something similar in the database and then when I make a new batch I will label it properly. For places that don't list nutritional information I will either not go there, speak to the chef about getting the information from him via email or whatever or if possible try to find something similar if it's a food I desperately want to eat - Like the PHO soup that the cafeteria at work has on Wednesdays!
  • Anna800
    Anna800 Posts: 637 Member
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    I weight everything, it doesn't take much time. Yes I enter recipes into mfp as well. If I'm not accurate in my food enterting my weight loss won't be successful. It's all a math game. Calories in exercise out.
  • apedeb09
    apedeb09 Posts: 805 Member
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    I don't have a food scale (wish I did) so I don't weigh anything but I do use measuring cups so I can get an accurate serving size. What I thought was a serving before surprised me once I broke out those measuring cups and saw what the true size was.. lol
  • cestlafete
    cestlafete Posts: 71 Member
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    Adding to the baggies crowd, I furthermore portion all junk that I impulsively buy when I'm having an off day and then write the amount of calories on the portion sized bag. I've found that it cuts back a lot of the 'oh, I want a snack! how about some chips!' kind of binging because, 1. It's pre-portioned, and 2. I have to be real about the calories when I grab it, not as an afterthought. It works great for anything you get in bulk, really, especially if you do a lot of smoothies and use real fruit.

    I have also found that 'snack size' baggies are ~1 cup, so I use them to portion lunch-sized pasta when I make a big pot of it. That way, when I'm on my way to work, I just grab a baggie and I know that it's a lunch-sized portion of x.

    And speaking of lunch, bento boxes with little cups are a godsend for not cheating on amounts!
  • cmpollard01
    cmpollard01 Posts: 246
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    If I'm eating out (at a chain) I always use the online nutrition info. If that's not available, I guesstimate. However, if I'm at home I use my digital scales and measuring cups for EVERYTHING. It only takes a view extra seconds and it was a huge eye-opener. I do the same for my husband's food. Sometimes you just have to guesstimate, but if I can avoid it, I do.

    Happy Logging!

    This is what I do as well-learned the trick from my sister who lost about 85 pounds for a kidney transplant!
  • melissaw1232
    melissaw1232 Posts: 184 Member
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    weigh meat in 3-4oz portions, measure everything else with measuring cups. after a while you can eyeball a plate and know about how much rice, veggies there are.. cereal I measure and bag before I eat, same with nuts and other snacks, makes a world of difference
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I have gotten very good at estimating serving sizes and check myself a few times a week to make sure. The hardest things are sandwiches or things at restaurants - but I don't eat out often.

    I just made lunch and wasn't sure how many almonds I'd added to my lunch. Turns out I had a much smaller serving than I thought I did after I stuck them in a measuring cup.

    Grains (rice, muesli, pasta) can be tough, but if you keep measuring you get good at eyeballing.

    I even add things like ketchup or sauces.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    Portion size guide: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/portion-control/NU00267
  • nancycola
    nancycola Posts: 98 Member
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    Thanks everyone! This really helps!
    I guess I can't be lazy anymore and must weigh and measure EVERYTHING! I must have been really forgiving when eyeballing.

    Things like peanut butter can be annoying to measure b/c they're hard to get off the spoon and 1 tb is painfully little. Ha ha!

    On that note, olive oil is painfully high in calories for 1tb. Does anyone have any oil-free or oil-lite salad dressings they can pass along? I love salad.
  • breyn2004
    breyn2004 Posts: 162 Member
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    Depending on the type of salad, I use plain red wine vinegar (no cals) or Bolthouse Yogurt Ranch (45 cals).
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I love straight balsamic vinegar on salad. I don't use any oil at all. Add your favorite herbs.
  • rose313
    rose313 Posts: 1,146 Member
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    Bar code scanner, and measuring cups

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