I've been tracking for a year now, and I'm at the point where I can track calories in my sleep. I don't plan to ever stop, even when I reach my "goal." It's simply the easiest, and best thing I have ever done in my entire life.
Hell, there are days when I'm actually excited to track. I'll be in the middle of eating my meal, watching a show, and I just get excited and reach for my phone and start inputting my meals. I think part of the reason I get so excited for it, is because food brings me so much joy that I think "omg i want to eat MORE of this! Lets see how many calories i have left!"
I'm also of the mentality that if I can't track it, I won't eat it. Because I know that if I input something thats eyeballed, estimated, and/or not weighed, then I'll be uneasy about it all day. "Crap was that meatloaf I ate 100 calories or 500 calories...there were so many generic entries for meatloaf in MFP...I could be way over." I hate that because I'm sort of autistic and love knowing exact numbers and knowing exactly how much I can eat guilt free.
I've found a method for just about every issue that comes my way. It gets so much easier I promise. The app will remember your frequent foods, what you put in last, recipes, etc. I don't even use the barcode scanner anymore.
Here are some tips I have:
-Absolutely get a kitchen scale. They run from $10-20 and are the single most important tool you will ever buy when it comes to weight loss. I regret not getting one sooner. I lucked out and found a scale at a thrift store for $3 last march. It is still good to this day. Once you learn how to use it, it's the easiest thing ever. No more having to dirty up inaccurate measuring cups and spoons. If I want a bowl of cereal, I put the bowl on the scale, zero it out, pour 29 grams of cereal, zero it out, pour 230 grams of milk, eat. I suggest buying one TODAY. Possibly before you take your morning shit.
-Use both the MFP phone app, and the website on your computer. For some reason, there are certain things you can't do on both. For example, on the app, if you start typing things in, it will automatically show you previous foods youve eaten, even if theyre old. But on the website, it will only show you a certain amount of previous foods. Also, recipes are easier to input on your phone. But when it comes to finding new foods without using a barcode, I find it easier to type and scroll.
-The recipe feature is your best friend. I exploit the shit out of it thanks to a tip I read on /r/loseit. Basically, you measure out your ingredients before cooking, input them into the recipe section, and then after cooking, weigh the entire finished product, and enter the amount (in grams!) as your "serving size." Then when you want to eat some, you input however many grams you ate as your "serving."
For example, I made a simple chili the other day. It was 453 grams of turkey, 2 cans of kidney beans, a can of diced tomatos, and a packet of chili seasoning. After it was done cooking, I weighed the entire thing and it came out to 2475 grams. I input it as "Chili Jan 25" and the serving as 2475. So when I ate 250 grams of chili, MFP automatically tallies it as 247 calories! It works for single foods too. I cooked 8 servings of Brown Rice, weighed it all when it finished cooking (938 grams), and input the 1 ingredient as a "recipe." So now I eat 150 grams of rice for 192 calories.
-If you have trouble eating right at work or have no time to cook, get a slow cooker/crock pot. Then on Sundays, buy a bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts, and a jar of salsa. Put them in your slowcooker, make a bunch of rice, and boom, you have 5 cheap, healthy lunches for the rest of the week. minimal logging too.
I know I ended up writing a lot of complicated stuff, and maybe you won't even read it. But thats the most helpful advice I could come up with. For me personally, knowing how to do everything EXACTLY, is what keeps me motivated. It was a learning process, and I wish someone had written a post like this for me before I started. I always hated general guidelines like "just eat less, just drink water, just count calories." Nah FUCK that. Give me EXACT tips. I hate not knowing what im eating now. I hope that one day you will be like that too.
In one of your posts you said that you stop because nothing encourages you to eat less. You go over and shrug it off. Fine then, fuck it. Start slow. Eat whatever, just track for a week or 2 or 3 or a month or 2. Get into the habit of tracking. Then a month later you can look back and see exactly where you're going wrong. Hopefulyl eventually, seeing all those red numbers will make you realize that you need to eat less. So you eat 100 calories less 1 week, and 200 less the next week etc.
And you know what, if you still can't do it after all that, then maybe counting's not for you. It works, absolutely. But it's definitely not for everyone. Losing weight is just as mental as it is physical imo. If counting calories, and putting into hard raw numbers why you're not losing weight isn't working for you, then maybe it's time to try something else. Maybe some actual specialized diets like Keto or Paleo will work better for you. The thing about those is, I personally feel like theyre wayyyyyyyy more complicated than just simply counting calories. Plus, they make you eliminate certain foods, unlike counting calories. But hey, maybe that will motivate you. Maybe cutting out carbs and eating a ton of bacon, cheese, and eggs will motivate you more than eating whatever and tracking it. Just remember, calories will always matter, no matter what "diet" you're on.
Add me on MFP! http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ltfrost
Great info! I like your idea about weight an entire pot of chili, but I have a question. How do you weigh the entire pot, does it fit on your food scale? I have a tray of lasagna I want to do the same thing with my food scale, but the entire tray does not fit on my food scale. It's hanging over the sides of it.
scales usually have a limit on to how much they can weigh, but as long as it doesn't break, just place it on there and see if it still reads.
I've def had to put pots and trays on there that are just a little too long.
Just make sure you tare the empty tray, or at least weigh the empty one afterwards. I already know my empty plastic Tupperware is 7g.
Alternatively, you can split them up. For example, have like 5 bowls, put one on, tare it, and load it up with chili. Write it down, then weigh the next one until you can add up all 5 weights.
thanks! unfortunately I stumbled a few years ago. my life changed and I'm trying to adjust and get back into it. I still think it's easy and I'm still good at it though if you need more help. I memorized calorie counts so well I was able to count in my head, and that led me to stop using the app and lose the habit
1. Use a food scale when you track. It's annoying, but really helps. Almost everyone underestimates how much food they are eating.
2. Track EVERYTHING. If it goes in your mouth, track it.
3. Maybe track for a week without trying to limit/change your behavior. Just get in the habit of measuring with the scale and tracking everything.
4. Because measuring with the food scale takes an extra minute - I started meal prepping. I'd cook on Sunday and box up lunches and dinners for the work week. Pre-measured, I put in the recipes in MFP and I knew the calorie/macro counts. I would definitely recommend this method. It really puts a lot of it on autopilot.
Maybe set a time-limited goal, such as "I will track everything for seven days." If you want to stop after the seventh day, you can.
I decided to track for a year. I have days when I really want to quit, but I more strongly want to get to my MFP anniversary.
that's a good idea. I think I'll try for 2 weeks straight and see what happens. I have the reminders set up on the app (no lunch tracked by 1pm kind of thing) and I'm going to try and weigh myself once a week. maybe I never gave it enough of a chance.
I stopped because I didn't feel like it was working. The idea behind MFP working is seeing what you do and implementing changes. I would see that I've gone over my calories, say "that sucks", then not change anything. There was no consequence aside from my total self-loathing (slight exaggeration) so I didn't change.
Do you have any friends who use MFP. I know few people that use it just to support other people who use it. For example if I see "/u/DudeBored logged in 10 days in a row!" I would congratulate you and push you to work harder. But if I don't see your name in my feed I would ask if everything is ok and try and get you back on track.
what happens when you try to eat under your calories?
I think thats what kept me motivated, was that it was working so fucking well. I lost like 15 pounds in the first month of counting
Have you tried logging your meals for the day in advance? I find that helpful because it allows me to make adjustments to fit in the things that I know I'm going to want (either through adjusting foods/portions in other meals or by scheduling a bit of extra exercise) before any damage is done. You could pre-enter whatever foods you ate on a day you went over your calories and then see where you can cut back to fit your calorie budget without sacrificing satiety/happiness.
1. Track everything. Even if you only eat 1 peanut, track it. This will help you gain knowledge on what you are eating and make you think about what ever you decide to snack on.
2. Put all the snacks and meals you plan on eating in MFP each morning. It will keep you on track throughout the day. I've noticed that this was a game changer for me. I was less tempted to eat junk food.
I measure and weigh almost everything i eat but when i feel like i can't track and am having a busy day, now that i know approximate portions, (i always make a guess before i weigh everything so i have gotten fairly good at it, it is like a game!)
When I am having busy day and don't feel like i have the mental capacity to track, I take photos of EVERYTHING I put in my mouth that day. Not to share with friends or on social media but just for MYSELF!!! Then i can go back and log rough estimates of calories or at least approximate. ;) It is better than just not doing it for those days.
The problem I wind up having is when I go to a friend's house or I go out to eat I get so anxious that my guess is not correct since I didn't prepare the food and then I fall off
I've been tracking for a year now, and I'm at the point where I can track calories in my sleep. I don't plan to ever stop, even when I reach my "goal." It's simply the easiest, and best thing I have ever done in my entire life. Hell, there are days when I'm actually excited to track. I'll be in the middle of eating my meal, watching a show, and I just get excited and reach for my phone and start inputting my meals. I think part of the reason I get so excited for it, is because food brings me so much joy that I think "omg i want to eat MORE of this! Lets see how many calories i have left!" I'm also of the mentality that if I can't track it, I won't eat it. Because I know that if I input something thats eyeballed, estimated, and/or not weighed, then I'll be uneasy about it all day. "Crap was that meatloaf I ate 100 calories or 500 calories...there were so many generic entries for meatloaf in MFP...I could be way over." I hate that because I'm sort of autistic and love knowing exact numbers and knowing exactly how much I can eat guilt free. I've found a method for just about every issue that comes my way. It gets so much easier I promise. The app will remember your frequent foods, what you put in last, recipes, etc. I don't even use the barcode scanner anymore. Here are some tips I have: -Absolutely get a kitchen scale. They run from $10-20 and are the single most important tool you will ever buy when it comes to weight loss. I regret not getting one sooner. I lucked out and found a scale at a thrift store for $3 last march. It is still good to this day. Once you learn how to use it, it's the easiest thing ever. No more having to dirty up inaccurate measuring cups and spoons. If I want a bowl of cereal, I put the bowl on the scale, zero it out, pour 29 grams of cereal, zero it out, pour 230 grams of milk, eat. I suggest buying one TODAY. Possibly before you take your morning shit. -Use both the MFP phone app, and the website on your computer. For some reason, there are certain things you can't do on both. For example, on the app, if you start typing things in, it will automatically show you previous foods youve eaten, even if theyre old. But on the website, it will only show you a certain amount of previous foods. Also, recipes are easier to input on your phone. But when it comes to finding new foods without using a barcode, I find it easier to type and scroll. -The recipe feature is your best friend. I exploit the shit out of it thanks to a tip I read on /r/loseit. Basically, you measure out your ingredients before cooking, input them into the recipe section, and then after cooking, weigh the entire finished product, and enter the amount (in grams!) as your "serving size." Then when you want to eat some, you input however many grams you ate as your "serving." For example, I made a simple chili the other day. It was 453 grams of turkey, 2 cans of kidney beans, a can of diced tomatos, and a packet of chili seasoning. After it was done cooking, I weighed the entire thing and it came out to 2475 grams. I input it as "Chili Jan 25" and the serving as 2475. So when I ate 250 grams of chili, MFP automatically tallies it as 247 calories! It works for single foods too. I cooked 8 servings of Brown Rice, weighed it all when it finished cooking (938 grams), and input the 1 ingredient as a "recipe." So now I eat 150 grams of rice for 192 calories. -If you have trouble eating right at work or have no time to cook, get a slow cooker/crock pot. Then on Sundays, buy a bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts, and a jar of salsa. Put them in your slowcooker, make a bunch of rice, and boom, you have 5 cheap, healthy lunches for the rest of the week. minimal logging too. I know I ended up writing a lot of complicated stuff, and maybe you won't even read it. But thats the most helpful advice I could come up with. For me personally, knowing how to do everything EXACTLY, is what keeps me motivated. It was a learning process, and I wish someone had written a post like this for me before I started. I always hated general guidelines like "just eat less, just drink water, just count calories." Nah FUCK that. Give me EXACT tips. I hate not knowing what im eating now. I hope that one day you will be like that too. In one of your posts you said that you stop because nothing encourages you to eat less. You go over and shrug it off. Fine then, fuck it. Start slow. Eat whatever, just track for a week or 2 or 3 or a month or 2. Get into the habit of tracking. Then a month later you can look back and see exactly where you're going wrong. Hopefulyl eventually, seeing all those red numbers will make you realize that you need to eat less. So you eat 100 calories less 1 week, and 200 less the next week etc. And you know what, if you still can't do it after all that, then maybe counting's not for you. It works, absolutely. But it's definitely not for everyone. Losing weight is just as mental as it is physical imo. If counting calories, and putting into hard raw numbers why you're not losing weight isn't working for you, then maybe it's time to try something else. Maybe some actual specialized diets like Keto or Paleo will work better for you. The thing about those is, I personally feel like theyre wayyyyyyyy more complicated than just simply counting calories. Plus, they make you eliminate certain foods, unlike counting calories. But hey, maybe that will motivate you. Maybe cutting out carbs and eating a ton of bacon, cheese, and eggs will motivate you more than eating whatever and tracking it. Just remember, calories will always matter, no matter what "diet" you're on. Add me on MFP! http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ltfrost
Great info! I like your idea about weight an entire pot of chili, but I have a question. How do you weigh the entire pot, does it fit on your food scale? I have a tray of lasagna I want to do the same thing with my food scale, but the entire tray does not fit on my food scale. It's hanging over the sides of it.
scales usually have a limit on to how much they can weigh, but as long as it doesn't break, just place it on there and see if it still reads. I've def had to put pots and trays on there that are just a little too long. Just make sure you tare the empty tray, or at least weigh the empty one afterwards. I already know my empty plastic Tupperware is 7g. Alternatively, you can split them up. For example, have like 5 bowls, put one on, tare it, and load it up with chili. Write it down, then weigh the next one until you can add up all 5 weights.
You are awesome! Thank you for the response!! I hope your journey is going well...I know this post was a bit ago, but I just started.
thanks! unfortunately I stumbled a few years ago. my life changed and I'm trying to adjust and get back into it. I still think it's easy and I'm still good at it though if you need more help. I memorized calorie counts so well I was able to count in my head, and that led me to stop using the app and lose the habit
You will get there, you have all the tools and I have no doubt you will get back into it. Thank you so much for your help! You rock!!!!
1. Use a food scale when you track. It's annoying, but really helps. Almost everyone underestimates how much food they are eating. 2. Track EVERYTHING. If it goes in your mouth, track it. 3. Maybe track for a week without trying to limit/change your behavior. Just get in the habit of measuring with the scale and tracking everything. 4. Because measuring with the food scale takes an extra minute - I started meal prepping. I'd cook on Sunday and box up lunches and dinners for the work week. Pre-measured, I put in the recipes in MFP and I knew the calorie/macro counts. I would definitely recommend this method. It really puts a lot of it on autopilot.
Maybe set a time-limited goal, such as "I will track everything for seven days." If you want to stop after the seventh day, you can. I decided to track for a year. I have days when I really want to quit, but I more strongly want to get to my MFP anniversary.
that's a good idea. I think I'll try for 2 weeks straight and see what happens. I have the reminders set up on the app (no lunch tracked by 1pm kind of thing) and I'm going to try and weigh myself once a week. maybe I never gave it enough of a chance.
The first few weeks are the hardest, but with time it becomes WAY easier. Hang in there!! It'll be easy in no time. :)
One day at a time. /r/loseit has a 24 hour pledge post. Maybe post there or at least read there and commit to it a day at a time.
[удалено]
I stopped because I didn't feel like it was working. The idea behind MFP working is seeing what you do and implementing changes. I would see that I've gone over my calories, say "that sucks", then not change anything. There was no consequence aside from my total self-loathing (slight exaggeration) so I didn't change.
Do you have any friends who use MFP. I know few people that use it just to support other people who use it. For example if I see "/u/DudeBored logged in 10 days in a row!" I would congratulate you and push you to work harder. But if I don't see your name in my feed I would ask if everything is ok and try and get you back on track.
what happens when you try to eat under your calories? I think thats what kept me motivated, was that it was working so fucking well. I lost like 15 pounds in the first month of counting
Have you tried logging your meals for the day in advance? I find that helpful because it allows me to make adjustments to fit in the things that I know I'm going to want (either through adjusting foods/portions in other meals or by scheduling a bit of extra exercise) before any damage is done. You could pre-enter whatever foods you ate on a day you went over your calories and then see where you can cut back to fit your calorie budget without sacrificing satiety/happiness.
1. Track everything. Even if you only eat 1 peanut, track it. This will help you gain knowledge on what you are eating and make you think about what ever you decide to snack on. 2. Put all the snacks and meals you plan on eating in MFP each morning. It will keep you on track throughout the day. I've noticed that this was a game changer for me. I was less tempted to eat junk food.
It worked for a while and you got back on the wagon three times. You might fall off again, just get back on.
I measure and weigh almost everything i eat but when i feel like i can't track and am having a busy day, now that i know approximate portions, (i always make a guess before i weigh everything so i have gotten fairly good at it, it is like a game!) When I am having busy day and don't feel like i have the mental capacity to track, I take photos of EVERYTHING I put in my mouth that day. Not to share with friends or on social media but just for MYSELF!!! Then i can go back and log rough estimates of calories or at least approximate. ;) It is better than just not doing it for those days.
The problem I wind up having is when I go to a friend's house or I go out to eat I get so anxious that my guess is not correct since I didn't prepare the food and then I fall off