I am new, and I have been reading as many posts as I can, and I am sure there is something here about this but I can't find it so here goes.

I see all different kinds of ways to measure what you eat. Has anyone changed from one way to another and had better results?

I am supposed to eat 3 meals consisting of 3 oz by weight of Protein and 1 oz of something else, a Protein shake, and Water. I am supposed to aim for 90 grams of protein a day and 64 oz of water. No mention of calories other than stay away from empty calories, but I was not told to keep track of calories.

I see people here counting calories, eating 1 cup of food, etc. Anyone else weigh their food? I do keep running total of how much protein I have had for the day, but that is all I am tracking.

I am new, and I have been reading as many posts as I can, and I am sure there is something here about this but I can't find it so here goes.

I see all different kinds of ways to measure what you eat. Has anyone changed from one way to another and had better results?

I am supposed to eat 3 meals consisting of 3 oz by weight of Protein and 1 oz of something else, a protein shake, and Water. I am supposed to aim for 90 grams of protein a day and 64 oz of water. No mention of calories other than stay away from empty calories, but I was not told to keep track of calories.

I see people here counting calories, eating 1 cup of food, etc. Anyone else weigh their food? I do keep running total of how much protein I have had for the day, but that is all I am tracking.

I do weigh my food as well. I was told that a medium framed male as myself should eat about 5 oz of food per meal and to lean heavily on protein. Women on the other hand would eat 4 oz of food. I bought the cheap "Biggest Loser" food scale online. I try to weigh my food every time I eat. I've noticed it does help me to eat just the right amount of food. Sometimes I can't even fit all 5 oz which is fine with me. I do try to count my calories because the info packet I said mentioned a goal of 1200 calories a day. I don't keep count religiously though because I know with my choices of high protein foods, my calories never surpass 1200 calories.

Also, my doctor recommended 60 g of protein a day. 90 is kind of high.

My doctor recommends 3oz of Protein and 1/2 cup of veggies 3x day with small healthy high protein Snacks in between IF needed.

When eating at home (which is most of the time) I weigh my protein out. I measure my veggies. I sometimes then weigh my veggies just for curiosities sake. My protein and veggies together usually weigh somewhere around 6 oz.. sometimes as much as 8. When eating out, I compare my protein portion to a deck of cards and my veggies to a tennis ball. Very appetizing.. LOL

I have a digital scale I bought years ago on eBay for weighing packages. It works fine for food. I don't think I paid more than 20.00 for it, but it's been a long time and I really don't recall. I place an empty plate/bowl/cup on it and then turn it on and it "tares" or Zeros out, so that all I am weighing is the food.

I've never been given a calorie goal either. I just do what seems to work for me. If I'm not losing weight at a certain calorie goal, I play with it, either decreasing by 100 a day for a week and if that doesn't work, I'll go the other way and increase for a while and see if that works. I'm usually erring on the side of not eating enough.

I log all my intake at www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate. This is the one that suits me the best, but there are many other sites: fitday.com, caloriecount.about.com, fatsecret.com (unfortunate name), www.sparkpeople.com.

Basically, do what works for you. If your weight loss stalls or slows to a point you want to change it.. try something different. If what you're doing is working.. run with it.

My doctor recommends 3 oz of Protein, 1/2 cup vegies and 1/4 cup starch (although the starch is optional) for lunch and dinner. For Breakfast, I do bacon and eggs. My calories come in around 1200 a day. I always weigh and measure.

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