Do You Log Your Food?

[Babbs 14,680]

You know what I never see here? Someone who comes and posts something like this:Help! I've regained 40 lbs and I don't know how to lose it or get back on track. My eating is out of control. I eat carbs every night when I get home from work. I weigh or measure all my portions and log them on MyFitnessPal and I know exactly how many calories, carbs, and grams of Protein I eat every day.

Okay the first part we see every single day here. But it's never accompanied by the second part. So for me, I aim for logging. It's just a habit to me now, like brushing my teeth or putting my seat belt on.

I do eat pretty much the same things on most days, but I still log. My dietitian says it is great to eat the same things every day, that most healthy weight people actually do eat the same thing at least for Breakfast, lunch, and Snacks every day. It really doesn't bother me. I am pretty much a creature of habit.

For Alex, things I would like to see in a tracker but don't get on MFP (at least not in the free version):

• Ability to set macro nutrient goals by gram rather than percentage
• Ability to set goals as either a floor (I want to get a minimum of 75 grams of protein), a ceiling (I want to get no more than 60 grams of fat), or a range (I want to get between 30 and 40 carbs)
• Ability to decide whether to regularly add burned exercise calories into the daily food diary
• Ability to set target calorie ranges below MFP's stupid 1000/1200 calorie floors without being punished for it/yelled at by it
• Be able to search the food database and restrict my results to only "official" USDA type entries rather than user-input ones. If I search for apples, I want the USDA standard info for apples, not Betty Sue Random's entry for apple fritters.

eta: even if all of these things were in a new logging app, I wouldn't use it if it didn't have a robust food database similar to what is on MFP. The data in the MFP food database is awesome -- they just have an incredibly bad, pathetic, and weak search engine for it. /librarian mode

THIS THIS AND THIS.^^^

That's why when I know I'm off track, I start logging so I know what I'm doing, right or wrong. How can I possibly fix the issue if I don't know where I am on it?

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

I'm 22 months post op. Lost 100 pounds in the first seven months and then stopped losing with fifty to go. I logged until I didn't. Once I stopped I began making poorer food and drink choices. Gained ten pounds back from my lowest weight.

I began logging again back in December, and now I work with an OA sponsor too. I commit my food a day ahead in MyFitnessPal. I can change it, but if I do, I relog the correct food and tell my sponsor. Since mid December, I've dropped 8 pounds of the 10 I gained.

Logging works for me.

[AnA92212 577]

I am nine months out from surgery and below goal weight. I started out logging using My Fitness Pal. My husband uses Lose it!. I personally think My Fitness Pal is better. I actually had to stop logging a couple months ago. I was not eating enough when I logged so my weight loss SLOWED down. My surgeon told me to eat 1200 to 1400 calories a day. I was only eating about 650 to 700. The high numbers scared me and I didn't want to eat that much. I had to stop because it was a mind struggle. I still portion out my food about a half cup of solids at a time or a cup of Soup. Most days I am getting somewhere between 800 and 1200 calories. I definitely read labels though. It does not go into my cart if it is bad.

[SeahawksFan 444]

No I don't track. I knew it was something I wouldn't do. My nutritionist is great and works with me. 15 months out 11 at goal. I still focus on Protein and have 5 small meals a day. I stay within a 3 lb weight range. If I hit the top of it I cut the carbs. You have to find what works for you.

~LA

[otillie03103 123]

I log on My Fitness Pal every day. I can never complete an entry because I never eat enough compared to what they think I should, but it still allows me to track everything. I find it extremely helpful.

[Butterball B Cat 21]

Absolutely. Anything I eat or drink gets weighed/measured and logged. I have been doing this since I got my Fitbit 2 years ago. It's become part of my routine. I like the "add note" feature on the Fitbit food tracker, this was very helpful the first 6 weeks post-op because I could make notes of what foods worked and didn't, and now I can go back and see how far I've come along.

[JamieLogical 8,684]

I do not log my food. I did briefly when I first started back on solids just to get a sense of where I was at. And I do very rarely track my food for a day or two as a "spot check" just to make sure I really am where I think I am in terms of Protein and calories.

I'm in maintenance now and I just started training for a half marathon. I started logging my food as part of my training to make sure I am eating ENOUGH calories not to lose anymore weight now that I'm doing such intense exercise. I plan to only track for maybe a month, make sure I'm not losing weight, and then go back to not tracking again, armed with the new information.

So, I guess my point is, tracking can be useful when you need information to evaluate and assess where you are. But tracking every day seems very unnecessary to me.

[SassyNanny 311]

Every bite. SparkPeople.com.

I'm in a 3 week stall and at least know where I'm at nutritionally.

[smallbird 168]

I have logged everyday for 3 years since my VSG if not on my fitness pal I have a pad and paper I wrote everything down on (Internet is bad at work) but I always try my best tokeep on track of course I have had many bad days along this journey but I love tracking it helps me stay accountable

Instagram: smallbird_vsg

[NYLux12 50]

I'm similar to @@Babbs above. I log sporadically. If I feel I'm losing control or losing track I start logging again. I use MFP and I weigh/measure all of my meals unless I eat out. If I don't know the nutritional value of a food I'll input it to check/guesstimate. And this may be lazy of me, but even if I do log, it's usually just Breakfast, Snacks and lunch. I want to make sure I'm up on my Protein and not getting too much of anything else in.

[Spiceyfrog 269]

This is a great topic because I recently started tracking again. I am almost eight months post op and decided around month 4-5 that I was going to quit tracking because I ate the same thing every single day. I am just four pounds from my goal and I cannot get that four pounds off for the life of me, so decided to start tracking, using MyFitnessPal. The program is easy to use, has a great database of foods you can search and once you enter something into a meal, it's in your drop down list forever, so you don't have to search for it again. Like Alex said, if you track, you are less likely to put something that should not go in your mouth, in your mouth - I have experienced that several times over the past two weeks! Keep tracking!!

[Annek2014 58]

Would love this app!

Our goal is to create something similar to MyFitnessPal but targeted towards weight loss surgery patients. It's currently a work in progress. Is there anything you would want from MFP that they currently don't offer that would be interesting to Bariatric patients?

[Annek2014 58]

Very timely! Thank you all for the gentle push to get back to logging my food.

[cknhealthyme 11]

I have been using Sparkpeople.com for years off and on. I've been trying to be more consistent since I decided to have WLS. I am currently pre-op, the big day is 2/2/16. Although logging can be time consuming, I love Sparkpeople. Not only can you log food, you can log exercise, link it to your Fitbit, calculate recipes, search/save/share/log recipes, read articles, watch exercise videos, join teams, etc. They have an android app as well, which I prefer to use over the website to log food and Water as it seems to respond faster.

I also log my Water intake to make sure I get in my minimum 64 oz. I use Carbdroid (free in the Google store). It is pretty basic but I like that it does not have a bunch of annoying advertisements.

Edited January 28, 2016 by cknhealthyme

[enjoythetime 1,457]

I no longer log on paper or in an activity tracker. I'm nearly 3 years post op. I started out as a logger and then things just kind of became routine but I've always kept track in my head, adding up the calories of what I ate that day at the end of the night. So I do still keep track just not as detailed.