Many experts suggest logging your food to lose weight. When you log, you know for sure exactly how much you are eating. Logging helps hold you accountable. Also, when you know you’re going to log your food, you may be less likely to sneak in an extra bite or choose a high-calorie treat.

Probably for all of these reasons, research shows that people who log are more likely to lose weight and keep it off.

Still, not everyone does. You may find it boring or time-consuming or inconvenient. You may feel as though you don’t need to. Or you may have started off logging, but now find that you’ve gotten into a pattern where you eat pretty much the same thing every day.

So, do you log? What stage of the pre-op or post-op weight loss surgery journey are you in? Was there ever a time when you stopped logging and went back to it? Please share your experiences – and also the program you use for logging!

I log every bite on SparkPeople.com

I've just had a 3 week stall at 9 weeks out and without my log I would have second guessed my brain into pudding.

I agree with the suggestions in JeanieboBeanie's post for suggestions. Thanks for writing it all down so concisely.

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?

I currently use Cron-o-meter, but have used MFP, Lose it, and some others attached to devices (like BodyMedia and Up.) Here's my wish list:

• Detailed micronutrient tracking. Cron-o-meter is FABULOUS at this and I appreciate it more and more as I transition to solid food. It tells me if/when I'll be ready to drop particular supplements.
• Along with this - a real blue-sky dream - an app that can suggest particular foods that will help me meet my goals. For example, if I'm not getting enough Iron, suggest liver or other foods that are super-dense in that particular nutrient(s)
• Goal ranges instead of discrete ceilings or floors
• A way to log my hunger at the beginning, middle, and end of a meal (a simple 1-10 scale would be fine)
• A place to keep notes on how I'm feeling (stressed, tired, bored, celebratory) and some way to mine that data back out (see reporting/exporting)
• A good recipe builder. One of the things I appreciate about Cron-o-meter (and I hated about My Fitness Pal) is the fact that it keeps a running weight log for any given recipe, so when I eat it, I can just weigh my portion and put that in (as opposed to determining set portions.)
• The ability to translate and move easily between measurement units (g v. ounces, volume)
• The ability to scan barcodes
• The ability to sync bi-directionally with my fitness apps (see: Jawbone, MapMyFitness, etc.) so I only have to log things like biometrics (weight, fat %) in a single place
• Robust reporting and exporting so you can see patterns and make connections (e.g. changes in macronutrient ratios when you're tired, etc.)

I'm not a huge fan of crowdsourcing foods...UNLESS they include ingredient lists with amounts. Otherwise, how do I know what's in that chili, or if it's nutritionally similar to MY chili? That's my main beef with MFP (but not my only one.) I don't trust the data.

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Bariastic has a really good food/weight tracker for people who have done WLS. And it even has a barcode scanner for things if you can't find the food in the search bar/menu.

@@jeaniebobeanie ... your post rocks!

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?

I would like to see more focus on tracking macros and micros versus calories. I would also like to see sample meal plans based on different pre and post op stages with macro breakdowns. I would like all macro and micro settings to be customizable since we all have different nutrient needs and/or deficiencies. I would like the exercise entries to change your daily nutrient goal only if you select that versus by default. I would like the exercise entries to have more realistic caloric expenditure defaults or a metric where based on end users inputting their age, gender, height and weight in their profile that it estimates a reasonable caloric expenditure for the activity, e.g. I do not burn 350 calories walking the dog for 20 minutes at a leisurely pace. I could go on...????

@@jeaniebobeanie ... your post rocks!

**blushes**

I work in IT, and have been using these types of tools for...forever, so I've had some time to think about it. I love the idea of incorporating meal planning - ESPECIALLY if the tool could 1) have enough back and forth with the recipe/food database to suggest recipes or meals based on goal macro/micro goals ("Hey, user! You've been a little low on manganese and potassium lately...here's a great recipe for garlic mussels and braised white Beans that'll get you back to sufficiency for both those nutrients!"), 2) allow you to constrain it with ingredients/foods that are problematic for you (I can't have about a zillion things and it KILLS me when every recommendation includes tomatoes/eggs/corn/soy/etc) and 3) integration with shopping list apps (kroger.com, I'm looking at you:)

One more thing, while I'm thinking about it, because apparently I wasn't quite done...I do this already, but having a sandbox to play around with planning ahead for the day/week/whatever and then being able to either shift things into some sort of "I ate this" state or "I didn't eat this, I ate that instead" would be super fancy. And a nice tie-in with the meal planning.

Edited January 29, 201610 yr by jeaniebobeanie

@@jeaniebobeanie ... I figured that you work in IT.

I'm doing that "playing around with meal planning" in Excel right now. I'm listing all dinner meals prepared broken down by type of Protein, side dishes, how it's cooked, etc. with links to online recipes for some dishes, and 1-2-3 grades by hubby and me as to how often we want to see that meal come back into the rotation.

It's turning into a catalog of meals from which I can quickly design a week's worth of menus, while minimizing: (1) eating X (chicken, pork, Pasta, beef, etc.) every night, (2) using the same cooking method every night (grilling, baking, slow cooker, freezer-leftovers, etc.), (3) doing takeout from the same place all the time, (4) same old boring side dishes, (5) too many starchy foods, etc.

I already have the next 10 nights' dinner menus planned and have done all my grocery shopping for those meals.

Getting organized is fabulous!

I tack on my fitness pal and feel this really helps keep me focused on my protein and water I am 20 weeks post rny surgery : )

Oh man, I am struggling with this. I need to do this, but having difficulty being consistent.

I need this!

@@jeaniebobeanie ... I figured that you work in IT.

I'm doing that "playing around with meal planning" in Excel right now. I'm listing all dinner meals prepared broken down by type of Protein, side dishes, how it's cooked, etc. with links to online recipes for some dishes, and 1-2-3 grades by hubby and me as to how often we want to see that meal come back into the rotation.

It's turning into a catalog of meals from which I can quickly design a week's worth of menus, while minimizing: (1) eating X (chicken, pork, Pasta, beef, etc.) every night, (2) using the same cooking method every night (grilling, baking, slow cooker, freezer-leftovers, etc.), (3) doing takeout from the same place all the time, (4) same old boring side dishes, (5) too many starchy foods, etc.

I already have the next 10 nights' dinner menus planned and have done all my grocery shopping for those meals.

Getting organized is fabulous!

You could build a catalog like this using note cards -- or lists in a notebook.

It's all just different ways of "getting organized."

I admire those who can plan their food and eat "intuitively" and do well. I sincerely do admire them.

But I'm afraid that's not me -- at least not for now. I do better when I plan what food I'm going to buy and what I'm going to eat.

You have to find out what works for you and then (as they say) "do YOU."

Getting my menu's organized I think will greatly help me in tracking my food intake. Adding to my agenda for the weekend.

Thanks for all of your answers! It looks like logging is pretty popular around here, for a few different reasons! It keeps you accountable, but also allows for some flexibility – so you can play around with the numbers and see what fits in and what doesn’t. It’s also nice, for those who love numbers and reports, to see the different nutrients and also changes over time.

For those of you who don’t log, it sounds like you’re pretty in tune with what your body can handle. There are always other measures, too, like what the scale says!

I use CalorieCount and have been very pleased overall.

However, one feature it's missing is integration with the Microsoft Band 2.

I logged religiously, but have found it harder to do now. For example, yesterday I was out of the house at 4am for a two hour drive. Too early for breakfast, but wanted something solid, so I got a McDonald's bacon egg cheeses biscuit. I ate 1/4 of the biscuit, half a slice of bacon, about half the egg, and most of the cheese. How do I accurately log that? And being inaccurate would drive me nuts. This morning I had three leftover shrimp from an el pollo shrimp taco. None of the tortilla, but a little if the poblano sauce. And before I get jumped on, I don't do fast food on a regular basis, but had unexpectedly long days, made careful choices, and limited my amounts. Again, how do I log that? I'm going to be more successful if I let myself have a variety of foods, but the logging apps all seem to want you to have a defined portion of a defined food.

I logged religiously, but have found it harder to do now. For example, yesterday I was out of the house at 4am for a two hour drive. Too early for Breakfast, but wanted something solid, so I got a McDonald's bacon egg cheeses biscuit. I ate 1/4 of the biscuit, half a slice of bacon, about half the egg, and most of the cheese. How do I accurately log that? And being inaccurate would drive me nuts. This morning I had three leftover shrimp from an el pollo shrimp taco. None of the tortilla, but a little if the poblano sauce. And before I get jumped on, I don't do fast food on a regular basis, but had unexpectedly long days, made careful choices, and limited my amounts. Again, how do I log that? I'm going to be more successful if I let myself have a variety of foods, but the logging apps all seem to want you to have a defined portion of a defined food.

That is exactly the issue I have logging food and why I don't do it long term. I am a perfectionist, so for me it has to be all or nothing. It needs to be perfect and precise, or why bother at all? During the periods of my life I was logging food, I was impossible to be around. I made my in-laws give me a list of not only the ingredients in whatever they made when they had me over for dinner, but the actual BRANDS of ingredients they used! I refused to go to an restaurant that didn't post their nutritional information online. It was a nightmare. One of the main reasons I wanted to have WLS in the first place is that I could NOT live like that long term and that had been the only way for me to successfully lose weight in the past. Now that I have the tool of my sleeve, I don't need to be so anal about tracking. I track a few days here and there as kind of a "spot check" and that's it.