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 agree with the above wish lists. Also with MFP I cannot close the day because I don't eat enough.

Every bite. I use SparkPeople.com.

For those who care ... it's very easy to log a fraction (1/4, 1/2, 5/6, 12/22nds, etc.) of anything that's in the My Fitness Pal database or that you enter into the MFP database (you can do, too). You just insert 0.25 or 0.5 or 1.5 in the "servings" field for that food.

I do this kind of logging on most days, as a matter of fact. Today, for lunch I had half an avocado turkey burger without fries. I logged it as 0.5 of that item. I frequently log things like 0.5 serving of an apple; 5 servings of 1. oz of chardonnay; 1.5 servings of 8 oz. of skim milk, etc.

When I have 3 of something, I just log 3.0 servings of them.

Easy peasy.

For those who care ... it's very easy to log a fraction (1/4, 1/2, 5/6, 12/22nds, etc.) of anything that's in the My Fitness Pal database or that you enter into the MFP database (you can do, too). You just insert 0.25 or 0.5 or 1.5 in the "servings" field for that food.

I do this kind of logging on most days, as a matter of fact. Today, for lunch I had half an avocado turkey burger without fries. I logged it as 0.5 of that item. I frequently log things like 0.5 serving of an apple; 5 servings of 1. oz of chardonnay; 1.5 servings of 8 oz. of skim milk, etc.

When I have 3 of something, I just log 3.0 servings of them.

Easy peasy.

I don't think that was at all the issue Briardlady was having. She had gotten a breakfast sandwich form McDonald's and ate odd fractions of its various components. If she logged that as half a sandwhich, it would have been very innacurate, because she only ate 1/4 of the biscuit, 1/2 the bacon, etc. MFP doesn't break the nutritional info for that sandwhich down into its individual components. Some restaurants WILL let you "build" your meal on their web site and let you add/remove individual components from the nutritional totals and that gets you a little closer at least. Like if I eat 1/3 of the bacon from a sandwhich, I can add/remove it from the menu, see what difference that makes to the overall value of the sandwhich, and then do the math from there.

Oh, sorry ... I read too fast.

Yep, every day.

@@Briardlady - For what it's worth, that drove me nuts at first to not have it completely accurate but now I have finally settled on doing the best I can. So for example, I wouldn't specify McDonalds bacon. I would just type in bacon and estimate the amount. Same with shrimp. I like when I get it more accurate but the perfection of it was paralyzing me and it was better (for me) if I just made my best guess when I couldn't do it exact and went with that. It has worked for me.

Having said that, it appears you have lost a considerable amount of weight and are almost at goal, so whatever you are doing is working!

I've been logging with MFP for the last six months and recently bought a kitchen scale too which has helped a lot with figuring out an actual portion vs. my usual portions. I am hoping this will help me post op since it's a daily routine now.

im a chef so i know portion control and dont really see a need to log my food i do read nutrion labels for guidence

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.

Easy, you log the components and then for each component you put on the portion.

For example, I sometimes get an egg mcmuffin with an extra egg and eat half the muffin or sometimes no muffin.

im a chef so i know portion control and dont really see a need to log my food i do read nutrion labels for guidence

Do you at least keep up with your Protein?

I log EVERYTHING. Even if it's a literal bite. I'm a little obsessive about it, but it's something I've actually come to enjoy doing and I think it's definitely played a role in my success. I also weigh and measure everything because it never made much sense to log something if you don't know the accurate amount. This is partly why I so rarely dine out - I don't like guessing. I tried My Fitness Pal but never really liked the layout. I use the UP app religiously.