27 Months out and 13 lbs up from my lowest weight! Not a happy camper. At my last NUT appointment she said isn't it crazy that you can eat a very healthy diet, and still gain? Yep, it sure is. Over the past 27 months I have pretty much refused to track my foods. Tried it before and it made me crazy. However, weight gain makes me even more crazy, so.... going to give it another try. I think I'm going to try to log the night before and maybe even do the same menu a few days per week for simplicity. I am using the free version of My Fitness Pal at the moment. Any tips/tricks advice from the expert trackers out there. Also doing a little intermittent fasting but need to increase that I suppose. Thank you for chiming in

On 8/15/2018 at 10:45 AM, GreenTealael said:

So no one else is meal prepping?

I do pack my breakfast, lunch and snacks for work 90% of the time, so that helps. Been trying to do individual freezer meals. I do them sometimes, but need to do the macros so I can grab and track. I need to work on portioning and entering recipes in MFP.

I do weigh and track religiously. Even the bad stuff. For me there is a very real and true cause/effect relationship with what goes in my piehole and what registers on the scale within 1-3 days. Like BV, I also keep a spread sheet of date, weight, cals, and macros. It literally takes me maybe 10-15minutes a day to do all the planning, logging and numbers.

In the morning I DO put everything into the food log based on my best guess. I also know by now what volume/weight I eat. I know that I have a large functional pouch, so I actually stick to my RDs totals for volume and know how that relates to the weight on the scale for most of my meals because I've been doing this a while.

If I have deviations to the plan, then I go back in after the meal (as soon as I can get there) and modify my log.

It sounds tedious, but I use the free MFP and you can ask it to remember meals, and things. You can also copy one meal to another day. So once you populate your food logs, it's a quick step to do your daily menus.

I am mostly happy eating the same things for breakfast and lunch. If I find something filling and satisfying that leaves me with a full tummy for hours and a good/healthy energized feeling, then why not put it down as a success meal and eat it frequently? That way I only have to figure out something for dinner! By doing this, I can hit my cal/macro budget easier and also know I'm hitting my protein goals.

I also eat pretty clean, no-nonsense stuff. I'm still in weight loss mode--so why not? I mostly eat grilled chicken, or ground turkey, fish, shrimp, some lean pork, and beef now and then. It mostly doesn't have sauce--just dense protein. Then I eat veg/salad with it and almost always avocado and tomato. Done.

I do have some meals with shenanigans and totally crap choices. I'm a work in progress, or maybe just a piece of work. LOL. But I log that too. You can do this. But you just have to re-enter "beast mode" and really get fixated on results.

On 8/15/2018 at 10:10 AM, BigViffer said:

I don't see how logging food before you've eaten it works for anyone. Even this far out, I cannot say what I am going to eat for the entire day.

When it comes to the godawful imperial measuring system (cups of spinach, or 1/4 of pork rinds) I always switch my scale to grams. The problem with the imperial system is many people/labels say 2 ounces (weight) instead of quarter cup when they are referencing Fluid ounces (volume) . The metric system avoids that confusion with grams for weight and milliliters for volume.

I am meticulous with my tracking and have been for quite a while. I find it a valuable tool to prevent me from overeating. It also helps me determine if the hunger is real or just in my head. If I am already at 2,000 calories for the day, it is most likely head hunger. However, if I have been exceedingly active that day, it would make sense that I am truly hungry and need the sustenance.

The free version of MyFitnessPal is still pretty darn powerful if you are handy with spreadsheets. I just use their report and scrape the data from the HTML and enter it into my spreadsheet:

Those pictures are from last year, but the file is the same today but with more data.

Dannnggggggggggg, those are awesome. I need to be more meticulous with mine as well i just normally use the free MFP and be done but those are really good

I know its a pain in the beginning but for me, its the easiest and least painful way to find out exactly how many calories/protein/carbs etc that I have eaten for that day.

I have been logging since my pre op days and because I basically eat a lot of the same things, I can make life easier for myself by adding those things to the "my meals" section.

You only have to do it once and then you can reuse those items time and time again. Its seriously worth the effort.

You could be gaining muscle! I would continue to measure your inches instead of weighing yourself. Do not become addicted to the scale! If you do, best time to weigh is in the morning right when you wake up, fasted. Good luck!