[ma26]

So starting yesterday, in the am I decided to go into fitday (I haven't counted calories in a long time, and never done it consistently enough to know calories of things off my head) and put in the food I planned to eat for the entire day. I tried to include the healthy clean foods I want to be eating, and stuff I had on hand so I knew I could definately eat it that day. Well I pretty well stuck right to it! DH did bring home a cookie from work, we split it in half, I took three bites and threw the rest of my half away, and I recorded it. Made a few other changes at the end of the day to account for differences from the planned menu. But for the most part I stuck right to it, and had a great calorie count. I did the same this morning, and am quite excited for this new idea. Wondering if any others have pre-planned their meals, and whether it was a success of not? It is alot of time to take up in the am, and on busier days than the last few I wonder how well I can do this. My hope is maybe I get a few weeks in, and then I'll be able to figure out a daily plan without spending so much time logging things all in the morning. Would LOVE feedback about this kind of thing.

[Jesszika]

I plan all my meals minus dinner out in advanced (unless its my night to cook at home).. but typically my husband doesn't like what I cook, so I don't cook. (go figure).

I plan at least breakfast, snacks, and lunches out though and always allow myself enough wiggle room to consume whatever concoction my dear sweet husband has decided to put on my plate that night.

[Meg]

I still do it every morning. It's simple because I eat the same foods almost all the time, so everything is right there in my Recent Foods list. It takes about three minutes and my day is done. And it's easy to go back and adjust for changes that come up. For me, it's essential to have the framework for the day so I can be sure that all the food I planned is prepped and ready.

[nelie]

I plan all my meals out too except dinner which I just generally have an idea of. It is easy to go over your calories, points, etc if you don't plan ahead.

[ma26]

Thanks for comments! I do think that perhaps planning breakfast and lunch will be more doable everyday long term. It did surprise me how quickly I go to my calorie goal. And it was eye opening to have to adjust food I had already eneterd to ensure I was on plan.
nelie- "you can't out exercise poor eating habits" - I love that! It's like the story of my life. I used to do the whole "well I can have another piece of pzza, I'll just run and extra two miles tomorrow" You know how often that happened?

[setweight4life]

That is a nice strategy.

[bargoo]

I plan all meals and snacks ahead of time. Takes my less than 5 minutes, I am not rigid about it and make alterations when needed , just remembering to stay with the same amount of calories.

[StuffedBunny]

I plan my food a few days in advance, including dinner. My boyfriend and I cook at home mostly so I usually know what we are planning for the next upcoming days. It makes it so much easier to stick to things! When I don't count it seems like I go either way over or eat way too little(out of fear! ha).

[mulder1921]

I also plan out everything until dinner. Use Lose It app on my ipod touch.

[ncuneo]

The day of or day before I go to the grocery store I plan out my dinners for the week. My lunches are usually left over dinner so that essentially is planned too. I have the same handful of breakfasts everyday so there isn't much thinking there either. So the morning of I plan my entire day out based off my dinner and lunch. So if my dinner and/or lunch are higher in cals one day then I have a lower cal breakfast and snacks. If they are lower cal then I have a higher cal breakfast and snacks. This has helped me tremendously, but I'm an obsessive planner and control freak so it's really kinda thereaputic. I plan on doing this for the rest of my life and it has become just the way I do things. I love it!

[ma26]

I need to have all you ladies talent at doing this so quickly! I do think it makes sense to do it in some fashion forever. I wont want to log in and count it all forever, but then again if I get it down to five mins then I'll be good for that too! You have inspired me to stick with it. "Failing to plan is planning to fail" I remind myself of this all the time

[jynx]

Yep, me too, plan all my meals and eat similar things each day so I don't have to think too much about it. I also find it fun to come up with new, low cal dinner ideas and love to cook

[gottadoit2010]

Hello...in the past I had my most success when I would plan out my week of meals. I was in Weight Watchers at the time and I used the selections plan (old school now) but I still remember how excited I was for my special Friday meal of a hamburger, coke and baked fries. I haven't heard of fitday so not sure what it is but seems to be a calorie tracker of some sort. I should look into it.

[Scatterheart]

I'm just starting but I've found this got easy FAST. Like some other people have said, you eat similar things so you learn the calories by heart and it makes it a lot easier to plan. This works especially well for me on weekdays when everything is more structured.

Now I just need to work something out for the weekends...

[Scatterheart]

P.S. - I debated posting about this, because it is another weight loss community site, but decided it might be helpful because it does serve a different function. It's called PEERtrainer and it is a community where you can keep a daily food log. Essentially you form a group and they keep an eye on your log and you on theirs (ideally --you do need to fish around for a good group of people that will stick to this with you). I find it gives me the extra incentive to eat the right things, and to keep up the log - it's cyclical.

The only unfortunate thing is that you need to use a separate site to look up the calories of your foods, it's not built in like some other sites. It's not specifically about calories there, so I guess that's probably why (not everyone who logs calorie counts). I'm mostly there for the support and community (Ive searched long and hard and found a great group to work with) so I don't mind too much. I recommend it highly if you're interested in planning and logging your food and exercise.