First up, I'm really sorry if this has been asked already. I did a quick search and couldn't find anything, so hopefully I'm not repeating anything that's been said too recently!
For those of you who track your calories in some sort of system, when do you log your food intake in relation to when you actually eat?
Do you eat first, and then track the food, either with or without knowing how many calories the food is?
Do you track the food just before you eat it (e.g., tracking meal by meal)?
Do you track the food for the whole day in one go, and then just eat what you have already tracked as the day goes on?
Do you do something different to the methods described above?
Also...
Do you use a combination of different methods, depending on the circumstances or how you are feeling?
Have you changed methods since you started tracking food intake, or have you stuck with the same thing?
I was just wondering which of these methods you all used, which you found to be particularly helpful or unhelpful for you, and why.
I ask because I usually track just before or just after I've eaten (with a good idea of how many calories I've eaten in my head), but today, I'm going for lunch with a friend to a restaurant, and this morning, I decide to track my food for the whole day in advance, as I wanted to see what lunch/dinner combinations I could select without going over my calorie limit for the day. I have a feeling that on days where I can do this, advance tracking might help me stay on track, if I can see that by just following the plan and eating only what I've put on my list for that day, I will reach my daily calorie goal.
This situation has made me think that different methods might be helpful, so I'd be really interested to hear how you all track food intake.
Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead! My mantra. I have a repetroir of meals that vary in cals but typically can be mixed and matched on any particular day and then the gaps are filled by various snacks. Typically what happens is that I have a general idea of what my dinners are going to be for the week, I do this to help me put together a grocery list. So the night before I pack my lunch (almost always leftover dinner) and pack my breakfast. First thing in the am I log those items and the planned dinner and fill in the rest of the cals with snacks. If I need lower cal snacks because dinner is higher cals then I do that. I typically always know when im going out to eat and will plan the days meals around what I anticipate I'll be eating there. It's sounds complex on paper, bit it's second nature to me now.
I rarely plan ahead. I write down everything I eat either just before or just after I eat it. At this point, I dont really care what I eat. I like eggs and bacon for breakfast. I snack a lot. Last night for dinner I had steak and potatoes. For me, it's not what I eat as much as my stopping point. I stop when I reach 1600 calories. It only takes one day of hitting 1600cal @ 11am and not being to eat for the rest of the day to give you enough incentive to not do that again. Now, I'm lucky to get to 1600cal. since I no longer eat fast food (except for the Wendy's grilled chicken if I must (300 cal)), never french fries anymore, and never a soft drink that isn't diet. I lived off diet coke as my sole source of liquids for probably a decade. Now I limit myself to one a day. I find that it doesn't quench my thirst like water does and i HATED water until I stopped eating fast food. I don't know how ff and water are related, but I know they are.
That's all I've done and I've dropped 55lbs since May 1st.
Breakfast - I track it when I've eaten it. I know roughly how much anything I'm likely to eat for breakfast will come in at.
I then add in a fancy instant coffee mix, which I may or may not have: I have it for my afternoon snack, provided nothing's gone wrong planningwise. If I find I've miscalculated somewhere along the day, it gives me a tiny leeway.
I try to have a small morning snack. It's fairly unvarying, either a couple of oat crackers (70 cals total) with a scant ounce of cheese, or some berries and plain yogurt. I make it, log it, eat it.
If I've got my lunch ready, I enter it. Today though, I've just made a vast pot of chilli, and I didn't know what a portion would be until I'd made it - but I always enter before I eat. BTW, it's deliccccccious and so hot that I can only eat 1/24th of it at a time, so low calorie!
Once the lunch details are in, I look at how many calories are left for the evening meal, and plan accordingly.
By this stage, 90% of the time I find I've got spare calories. I know under-eating for a few days wouldn't kill me but I don't want to get into the habit of going too low. So I put in some nuts and fruit for the afternoon snack. So far (Day #59) if I've reviewed my calories and found no room for snacks, I just haven't had one. I don't have huge will-power, I'm too scared to cheat!
I usually enter what I think I'm going to eat early in the day while I'm nursing my cup of coffee. Like ncuneo I have set basic meals I typically eat - do I have fresh fruit to add to yogurt for breakfast this morning? Or am I feeling like an eggy start to the day? What am i doing today? Then I enter my best guesses in. Because I've got my typical meals in myplate already I can select from the list and have my whole day entered in under a minute. If I have time around dinner time, when I'm having my 4oz of wine maybe, I go back and edit/add/delete. Or else I review at the very end of the night.
Tonight is a big birthday bash for a friend. I already have a good sense of what food will be there so I've entered what I plan on eating. This gives me some control over my choices once there and also tells me how much "wiggle room" I have if unexpected goodies show up. One thing I keep firmly in mind is just because I have a 200 calorie deficit in today's plan doesn't mean I have to eat that piece of birthday cake.
Most days I log as I'm eating. The program I use doesn't show calories until I go looking for them but does show me how many servings of fruit, veg, dairy, grains, protein so late in the day I start watching that to plan the rest of my eating for the day. For example if low on veg I would decide to have vegetable soup for dinner. Low on dairy? Evening snack will be bowl of yogurt or a milkshake after my workout.
When I think I've eaten for the last time for the day I check the calorie count and if less than 1200, I add one more snack. My calorie range is 1200-1900/day with the average around 1600 by eating this way. When I started my range was wider but the average was closer to 1500.
I track my breakfast, lunch and snacks first thing when I get to work. I know what they will be and just get it done. If I deviate, which rarely happens, I go in and fix it. My dinners aren't ever really planned, but I have meals in my head for the week. So at the end of the day, I see what calories I have left and plan to make what fits accordingly.
I use the Lose It application on my phone, so I log my food throughout the day. I know this tool has been a huge part of my success in calorie counting. I generally have an idea of what I will eat the next day, but I don't plan it in detail. Keeping the fridge and pantry filled with healthy food makes it easier. I try to keep things simple and rotate my favorite foods.
I try to plan my meals out ahead of time, including snacks and I log my calories as I'm planning the food. That way I know exactly how many calories I have to work with.
Sometimes I end up not eating the whole meal, and I can usually guess at how much I've avoided, but I leave the calories there anyway. If by looking at what's left I see that I've maybe not consumed 100 or so of my calories alloted for that meal and I'll be well below my calorie range I snack on something to make up for it.
I've found that this way works really well for me. I like knowing in advance how many calories I have to work with. Just the other night my roommate made some lamb chops and I went to the calorie counter to track how MUCH of the food I could eat before eating it.
By counting calories I AM in charge of my weight loss, and I have the numbers to prove it!
ETA: The only meal I don't plan is dinner, but once I know what I'm making I figure out the calories so I know how much of it I can eat.
I normally plan and log my meals and calories for the day when I wake up. If I do eat something extra, which is rare, or I don't eat something that is on my plan for the day, before bed I go in and make the amendments.
I am home for the summer with the kids, so right now it is easy for me to track meal by meal. When the kids and I go back to school and I am back to packing lunches/snacks/and sometimes dinner I will plan my meals ahead of time.
If I am going out to eat or going to a party, I will try to be on the light side of my CCs for a few days before and a few days after, as well as trying to pick healthy options while out.
I log after but my goal is 400 calories a meal. I am pretty good now at estimating. I try to eat large meals at lunch so I adjust the other meals if need be or get in a second workout if need be. (like today, dumb Mexican restaurant )
I log in the morning for the day except dinner. I log all the calories I will have for the day because three of my meals are eaten at work. I log dinner at dinner.
I keep track as I go. I has an calorie counting app on my phone. So when its time to eat I open the fridge then check my phone to see how many calories I'm up to for the day and eat accordingly.
When do you track or log your food intake?
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