Hey gang,

This is my first post here, and so I'd like to first say "Hello!". I've already learned a lot from this forum, and I'm happy to have found such an inspiring and encouraging group to help me along the way to my goals. Maybe some day I can help others that are in the same situation as me :)

Anyways, I do have a question as well. I've been trying my best to keep a log of my progress, including a food log at fitday.com. This is quite difficult to do if you attempt to be anywhere near accurate unless you intend on weighing every piece of food before you eat it. This is something that I am considering, but of course not for the long term. Last weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada, and I went to fitday to enter Thanksgiving dinner. Basically I didn't know where to start! As per normal, various family members bring various dishes to the event, and I had arbitrary amounts of everything. I don't know the ingredients, nor do I know the portions or method of preparation.

I'm not dilusional to the point that if I spend 4 hours searching the food database for everything that I'll eventually come up with a food log entry within a few hundred calories. The 4 hours would be time wasted. What do you folks do in this case? I'm considering creating a custom food called "Thanksgiving dinner", serving size of 1, and 2500 kcals of energy and calling it a day. I didn't go overboard or anything like I usually do, but I did (of course) eat what I shouldn't eat on a plan such as mine. I don't particularly want to just ignore that day, as I've just started this routine fairly recently and I don't want to start skipping days already!

Since holidays are coming up, I thought I'd ask you guys how you handle days like these.

Cheers,
HeavyGuy

Welcome.

On occassions like this, I think it's best to skip the log for the day and just enjoy yourself.

In regards to weighing every piece of food, that is a concept I wholeheartedly agree with. For example, you would be suprised how different 1 tbsp of natural pb weighed and guestimated is. After weighing things awhile, it becomes second nature.


Jason

Well, I basically do what you did. If I just 'skip the day' then I start skipping weeks when I am on vacation or away on business and before I know it I'm 4 lb heavier with no idea of how many calories I was taking in. I keep a pretty decent log with weight and calories and it really helps to figure out when I should have refeeds and cycle calories. Since I average over 5-7 days, missing a day sort of messes up a weeks worth of data.

Of course you won't be spot on, but I would agree that you should start weighing at least some of your food, once you do this for a while, you will at least be able to give it a reasonable estimate. I still weigh and measure as much as I can though (not dinner with the wife).

You can also use the weights on the containers/packaging to get a better estimate.

For those large dinners/meals - I just guess, although it is somewhat of an 'educated' guess. I often use my own spreadsheet - estimate quantity of meat, potatoes, sauce etc.. I tend to steer clear of something if I cannot tell what it is, but if I do have it I just estimate. I was at an octoberfest last weekend and just kept a runing questimate in my head - including serveral servings of cake - came up with about 1500kcal for the meal. I can also tell somewhat by how my body reacts after logging food for a while.

Even if you are only accurate to 500kcal, at least you know you have 25000 +/- 500, rather than 4000 or 5000.

Anyway, that's just my 2cents from my experiences.

BTW I do think you can overdo the percision too. You know protein/carbs aren't exactly 4kcal/g and depend on the food! So no point in overdoing the precision down to the last g.

On occassions like this, I think it's best to skip the log for the day and just enjoy yourself.


Actually (having writen the above post), I do agree, if you can't enjoy yourself while guestimating calorie intake, you should probably just skip the log. It's going to depend on how you handle it, your personality and what stage you're at.