I’m looking to start a food log and I’m wondering how anal you guys are with yours. I’m going to try and follow the Massive Eating by Berardi and he says to throw veggies in everything. Do I count them in my total calories? I know he says to not count the carbs in them so I am not sure if the cals count or not.
This is my main issue right now. Thanks for the input.
Todd
No point in doing it if you ain’t gonna do it right. And anal is oh so right.
[quote]Todd S. wrote:
I’m looking to start a food log and I’m wondering how anal you guys are with yours. I’m going to try and follow the Massive Eating by Berardi and he says to throw veggies in everything. Do I count them in my total calories? I know he says to not count the carbs in them so I am not sure if the cals count or not.
This is my main issue right now. Thanks for the input.
Todd[/quote]
Girls who keep food logs are definitely the best candidates for anal. You can see beforehand exactly what you’re getting into.
[quote]Todd S. wrote:
I’m looking to start a food log and I’m wondering how anal you guys are with yours. I’m going to try and follow the Massive Eating by Berardi and he says to throw veggies in everything. Do I count them in my total calories? I know he says to not count the carbs in them so I am not sure if the cals count or not.
This is my main issue right now. Thanks for the input.
Todd[/quote]
I would get in the habit of counting everything, at least initially. It’s always better to have more information rather than less.
My food log is very generic. But I’ve never gone into a real ‘cut’ phase.
I’ve gone to lose 10 after bulking up some , but that’s about it. I mean I don’t count my almonds or anything like that. My fist is the measurment I use for just about a serving of most foods.
It’s more to make me consious about what I’m eating and when, than it is to keep track of every possible calorie or fat or carb or whatever goes in me.
That said, again, I lift for power not BB
The more diligence you put into your work the more you will receive in benefits. The more I research and learn and record and watch what I’m shoving down the hatch the better the results seem to be. Good luck
[quote]apayne wrote:
No point in doing it if you ain’t gonna do it right. And anal is oh so right.[/quote]
PM me!!
sASSquatch, I thought I told you! Not on the public boards!
Vegetables have very few calories which is why you can safely throw them in P+F meals. But still they add up & it’s good to know how many cals you are eating.
By counting both carbs and fiber you can see what is what, I subtracted fiber from carbs to get carb cals, which roughly works.
My food log was an excel spreadsheet with P, F, C and Fiber for everything I ate. It is not hard once you have a few months of data. My log was pretty automated.
I also tracked my weight each day plus how many METs I expended working out (using something I found here in some Berrardi article). You can figure out a lot about yourself and how you respond and can adjust your diet accordingly.
Be as anal with your food log as you are toward your goals.
Do most people that keep food logs weigh/measure their food? If so, are the meals all preplanned for the week?
The point of keeping a food log is so you have something to reference. Whether you are seeing the results you want or not, having an accurate food log with help you pinpoint exactly what is or is not working.
I’ve just started (about six weeks) keeping a food log.
Honestly, get as anal as possible, even if it’s only for a month. Measure everything. Why? I eyeballed portions, made guesses on macronutrient profiles and was stunned by how much I was out some times.
Examples:
the amount of meat you need for protein. I didn’t realise it would be so much. I was accustomed to a certain amount of beef, I ate extra and at the end of the day, it was nowhere near how much I thought it was.
calories in vegetables. This was something else that I just didn’t know. It’s one thing to read it. It’s another thing to down half a bag of frozen veggies and realise the calorie count for the day is barely affected.
cheat days. Boy, there was some surprises with this one. I decided it was more important to be anal about the food log than be anal about what I ate. I was right. I am still stunned by how many calories/carbs are in junk food. But now, with a food log, it’s personal.
The most important thing I learned however is how it all relates to me. It makes everything personal. Instead of wondering if something is high in calories, high in fat, I know exactly how it fits into what I’m eating and if it’s worth it for me or not. You need a detailed food log to get that sense.
I remember one of my old room-mates going through a phase of weight loss, and he pointed out that a particular Lean Cuisine meal had 7g of fat.
“So?” I asked him. “How much fat do want a day? Is 7g good, bad, astronomically high or low?” He couldn’t answer.
I’ll keep logging my food intake until I’m eating well automatically. Then, I’ll probably do what Chris Shugart does (I just typed Christ Shugart again. Coincidence? I think not) - leave the log when I’m doing OK, start logging again when I start to gain weight or need to be more strict. And while I’m logging, I’ll be pretty strict about everything because I want that data to be as correct as possible.
Speaking of Shugs, I leave you with what he posted when I posed the same/similar question:
[quote]Shugs wrote:
…
You’re going to drive yourself nuts! No need to get so anal about it. I count everything pre-cooked and get an estimate. No need to worry about the rest really. Even if you’re off (some calories were left in the pan or blender, lost two calories to food stuck between front teeth, etc) as long as you’re consistent you’ll see where you need to be over time.
For example, let’s say you figure you need 200g protein per day. Well, if you got really really anal and dove into the minutia pool, you’d see you were actually getting 195 per day. But who cares? Getting an estimate and not sweating the small stuff will still tell you what you need to know and allow you to reap all the benefits of keeping a food log.
My observations are that when people make it too difficult and time consuming, they don’t do it for long. I’d rather see them get it 95% right and do it for a long time than 100% right and quit after a week. You don’t need to keep a food log forever, but everyone needs to for a while. They’d learn a ton.
…
If it adds calories, count it. Although most herbs/spices don’t. Sauces are the real worry and it’s easy to go overboard on dressings. But I see this as the same as carb counting. People ask, “Do I have to count the fiber carbs in oatmeal?” Well, they may not be “bad” carbs but why make breakfast a math project? Count them and go from there. Again, it’s easy to go nuts with the minutia, but it’s not necessary. [/quote]
This is a great site to record your food log.
i detailed everything at first. i learned a lot of stuff was going on that i didn’t realize.
now i don’t keep it all the time but i’ve built up a good working knowledge of the foods i eat. so i go back to logging every three months for a week or so just to check in. or if i have specific goals, new workouts, or foods.