food tracking help

How do you track your food when you don't eat a portion. I am bad about stealing a french fry off my daugters plate. How do you track one french fry. This hapens all the time, and I don't know how to track stuff when it's just a piece of a portion.
I guess the lesson is to just eat schedules meals, but old habits are hard to break.

What program do you like the best? I have trouble finding my foods online  and I need one that  is going to be easy to use and has a lot of foods already listed.

I've been using a jountal and i have a book I look up the calorie and carb  counts but clearly this is not working. I know some of you have great success with an online program and I think I need to find  a user friendly one.

I am ready to get serious. At least a lot more serious than I have been the past 3 months with getting off the extra 8 lbs. I have lost 3-5 but I gain them back when some function comes up where there is a potluck with desserts, etc. I am going to have to pretend I'm  on the post op diet and pretend I need to  worry about a leak!

the only online one I have tried is the daily plate. you might be able to put in one french fry, I'm not sure.

you know, some people just write it down. pen & a little notebook you could keep with you - even at a potluck!
 
even without tracking, say, calories just writing down ONE FRENCH FRY and maybe 5 minutes later crossing out the one and putting 2 1/2 - that keeps you aware of what you are doing.

I have a hard time with tracking that stuff too.. maybe others have tips. Like how do you track something if you saute it in oil, if there is still oil in the pan? Or how do you track foods that you dehydrate where some of the oils come off?

I use Sparkpeople.com. Many people like myfitnesspal.com.  Both trackers have serving size calculators, so that you can convert tablespoons to a portion of a cup, etc.  You do have to weigh and measure your food to get accurate counts. How much does one french fry weigh? Who knows? How much oil was used? Maybe, weighing the french fry would give you a general idea of how the weight and you could use a serving calculator to figure it out.

I pre-measure the oil that I use, which is generally 1 tsp or 1.5 tsps. What is left in the pan is lost. I can't get that crazy over that small amount.

The online trackers do all the calculations for you. When I find a food that isn't listed, I enter my own, which then becomes a "favorite" so that the next time that I go to enter it, the food is already listed. They also have recipe calculators, so you can enter the ingredients of a recipe to determine the nutrient count per serving.

You can track most nutrients.

I don't eat out much, so that it isn't too much of a problem. When I do, I try to stick to protein and veggies, which make the calculations easier. I have been staying away from desserts, but have been known to have a "bite" of something. I can't calculate one bite of anything.

It can seem like a lot of work, but it keeps me accountable, mindful, and on track.

Thanks! I reallly want to know which programs people are using and why they like them

Do you write it down on paper and then at the end of the day calculate everything you ate?

I do a variety of different things. Since I am at a computer all day, I can enter the food as I go. Since I eat a lot of the same things, I have been entering the food the night before, since I get my breakfast and lunch ready for the next day the night before. I don't have a smartphone, but many of the online programs have applications so that you can enter the food as you go. Sometimes, I will write things down, if I can't enter the food right away. Once you develop a list of favorites, it goes very quickly. New foods, I will use the nutrition information listed on the package and enter it, into my favorites. If a package doesn't have the nutrition information listed, I don't eat it.

Gail

I use the nutrition tracker on OH under tools.   I find it very user friendly.  :o) Jeani

I keep a hand written journal and use myfitnesspal.com. I tried livestrong and sparkpeople but found myfitnesspal easier, more flexible, and a large database and you can enter your own foods such as your own recipes.

What I do is increase the size of something else that has a similar nutritional composition to make up for the little stuff that doesn't really add up. So today I had a McDonald's snack wrap but I didn't eat a lot of the tortilla. I did eat some of my kid's fries though so I put in the logging program that I had the whole snack wrap as I figured the fries and the wrap/sauce/cheese I didn't eat evened out.

I also count so once I get past a certain number of fries/bites of whatever, I do log it separately and don't try to fool myself that it wasn't enough to count.

On MyFitnessPal, a lot of the foods come with multiple ways to input. For example, I can count my pistachios and put in *exactly* that amount. Same with grapes. Not so much with fries though. LOL But I put in .1 for the quantity of a *lot* of things figuring it's better to over-count than under-count.

Hmmm, this is hard. I still use a little notebook (on volume 4) as I just couldn't get into the computer programs and need to get into the computer every time I ate something. So if it were me and I grabbed one french fry (and I have) I just make an educated guess and put down 20 calories or something. Its better than not tracking at all and will show how this stuff adds up which is the real issue.

So try the programs and see fi there is one you like.  I do better with pencil and paper. You are on the right track to be serious about journaling.

Diane