4 ms·

> Yup, it will. Nobody said tracking nutrients was quick. well, many say it's "easy" (it's not)

by agos 2y ago

nemomarx 2y ago
tbh it's "easy" if you're also doing a pretty specific focused diet. (maybe simple would be a better phrase - it can be reduced to very simple steps. mentally choosing to do this and enduring it is difficult, but the process itself is straightforward.) like the worry about sauces is true but if you eat mostly chicken and rice and one slice of bread a day you can really get that variability down. when I was heavily restricting I would only cook very simple things like that and otherwise eat packaged food, and it certainly worked to lose weight. but you sacrifice variety and flavor and you'll feel kinda stressed and hungry for months at a time. the last factor is living with people who are not dieting - I personally think this makes the required willpower basically impossible. if there is food in the house you will eventually succumb to the temptation of eating it in my experience. it's much easier if you live alone and only have the diet food in the house at all, buying nothing else, etc.
- InitialLastName 2y ago
  One insidious thing is that it's incredibly easy to do food tracking if you eat mostly single-serving prepared foods, but those are, by nature of being incredibly palatable and digestible, the most psychologically and metabolically challenging foods to maintain a calorie deficit with.
  - nemomarx 2y ago
    yeah, although there's a variety there and you can find some lower and higher ones. (bags of anything starchy are difficult, sandwiches are very variable.. I leaned on wraps and stuff like Chicken salad without toppings a lot.) some prepared foods are basically the "empty calories" that people always talk about, like chips. high calorie (and usually like 3-4 servings per bag, not single serving really at all) and also low satiation so they almost make you hungrier to eat.
- agos 2y ago
  I get what you're saying, but I'm referring strictly to the task of nutrient tracking. I'm doing it right now while _not_ trying to lose weight (or gain it, or necessarily stay the same weight) and it's a big game of eyeballing stuff where it's incredibly hard to get it right

> Yup, it will. Nobody said tracking nutrients was quick. well, many say it's "easy" (it's not)

by agos 2y ago

> Yup, it will. Nobody said tracking nutrients was quick. well, many say it's "easy" (it's not)

tbh it's "easy" if you're also doing a pretty specific focused diet. (maybe simple would be a better phrase - it can be reduced to very simple steps. mentally choosing to do this and enduring it is difficult, but the process itself is straightforward.) like the worry about sauces is true but if you eat mostly chicken and rice and one slice of bread a day you can really get that variability down. when I was heavily restricting I would only cook very simple things like that and otherwise eat packaged food, and it certainly worked to lose weight. but you sacrifice variety and flavor and you'll feel kinda stressed and hungry for months at a time. the last factor is living with people who are not dieting - I personally think this makes the required willpower basically impossible. if there is food in the house you will eventually succumb to the temptation of eating it in my experience. it's much easier if you live alone and only have the diet food in the house at all, buying nothing else, etc.

InitialLastName 2y ago
One insidious thing is that it's incredibly easy to do food tracking if you eat mostly single-serving prepared foods, but those are, by nature of being incredibly palatable and digestible, the most psychologically and metabolically challenging foods to maintain a calorie deficit with.
- nemomarx 2y ago
  yeah, although there's a variety there and you can find some lower and higher ones. (bags of anything starchy are difficult, sandwiches are very variable.. I leaned on wraps and stuff like Chicken salad without toppings a lot.) some prepared foods are basically the "empty calories" that people always talk about, like chips. high calorie (and usually like 3-4 servings per bag, not single serving really at all) and also low satiation so they almost make you hungrier to eat.
agos 2y ago
I get what you're saying, but I'm referring strictly to the task of nutrient tracking. I'm doing it right now while _not_ trying to lose weight (or gain it, or necessarily stay the same weight) and it's a big game of eyeballing stuff where it's incredibly hard to get it right