Food log

[Smutty]

A lot of the food I eat, Idk how to log it. Like when I go to a buffet or make my own food. How would I go about logging it?

[Synrosa]

I will either open up a text file on my phone or I will will just write down on a piece of paper what I ate. 

There are usually identification cards on the sneeze guard of the buffet so I just write the name down when I go sit down. 

Or you could always just take a photo of the ID card to remember. 

Then I used to Google the average calories of the food, enter that into Fitbit and guestimate how much I ate. 

I think it's gotten easier now that you can just do a search. Most of the time, many suggestions are available so you can just pick one instead of inputting it yourself if you don't want to. 

Even if you're not being exact, you're probably fairly close and it's a better record than none at all. It's a lot easier to resist that pizza or piece of cake when you can roughly see how much you've already eaten that day. 

[SunsetRunner]

It's possible to write down foods eaten as suggested by @Synrosa

You can also write the time of eating, what you eat, portion size.. how you felt before / during / after eating. Not feeling so hungry, though when eating, felt could eat more.. like something's missing and ate until feeling comfortably satisfied, not stuffed.

By writing down the foods.. you likely don't want to see to many cookies appearing on the paper.. you must be honest and write down everything as soon after you eat or write down before you eat it.

With writing down, wanting to take care of your precious body, you'll more likely want to eat / write down natural foods (fruits, vegetables, eggs, meats, fish,..) as minimal as processed, leaving satisfied for longer and lower on calories overall.. not really needing to keep track of the calories, but how you feel after eating.. and eating healthier foods overall.. everything else in moderation, it's tough to overeat, even when eating until comfortably satisfied (not stuffed)..

When just eaten a epic meal, when grabbing for a snack, thinking twice about.. could be out of habit instead of hunger.. (if eaten lots through the day already), or if eaten less throughout the day, it may be hunger, but more likely taking a piece of fruit / yoghurt.. or some healthier foods instead since writing it down..

The actual nutritients / calories in foods eaten will be different, tracking calories will always be of, even if weighing the foods. Depending on foods eaten, the body uses more or less energy for digesting the certain food (the food plan doesn't take into account those extra calories).. or food which contain a label can in real contain more or less calories.. and not be accurate to the calorie..

It can be used as a guide, as baseline, to change food habits..

[emili]

buffets are tough when you are trying to lose weight. for many reasons the main one being- the food is not cooked to a nutrition standard it is cooked to bulk. Unless you are sticking to salad and the "carving station" you are eating highly processed food. not good and super high in calories and salt. home cooking is easier. I have a scale and I put a giant bowl on it and zero it out. Then I add whatever I am going to cook and weigh and log, zeroing out after each addition. Once I have my total, I divide that by the portions and enter that as my meal. When I go out to eat and I go all the time, I ask for nutrition facts. If they don't have them, I ask for the oz of their portions. That they have- they have to since each customer has to get the same. so I know if I have grilled chicken with brocolli a light beer and a cup of soup, the only variable for me will be the soup which I will look up. The rest I eat so often, I know the calories per oz. I hope this helps... please ask more questions- the community is pretty great with helping out.

[Smutty]

For example I'm a line cook & I made a burger with fresh avocado pico & shredded cheese.