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People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

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Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#451

Post by DavidPiper »

nemomarx wrote: post #307
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is so dismissive it's almost condescending. I know how much food I need to eat in order to survive and maintain a healthy weight. But if I eat that amount of food, I'm still hungry . Doesn't matter what I eat. I'll eat a diet high in protein and fiber, moderate in fat, and low in sugar and starches, which is supposed to be the recipe to feel full without eating empty calories, but it doesn't work. 16 oz steak pa…

I'm kinda convinced that something has changed (prescription meds ending up in the water supply? micro plastics?) that makes people hungrier than they were in the mid 20th century. the effort required to eat less seems higher than ever, and you can't totally explain the gap and rise in obesity with just lifestyle and food availability. if some unknown element was making everyone's internal thermostat aim for more foo…

It is sugar (specifically fructose). Sugar reduces satiety and is absolutely everywhere.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42692418

Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#452

Post by cobalt »

aziaziazi wrote: post #29

For those that "track and weight everything" (how ?) do you manage ?: - sauces you make yourself? I often mix some different oils, mustard, seeds, miso, bit of leamon juice and spices… but weighting and logging everything will take 3x the time to do the sauce itself - different cooking time in one receive : oignons going first, tomato sauce in the middle and parsley at the end (but still cook a bit with residual heat…

I would look at nutrition labels for ingredients, estimate how much I used and approximate calories. For prepared foods, I'd look at other common examples with known quantities on the internet and extrapolate.

Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#453

Post by cobalt »

wnorris510 wrote: post #148
aziaziazi wrote: post #29

For those that "track and weight everything" (how ?) do you manage ?: - sauces you make yourself? I often mix some different oils, mustard, seeds, miso, bit of leamon juice and spices… but weighting and logging everything will take 3x the time to do the sauce itself - different cooking time in one receive : oignons going first, tomato sauce in the middle and parsley at the end (but still cook a bit with residual heat…

Depends what your goal is. My suggestion is if your goal is weight loss, don't think about calorie tracking at all. Count your servings of whole vegetables/fruit. Try to MAXIMIZE these. Yes, maximize in order to lose weight. It's far easier to track just this small subset of food. If you are maximizing these items, you'll naturally start feeling full and eat less sweets. Try to do this slowly over time, changing your…

Have you actually tried this?

Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#454

Post by dutchbookmaker »

dailykoder wrote: post #241
marinmania wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly recommend people get a food scale/measuring cups and weighing everything single thing they eat (even small things like nuts and cooking oil) for at least two weeks. After that I think you have a much better appreciation for how many calories your regular meals and snacks have.

I counted calories and put everything on a scale, for about 2 or 3 months in 2022 (iirc). And you are 100% right. I had absolutely no idea how much calories some food has. There were a lot of things, but I think cashews were my biggest eye opener (probably obvious to a lot of people). I easily achieved my goal of -10kg and saved A LOT of money, because I always had food prepared. And since I was going for a calorie d…

Nuts are so deceptive.

I love almonds and because I love them so much, if I don't portion them out then I end up eating 2-3X the calories that I thought I did so easily.

I pretty much eat 1k calories per day during the week and then 2-3k on the weekend.

It took constant lowering of calories over a year to get to this point but being hungry just feels normal and natural for me. There must be something with fat adaption going on as I never feel low on energy. Eating during the week has been completely divorced from a pleasurable activity to me too. Chicken breast, nuts, vegetables, not much else during the week. It is just easy at this point for me to wait to eat for pleasure on the weekend.

Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#455

Post by NoPicklez »

derbOac wrote: post #140
everdrive wrote: post #81

A lot of people seem to have a purely emotional relationship with resources which logic doesn't seem to be able to penetrate. Food and finances seem similar here. For years I tried to get my wife to stick to a grocery budget. That is, we have $n per week for all groceries. She'd blow badly over the limit every time. "But we needed [food]" or "These were toiletries, so they don't _count_ as groceries." Ultimately we n…

It's really hard (emotionally or motivationally) to undereat, which is what you need to do consistently for a long time to lose weight. Aside from the hunger issue, food is enmeshed in all sorts of value having nothing to do with nutritional value per se and everything to do with sociopsychological value. I think I've massively underestimated that in my own life, or misunderstood what that meant or something. I think…

I agree and from experience of keeping relatively the same weight 4kg+/- for over a decade. If I need to lose weight I need to undereat consistently and as another commenter mentioned, its also using techniques to remove as much satiety as possible.

I need to eat foods that are nutrient and fiber dense to keep me from feeling hungry or snacking, drinking lots of water etc. And importantly, its understanding that sometimes between meals I might go hungry and that's okay, I don't need to eat straight away to fix that hunger craving.

One of the challenges I faced and I'd say most people face as well, is that eating is a source of joy and comfort and when losing weight you sometimes need to delay that joy or comfort.

Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#456

Post by NoPicklez »

Right off the bat I'd already say its challenging to get people to calorie count and journal their food intake, unless they're nutritionists or dietitians.

I've never gone down the calorie counting route because it seems so fraught with error, plus it would also get exhausting. Particularly when you're eating food you didn't prepare.

Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#457

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

wnorris510 wrote: post #130

I've done research in this space for many years at Google AI and now at SnapCalorie. The thing I find interesting is how confident people are in their ability to estimate portion size visually, and in truth how wrong they all are. We published in CVPR (top peer reviewed academic conference for computer vision) and people are on average off by 53% and even trained professionals are still off by 40%. Basically if you w…

Even when you weight, the weight needs to be on cooked food, otherwise it's useless. I'm not going to cook a separate meal for every member of a family

Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#458

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

dutchbookmaker wrote: post #454
dailykoder wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I counted calories and put everything on a scale, for about 2 or 3 months in 2022 (iirc). And you are 100% right. I had absolutely no idea how much calories some food has. There were a lot of things, but I think cashews were my biggest eye opener (probably obvious to a lot of people). I easily achieved my goal of -10kg and saved A LOT of money, because I always had food prepared. And since I was going for a calorie d…

Nuts are so deceptive. I love almonds and because I love them so much, if I don't portion them out then I end up eating 2-3X the calories that I thought I did so easily. I pretty much eat 1k calories per day during the week and then 2-3k on the weekend. It took constant lowering of calories over a year to get to this point but being hungry just feels normal and natural for me. There must be something with fat adaptio…

Might be a good idea, but I'm constantly concerned when I eat chicken breast every meal of the week. I'd rather use legumes, but chicken breast is so low on calories...

Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#459

Post by valval »

gadders wrote: post #45
valval wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tracking and weighing everything is a massive waste of time and energy. There are no obese animals (humans included) in the wild. Just stop eating the wrong things. I maintain a muscular 225 by eating dairy, eggs, and meat. If I want to drop down to 215, I drop dairy.

How old are you?

I’m in my late twenties or early thirties.

Re: People are bad at reporting what they eat. That's a problem for dietary research

#460

Post by valval »

interludead wrote: post #434
OscarDC wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not him but because your answer surprised me I chose to reply: at 34 it is also something I always wondered. Becoming obese always seemed a little extreme to me and I fail to imagine how someone could reach that state without the accordingly extreme food-related habits - though maybe I'm just lucky to have the "right" metabolism and thus cannot relate. Though even if obesity was always linked to eating disorders, I u…

It's influenced by a range of factors beyond eating habits

Only in the sense that a ball dropping to the ground when you release it is influenced by a range of factors beyond gravity.
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