More on Tracking By Week (repost)

I'd like a bit of discussion on the idea of tracking and managing calories.  I find that using the tools to track daily calories is too hard..  especially when you're making your own meals.  Unless you buy a scale and measure food exactly in each recipe, I feel it's hard to be accurate in counting calories.  Additionally, I get the idea that many people (myself included) simply don't have the motivation or willpower to input so much data into some site every day.

I've recently been thinking about an easier way to keep track of calories, as well as help keep on track with a food budget and meal planning.  My idea (I'm pretty sure it's not original) is to figure out how many calories you should be taking in per week, as well as the balance of fats/carbs/protein, and figuring out what to buy for a week to meet this goal.  My reasoning is, it's easier to think generally about the kind of foods you like, and then say "okay, to meet these goals i'll need six pounds of chicken, two heads of lettuce, four sweet potatoes, 1 cup olive oil, etc", then just throw the food together in meals and try to spread it out evenly, combining things however you like. 

advantages:

1) easier input whole food items into tracking sites, rather than try to figure out what fractions of things were used in a certain meal.  in fact it eliminates inputting per meal entirely.

2) easier to plan and stick to a budget.

3) easier to avoid temptations to eat other things, because you'll have enough food around to make something.

4) it's easy to make a few big dishes and eat the leftovers all week and still be on track.

5) on days where you're more hungry, you can eat more without having to figure out how much and of what you can eat.  On days when you're not as hungry you can eat less without worrying about making up for it later (which is good if you're trying to build lean muscle for example).

disadvantages:

1) you need to be aware that it's best to try to split your food intake and protein/fat/carb balance evenly every day..  with this plan it might be too easy to binge one day with all your fat and carbs.

2) if you end up going out to eat or something, or you break down and have some snacks, it will throw off your weekly plan.


Still, I think this may work better for people like me, and I plan to implement this soon to try it.