Do you allow yourself a day off?

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  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    tracyannk28 wrote: »
    OK - so for those of you who log every day: Is this something you are planning to do for life? Or just until you lose all your weight? Or until you've been at maintenance for a while?

    I don't know yet. I imagine that after logging food for a year or so and getting to my goal weight I may have a pretty good idea of what I can eat without checking calories. I might feel comfortable stopping logging food unless my weight starts going up again.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    WickyDunn wrote: »
    Just wondering if people do this? Not go totally overkill with eating everything in sight but do you allow yourself a day when you just don't count?
    I've been maintaining for over a year after a 44 weight loss. I didn't log when I was in Ireland for two weeks, but I otherwise weigh food and log every day. Accountability will keep me on the right track, my motivation being how great I feel 44 pounds lighter.
  • trina1049
    trina1049 Posts: 593 Member
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    I never take a day off and I've logged for 371 days so far. I log the good, bad, and the ugly but try to make most of it good. I've become really mindful of everything that goes into my mouth and feel so much better that it's worth it to me to keep logging everything. I've eaten above my daily goal occasionally but pre-planned the overages and then just move on. It's made no difference in my overall weight loss. Every taste, lick, bite goes on MFP by the end of the day.
  • Cazionthopolis
    Cazionthopolis Posts: 5
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    Everybody needs a day off, I have at least a day per week that I have a meal that is not so on the healthy side, but portions are important because you do not want to go overboard. Moderation is the key for me. I do count it on the food diary to keep awareness of what I am really consuming and not loose focus of my goal.
  • syedsaad
    syedsaad Posts: 156 Member
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    Weekend (but I try to be more active on weekends as well to reduce the negative impact)
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    The only times I take days off is when I have a social/eating occasion which is very rare. This monday we're going to a barbeque, there'll be lots if fish, meat and salads. I'm not going to sit there racking my brain about how many calories are in this and that. It would be near impossible to do as I won't have prepared any of the food myself
  • Ang108
    Ang108 Posts: 1,711 Member
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    WickyDunn wrote: »
    Just wondering if people do this? Not go totally overkill with eating everything in sight but do you allow yourself a day when you just don't count?

    No, just like I don't take a day off from brushing my teeth, or combing my hair. Since this is a lifestyle, I plan for treats within my calories and never feel that I need to go outside of that limit, because nothing is forbidden. And even if I don't plan for them, I usually can work around it and not exceed my calories plus some from exercise.

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    not deliberately, no. If I know I'm going to be eating crap food, I'll try to limit what I eat the rest of the day to help mitigate the damage. If it's too late for that well... some days are like that. I don't beat myself up or feel bad for the occasional bad food day or Holidays/ special occasions, but (for me) it's far too easy for me to turn one cheat day into a cheat month into ' who cares anyways screw this'. So... no cheat days and forgiveness for those times when I get off track, as long as i get back on! ;)
  • DonT58
    DonT58 Posts: 23 Member
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    Not me. I've counted every day for the 20 weeks I've been on here. I think on a couple of occasions, both pizza, I didn't worry too much about it. I still counted and entered the information. But what counts is being happy with the scoreboard (weight/pounds lost). We plan on counting even after we achieve our weight loss goals.
  • obscuremusicreference
    obscuremusicreference Posts: 1,320 Member
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    I took 11 days off over Christmas. Meant to take 7 but I had the hardest time getting back on the wagon. In a way it was good because I had been dieting for 4 months and just maintained my weight, but I can't imagine doing that once a week. If it works for you, do it.
  • obscuremusicreference
    obscuremusicreference Posts: 1,320 Member
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    tracyannk28 wrote: »
    OK - so for those of you who log every day: Is this something you are planning to do for life? Or just until you lose all your weight? Or until you've been at maintenance for a while?

    I spent too many years losing and gaining. This is the only thing that's worked. Maybe I don't have that internal "that's enough cake for one week" meter.
  • 1lsttyme
    1lsttyme Posts: 24 Member
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    I don't take a day off, but maybe a treat day. Not the whole day, but if it is date night I stick to the plan through the day, maybe even make a big salad for lunch. Then when we go to dinner I can have more freedom. Did it just tonight. I didn't have the Coke I always want, but had fries and broccoli with my STEAK,mmmmm!

    Tomorrow back to the grind stone!
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    No. Because I know there will be days when I just can't be as accurate or there is a celebration, and life in general. In other words, I don't PLAN cheat days. I let them happen when they happen though. And I always try to log as much as I can.
  • Tea_Mistress
    Tea_Mistress Posts: 105 Member
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    Hells yeah, every friday I have a higher day, I just eat what I like, BUT I use my new nutritional knowledge to not make my treats too excessive.
    For example today I made myself a nice bolognese and I had a bottle of cherry sparkling wine, my total calories for the day were around 2000 , not bad for a chill day in my opinion
  • higgins8283801
    higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
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    Exercise; of course.

    Diet; no.

    I eat more on workout days and less on non workout days.

    I do go over but I don't call it a day off. I call it part of whole thing. Lol it's going to happen, on those days I jjst try and keep it as close to maintenance as possible
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Save for a spot check here and there, I haven't logged since May 2013...but when I was losing weight I logged most days...but here and there, I didn't bother...holidays and special occasions and whatnot. Those kind of things are pretty irrelevant so long as they are actually occasions.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    tracyannk28 wrote: »
    OK - so for those of you who log every day: Is this something you are planning to do for life? Or just until you lose all your weight? Or until you've been at maintenance for a while?

    I love data so I find I actually don't mind logging daily. For me, it's like balancing my chequebook or entering my purchases into my personal budgeting software -- I've been doing it my whole adult life, and expect I always will.

    On the other hand, I've seen quite a few people in the maintenance forum who seem to have decent success with the maintenance range strategy: Determining an upper and lower weight limit, and not logging unless they go over or under, at which point they start logging and tracking to "re-lose" those last 5 pounds or whatever over and over again. Maybe I'll try this if I get fed up of logging, we'll see.
  • 970Mikaela1
    970Mikaela1 Posts: 2,013 Member
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    Thanksgiving thru Christmas.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    tracyannk28 wrote: »
    OK - so for those of you who log every day: Is this something you are planning to do for life? Or just until you lose all your weight? Or until you've been at maintenance for a while?

    I'll log through maintenance, and then I'll want to bulk and log through that, then cut again sooo....I don't see not logging in the near future.
  • onyxgirl17
    onyxgirl17 Posts: 1,721 Member
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    Not really. When I track, I track. When I've reached goal and have a good sense of maintenance, I don't track when I'm teaching during the school year because I'm exhausted. I'm tracking now because I want to go back down to 130.

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