Is Calorie Counting a Sustainable Practice

mareeee1234

I will not calorie count forever, I'll know when I'm ready to stop.

But I will ALWAYS have the knowledge I have gained from the mfp community, as you said, and I believe that it will be enough to keep me for life

I'll also never de-activate my account, in case I want to calorie count again for a bit to put me "back on track", after a holiday or something for example! Haha

glovepuppet

i think the deal is that you'll eventually get to the point where portion control & making smart choices are second nature. you get into the habit of thinking about what you're eating and how much.

mariposa224

I actually just wrote a blog about it yesterday here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/mariposa224/view/why-i-still-log-in-maintenance-542295 . I think that if doing it the way you're doing it works for you, then stick with it. I just found that when I slacked off logging, I also slacked off exercise. And I gained back 15-20 lbs of the 40 I lost back in 2010. I'm not trying to have that happen again, so, for me, tracking is helping me stay in line. I don't have a fit if I miss logging some things, it is what it is... But, overall, yes I track, and I have logged in here for over 470 consecutive days. I'm getting married in September. I think it's very likely that my streak of consecutive days will end there, as we'll be going on a cruise and I'm not going to be concerned if I can't log in. But I'll get right back to it when I come back, because this is what works for me.

ETA: I've been in maintenance for 10 months.

pinkraynedropjacki

I actually enjoy logging it. I'm planning on still doing it even though I no longer need to. I want to.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I've tried to stop counting calories before and I always slowly start gaining back. Also I use MFP to track macros because I won't eat enough protein on my own. It's an individual thing. If just being more mindful works for you then that's what you should do. For me though, I plan to do this forever in some form.

Edit: Also I don't think it's all that cumbersome to log. It takes me maybe 10 minutes per day, if that. I do it in the morning while I sip my coffee.

AmandaReimer1

For me, I know I will have to keep it up. When I hit maintenance I will for at least 6 months to a year, and then try and maybe log a few times a week to keep me in check. I know it's something I need to keep around to keep me in check, seeing how many calories I have left puts things into perspective on food choices/snacks and when to stop. Sometimes relying on feeling full or eating when hungry won't work for me.

9jenn9

I did Weight Watchers for a while and tracked my food and was successful. One day I said to myself, I don't need to log my food any more. I know what I have to do. I didn't work! Slowly, I went right back to the way I was eating before. I have to hold myself accountable for the food I eat and if that means coming in here every day and logging in my food then, so be it.

Yes. I've been at my goal weight several times. Each time I got there, I'd eventually think, "I'm so tired of tracking. I've got this down so there's no need to track." The old habits came back and so did the weight. So for me, tracking is the way to go. In a way, it's peace of mind. I know exactly where I stand, food wise, so I can stop worrying about it and get on with my day.

55in13

The old habits came back and so did the weight.

There is something to that. I posted earlier that I don't track everything. But it is probably important for me to note that for most of my life I was not overweight; I went through a few years where I starting packing the pounds on and my diet is to recover from that. So for me, returning to the "old habits" is a very positive thing.

shannashannabobana

Interesting. I think for me the goal of all this is to get into better habits. Once you've made good habits and lost the weight, calorie counting shouldn't be necessary unless you find that you've lost control of your habits again.

I think if you monitor your weight periodically (and how you feel in your clothes) you could know when you might need to go back to calorie counting again. But this is going to vary for everyone.

One of my cousins has been very enthusiastic about the idea of intuitive eating, which would hopefully end the need for calorie counting.

msvip213

I don't want to hijack this thread so apologies to anyone who may think that. It's just that my husband thinks tracking leads to obsessive behavior and he knows people who have lost weight on diets where you don't count things. His parents have lost the same amount of weight as me in the same time on Slimming World but I've tried it and can't do unlimited carbs. I think if it aint broke don't fix it so I will carry on for now but I agree that I don't want to log forever.

no worries about hijacking of the thread I am trying to get a perspective. Its not something I feel like I can do forever. I can see your husbands point of view. I remember going out with friends and being like I need to track the calories of the tequila and had to stop what we were doing to do it right then....lol

msvip213

I think it's a very slippery slope to stop weighing everything, personally. I mean, now I can tell when I have 300 calories left and can afford a piece of chocolate or even some ice cream. How would I know if I wasn't tracking? I'd probably think it's fine, when it's not, and it would just keep adding up until I put weight back on again... I'm guessing it's more sustainable if you count calories but still consider 'junk' a once in a while treat. When you can fit some of it in your diet most days, that's when it gets dangerous.

Another option I guess is to keep weighing every week and just track again when we gain weight. Now of course, to be honest, I rarely reach my goal as it is so I might be under all the time at maintenance and just not worry about it at some point anyway... We'll see. Not quite there yet.

I know for me I plan my meals out at the beginning of the day and have little baggies with my snack assortment of the day. So I don't track it but I know that its all within my allotment of calories for the day if that makes sense.

aszwarc

I plan to track forever. I sat down and figured out that my weight gain was the result of eating only 30 calories more per day than I burned, over the course of 15 years.

30.

If I don't want to end up right back where I was, I will have to log until the end of my days.

CarlaMichelle

I lost 100lb while doing very strict calorie counting. Towards the end I stopped tracking so much and eventually stopped. I think the goal of MFP (in my mind) is to help us UNDERSTAND why we gain/lose weight and to know what foods cause us to gain weight and what lifestyle choices allow us to lose weight. I haven't really tracked in a while and I can pretty much tell when I will gain or lose weight based on what I have eaten. It just kind of becomes a skill So no, you don't need to do it forever because it becomes a part of your knowledge base!
[/quote
^^^ This! After a while you train your body on eating the right foods in the right portions HOWEVER, to be truly healthy you need to know that you're meeting your body's needs for protien, carbs, fat etc so if i can't sit down and write out a weeks worth of meals and know whether you'll gain or lose that week then you should keep tracking until you know it all that was a joke, but you know what i mean.

apothecarist

Logging has become a part of my overall life. I don't have to stop anything in order to log, because logging is something that I do. I make the time to do it. It's like exercise. I don't squeeze exercise in around the other tasks in my life; I squeeze the other tasks in around exercise. These things are a part of my life now.

I also log primarily from my phone, which makes it super easy. I can log anywhere, anytime. This makes a difference in your logging experience, when you don't have to sit down in front of a computer to log.

I echo the above sentiments. I actually "enjoy" logging in every day! I'm sure there will come a time when I won't be logging in but for now, and I'm currently on "maintenence", I'll keep logging!

katejkelley

You name the diet, I've been on it, and once I went on "maintenance" (or "off"), the weight crept back up. This is working for me, so I am going to keep counting calories indefinitely.

cwolfman13

IMHO, it's a crutch...it's training wheels. It taught me how to eat right again...taught me what kind of foods I need to make staples of my diet to achieve certain nutrition and fitness goals....it taught me what a portion of something looks like, etc. I can actually estimate pretty good now just looking at something on a plate. It has taught me to listen to my body and eat when I'm hungry (and actually hungry, not bored) and to stop when I'm satiated.

When I'm just maintaining, I don't bother logging and I maintain just fine...I might check in a day every few weeks or so to spot check myself, but that's it. I log when I'm actively trying to lose because you have to dial it in...I'm pretty bad about it right now because I only want to drop some aesthetic weight...about 5-10 Lbs, but I have difficulty sticking to a deficit when I'm training hard (which I am right now).

But like I said, when I'm just trying to maintain I don't worry about it...I've learned a lot and take that with me. My diet (noun...the way I eat) is sustainable; I don't think counting calories until you die is.

mwilke

I think that I am going to have to track calories for a very long time. I have a huge problem with portion control still, and find that if I don't track, I overeat very easily. Plus I still have so many other bad habits that I have from before, and I find that if don't track I slip into the old ways too easily. Basically for me, it is a check and balance system.

jlahorn

I've been at my goal weight several times. Each time I got there, I'd eventually think, "I'm so tired of tracking. I've got this down so there's no need to track." The old habits came back and so did the weight. So for me, tracking is the way to go.

Ditto. Every time I've stopped tracking, it coincided with weight gain. Tedious as it may be, I think food logging has to be a lifetime habit for me.

iarelarry

I have found not tracking my food intake more unsustainable. When i don't log, I have a tendency to eat anything and everything.

As tedious as it is to prep and log food, its really the only solution to effectively lean out

toxikon

I don't see any reason to stop tracking... I have MFP on my phone, and I work at a computer all day so it's really not any extra effort to log. I've logged every day for 155 days now, and it's definitely part of my daily routine. Maybe when I get to maintenance I'll feel confident enough to stop logging and eat intuitively (while keeping an eye on the scale to make sure I'm doing well) but for now I think it's worth it!

maybeazure

I did Weight Watchers for a while and tracked my food and was successful. One day I said to myself, I don't need to log my food any more. I know what I have to do. I didn't work! Slowly, I went right back to the way I was eating before. I have to hold myself accountable for the food I eat and if that means coming in here every day and logging in my food then, so be it.

I totally did the same thing with weight watchers. In the beginning I tracked everything, and back in the olden days it was on little pieces of paper, which I was forever losing. Then I got so I would keep sort of a running total in my head for the day, and the week, and then gradually I started cheating a little bit more, and then pretty soon, I was way off of the wagon.

I find tracking on here a lot easier than little pieces of paper, especially after adding a bunch of food that I normally eat. So I'll keep it up at least until I'm happy with my weight, and then we will see. That's a long way off.

AmyRhubarb

I'm 650+ days in, have tracked my food every single day. So far so good. I think I may have formed a habit.... :bigsmile:

dakotababy

I used to track every day. Now I just track for a week every 4 weeks...and especially if I am noticing my weight loss is stalling. It helps remind me of portions and keep calorie counts in my head. Essentially - it is like a reminder every so often to keep me on track.

TheCaren

I don't want to hijack this thread so apologies to anyone who may think that. It's just that my husband thinks tracking leads to obsessive behavior and he knows people who have lost weight on diets where you don't count things. His parents have lost the same amount of weight as me in the same time on Slimming World but I've tried it and can't do unlimited carbs. I think if it aint broke don't fix it so I will carry on for now but I agree that I don't want to log forever.

I got a little obsessed toward the end of my weight loss. But that has more to do with my body image issues and fear of re-gaining. My tracking wasn't really the issue. It was my need to eat LESS than my goal every day to feel "safe" about maintaining my weight that was the problem. Just started tracking again, but now not weighing and measuring every little thing. Trusting myself to eyeball things now that I've been doing this for nine months. I don't recommend eyeballing for those just starting out because my eyeballs tended to lie to me in the beginning (gee that looks like about a half cup - try again it's actually a full cup).

As for your husband. What works for one doesn't work for all. His folks found success in one way. Great for them. Doesn't mean you way is wrong.

awesomek001

For me, the logging / counting is much more than just counting the calories that go in my mouth. it's about looking at what is happing with my food. If you don't log it (even if you don't look at the calories or macros) you can't see where there are trends and where you might have issues.

For example, I found that although I don't ever intend to give up bread, if I eat bread at supper I consistently have a weight gain. Does that mean I give up bread? No, but it does give me pause for thought.

msvip213

When I first started I was a die hard tracker watching every little thing that I at and making sure to come and log it in here. As life happened it just didn't seem feasible to stop what I was doing to log my foods.

This really jumped out at me. It was because I didn't/couldn't/wouldn't stop what I was doing that I became obese in the first place.

Logging has become a part of my overall life. I don't have to stop anything in order to log, because logging is something that I do. I make the time to do it. It's like exercise. I don't squeeze exercise in around the other tasks in my life; I squeeze the other tasks in around exercise. These things are a part of my life now.

I also log primarily from my phone, which makes it super easy. I can log anywhere, anytime. This makes a difference in your logging experience, when you don't have to sit down in front of a computer to log.

For me it has become an inconvenience of sorts because it feels like the only thing I have to "fit" in so to speak. I am a hiker and so most of my physical activity or exercise comes from that so I didn't feel like I had to work that in but logging isn't so second nature so for me personally I either do it near obsession which burns me out or I do it kind of will nilly. I guess I haven't found that happy medium where I don't get so consumed or on the flip uninterested.

Sqeekyjojo

It takes about five minutes out of my day to log food. That's not obsessive for anybody.

The length of time that it's possible to spend on the boards is a completely separate matter.



And I would ignore the guy complaining. The calorie method is perfectly adequate and recognised worldwide. Selling a branded version with the USP being you don't have to use big numbers, you can do it using your fingers, isn't a good enough reason to change the system that works.

slkehl

Calorie counting is annoying, but it's a no fail way of keeping your weight in check if you're accurate and consistent. That's what keeps me logging. Minor inconvenience for excellent results!

laserturkey

I'm planning to keep tracking pretty much forever. It works well for me and I am always near my phone or computer or both, so it's convenient.

babylemonade

I tracked for a year and it didn't even bother me in the least to go on and put what I'm eating. Sometimes I'd plan out my meals for the next few days because it was easier. When I moved I obviously lost sight of that and everything was pretty hectic but it's becoming a habit again to track. I wouldn't stop tracking because slowly you start forgetting what portions are supposed to look like (or I know I did, that's how I gained the weight back).