Calorie counting for life?!

MelodyandBarbells

TimothyFish wrote: »

professionalHobbyist wrote: »

I fuel my car and check the gas gauge all the days I will drive it

I don't really feel like monitoring fueling my body is a bothersome task.

It has become almost an interesting hobby, reshaping my body, taking better charge of my health.

Yeah, I will do some form of it all my life.

I don't. I fuel up once a week or every two weeks without looking at the gauge. I have a low fuel light, also, but I've only seen it once in five years. The only time I spend much time looking at the gauge is on a long trip, because I'm stepping outside of my normal habits. There's no reason why weight maintenance can't be similar. As long as people get the habits right, weighing and logging adds no value.

Indeed. I actually see my low fuel light ALL the time and prefer not to fill up on a fixed schedule. Same with food, I don't have a fixed set of foods that I eat or habits, and tend to consume whatever. So long as the numbers add up though, I'll be able to maintain my weight. So that's the feedback I need from ongoing logging.

lemurcat12

michellepearson224 wrote: »

Thanks...interesting. It's funny because I lost a similar amount of weight 5 years ago without tracking at all - I just started exercising and being more careful about what I ate. I only piled it back on when I stopped my gym membership.

This is similar to me (I tend to eat well and be thoughtful about portions when I am exercising, and not when not, but I suspect it's because there's a common link between what motivates me to eat well/care and what motivates me to exercise).

Anyway, as a result I suspect I can maintain without logging and have been experimenting with that this year, although I've now decided to focus on getting to goal (5 lbs to go) and logging is part of that.

That said, I enjoy logging and playing with macros and nutrition goals and so on, so expect I'll keep doing it to some degree as motivation. If you are finding logging burdensome beyond just needing a short vacation, I wonder if there's some way to change your thinking about it or how you do it so it's not so much?

I realize part of it is personality types, but I find it takes very little time, is often an easy way to force myself to be mindful, and can be fun if I use it as a tool to remind myself to eat in a healthy matter and feel good seeing I met nutrition goals vs. making it all about calories.

DeguelloTex

Since I'm going to be bulking and cutting for at least five years, I'll almost certainly be logging for at least five years. Once I get to the point where I just want to maintain weight and muscle, it's possible I'll be able to operate based on how much I weigh rather than how much my food weighs. I'll see how it goes, but if I need to weigh, then that's a price I'm willing to pay. It's very low cost relative to the benefit.

nyponbell

I would like to keep at it; not only does it help me plan my meals ahead of time, but it holds me accountable. Even if that means I will still eat that huge bar of chocolate, at least I can't hide from it if it's in my food diary, messing up my stats (even if it doesn't show on the scale that one time). Once I reach maintenance levels I might go some days without logging, but only because as someone else mentioned; I tend to eat the same type of food "all the time" so I can easily eyeball it (like breakfast, and my favourite soup-dinner).

Maquillage_

Some people manage fine while not counting calories. You learn how to portion control and when to stop yourself. For my, I think I'll always count calories and plan in advance. I like knowing exactly how much I'm eating, I'm a bit of a control freak!

lemurcat12

Sarasmaintaining wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

Sarasmaintaining wrote: »

With the absolutely dismal success rate for long term maintenance, I have no intention of ever stopping counting calories. Been doing it as part of my maintenance plan for two years now and will be doing it for the next 40+ years. That doesn't' mean I count every single thing, every single day though. For me it works well to count/track during the week and eat a little less than my maintenance calorie level. Then on the weekends I don't track/count and just eat responsibly, but with some leeway because I know I've got the extra calories from my weekdays. It balances out, and I've been doing very well so far

I do this now but continue to TRY to track what I eat on Saturday (my high day). I shoot for 2,500 calories but could honestly eat more pretty easily. I'm tempted to try what you do though, track during the week and be a little more free on the weekend. It's worked well for you?

It has. You'll also discover though, that after you've done the whole calorie counting thing for a while you can't just turn it off, even when you give yourself permission to not track (for the weekends etc). It's just in your brain lol. I just picked up Subway and even though I did not purposely track the calories, I knew exactly how much my sub was, including protein and fat grams I could tell you without doubt, exactly how many calories I've eaten today even though I haven't written anything down, and it would be accurate within 50 calories. It's just a part of who I am now

But, I don't allow myself to go long periods of time without intentionally tracking, because I know how easy it is to get sloppy. That's why the weekday-tracking/weekend-not tracking works well, at least for me I have a bit of freedom, but not too much that it becomes a problem.

I've had a similar experience when not tracking--I tend to count it in my mind anyway.

peterjens

You can't manage what you can't measure.

DaliaMaria73

There are forms of tracking that don't involve counting every calorie. Being familiar with correct portion sizes and best macros ratio for you (protein, carb, fat) helps. Another way of tracking that I use and will use once I'm in maintenance is a photo food journal. Some use Instagram. I use an app called TwoGrand. Love it.