Long term maintainers - do you count calories everyday?

ATHLegal

Hi all. I'm at almost 500 days and counting calories everyday is exhausting me mentally. I go to uni and I can't stop think about food. What I can and cannot eat which makes me feel deprived or guilty if I go over my calories.

My Family tells me I'm too serious as I weight all my food and always get angry when they ask to change what we eat as I hate change of food pattern.

I feel like if I stop, I will get fat again and this is my greatest fear. Please provide some guidance especially from long time maintainers.

Thanks for reading

kommodevaran

tatho2014 wrote: »

I'm at almost 500 days and counting calories everyday is exhausting me mentally. I go to uni and I can't stop think about food. What I can and cannot eat which makes me feel deprived or guilty if I go over my calories.

My Family tells me I'm too serious as I weight all my food and always get angry when they ask to change what we eat as I hate change of food pattern.

I feel like if I stop, I will get fat again and this is my greatest fear. Please provide some guidance especially from long time maintainers.

I reached my goal weight 22 months ago, and I stopped counting calories more than a year ago, but I feel I have been maintaining for only about five months. Reaching this level of confidence takes time if you have been struggling for a long time. I still think a lot about food, but I think about all the good things I am going to eat, not what I can't or shouldn't eat. It's a great shift from the restrictive and depriving mindset I used to have. I am also getting more and more flexible, so even though I have a meal plan, I just use it to make sure my meals are balanced and varied and I don't run out or buy too much, and I weigh what I can't count, but I don't feel obsessed and I don't worry. I weigh myself every morning and look at the trend.

I used MFP as a learning tool, not just a lookup guide for calories. I focused on getting the best food for my calories, and recognize hunger and satiety cues. So I have learnt to eat, not just to count calories. That is the big difference.

sijomial

I don't log food at all.
Before I lost weight I effectively maintained at a fat weight for 20 years so when I got to goal weight maintaining at goal without logging wasn't difficult. (I weigh myself daily to watch for trends and react if I have to.....)

Took a while to learn to lose weight without logging (before a cycling event or to reverse an upward trend) but not finding it difficult now. Just by being more "calorie aware" and/or skipping breakfast is enough to create a small deficit.

Gaining weight without logging would be extremely easy as I like my food!
But I don't fear regaining my weight as I would react before it becomes a big issue. Tens of thousand of extra calories don't happen overnight. Food logging is just one tool and you can always get it "out of the toolbox" in the future if you want or need to.

Feeling guilty and obsessing about food isn't the way to be a happy maintainer.

Packerjohn

Pay attention to how you pants fit around your waist. If they are getting tight, you need to back off on the eating a bit.

paperpudding

I have been in maitenance for over 2 years.

I do log daily except for a week or so break here or there if I go on holidays.

But I don't log tightly - I do what I call 'lazy logging' - I don't weigh fruit, just call every mandarine or carrot etc a medium one, I call every slice of bread or egg etc the same and I take all packaged food at their stated weight and I guestimate a lot of takeaway or cooked by other people food.

However I weigh weekly and my weight hasn't fluctuated more than 2 kg either side of goal in all that time so what I am doing works for me.

Arizona_C

Hi tatho, I didn't log in during two years of stabilisation, just stepped on the scales once in a while, adjusted if necessary. Now I log in again to get more focused and optimise my food choices.

Since you have been weighting food for 500 days, I guess you've good a pretty good notion about quantites. Why not start by estimating instead of weightening? It can be a first step to control less.

To maintain, it sounds as you need to get attention a bit elsewhere than on food. Food is far from being only pleasure in life.

Look in other fields, find what you like and do it. For me, it is dancing, rapping, working photos, doing acrobacy, the possibilities are endless.

Do have a look what you like; once you are into something you are passionate about, you forget about food

snowflake930

3 years maintaining on November 3 2016.
I log everyday, just to keep aware of what I am eating, but not as accurately as I did while losing.
I also weigh myself everyday still.
For me that is what I have to do to keep the weight off. I know if I don't, it will be too easy to start down the slippery slope of gaining back the weight.
For me, it is harder to keep the weight off, than it was losing the weight, so as it is not an issue for me, I will continue logging.

hope516

paperpudding wrote: »

same and I take all packaged food at their stated weight.

i had no idea that this was a thing??? I assumed I could count on packaged food to be correct!!!

OP I maintained my weight loss by logging off and on for over 8 years. As my weight spiked by a few pounds I knew it was time to get back on track. However this year I completely checked out of the logging game and have gained back 28 pounds of the 80 I lost!!! It is devastating!! However, Im back here a week and down 11 pounds!!!

Unfortunately if you are prone to gain weight, are an emotional eater, or addicted to food logging will have to be a part of your life. some ppl are just naturally thin. Some ppl only eat when they are hungry. Some ppl only use food for fuel and not for all the other things it is not intended for. However, if you are not blessed with these talents you will need to log. No need to be hard on yourself. Just be honest and forgiving

good luck!!

paperpudding

Hope, there are some people who say it is neccesary to weigh packaged food as the stated weight may not be accurate.

Have never held with this myself as I believe stated weight is close enough to accurate - but you will often read people saying otherwise.

Francl27

paperpudding wrote: »

Hope, there are some people who say it is neccesary to weigh packaged food as the stated weight may not be accurate.

Have never held with this myself as I believe stated weight is close enough to accurate - but you will often read people saying otherwise.

Depends on the packaged food that you eat, basically, and how often you eat it.

I retain water like crazy so weighing isn't a great tool for me... so I'd rather log my food... that way I know that I'm not eating enough to gain weight (or that I am. Ugh). Honestly though, it just gives me peace of mind so I don't have to worry if I have a treat.

My appetite/hunger varies GREATLY depending on the time of the month though, so following a plan and just eating about the same thing every day just wouldn't work for me. I have to log to make sure that I keep a good deficit on the easy weeks to make up for the bad ones.

sijomial

hope516 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

same and I take all packaged food at their stated weight.

i had no idea that this was a thing??? I assumed I could count on packaged food to be correct!!!

Packaged food is allowed a tolerance either side of the stated weight.
Remember it is unlikely manufacturers will consistently give you extra food for nothing so the AVERAGE is likely to be pretty accurate.

When logging (IMHO) there's things to bother measuring and there's others it's a PITA for little good reason or benefit.

There's a strange but pervasive belief on MFP that inaccuracy always works against people whether exercise or food.

elisa123gal

OP. I am 42 days into my most recent fitness journey and decided on day 32 to stop logging. I think logging is great at educating on calorie counts ..but there comes a time when you do know what to eat and how much. You do at this point. Walk away from the logging and trust yourself. weigh yourself and measure..or use tight clothes as a way to track your progress. Remember.. counterbalance overeating with exercise. It drives me crazy too to have to think about every single aspect of food. It isn't natural and a happy way to live life.
Also.. a poster said they regained 28 pounds by not logging. But they also must not have been weighing themselves or they would have caught the gains way earlier. So weighing once a week would fix that. It is the all or nothing obsessive attitude I refuse to accept.

ATHLegal

Thanks guys. I'll still count calories but I will be a little looser with my food. I'm not going to stress over ever gram but will be more general in weight as well as types of food.

nxd10

I log every single meal but stopped logging lettuce and other things under 10 calories. And I eat whatever I want, just less. Especially when I was earlier on, logging often tells me to eat MORE not less. Or tells me when I'm hungry, I should eat because I'm at too deep a deficit. Good luck!

NorthCascades

Nope. Counting them for part of the time I lost the weight was very useful as a learning experience. I weigh myself daily, though.

cwolfman13

I've been maintaining going on 3.5 years...I haven't logged in that time.

Wheelhouse15

Depends, if I feel I'm floating upwards a little too much then I'll start logging again.

TR0berts

I haven't logged in quite a while. Yesterday - which I forgot to delete - was just trying to see if someone's (whose diary was closed) Calorie count was reasonable for what she said she ate.

Every now and then, I'll log a day or two as a check - to make sure I'm eating about what I think I'm eating.

rsclause

I felt like I had been retrained on how much and what type of foods to eat and pretty much just kept doing what I had been doing. Without the logging as it is time consuming. My belly size tells me if I am doing it wrong.

peaceout_aly

tatho2014 wrote: »

Hi all. I'm at almost 500 days and counting calories everyday is exhausting me mentally. I go to uni and I can't stop think about food. What I can and cannot eat which makes me feel deprived or guilty if I go over my calories.

My Family tells me I'm too serious as I weight all my food and always get angry when they ask to change what we eat as I hate change of food pattern.

I feel like if I stop, I will get fat again and this is my greatest fear. Please provide some guidance especially from long time maintainers.

Thanks for reading

I used to do the same exact thing! Since you've been weighing out your food for so long, you have a very good general idea of what your particular serving sizes are supposed to be. Try to wean yourself off of the obsessive logging by first halting the weighing process. Then, use the same idea to get yourself off of logging altogether. You know what you can/can not eat, you know you can have one or two cheat treats wtihout totally throwing off your progress, use all the knowledge you've acquired to make good judgement calls. It's hard when you get in the habit, but it's definitely worth it. Life shouldn't be all about measuring macros.

musclegood_fatbad

Once you get a good idea of how many calories the things you are eating have, it is pretty easy to figure out your total calories based off of that. I usually only log when I change my calorie count (to either bulk or cut) and once I have my diet dialed in, I don't feel the need to log at all until I change them again.