Is tracking necessary?

benotnobodi

From your experience, is tracking necessary for weight loss?

gamerbabe14

Yes

AnvilHead

All that's necessary for weight loss is to eat at a consistent caloric deficit. But tracking makes that infinitely easier for me, as I'm terrible at 'instinctive eating'.

PAV8888

?

For some people... obviously not.

For me personally? I obviously did not succeed in finding a path to sustainable weight loss till I tracked.

Given you're at a calorie counting web site I would think that most here would...

L1zardQueen

I used to think I did not eat very much but I could never lose those last twenty pounds. Why? I was eating more than I thought.

Tracking helped me lose my 20+ pounds and now I don't really need to track because I know what real portions look like. I also stopped snacking between meals, that was my biggest downfall.

RobBasss

Yes for the simple fact its 80% food...

carolineb81

Yes for me otherwise I eat a lot more than I think I have

Taura1966

Yes. I have counted calories (3)x in the past 10 years and consistently lost weight every time. As soon as I reached my "goal" weight, I stopped counting calories, and the weight crept back on. I am now OK with the fact that I will be counting calories for the rest of my (much healthier) life!

kshama2001

When I have an active job and/or lifestyle, and am surrounded by lower calories foods, I can lose weight or maintain a healthy weight without tracking.

Now that I have a desk job and am living with someone who likes higher calorie foods, tracking makes losing weight ever so much easier.

cityruss

No.

It's just a tool to make it easier by giving tangible data to work with.

xTattooedDollx

For me, yes it is very important. When I stop tracking, I stop losing weight.

TeaBea

benotnobodi wrote: »

From your experience, is tracking necessary for weight loss?

Depends....

There are weight loss plans that minimize the need for tracking. Example: the no "S" diet - no sweets, no seconds, no snacks, except sometimes on days that begin with "S" Saturday, Sunday, Special days. If you put in some restrictions up front (that you can be consistent with) then logging won't be necessary.

However, keep maintenance in mind. This is a lifelong thing. Unless you practice "improved" habits in the future, the weight will creep back up.

amusedmonkey

In my opinion, almost anyone who is interested in weight loss could benefit from at least initially tracking their intake. It helps identify problem areas, how certain things affect you, what reasonable portions look like, what effect the changes you are introducing have, what contributes to a weight stall if it happens...etc. It helps build a solid plan for the future. Some people can successfully shed the training wheels later, unfortunately I'm not one of them, at least not comfortably.

For me, it's absolutely necessary. I'm very prone to calorie amnesia (I can eat things and forget I ate them) +and portion distortion (the same portion can look smaller or larger to me based on my hunger and satisfaction).

RelCanonical

It's necessary for me, but not necessary for everyone.

cerise_noir

If I want to lose, gain or maintain my weight, then yes it is necessary.

Chadxx

If you mean keeping a log, no but it is a useful tool. If you simply mean counting calories to regulate your intake, it depends on the individual and their goals. Of course, if controlling our intake wasn't an issue, we wouldn't be here. For many of us, it is necessary. Personally, I don't keep a log but I count calories to regulate my intake and not only has it worked amazingly well, but it has also taught me a lot. Even those who can control their weight without counting calories would be better off to do so for a while, if for no other reason than they would actually learn to eat in such a way as to get more food and be able to enjoy more treats. There is no downside and it is actually very easy to do.

Heather4448

For me- Yes. Otherwise, my portion sizes are too large by 25-50ish percent.

Ironandwine69

No it's not.

AnvilHead

I look at it this way - you don't need a speedometer to drive a car, but it sure helps you obey the speed limits.

hesn92

For me it is. I've tried and tried to lose weight without counting calories and I just can't seem to stay on track. If I can't see how much and what I'm eating laid out in front of me I just eat way too much. I wanted to just be sensible and lose weight by eating right and reasonable amounts but I just suck at it. I've compromised now and I log my food m-f and not on the weekends (but still eat sensibly)

TimothyFish

No, but it works very well.

Wynterbourne

For some people, like me, it is. For others, it isn't. There isn't a single 'one size fits all' answer to that question.

spiffychick85

Oddly enough if I'm trying to lose weight (like now trying to lose baby weight) yes, but once I hit my goal I can maintain for years (until another pregnancy happens ) without tracking. I'm great at maintenance, but suck at losing it intuitively.

MoiAussi93

No. It's not necessary. It helps some people. Others don't need it.

missmince

When I went from chubby teenager to normal weight adult 27 years ago, I didn't keep track of food consumed. When I became an anorexic adult (5'4" and 95lbs), I still didn't count calories, just avoided eating. My sister did the same, except she went down to 87 lbs at her skinniest (and turned orange, since she ate a pound of carrots a day), with no food tracking required. Now, at 46, I need to keep track of food to lose weight healthily. The only other way I know is avoiding food, especially carbs. Tracking food is a bit tedious (actually, very tedious), but it lets me eat whatever I want since I can rely on a food diary to keep total calories at my goal. It's not necessarily more effective in terms of weight loss, but it's a good idea to do it at some point, whether or not you're trying to lose weight, for better nutritional awareness.

estherdragonbat

It's helpful for me.

1) It lets me know what I'm consuming calorie-wise
2) I have some spatial perception problems that make it hard for me to eyeball a cup or a "portion the size of half a grapefruit"
3) If I pre-log higher-calorie items ahead of time, I can recognize that they fit within my calories and the unhealthy negative self-talk about how I just blew my diet/went of the rails, etc. Suddenly, it's not about "You had a frosted shortbread cookie! How could you? That's just sugar and fat. You probably put on a half-a-pound right there." It's "I had a cookie. It's 160 calories. I made room for it in my calories. In fact, I still have another 150 I can use before I even exercise." I'm an emotional eater. When I'm upset, I grab for food. If I'm upset about eating too much... I still eat. Logging has really helped me break that cycle.

AnnPT77

No, I didn't need to track in order to lose.

I lost 28 pounds in 3 months without tracking.

Then my weight loss slowed down, perhaps to a full stop. At that point, I joined MFP, started meticulously logging/tracking what I ate, and lost another 35 pounds in about the next 8 months.

I didn't need to track in order to lose weight. But I did need to track in order to lose all the weight that I wanted and needed to lose.

And for now, I definitely need to track in order to maintain.

Seffell

Not for everyone (surely you've heard of all the people that​ lost otherwise?).

But I can't lose without (not that I've tried but I don't care about guessing my way through).

Desalinadokaz

I found it very necessary. I love food, I am a comfort eater and if I don't log I find that I'm often over calories. I need to be aware of what I'm eating overwise I will overeat. I realised recently that even when I reach my target weight, I'm probably still going to need to track otherwise I am probably going to start gaining again :-(

Machka9

benotnobodi wrote: »

From your experience, is tracking necessary for weight loss?

For me ... yep!

RoxieDawn

No its not.. in my house hold I am the food weigher/logger and my husband is not. He lost 70 pounds with out logging one ounce of food and has been maintaining without logging one ounce of food.