Anyone else stopped counting calories on the app?

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Replies

  • kristikitter
    kristikitter Posts: 602 Member
    Chessbear wrote: »

    Guess what, I only ever used the app for a month maybe. My experience with it is that I dont like it.
    ...
    Weight loss is easy and hard, the easy part : eat less and work out more. The hard part is the mental aspect.

    OK, so then you have your answer. You don't like the app, lots of us do...
  • imanibelle
    imanibelle Posts: 130 Member
    I only use MFP to look up food entries now. I list my cal counts in my email app.
  • narspips
    narspips Posts: 48 Member
    Me - but only because I use the website, not the app ;)

    The only things I calculate myself are home-cooked meals as I find using MFP to work out how many calories are in something complicated I made myself to be too cumbersome. But I still use the database to work out calories/100g for every ingredient (unless it's on the packaging) and I weigh everything pre- and post-cooked, so it doesn't really count as not using it...
  • Savyna
    Savyna Posts: 789 Member
    There are times when I stop but I do keep track in my head of the ballpark figures of how many calories I've eaten and have continued to lose weight. For the most part though, if I'm not adding it up here, I'm noting it down somewhere or I'm making a conscious effort to eat a smaller portion/eat 80-90% of what is on my plate if that is a no count day.
  • workin_onit
    workin_onit Posts: 102 Member
    I *wish* I could not log food/count calories and lose weight! This isn't my first time at the weight-loss rodeo but I want it to be my last. So I continue to count, log, lose and (hopefully) this time, maintain.

    Good luck to you, OP...do try to learn from my mistakes! :smiley:
  • ltkasmala
    ltkasmala Posts: 109 Member
    I think once you establish a regular eating pattern (a combination of eating certain foods/recipes you like often with just knowing the difference between what is and is not really a healthy choice) you need to rely on the logging food less. Just my experience...
  • laurabadams
    laurabadams Posts: 201 Member
    OliveGirl128 wrote: »
    And a year of maintenance is nothing

    Agree with what you said, except this part. Only 20% of people who lose 10% of their weight or more actually maintain that loss for a year. http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.long
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    edited July 2017
    jospen83 wrote: »
    OliveGirl128 wrote: »
    And a year of maintenance is nothing

    Agree with what you said, except this part. Only 20% of people who lose 10% of their weight or more actually maintain that loss for a year. http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.long

    Thank you for posting this- I found it very encouraging! I have been losing and/or maintaining over the last 5 years and that seems to put me in a good position, according to the study :)

    I log. Anytime I've tried to do it on my phone, it's been incredibly annoying, but very simple & easy on the computer. Doesn't even take 2 minutes for most meals, as my most commonly eaten foods are in my recent foods database. I think when a person has a large amount to lose it wouldn't be terribly difficult to maintain a deficit by tracking roughly in your head, but as a person's weight goes down, the numbers get tighter, with less room for error. Time will tell. I know it's not for me though. Too easy to become lax and sneak things in there when you don't have to see it on paper, so to speak. My adherence gets sloppy over time.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    ltkasmala wrote: »
    I think once you establish a regular eating pattern (a combination of eating certain foods/recipes you like often with just knowing the difference between what is and is not really a healthy choice) you need to rely on the logging food less. Just my experience...

    But 'healthy'/not 'healthy' has nothing to do with weight loss. You can definitely gain weight while eating a healthy diet if you go over on calories.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    try2again wrote: »
    jospen83 wrote: »
    OliveGirl128 wrote: »
    And a year of maintenance is nothing

    Agree with what you said, except this part. Only 20% of people who lose 10% of their weight or more actually maintain that loss for a year. http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.long

    Thank you for posting this- I found it very encouraging! I have been losing and/or maintaining over the last 5 years and that seems to put me in a good position, according to the study :)

    I log. Anytime I've tried to do it on my phone, it's been incredibly annoying, but very simple & easy on the computer. Doesn't even take 2 minutes for most meals, as my most commonly eaten foods are in my recent foods database. I think when a person has a large amount to lose it wouldn't be terribly difficult to maintain a deficit by tracking roughly in your head, but as a person's weight goes down, the numbers get tighter, with less room for error. Time will tell. I know it's not for me though. Too easy to become lax and sneak things in there when you don't have to see it on paper, so to speak. My adherence gets sloppy over time.

    Off topic but are you a participant of the NWCR (National Weight Control Registry), that the link references? If not you really should consider joining-there's so few of us who are successfully maintaining and your data could help others down the road :)
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    edited July 2017
    dp
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    edited July 2017
    dp
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    edited July 2017
    ugh another repetitive post
  • gerla_k
    gerla_k Posts: 495 Member
    I don't count calories in this app but I used to. I count them in my head....I'm doing intuitive eating and eat when I'm hungry and in small portions. And losing weight ....
    I'm on my feet all that though average step count is 13k plus I do Insanity and go for walks with my baby with a stroller so I'm quite active.
  • RosieRose7673
    RosieRose7673 Posts: 438 Member
    memickee wrote: »
    Every time I stopped I gained weight.

    Me too.
  • Meelisv
    Meelisv Posts: 235 Member
    Interesting discussion.
    After several years using MFP I still find it to be the best, fastest and simplest method for keeping track of how much and what I'm eating. Simply eyeballing my food doesn't work at all for me, since I'm really inaccurate with guessing quantities even now, several years in. And even with food scale, just trying to remember or calculate stuff is way too overwhelming and bothersome for me, if I can simply log it with couple taps/clicks in app or on web.

    But this discussion had me wondering something else, out of pure interest...
    Don't get me wrong, it's a honest question, which really interested me ( though perhaps should have it's own topic):
    OP and others who don't log their food - why are you here?
    I mean I used MFP for years without ever clicking on "community" tab. Now I do read stuff and sometimes reply if I find discussion interesting or thing I have something to contribute. But i'm quite certain that if I would stop logging food in MFP I wouldn't open app or site, and hence would never wonder into community section either
    So I wonder does the community really give more value to you than main purpose vb of the service itself?

    Wow - long post ;)
    Hopefully I didn't offend anyone and pls. excuse my poor English.
  • TheJourneyToFabulous
    TheJourneyToFabulous Posts: 381 Member
    I lost around 40lbs 2 years ago not counting calories it can be done but I find it SO much easier logging in here then I know exactly what I am eating
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited July 2017
    I haven't logged anything in 4 years + and haven't had any issues maintaining my weight really. I do usually put on about 10 Lbs over winter, but it comes right back off in the spring when my activity goes back up and I go on a small cut.

    Calorie counting was just a tool...I never considered it to be the "lifestyle"...I changed a lot of things in regards to the way I live my life and I always just considered this to be a teaching tool. I did log for about 9 months while losing the bulk of my weight.

    Also, yeah...it's not really for everyone. My wife tried it and hated it so she just followed South Beach...phase III is pretty similar to how we both eat most of the time now anyway. Whenever I cut my winter weight, I'm more or less doing phase II really, with a few more indulgences.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    I take breaks. I also gain weight. Hell, I gain weight when I AM counting. I should probably do cardio or something so I can actually eat.
  • LifeinReboot2018
    LifeinReboot2018 Posts: 28 Member
    I find that it keeps me aware of what I put in my mouth. I used to eat because I was sitting, watching T.V., reading, or breathing. What I found out is the app helped to make me accountable and think about why I was eating. I was full but not paying attention to my body saying stop! I still enjoy having everything layed out for me on the graph.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    Meelisv wrote: »
    Interesting discussion.
    After several years using MFP I still find it to be the best, fastest and simplest method for keeping track of how much and what I'm eating. Simply eyeballing my food doesn't work at all for me, since I'm really inaccurate with guessing quantities even now, several years in. And even with food scale, just trying to remember or calculate stuff is way too overwhelming and bothersome for me, if I can simply log it with couple taps/clicks in app or on web.

    But this discussion had me wondering something else, out of pure interest...
    Don't get me wrong, it's a honest question, which really interested me ( though perhaps should have it's own topic):
    OP and others who don't log their food - why are you here?
    I mean I used MFP for years without ever clicking on "community" tab. Now I do read stuff and sometimes reply if I find discussion interesting or thing I have something to contribute. But i'm quite certain that if I would stop logging food in MFP I wouldn't open app or site, and hence would never wonder into community section either
    So I wonder does the community really give more value to you than main purpose vb of the service itself?

    Wow - long post ;)
    Hopefully I didn't offend anyone and pls. excuse my poor English.

    I didn't know about MFP during my weight loss phase, (hung out on a plan specific forum), and after I transitioned into maintenance I left the other forum I was on because there was no emphasis on maintenance. And since that's where most people fail, I wanted to find a forum where I could interact with other successful maintainers-for the community aspect of it (there's so few of us and I feel like a weird outlier in real life), and then also to keep expanding my knowledge on food/nutrition etc.

    Stumbled onto MFP and I've been here on and off ever since, (3 or 4 years now). I get frustrated with some of the posts/members, (I swear every single time I come back I won't get sucked into the diet soda threads :s ), but I keep coming back because MFP has the most active and diverse forum I've been able to find, and most importantly for me-it has a large group of maintainers that engage on the forum :)

    I don't actively track in maintenance, besides some spot checking like I did today, but I have other checks n' balances in place. This is working well for me now, but I needed the foundation of actively tracking my calorie intake during my weight loss phase to get me to that point. I shared that with the op in a post further up, but don't think it made much of an impact. To each their own!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Meelisv wrote: »
    Interesting discussion.
    After several years using MFP I still find it to be the best, fastest and simplest method for keeping track of how much and what I'm eating. Simply eyeballing my food doesn't work at all for me, since I'm really inaccurate with guessing quantities even now, several years in. And even with food scale, just trying to remember or calculate stuff is way too overwhelming and bothersome for me, if I can simply log it with couple taps/clicks in app or on web.

    But this discussion had me wondering something else, out of pure interest...
    Don't get me wrong, it's a honest question, which really interested me ( though perhaps should have it's own topic):
    OP and others who don't log their food - why are you here?
    I mean I used MFP for years without ever clicking on "community" tab. Now I do read stuff and sometimes reply if I find discussion interesting or thing I have something to contribute. But i'm quite certain that if I would stop logging food in MFP I wouldn't open app or site, and hence would never wonder into community section either
    So I wonder does the community really give more value to you than main purpose vb of the service itself?

    Wow - long post ;)
    Hopefully I didn't offend anyone and pls. excuse my poor English.

    I'm a nutrition and fitness junky...I like talking about it...I like learning new things...I've had a lot of success in all aspects of this and I like to help people get headed in the right direction.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited July 2017
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Meelisv wrote: »
    Interesting discussion.
    After several years using MFP I still find it to be the best, fastest and simplest method for keeping track of how much and what I'm eating. Simply eyeballing my food doesn't work at all for me, since I'm really inaccurate with guessing quantities even now, several years in. And even with food scale, just trying to remember or calculate stuff is way too overwhelming and bothersome for me, if I can simply log it with couple taps/clicks in app or on web.

    But this discussion had me wondering something else, out of pure interest...
    Don't get me wrong, it's a honest question, which really interested me ( though perhaps should have it's own topic):
    OP and others who don't log their food - why are you here?
    I mean I used MFP for years without ever clicking on "community" tab. Now I do read stuff and sometimes reply if I find discussion interesting or thing I have something to contribute. But i'm quite certain that if I would stop logging food in MFP I wouldn't open app or site, and hence would never wonder into community section either
    So I wonder does the community really give more value to you than main purpose vb of the service itself?

    Wow - long post ;)
    Hopefully I didn't offend anyone and pls. excuse my poor English.

    I'm a nutrition and fitness junky...I like talking about it...I like learning new things...I've had a lot of success in all aspects of this and I like to help people get headed in the right direction.

    Yeah, if i ever stop logging i'll still come to the forums. I spend a few minutes a day logging my food, but spend hours on the forums! :worried:

    OP what exactly annoys you about logging your food? You do know there is a website version, not just the app that you keep repeating.

    Does it bother you when you have gone over your calories, so you would rather not log so you dont have to see it?

    You have a lot of weight to lose, i would take full advantage of this wonderful tool which makes losing weight so much easier and insightful.

    ETA: I haven't missed a day of logging in 3 years, it's just become a quick and easy part of my daily routine. I pre-log my day every morning, which takes me a few minutes.
  • princeofmind
    princeofmind Posts: 95 Member
    I don't log a thing. Never have. I've lost 35 lbs since starting losing weight and am now BMI 22.9. Hoping to lose another 8 lbs to get to BMI 21.6. So for me counting in my head works just fine. But for others it could be a problem staying on goal without logging things. It's all about what works for the individual. If you find not logging causes problems for losing weight then go back to logging but if you're happier without logging then no reason to not give it a shot.
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