When you are tired of tracking...

liz60625

Hi all-looking for some advice re tracking. I know it’s best if I do, but I’m at a point where I’m stuck and the last thing I feel like doing is tracking. Do you have tips or tricks when you get to that point? What can I do to get me through this unmotivated part of dieting but still stay on track until I can take tracking up again? Thanks for any tips.

MikePTY

Try your best to make smart food choices and stay active. If you have been tracking for a while, you should have a general idea of how to eyeball portions and approximate how much you can have of it. It's certainly not perfect but it is better than just completely letting go. I took a break for about a month and pretty much maintained. I may have even lost a pound or two during that time. Eventually the lack of logging caught up with me, but I felt mentally refreshed to do it again. Now I am back to logging most days and it is helping me get back on track with everything.

concordancia

Do you know what it is about logging that you find tedious?

Are you using the tools that make logging itself easier? Do you save meals and make recipes? Do you prelog to help with planning? Have you tried logging on both the computer and the app, as most people have a strong preference for one or the other?

ducatiroche

A bit boring but I tend to eat meal plans that I know add up to the right calories (as opposed to choosing several meals)

Hannahwalksfar

Once you’ve been properly tracking for ages you can pretty well eyeball and know ballpark calories. Well, I find I can. Just watch out for portion creeping

staticsplit

I recently took a few weeks off logging because I was tired of it. I don't know if I could lose weight without tracking but I found it quite easy to maintain.

tlpina82

liz60625 wrote: »

Hi all-looking for some advice re tracking. I know it’s best if I do, but I’m at a point where I’m stuck and the last thing I feel like doing is tracking. Do you have tips or tricks when you get to that point? What can I do to get me through this unmotivated part of dieting but still stay on track until I can take tracking up again? Thanks for any tips.

Where are you stuck at the moment? Did you stop losing? Stop gaining?
Or are you just tired of the day to day logging?

o0kody0o

I went through this phase too. I find that taking some time before bed to pre-log what I’ll eat the following day helps. It takes maybe only 10 minutes to do and I also weigh out my portions the night before too, so that everything is ready for me.

Last month wasn’t good for me and I did feel like giving up. I think the majority of us have got to that point at some time or another. I just reminded myself of how much weight I’ve lost (44lbs) and I knew that if I continued to slack, then I’d end up where I started (or worse) and I did not want that to happen. I know it can be hard but just try and stick with it and you will see results.

LivingtheLeanDream

Your weight is stuck? ... it takes literally 2 mins a day to track, is it not worth that small effort to get results?

Tedebearduff

liz60625 wrote: »

Hi all-looking for some advice re tracking. I know it’s best if I do, but I’m at a point where I’m stuck and the last thing I feel like doing is tracking. Do you have tips or tricks when you get to that point? What can I do to get me through this unmotivated part of dieting but still stay on track until I can take tracking up again? Thanks for any tips.

Just track your stuff would be different if you where done and at maintenance and wanted to see what it was like not to track but to just kind of jump ship when you're annoyed will get you knowhere.

NovusDies

I have been doing it for 19 months. What it represents for me is very little guesswork with steady and predictable results. I am not sure I will ever get tired of it but I doubt it will happen while I still have weight to lose. When the scale upticks like it has for the last 3 days I count on logging to remind myself that I am in a deficit and losing weight even when the "results" seem to suggest the contrary.

missysippy930

This is something you do totally for your own benefit. It takes very little time in the scheme of things. Remind yourself why you are doing this. It’s surely worth the effort.

gallicinvasion

Can you track a different way that’s a little less arduous for a bit? Maybe just write down your foods and portions in a small notebook. Then you can roughly track and stay mindful, but it’ll be a nice change of pace from sloggiv through the app. (I LOVE MFP, but my app has gotten so slow lately that it’s getting annoying to log, even with saved meals and recipes).

GaleHawkins

liz60625 wrote: »

Hi all-looking for some advice re tracking. I know it’s best if I do, but I’m at a point where I’m stuck and the last thing I feel like doing is tracking. Do you have tips or tricks when you get to that point? What can I do to get me through this unmotivated part of dieting but still stay on track until I can take tracking up again? Thanks for any tips.

@liz60625 at 63 with health falling off of a cliff I just quit dieting to lose weight forever after 40 years of yo yoing weight.

Now I just eat for better health markers on annual labs and my joint pain is well managed. I only track my weight each morn which automatically does the net calorie counting for me.

The side effect other than good pain management is without trying I was down by 50 pounds in the first year of just eating all I want that gives me better health and health markers. For the past 4 years I have maintained that 50 pound weight loss never going hungry.

In time with enough reading and trial and error eating I found the Way Of Eating that has been working well for me for 5 years now with better health markers at 68 than at 38.

First stopping all weight loss efforts was key to my health recovery.

Best of success as you work to learn the best way for you to eat. We are all different but in time I expect you will find the WOE that works best for your body.

ceiswyn

Occasionally I get tired of weighing and stop. Then, in the heady freedom from restraint, I binge on delicious foods and gain weight. Then I am motivated to track again

scarlett_k

I've suffered from this too. As someone who cooks from scratch practically every day, and rarely the same thing twice in a month, I had just had enough of spending so much time creating recipes and adding everything in for the meals I make. It's time consuming and so boring. I probably spent about 6 months not logging but still managing to maintain in those months, within the past year. I'm back to logging again now as I feel like I had the mental break I needed.

emmamcgarity

I find that sometimes life’s events are overwhelming and I don’t feel like tracking due to family events or traveling. On those occasions I try to start my day by tracking breakfast and give myself permission not to track the other meals. By the end of the day I have usually tracked at least one other meal. Within a few days I’m back to tracking everything.

steveko89

I went from being frustrated with my results logging lazily (not weighing) 4-5 days/week and not counting much of anything on weekends to feeling in total control and having a full understanding and appropriate expectations of my weight changes by logging meticulously. I made that change over two years ago and I can't see myself going back. It doesn't take that much time and treat it as a habit, not something you have to feel motivated to do. It takes some effort to build the routines but logging my food, weighing myself, and exercising requisite to me physique goals are as ubiquitous to my daily self-care routine as bathing, grooming, brushing teeth, etc.

Diatonic12

Remember why you started in the first place. There's no tricks and no such thing as the Finish Line. What we do to get results is what we continue doing to maintain or find any actual long term weight stability.

lgfrie

NovusDies wrote: »

I have been doing it for 19 months. What it represents for me is very little guesswork with steady and predictable results. I am not sure I will ever get tired of it but I doubt it will happen while I still have weight to lose. When the scale upticks like it has for the last 3 days I count on logging to remind myself that I am in a deficit and losing weight even when the "results" seem to suggest the contrary.

Same here. Rather than finding logging a tedious thing that I get tired of, it gives me the confidence that the plan is working even when the scale doesn't show it, which is often. In fact right now I'm on Day 7 of a mini-plateau, exactly the same weight as 7 days ago, but I know I've lost two pounds of fat, and I know the scale will eventually give up every ounce of it. You can't have that confidence without careful calorie tracking and logging. In this sense I find logging comforting and confidence-building.

whmscll

LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »

Your weight is stuck? ... it takes literally 2 mins a day to track, is it not worth that small effort to get results?

2 minutes a day to track might be true for you, but it’s not for everyone, especially if you are cooking for others, if you are making recipes you haven’t added in the recipe builder yet, or if you are eating out where they don’t list calories on the menu and are trying to find equivalents or estimate the calories of what you’re eating. I found logging tedious for quite some time, and sometimes still do. It’s just something I had to accept and get over. Itks usually pretty quick, but even when it’s not, I have found the time and effort pays off in the end, and it’s worth it to me.