Curious: do you track on Thanksgiving (or any holiday)?
Replies
-
I always log. In certain situations like holidays and vacations I am not trying to log accurately I am just trying to ballpark it. If you wonder why you should bother consider that any guess you make has a much better chance of being accurate than logging nothing which will be 100 percent wrong.
This is one of those times I try to find a database entry that is more generic but based on something. I will use:
wegman's - thanksgiving dinner meal
I will log 2.5 servings of it and go higher if I think it is necessary. I do not eat dessert so I think that will be a good number for me.
5 -
My body still tracks, so I still track. Albeit generally a bit more loosely, and not paying so much attention to staying within my allowance2
-
I've been doing this long enough that I can eyeball and estimate. In the past I would take moderate portions of the foods I liked, leave the foods that I didn't care for, and only eat one serving of whatever I chose. It worked for me. I've never gained over the holidays.
Also, during the week leading up to Thanksgiving I'm being very tight with my calories and not overeating so I have some wiggle room come Thursday.
Friday I will be back to my normal eating habits.3 -
I always log but it does bother me to do so without my scale. My in-laws think I'm weird enough as it is.4
-
No logging for me during Christmas or any holiday time, never did, even when losing. I stop eating when I'm full. (in maintenance over 6 years), it seems I can do moderation well.0
-
I'm eating about 100 calories less my usual this week, exercising, and will go over on Thanksgiving, but will track as best I can.1
-
I do. Tracking and having a plan helps me to stay in control.
On holidays, big dinners or special events I usually eat something small early in the day and save the majority of my calories for that big meal.
Between that, banking calories during the week and getting in a good cardio workout the day of, I end up having a good amount of calories to play with for that meal.
I still enjoy whatever I want to eat, but I don't overdo it.
Sometimes I go over and that's okay and I don't stress out about it.
8 -
I will log. I recently ate a Thanksgiving meal (my family makes a full turkey spread for all kinds of occasions). I have it saved in my meal diary. I eyeballed it during the last one and had to guesstimate on the food as I didn't input all the recipes but I figured it would give me a good idea as to where I am. I am going to try to weigh my food this time and get a more accurate count but we will see how it goes!
Logging something is better than nothing for me.1 -
Since I'm cooking this year, I'm going to do my best guess and log it all before I eat that morning. (I pretty much know how much I'll eat since I'm cooking) and just enjoy the rest of the day. I normally don't though when I'm eating at someone else's place. I also don't for short vacations, my birthday and a couple of other special occasions either. I usually go over on special occasions because of drinks & desserts but that's ok because they don't happen too often.3
-
I don’t plan to track, but don’t really go overboard either. It’s just dinner with the price jacked because of the number on the calendar....0
-
I don't weigh my food, but I track on holidays. Last Thanksgiving i was more than 550 calories over my goal for the day, and enjoyed every last bit of it with no guilt. Probably stayed over my goals until the pie was gone 😁🥧 but eventually got back to tracking accurately enough to resume my gradual weight loss trend. I'm sure I could lose faster if I weighed everything, but I'd rather not weigh my food and am satisfied with my progress.
Even if I managed to pack away 3500 calories over maintenance and gained a pound, as long as I return to my goals, it will come back off. For me, if ever there was a day to make an exception, Thanksgiving is that day!5 -
You all have me thinking of tracking on Thursday, especially since my weight is up this week! I was going to just enjoy it but have been debating on what's really worth splurging and what's not. So much for going in with abandon! Dessert is worth it though, it had better be good as I've been waiting 2 months for it!4
-
I log everyday, whether it's a holiday, birthday, or just a day when for some reason I eat more than usual. That way I'll know if I went overboard with my calories or not, and by how much.
Of course, I'll have to guesstimate the food that I didn't cook, but that's no different from guesstimating whenever I eat out. Still better than not logging it at all.1 -
You all have me thinking of tracking on Thursday, especially since my weight is up this week! I was going to just enjoy it but have been debating on what's really worth splurging and what's not. So much for going in with abandon! Dessert is worth it though, it had better be good as I've been waiting 2 months for it!
Logging and eating as much as you want are not mutually exclusive. I will eat way more than I need but I will enter something in my log so that later when I go to crunch my numbers I do not have a major gap. If I eat 2000 calories worth and only log 1750 I am off by 250. If I log nothing I am off by 2000.
9 -
I don't expect to accurately log this year's U.S. Thanksgiving meal. I did, once, and found that my 'plate' is a reasonable meal.1
-
Typically, no. But I’m not doing Thanksgiving this year, so it’ll just be a normal Thursday for me.1
-
You all have me thinking of tracking on Thursday, especially since my weight is up this week! I was going to just enjoy it but have been debating on what's really worth splurging and what's not. So much for going in with abandon! Dessert is worth it though, it had better be good as I've been waiting 2 months for it!
Logging and eating as much as you want are not mutually exclusive. I will eat way more than I need but I will enter something in my log so that later when I go to crunch my numbers I do not have a major gap. If I eat 2000 calories worth and only log 1750 I am off by 250. If I log nothing I am off by 2000.
And in contrast I usually don't eat a particularly huge amount at Thanksgiving and when I was losing I did try to stay around maintenance that day, which isn't so hard -- turkey is low cal, there are lots of vegetables (although they usually have more fat added than my normal vegetables), and with mashed potatoes it's all about the serving size. Yes, I'd have a piece of pie with ice cream, but I only have a light breakfast and then the big meal.
I didn't log (when I was logging) not out of some kind of denial of the calories being consumed or because I'd feel guilty going over (I wouldn't have) but because I just find it annoying and burdensome to try to estimate things there's no way to really do accurately, and I wasn't going to weigh foods when dishing up or cooking anyway.
I think it all comes down to goals. If you are trying to keep a running TDEE tally, I agree that estimating is better than skipping, but if you don't care about that there might be no reason to care about logging on a particular day. I mostly didn't calculate overall TDEE when I was losing, so having a gap wasn't important to me. (I mostly don't log at maintenance and when I do it's usually for a few weeks at a time.)2 -
I won't, no way to know calories for sure on all of the homemade food I will be eating. I will just aim to eat reasonable portions and perhaps guesstimate my calories on my plate and try to stick around a certain amount. I am running a 5k that morning so that should help a little.
One day out of the year is not going to make a difference in the long term, I say just enjoy the holiday and get back on track the next day (which will be hard for me, my bday is black Friday!).2 -
There are about a dozen days a year that I let the Fat Man off the Chain and eat like the 300lb Fat Man I once was. Thanksgiving is one of those days. However I always go to the gym Thanksgiving morning and throw down a monster workout to help with the calorie load later in the day.4
-
Nope.
I’ll log something small in the morning to keep my streak going but just going to enjoy the day and back to tracking on Friday.
Been calorie banking all week so should be okay anyways1 -
Yes, l log on Thanksgiving and other holidays but I don't hold myself to any specific calorie goal. If I'm over by 1,000 or 2,000 or whatever that's fine, I just want to know. If I don't log it's like it doesn't count... just pig-out. If I know I'm going to plug everything into my phone I will at least see how good/bad I did, there is some accountability (to myself). It means I don't eat that 2nd or 3rd piece of pie that I otherwise might.3
-
Just... what ever you do... don't bust out the food scale during dinner.6
-
You all have me thinking of tracking on Thursday, especially since my weight is up this week! I was going to just enjoy it but have been debating on what's really worth splurging and what's not. So much for going in with abandon! Dessert is worth it though, it had better be good as I've been waiting 2 months for it!
Logging and eating as much as you want are not mutually exclusive. I will eat way more than I need but I will enter something in my log so that later when I go to crunch my numbers I do not have a major gap. If I eat 2000 calories worth and only log 1750 I am off by 250. If I log nothing I am off by 2000.
And in contrast I usually don't eat a particularly huge amount at Thanksgiving and when I was losing I did try to stay around maintenance that day, which isn't so hard -- turkey is low cal, there are lots of vegetables (although they usually have more fat added than my normal vegetables), and with mashed potatoes it's all about the serving size. Yes, I'd have a piece of pie with ice cream, but I only have a light breakfast and then the big meal.
I didn't log (when I was logging) not out of some kind of denial of the calories being consumed or because I'd feel guilty going over (I wouldn't have) but because I just find it annoying and burdensome to try to estimate things there's no way to really do accurately, and I wasn't going to weigh foods when dishing up or cooking anyway.
I think it all comes down to goals. If you are trying to keep a running TDEE tally, I agree that estimating is better than skipping, but if you don't care about that there might be no reason to care about logging on a particular day. I mostly didn't calculate overall TDEE when I was losing, so having a gap wasn't important to me. (I mostly don't log at maintenance and when I do it's usually for a few weeks at a time.)
I was working on explaining this to my therapist yesterday and he didn't really get it but maybe people here will get it more, lol. I log because it puts me in the right mindset. It's kind of like how some people here will brush their teeth and that's the "signal" that they're done eating. For me, logging is like the "signal" to eat mindfully, even if I am eating over my normal calorie allotment. So, even though it's grossly inaccurate because it's all homecooked by other people, I still make better choices when I log than I would have had I not.
I'm not saying that to argue that you should - we all have our own processes - just saying that there's a reason why some might log even if it's inaccurate.6 -
pancakerunner wrote: »Just... what ever you do... don't bust out the food scale during dinner.
I think it's an excellent conversation piece!6 -
I had no plan to log, as I mentioned earlier. But then I thought about how I would be eating these foods as leftovers, so I'd want the calorie info for the following days. I spent part of this afternoon entering recipes for everything. It ends up being more calories than I expected! I'll still have to figure out some of the amounts since off the top of my head I'm not sure if I eat one quarter, one sixth, one eighth, etc of a recipe.4
-
I usually log and do better on the holidays than during workdays. We usually go for a family walk after lunch - it burns some of what we ate and it prevents us from continuous eating. 😁
2 -
I do track on Thanksgiving and other holidays. It's actually easier than tracking on days I go to a restaurant or going to someone's home at other times of the year, because I spend the holidays with family and we have food traditions that don't change much from year to year. Almost everything that is served is already in my food log from past years. So I just copy last year's Thanksgiving and make whatever tweaks are needed. (I estimate amounts, but because I have been tracking regularly with a food scale for over six years, my estimates are reasonably good.)3
-
I absolutely track -- I don't weigh at the meal, but I do an equal amount for leftovers the next day, and use that to adjust the Thanksgiving meal. I stick to eating at maintenance calories, and with the exception of two things -- stuffing and sweet potatoes -- I do *not* do second servings. (I run a 5K that morning, which covers a slice of pie and some whipped cream.)4
-
You all have me thinking of tracking on Thursday, especially since my weight is up this week! I was going to just enjoy it but have been debating on what's really worth splurging and what's not. So much for going in with abandon! Dessert is worth it though, it had better be good as I've been waiting 2 months for it!
Logging and eating as much as you want are not mutually exclusive. I will eat way more than I need but I will enter something in my log so that later when I go to crunch my numbers I do not have a major gap. If I eat 2000 calories worth and only log 1750 I am off by 250. If I log nothing I am off by 2000.
And in contrast I usually don't eat a particularly huge amount at Thanksgiving and when I was losing I did try to stay around maintenance that day, which isn't so hard -- turkey is low cal, there are lots of vegetables (although they usually have more fat added than my normal vegetables), and with mashed potatoes it's all about the serving size. Yes, I'd have a piece of pie with ice cream, but I only have a light breakfast and then the big meal.
I didn't log (when I was logging) not out of some kind of denial of the calories being consumed or because I'd feel guilty going over (I wouldn't have) but because I just find it annoying and burdensome to try to estimate things there's no way to really do accurately, and I wasn't going to weigh foods when dishing up or cooking anyway.
I think it all comes down to goals. If you are trying to keep a running TDEE tally, I agree that estimating is better than skipping, but if you don't care about that there might be no reason to care about logging on a particular day. I mostly didn't calculate overall TDEE when I was losing, so having a gap wasn't important to me. (I mostly don't log at maintenance and when I do it's usually for a few weeks at a time.)
For me the goal is to keep a running analysis of where I am but it is also to put my choice out in front of me. I have already pre-logged tomorrow so I have an idea of how many calories I think it is acceptable in advance. I will probably not eat as much as I have planned.
Of course both of us are just throwing things out there for people who haven't gone through a holiday yet to consider. There is no right or wrong. You just have to evaluate the options and then see what feels right. My personal system requires logging because it is one of my primary methods of awareness and personal responsibility. After all this time I can evaluate what I am eating pretty well without logging but I want to see it on the screen. When I see it I want to ask myself if it was worth it and what would I change next time.
Going into tomorrow I have banked some calories and I have a big calorie burning event planned for tomorrow on top of my normal exercise.
It is not the desserts that get me. It is the cornbread dressing. That stuff is highly caloric.3 -
Spencerport wrote: »There are about a dozen days a year that I let the Fat Man off the Chain and eat like the 300lb Fat Man I once was. Thanksgiving is one of those days. However I always go to the gym Thanksgiving morning and throw down a monster workout to help with the calorie load later in the day.
You might be my spirit animal 😂
2
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions