To track or not to track on Thanksgiving

ChickenKillerPuppy

I have a plan for eating on Thanksgiving which basically involves indulging in limited quantities in foods that seem like they are worth the calories, not eating just for the sake of eating, but otherwise trying to relax and enjoy the holiday and if something looks delicious, I will enjoy a reasonable portion of it.

What I can’t decide is if I should track my food tomorrow. I love the idea of not worrying about trying to track and really just taking this one night off, but I also have been really diligent about tracking and wonder if it’s better to stick with the habit. I have tracked religiously so far and lost 20 pounds and am 10 pounds from my goal weight (I’m a 5’4 woman who now weighs 140 (down from 160) with a goal of 130).

Thoughts? What are other folks planning on doing?

NovusDies

Lots of thoughts here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10773382/curious-do-you-track-on-thanksgiving-or-any-holiday/p1

corinasue1143

Just a thought. If you do decide not to track for one day, pre-log the day after, or maybe two days, so that there is no temptation to let the day turn into the weekend, which turns into weeks. Right back to it.
Whether you really need to track that day depends on you. Are you a numbers geek who needs those numbers for that day?
For myself, I just log quick add 1000 calories for a big holiday meal. Keeps me in the habit of logging without any stress of guessing numbers.

lgfrie

Definitely no tracking for me. I try to be spot-on with the numbers as often as possible, but occasionally I just log 2,500 cals and eat whatever I want. This happens around once a month. I'd definitely put Thanksgiving, birthday, and Christmas into that camp. I know I won't engage in the uncontrolled insane binging tomorrow that characterized so much of my life prior to seven months ago, because I just don't do that anymore, but there's no doubt I will blow past the 2,500 and enjoy every minute of it.

But I will get right back on the scale on Friday morning and then go directly to my exercise machine. Getting right back on the horse is the cornerstone of my diet strategy. You can only do so much damage in one day.

kshama2001

Instead of my usual precise logging to the gram, I won't use my food scale and will do wild estimates. I'm simply too busy and it is just one day.

Danp

Really, the only person who can answer that question is you.

The way I see it the problem isn't weight gain in and of itself, putting on a few pounds while enjoying life every now and then is perfectly normal, healthy and acceptable behaviour. It's uncontrolled, or unintentional, or perhaps unconscious weight gain that causes the problem and needs to be addressed. It's about being in control

This is why I choose to view what I'm doing as 'weight management' rather than 'weight loss'. This means, as long as I'm in control and making a conscious decision then choosing to 'put on a few' when I deem it as 'worth it' no longer constitutes a 'failure' but is just a part of me taking full control and making informed decisions about when it's appropriate to 'be good' and when it's time to 'relax'.

healingnurtrer

ChickenKillerPuppy wrote: »

I love the idea of not worrying about trying to track and really just taking this one night off, but I also have been really diligent about tracking and wonder if it’s better to stick with the habit.

I also like the idea of taking a break from the "work" of logging but if I felt like logging on the holiday "for fun" I'd do it. I've taken a day off before just because I didn't feel like it and I still was able to stick with the habit afterwards. I have no deadline for my weight loss goal, I'm doing this for me and will take breaks when I want to.

I hope you find a good solution for you- congrats on your success and good luck with your future goals!

Shortgirlrunning

I’m just taking the day off of logging. I just want to focus on enjoying the holiday and for me that does not include spending time thinking about calories.

neugebauer52

I always track my food / beverages. I want to know what I consume and how many calories I have eaten. I also want to see how a "really, really interesting meals day" looks like and the consequences. I take the excess calories of that day, multiply it by (a theoretical ! ) 365 days, divided by 7700 calories - so that's how much weight I would gain in one year if I would carry on like that! A very sobering thought - nothing wrong with the odd day - I have one coming up soon - but for a change it's not food for the belly but food for thought.

lightenup2016

I’m going to loosely log, but allow myself to go up to or over maintenance calories. Then I’ll get right back to my calorie deficit on Friday and over the weekend. I’m also going to run in the morning as a preemptive strike on at least some of those Thanksgiving calories!

NorthCascades

Of course track. That doesn't mean you have to worry and it doesn't mean you can't go over your limit. What it means is you have information later if you want it. One example is people can use their predicted vs actual weight loss to nail down their TDEE, but only if they have good data. Another example is whoever eats the most calories on Thanksgiving wins. 🙂

nighthawk584

I'm tracking, just won't be very strict today. I am not pulling out a weight scale in front of family and be anal about weighing all my food, even with them knowing I do this on regular basis at home... I'll just take a photo and rough estimate later on. I've allowed myself a 2 lb weight gain for all 4 days since I will be staying with my sister through the weekend. Doing a long session of cardio this morning and will also be working out at her house. Bring on the mashed potatoes and gravy and PIE!

rheddmobile

For me tracking allows me to relax. It’s likely your scale weight will be up after a holiday due to water and waste gain, and knowing how many calories I ate means I know it’s not “real” i.e. fat gain. I am also diabetic and need to be careful because Thanksgiving food is heavy on the carbs.

Lobsterboxtops

Hah...was just pondering that same question a USA Today article said the average T-day dinner is ~3000 calories. That seemed low to me. I just logged 5000 and am calling it done. I will try to be mindful of my portions but I’m not getting that worked up about it.

mtaratoot

I think maybe there's a slight difference between logging and tracking.

Tracking, to me, implies precision. It implies measuring/weighing. This would be inconvenient at best at an event like a communal Thanksgiving feast, a potluck, or many other situations. If I were going to a Thanksgiving dinner, I would not TRACK.

Logging, to me, implies just that -- journaling what you eat. I will do this every day. Some days it's not precise at all. Before I go on a dive trip or river trip, I pre-log my days with one of two "recipes" I created that are just a combination of fat, carb, and protein to add up to what actually is way more than my daily goal. It's good enough. Surely the more often someone is precise, by weighing what they cook and eat, the better one gets at estimating when that's more appropriate.

The research suggests that simply WRITING DOWN what you eat leads to eating fewer calories. It suggests that writing it down WHEN YOU EAT IT is better than trying to remember at the end of the day. People tend to underestimate what they eat, so just the act of writing it down helps. I do this too. I carry a little pocket notebook, and if I'm eating something and don't want to log it right away, I make a note in my pad and log it later.

I have found a lot of value just logging what I eat. There are many ways to approach our goals, and I think we all need to find what works for us. But yeah -- log but not track on some days. This is what I did on Sunday. That's when I had the closest thing to a Thanksgiving meal. Annual tradition at a local tavern -- free Thanksgiving dinner for the entire community. I was moderate in what I put on my plate, but I didn't measure it. I did find a reasonable entry in the database for "Thanksgiving meal," and I said that's good enough.

Does that make sense?

tracydnevins

I DID track... what a disaster!!!!! But, this is ONE DAY!!! If it’s Christmas, Thanksgiving, things like that, I’m gonna splurge! I feel like depriving myself just makes me more likely to give up. I ate almost double in calories. Not good. But tomorrow is a new day. ☀️

Whydahdad71

I have worked hard to get into shape. I agree with the above-mentioned post though, it'one day...live a little bit!

New_Heavens_Earth

I created an entry called "Dinner time! Let's just say I ate this much", serving size "1 big ole plate", 1700 calories, just for today. It's good enough. I did track breakfast coffee and lunchtime salad accurately though.

NorthCascades

tracydnevins wrote: »

I DID track... what a disaster!!!!! But, this is ONE DAY!!! If it’s Christmas, Thanksgiving, things like that, I’m gonna splurge! I feel like depriving myself just makes me more likely to give up. I ate almost double in calories. Not good. But tomorrow is a new day. ☀️

It's fine. You're in a long term deficit, an occasional blip won't hurt you. You're the tortoise not the hair.

Unknown

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kshama2001

hobbitses333 wrote: »

One day is not going to be the end..it took you a lot longer to gain all the weight... I track freely on holidays...no way to really know calorie counts so I just put in a quick 3000 cals and forget about it for the day. Back to careful tracking the very next day..

This year is really different for me.
"Normally" I have downed 5 pumpkin pies by now with whipped cream. But this year I have had maybe 5 pieces. Dont miss it and just kept putting it off till later.

Same with the Christmas treats...years before it would begin as soon as they hit the store...now I am saving them for later. Dec 24 to Jan 01 will enjoy all my "not nows" like baileys, after eights, rum and egg nog, stained glass cake, boursin cheese then right back at it on Jan the 2nd!

I find I dont like the way I feel when I over indulge now. To think I used eat whatever until absolutely stuffed everyday!

Yes, I didn't have seconds of dinner or dessert and didn't miss the "turkey coma."

I enjoy my pecan pie so much more if I've had time to digest a little beforehand. We had just enough daylight left to get in a 1.5 mile walk after dinner and before dessert. I told everyone "Walk or do dishes" and the two who didn't want to walk got all the dishes done while we were gone, which was wonderful.

lgfrie

I went completely berserk on Thanksgiving yesterday and today I'm up 11.6 pounds LOL I figure I gained a full pound of fat yesterday. Ah well, back on the scale, back on the bike, life goes on. On the positive side, it's good to get a reminder once in a while not to be too cocky about having developed new "permanent" eating habits and all that. I am perfectly capable of reverting to a wild, ravenous beast if the conditions are right. Plus, I love Thanksgiving food. All in all, a satisfying experience although a waste of 4-5 days to unwind the damage. I'm sure I'll do the same thing next year.

rheddmobile

I pre-logged yesterday to figure out what to eat in order to keep my blood sugar within safe limits. Ended up eating about 800 calories of stuffing, green beans, salad, turkey, and low carb pecan/pumpkin pie (my own invention) and tested at under 100 2 hrs after eating. Yay! The day as a whole was a little under calories because we went to bed early and had a light supper.

Woke up heavy today but I think I’m retaining water due to sore muscles from my race yesterday. We went hard, and I can feel it.