i'm burnt out on tracking

OhDD65

You have done so well and look great. Just think what all you have learned this past year about eating right as well as eating the correct portions. I too got burnt out on tracking after 9 months, but I learned so much while on this program. I had only lost 10 lbs with another 20 to go, but just said enough was enough so I stopped tracking though I continued to keep an eye on my weight. For me the scale is my barometer. If I start to go up then I know I am not following the plan like I should be. However my exercise did start to slide. That I was really burnt out on ! One yr later I was back up those 10 lbs, but am back seriously on this again for 3 wks now. Not exercising to the extreme that I was before, so I think I will be able to stay with this now. Already have lost 6 lbs in 3 wks and I am determined to get
all of that wt I gained off again and then some. My MFP friends are my cheerleaders and it helps so much! Your fellow MFP ers will miss you, but know they are always there to welcome you back if you need them again. Good luck.......

Sabine_Stroehm

I used my food diary for losing weight and learning how to get my proper nutrition and meet my macros. i don't find it necessary at all for maintaining; I'm sure I have days when I'm over my calories and days when I'm under...and I'm sure I don't hit my macros dead on, but I come pretty close.

I eat the same nutritiously dense foods now in maintenance as I did when I was losing...with a smattering of junk thrown in their for good measure. I'm of the opinion that your choices that you learn to make and your fitness is the "lifestyle"...not logging for an eternity. I've maintained easily for 5 months without logging; it hasn't been an issue for me.

This. Really well said. I agree completely.
I actually didn't "count" calories when I was losing. I logged, to see what and how I was eating (I was learning to eat). After I reached my goal weight I kept eating the same foods.
From time to time, if I introduced a slew of new foods, or if the scale crept up, I'd log again.
I'm logging now (12 years later) because of good ole perimenopause.
But yes this is how I view things as well.
(It does depend on your relationship with food, like money.)

deje0201

I have been on and off for about a year and a half of my new lifestyle. While I completely agree that it is cumbersome to be tracking all my dietary details it is necessary. I have recently gained back 12-15 pounds and feeling miserable about myself. I know that I have a sick parent, my weight loss buddy moved 5+ hours away and I am struggling with life in general.

I'm back to give it another go. I'm going to try to stay motivate and keep going. I didn't realize that this was going to be so difficult at times.

rowanwood

To me the tracking is just a map...I don't always track everything and I'm still eating at a deficit. I just use it so I don't forget or delude myself into forgetting what I'm putting in my mouth. My hunger is NOT a reliable gauge of how much I need to eat...not yet anyway...

mommy3457

I'm not counting calories, and I'm still losing. I'm just watching how much I eat. I weigh in every morning though, and I do look at the calories so I know how much to eat, but I don't track it. So, I'm using the principles I learned.

gurlygirlrcr80

I take the weekends off of logging and it hasn't hurt my progress at all. it keeps me on track during the week and during the weekend I just make sure i do the right thing. I still managed to lose 3 pounds over the weekend so I know i'm not failing my diet...

cyberbidder

some people are able to maintain without tracking, I can not.

chrysa858

Hey there,

I felt the same way and I come and go with tracking. But I found out that even though I was still watching what I ate, I slowly gained weight. I haven't steadily tracked since October and I have gained back 8 lbs. It is ultimately up to you that is for sure and yes you can always come back. A friend of mine said, "Hey why are you doing this the hard way? Your smart phone has a bar code reader and this will make tracking way easier and faster!" So try that, use your phone bar code reader on the items you can scan. I am back here now tracking again and hope to lose 40 lbs in the next 6 months. I am hoping for a 10lb decrease by thanksgiving for sure.

bugtaylor

Do what works for u.

lilalief

I stopped for a while too, I was so sick of it! Dunno why, I just was. Now I started again, mainly because the new school year started and I want to get back on track before I move to paris next semester

BigGuy47

I agree with the notion of testing yourself. Stop tracking cals for six weeks, but continue to monitor your weight. By the end of the test you will know if you can carry on without tracking.

delong99

I take tracking breaks sometimes - but if my weight starts a creep up, I start tracking.

I just have to remember that even if it isn't tracked - as long as it goes in my mouth - it's a calorie. So I eat like I'm tracking, if that makes sense.

An app that has come in handy for me for maintenance is Happy Scale. I weigh every day, and enter it, and if I start trending up, I track for a week or so to keep myself honest.

Isakizza

I take breaks.

I totally get what you mean. It gets to me, keeping track of every little thing. But I know how important it is for me at this point to continue to do so. I'm almost at a year of tracking also.

I've been taking breaks every month or so with a few days to a week of no logging at all. I still workout and watch what I eat but don't count or log it at all. I just took this long 3 day weekend to break from MFP.
It was nice.

Now I'm back and ready to hit it again. I've come too far but still have a ways to go, can't totally quit yet.
Good luck!



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eating4me

I don't track everything all of the time. I take weekends off many times, and definitely any type of holiday or special event. Otherwise, I can get too obsessed with it all. I feel it's much healthier to do it this way, at least for me.

arabianhorselover

This is an interesting topic, since I am now counting calories for the first time in my life. I always felt I couldn't do it - actually i just didn't want to. I don't know how long it will be before I get sick of it, though. Not sure how I would do without it, since I am a compulsive overeater.

Fitfully_me

does anyone else feel this way? i'm so sick of tracking everything and being so anal about every last detail of every single thing i eat or drink. i'm very heavily considering not tracking anymore. i'm about 6 weeks away from a year of steady logging. i'm just sick of it. i feel like over these past months i've gotten a lot of good information and that i can easily continue on from here with making good choices, both with food and exercise. and i feel like i'd be a lot happier and more mentally at ease. and i'm happy with where i am weight-wise. and i can always come back!

The OCD in me wouldn't allow me to quit before getting to that one year mark :embarassed:... I'm quirky that way.

You know, you don't have to log your intake if you don't want. Its not paramount to your progress. What is paramount is your resolve to do what it takes to stay on track. If logging is irking you at the moment, and you believe you can stay on track without it, go for it. Its your journey. Do what works for you and doesn't drive you crazy. :happy:

adorablepancreas

If you're happy with where you are and feel that you can maintain that without logging, then by all means, do that! MFP is a tool meant to help learn those skills, and if you feel you no longer need it, then that's great. Do what feels best for you.

Personally, when I start feeling that way once in a blue moon, I just power through it. It isn't difficult for me. I've been using MFP religiously for almost a year and five months, and I actually find logging my food to be enjoyable, because tracking what I'm eating and seeing it in front of me helps me feel like I'm really working towards my goal in a tangible way. (Plus, I had reached my goal weight, and then I turned 21 and entered my senior year of college. So, I have a handful of pounds to lose again. Whoops! )

Anyway my point is, you have to assess what will work for you. There are lots of ways to lose weight and to maintain your weight, and if you feel you don't need to log your food to do that, then that's fine! Especially if you dislike it. I would think that feeling burnt out with it would make you less likely to log consistently anyway, if you forced yourself to do it? At least, I think that would be true for me.

Good luck in whichever way you decide to go!

socioseguro

some people are able to maintain without tracking, I can not.

This

I am happy with all MFPers that are able to maintain without tracking their food intake
I have not been blessed that way.

Good luck in your journey

shadowess3

I find that like some others have mentioned that when I cook my meals from scratch logging is a chore. With that in mind, often times I tend to do toward the more processed stuff just so I can simply scan the barcode. :ohwell:

I've always hated logging, but then I had an eating disorder, so when I start to log too obsessively I NEED to stop.I find that I tend to often under eat when logging due to being afraid of going over my limit, then splurging at the end of the day.

I don't like logging, and at the moment I'm just logging every couple of days, just to make sure I'm still roughly on track.

I think the type of diet you have can play into whether you would do well off logging or not, if your the type of person who eat similar things each day then you should have a good judgement of how many calories it has. If you the type who needs to obsessively measure and weigh every item so that you don't turn a 300 cal meal into a 700 cal meal, then sticking with the logging might be necessary.

Either way it's a personal choice, I think trying the log every 2-3 days is a good method to see how you're doing. Then make sure to keep tabs on your weight/measurements to see if you're on track.

stuffinmuffin

I've been maintaining for two years now and got totally sick of tracking around this time last year, this also coincided with hating running which was my main exercise so I quit both. Not with a defeatist attitude, just that I really needed to know if i could 'go it alone' without logging every last morsel that passed my lips or literally running myself into the ground.

I started tentatively. If I wasn't sure about a meal then I would use MFP to work out guestimate of the calorie value and generally I would add stuff up in my head as I went throughout the day.

I think I must have been the only person to lose weight over Christmas!

Anyway, in the spring my friend wanted to start up running and wanted me to go out with her and motivate her. As I kept losing weight through maintenance without logging I started back on MFP and bought a Fitbit (I love it!), so I am now back to logging (however a much higher amount of calories than I anticipated - I must have been undereating all that time) and staying at a steady weight.

I do however take time off. Holidays, special occasions, the odd weekend night if I feel like it, there'll be no logging and no guilt and everything always evens out in the end.

I think it's a good thing to do and would encourage anyone who has hit their goal weight to go it alone without MFP there. We should all know the right tools to not gain a load of weight just from being here in the first place.

fionarama

I've given up tracking and i have to say I'm much happier for it. I think I was focusing too much on MFP and tracking and not enough on ME on MY eating and my workouts. Feel so much more motivated and way less stressed. I'm monitoring and if I start gaining as a result I'll go back to it but at the mo I am doing actually way better flagging the tracking and directing my energy elsewhere.

KimJohnsonsmile

A MFP friend (I miss you, Sax!) said once that MFP is like training wheels... once you learn how you're supposed to live your life you won't need it anymore. I get sick of logging my food and some days I don't. Some weeks I don't. But, I always log my exercise, simply because I like to track my progress myself and the kudos from my friends makes me feel good.

anne2605

Me too! I decided just this week to stop tracking my foods. I've been in maintenance now for a couple months and feel fairly confident about the decision. I'm still going to weigh my foods and just try and stick to what I've been doing which is choosing healthy foods and exercise.

mmm_drop

A MFP friend (I miss you, Sax!) said once that MFP is like training wheels... once you learn how you're supposed to live your life you won't need it anymore. I get sick of logging my food and some days I don't. Some weeks I don't. But, I always log my exercise, simply because I like to track my progress myself and the kudos from my friends makes me feel good.

*pours one out* Awe, Sax.

I agree with this statement too, except, you know, every time I stop tracking my pants get tight again.

So, such is life, for me anyway. I write it all down, every bite of pizza, every drop of booze and most definitely every calorie burned!

TT_luvs_fitness

after almost 2 solid years of logging I had to stop. I would become crazed over the number to a point I would see I had X amount left to eat and it was getting late so I would eat them shortly after dinner but then later I found myself hungry and would eat more putting me over for the day. It got to a point i just couldn't anymore plus family was getting sick of seeing me pull out my phone at family dinners and ask them what they used, and before going out for dinner I would take time to see what each place had and if I had alot of cals left to be able to eat it. it got to a point I stopped counting and thought about going back to counting but my husband said I am more fun when I don't count and he's right I enjoy eating what I want in moderation of course with out worry.

RebeccaHite

does anyone else feel this way? i'm so sick of tracking everything and being so anal about every last detail of every single thing i eat or drink. i'm very heavily considering not tracking anymore. i'm about 6 weeks away from a year of steady logging. i'm just sick of it. i feel like over these past months i've gotten a lot of good information and that i can easily continue on from here with making good choices, both with food and exercise. and i feel like i'd be a lot happier and more mentally at ease. and i'm happy with where i am weight-wise. and i can always come back!

Just keep in your head to keep it around 400-600 a meal you'll be good.Or save your meals?

1stday13

When that happens to me I usually take a week off from tracking my foods. When I come back I'm refreshed and eager to log again.

^^^^That^^^^:drinker:

tartsul

thank you everyone, for your responses. i feel the same way as many of you. i feel confident that i can stick with the healthy habits that i've developed. i feel like in the last month, i've started to develop some BAD habits, and i realized it was from over analyzing and caring a little bit too much. i would get so wrapped up in it all that i wasn't really enjoying life. and i was continually feeling hungry. i realized i wasn't listening to the messages my body was sending me.

i've been at maintenance since around february. i think for me the best thing at this point is to quit logging but to keep an eye on how my clothes are fitting, etc. i've gotten into really good habits with my cooking at home as well as making good choices while out. my exercise has been slacking lately, so i need to kick that back up into a higher gear.

i totally agree that MFP is a wonderful tool to help you have a more accurate view of food. it has definitely helped me and i will absolutely keep it up and running to use as a reference. plus i have made a lot of great friends that i want to keep up with!

tworthen79

No. It's routine now. I log on, without even having to make myself. I want this more than anything. It's a lifestyle now.

karlalband

Agree, and I feel the same as the OP. But I have noticed that tracking is so important to get to where you need to be. And then take it from there. I would love a week off of MFP but afraid I would wipe out everything I have worked on!