Recording Progress.. Do you cheat?

returningmyfatsuit

Lately especially, maybe since I've had some down's followed by discouraging ups, I find that I am hesitant to record my full progress. I weigh myself in the morning with no clothes and after I've pooped ;p. I find that if my scale is showing -2.5lbs.. I want to and feel comfortable logging -1.8lb. Or 2lb. Or 1.5lb! Depends on my mood I guess. Just something for when I inevitably weigh myself tomorrow even though I shouldn't and I feel disappointed because I'm above my last weigh in number. I guess I like to set the bar low.
Anyone else do this? Should I suck it up and log it properly.. ? Does it matter?

AwesomelyAmber

I don't. Here is why. I keep my diary private. What I eat and when is my own business... I feel I am more honest when I don't think people are looking. My exercise diary is open... if I'm not doing what I need to then I want people (my friends) to say "Step it up girl, you're slacking!" and I also WANT/NEED to be told good job when I do exercise... I enter my gains and losses and even tell them when I do gain. Crap happens! For instance, I lost 3.5 pounds last week... SUPER EXCITING! This week I gained 2!!!.... Super sucky! But it will all come out in the wash :bigsmile:
But to answer your question about does it matter.... It only matters if it matters to YOU. THis is YOUR journey :flowerforyou:

chachadiva150

Be accountable to yourself. Log everything. There is NOTHING called "cheating." It's all just food. Log it in and see where it fits into your daily calories. No food is bad or wrong. It's just food.

It doesn't matter if your diary is public or private. Your accountability is to YOURSELF.

Own up to what you are eating.

I eat snickers, ribs, fried chicken, fries, whatever. I eat them a few times a month and I log it all. I plan ALL my meals including the high calorie meals.

I also exercise daily so that gives me extra calories.

Don't sabotage yourself by thinking wrong thoughts about food. Log and be accountable.

slrrese

All your cheating is yourself. No I log everything as best as I can.

babygurl48

All your cheating is yourself. No I log everything as best as I can.

^^^^^^
this

reneepugh

I log everything. If I don't I am only cheating myself. I am my own worse critic and it really keeps me focused on what I need to improve.

minipony1320

I try to overestimate the amounts I eat because I feel it gives me a safety net.

Megan

antoniosmooth

I try to log everything however it is hard for me to do when I make specific foods for dinner. Often I can easily log what I eat for breakfast, lunch, and after workout meals. Dinner is a different story.

Tami113

I weigh myself often, every time i go to the gym. But whatever the scale says on fridays is what i log, no matter what. If during the week i see myself gaining or maintaining and not losing i step it up a notch with exercise and make adjustments in my food.
Perhaps pick a day a week or every other week and have that be your day to weigh in. It will give you something to look forward to

JoKool

I LOG EVERYTHING!!

It's important to be honest with yourself...plus you have a historical guide to your progress.

It's been the process of logging every "tid-bit" that has actually made it work for me this time.... I look at food so differently now. If I am hungry I eat....if I go to snack on something not so great....I realize that I could have a tiny bit of "junk" or a whole lot of something better for the same calories. It's been the logging that has made me accountable for my actions and in-actions.

LOG EVERYTHING!!

returningmyfatsuit

Ok so maybe the title was a tad misleading, but it looks like most? everyone didn't read the post? Or maybe I just didn't ask properly.

I DO log everything I eat. It wasn't what I meant to ask but to elaborate, If I'm 2200 calories over, so be it. I also eat whatever I want to. I try to eat healthy/ier for sure, but I still go out for dinner and eat cake. Cause I like it.

To reiterate what I said and was asking,

I like to log on the LOW SIDE of what I LOST. Thinking about it now, though, the advice fits anyways. Accountable to self, etc. So I should just log what the scale says, and not worry if it goes up later. Mostly I just usually feel like if I lost 3lbs in a week that it MUST be a joke. So I'll log 1.5 lbs instead. Etc.

Anyways, thanks for your input GO US. :DDD

nz_deevaa

I've picked a day, (Sunday morning) and I log that weight, no matter if it's up or down.

If I do happen to weigh during the week and it's down, I still don't record that weight.

ElPumaMex

I wouldn't call it "cheating" to not fully record your weight loss (e.g. if the scale says you lost 2.5 lbs, to only log 1.5 lbs lost).
During a week, weight can easily go up or down by a few pounds.
Eventually, you will be tracking the correct weight loss.

Everyone has different strategies to log the weight.
Mine, is to weigh myself every day, and record the weight when I lose from my previous lowest weight.
You may very well call that "cheating", but it is working out for me because I have very much consistently been losing weight since November 2011 (sometimes it takes me a couple of weeks to break my record low, though)

I may need to change this weight recording, once I am close to my weight goal or in maintenance.

So don't sweat it, it is not cheating what you do !

zoodalia

I log what I weigh in as that morning... if I'm a little heavier the next morning, I don't add the weight back in as I know it's fluctuations (unless I've been consistently over-eating which I haven't in a while). However you do it, is up to you. My mum's scale weighs people in at about 4 pounds lighter than they are, I knew that, and I still went by the weight it said on the 'kind scales' as we call them. Now I have digital ones and they don't pull any punches but at least I know where I am!

turbophoenix

I do cheat but usually when it's beyond my control. For example, Fridays are my weigh in day. I weighed in this morning and showed a 4 pound gain from last week. However, it's my TOM and I can gain up to 8-10 pounds in bloat so I never count this week of the month. Next Friday I will record my weight.

MrsR0SE

I have to say, if my weight was up one week on the previous week I would probably leave that as a week without logging it into mfp. I do, however, write down every time I in myself in my diary whether up or down and however frequently, because I'm interested to see the ups and downs and trends through the week. It only 'counts' on my regular weigh in day though

returningmyfatsuit

Everyone has different strategies to log the weight.
Mine, is to weigh myself every day, and record the weight when I lose from my previous lowest weight.
You may very well call that "cheating", but it is working out for me because I have very much consistently been losing weight since November 2011 (sometimes it takes me a couple of weeks to break my record low, though)

Ahhhhh! I think I like this, I might just try it out. I try to weigh in once a week or so but I pretty much can't avoid the scale for more than a day or two anyways. Thanks for the idea

vegamy

Ok so maybe the title was a tad misleading, but it looks like most? everyone didn't read the post? Or maybe I just didn't ask properly.

I DO log everything I eat. It wasn't what I meant to ask but to elaborate, If I'm 2200 calories over, so be it. I also eat whatever I want to. I try to eat healthy/ier for sure, but I still go out for dinner and eat cake. Cause I like it.

To reiterate what I said and was asking,

I like to log on the LOW SIDE of what I LOST. Thinking about it now, though, the advice fits anyways. Accountable to self, etc. So I should just log what the scale says, and not worry if it goes up later. Mostly I just usually feel like if I lost 3lbs in a week that it MUST be a joke. So I'll log 1.5 lbs instead. Etc.

Anyways, thanks for your input GO US. :DDD

I think it's important to log your weight accurately just so you can see long term progress accurately and your little 3-month chart can really show you the trend of how you're progressing. That way you can keep doing what you're doing if it's working or adjust if it's not and get an accurate read.

But, ultimately, like others have said, it's only to help you. It's a personal decision. I only log my weight once per week, on the same day every week (Mondays).

Huffdogg

I don't get it. You'd only be cheating yourself.

AllergicToExercise

It's not cheating but think of it this way - if sometime in the future you reached a plateau and wanted to look back at your history to figure out what to do next, you'd really want the history to be as accurate as possible otherwise it isn't a useful tool if you didn't put the exact numbers in at the time, if you see what I mean? Part of what I find useful about this site is the ability to look back at things and compare what I was doing at certain points.

Saying that, it's important that you do whatever works for you!

ball858

I've picked a day, (Sunday morning) and I log that weight, no matter if it's up or down.

If I do happen to weigh during the week and it's down, I still don't record that weight.

^^^ Exactly - I weigh myself on a Saturday and log every little 0.1 as it all ads up

waldenfam2

Ok so maybe the title was a tad misleading, but it looks like most? everyone didn't read the post? Or maybe I just didn't ask properly.

I DO log everything I eat. It wasn't what I meant to ask but to elaborate, If I'm 2200 calories over, so be it. I also eat whatever I want to. I try to eat healthy/ier for sure, but I still go out for dinner and eat cake. Cause I like it.

To reiterate what I said and was asking,

I like to log on the LOW SIDE of what I LOST. Thinking about it now, though, the advice fits anyways. Accountable to self, etc. So I should just log what the scale says, and not worry if it goes up later. Mostly I just usually feel like if I lost 3lbs in a week that it MUST be a joke. So I'll log 1.5 lbs instead. Etc.

Anyways, thanks for your input GO US. :DDD

I log my weight losses, usually after three days of losing I'll jump up a little bit, maybe a pound, but within a couple of days my weight is dropping off again, and I log once it goes below my last lowest. Now if I was consistently gaining, I wouldn't do it this way, but since I know I'm eating healthy and the fluctuation is from salt/water, I just ignore it.

dakitten2

I log everything as accurately as I can. I also only weigh once a week and log whatever it is, good or bad. I figure if I cant be honest with myself, then what's the use of doing all this. I log all my recipes into the recipe calculator to get as accurate account as I can. I also weigh, measure, etc everything. It's all second nature now.

returningmyfatsuit

I try to overestimate the amounts I eat because I feel it gives me a safety net.

Megan

I do this too. Sometimes. Happy I'm not alone!

It's not cheating but think of it this way - if sometime in the future you reached a plateau and wanted to look back at your history to figure out what to do next, you'd really want the history to be as accurate as possible otherwise it isn't a useful tool if you didn't put the exact numbers in at the time, if you see what I mean? Part of what I find useful about this site is the ability to look back at things and compare what I was doing at certain points.

Saying that, it's important that you do whatever works for you!

This is a really good point I hadn't thought of! Thanks! This is why I was asking, I think this is a reason to log more accurately

JMarigold

LOL I noticed people didn't seem to get the post at the beginning.

I do what you do too. I didn't to begin with but honestly when I you know I lost 2lbs then gained 2lbs and then lost 2lbs again I didn't want everyone on my feed praising me for the second loss b/c well I feel like it's just where it ought to be.

Also I decided I didn't like logging gains. So I don't.

slrrese

I weigh myself once a week and round up to a whole pound weight as my "official" weigh in. I do weight myself in between and watch my food/ exercise if I am not making progress towards my goal.

mayatiger

LOL I noticed people didn't seem to get the post at the beginning.

I do what you do too. I didn't to begin with but honestly when I you know I lost 2lbs then gained 2lbs and then lost 2lbs again I didn't want everyone on my feed praising me for the second loss b/c well I feel like it's just where it ought to be.

Also I decided I didn't like logging gains. So I don't.

^^^^^ this

deksgrl

I don't get it. You'd only be cheating yourself.

This.

You are only playing head games with yourself. It is what it is, why make it more complicated?

donna_glasgow

Your body keeps an accurate journal regardless of what you write down...

Libby81

All your cheating is yourself. No I log everything as best as I can.

^^^^^^
this

^^^This. All you are doing is cheating you and sabotaging your own goals

Dorianlg

I don't think you're cheating yourself at all, I think you are giving yourself a psychological safety net, and that's fine. I myself have a specific day that I record my weight, and then it all evens out over time.
I think where this honesty about recording comes much more into play is if you find your weight is increasing. Because the instinct there is to lie/not record/not weigh at all. And you can't do that. You have to confront where you're at, create a new game plan and move forward. It's fine if your weight goes up one week and you don't want to record it. I gained literally 10 pounds when I went on a long train trip and ate meat while traveling after being strictly vegetarian for a year. I didn't record that weight. But two weeks later it was gone and the scale kept going down. I knew that weight wasn't real, and recording it just upset me. But if that weight had been real, it would have been vital for me to say "OK, I gained ten pounds. What did I do wrong? What will I do to get it off again?"

This process is supposed to make you healthier. Not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally. We're all learning to be honest with ourselves about how we're treating our bodies, and hopefully trying to treat them better. You do what works for you. I like to think no one is here to judge. I mean, maybe they are, but f*** 'em.