I don't understand the "I'm not gonna log it" mentality

kayleesays

I see a lot of people saying they're not logging the rest of their day because the food they ate was bad. Isn't that sort of the point of logging? If I didn't log when I went over my cals, I would never log... ha ha.

I just feel like the point of this site is to keep yourself accountable. If you only wanna see your food log on the good days, doesn't that defeat the point? It doesn't change the fact that you ate it. It's still in your stomach.

What do you guys think? Do you ever not log simply because you don't want to see it?

SuperSneaky

I'm logging everything. If I go way over... well, tomorrow is a new day.

missnelso04

Sometimes if I go off the deep end (usually starts mid-afternoon and spirals out of control until I go to bed) I will feel too guilty to log my calories in before going to sleep. But I always make myself do it the next morning - which I know is dangerous, because I could forget that one oreo or that huge bite of my daughter's PB&J. I find in the morning though, I am usually over my guilt and ready to start my new day fresh and better than ever.

DrewMaxwell

Yep, log everything. If not the only person you're fooling is yourself and isn't that how we got here to begin with?

I'll also add that I track my calories knowing what I can have on a weekly basis and if I go over one day, at least I can make some adjustment to the remainder of the week an try to make up for (some of) it.

emnk5308

I have done the opposite. I went on her earlier today and logged what would be a typical day for me. It showed that I had eaten about 3,000 calories O.O It was shocking. I agree that everyone should be logging everything that they eat, even if it is bad and is going over everything. It is good for you too see it, and it sets a good example for other MFP users

DrewMaxwell

Sometimes if I go off the deep end (usually starts mid-afternoon and spirals out of control until I go to bed) I will feel too guilty to log my calories in before going to sleep. But I always make myself do it the next morning - which I know is dangerous, because I could forget that one oreo or that huge bite of my daughter's PB&J. I find in the morning though, I am usually over my guilt and ready to start my new day fresh and better than ever.

Do you log it on the previous day's journal or the next morning's journal?

missnelso04

The previous day's. I just log it late.

adventuresincooking

I think the reason some people don't want to log it is he acknowledgement that they slipped from their diet. The good news is a normal healthy person who keeps an eye on their food has days like that too. Some days you want to eat more and in the long run that is fine, because so as long as you are not eating in a certain manner everyday it isn't going to. You may even feel you got that boost to morale you needed to keep the path. That might be a bit over reaching, but I think that might be part of it.

1Kristine1

I try my best to, and aiming for higher cals rather than lower.
I think it helps me see what are good choices and what I should avoid in the future. If I go over I don't stress too much, just try and exercise some of it off.

michellekicks

Whether you track it or not doesn't change the fact that you ate it. So if you want to know exactly what's working and what isn't working, tracking must be done diligently and accurately IMHO. It's not bad to have a day where you just ate 4000 calories or something... it's all life. If you want to reach your goal though, you need to know how it affects your progress.

Track everything. Learn from the feedback on the scale and the tape measure.

montana_girl

I log everything... I need to know if "bad" was "really bad." LOL And most of the time it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

I log because I need to be accountable for every bite and if I log right away, it's usually enough of a reality check to get me back on track.

spaingirl2011

I was one of those people-- and I will acknowledge that it's one of the reasons I've lost and then put back on the weight or stalled. After rounds of this rodeo, I've FINALLY realized that while I can lie to my brain about portion sizes and foods I don't log not counting, my body is ALWAYS counting (IT KNOW ... muahaha).

They'll learn or they won't. I don't ever want to have to lose this weight ever again, so brutal honesty with myself about how much I'm eating and learning from that is going to be key.

Take care everyone!

MonkeyBars

log everything and then you have the data to understand what works and doesn't!

some peeps do, some don't! the ones who don't wonder why they don't get results!

plan ahead too, if you're going to a restaurant and you don't want to look silly trying to log stuff,
decide up front what you'll have, then put it in your phone in advance, then it's easier to tune!

in desperation, take a photo of what you're eating, tell your friends you're so impressed with the layout
of the food you just needed to take a shot to see if you can "cook" it yourself!

then update later/next day!

I've had this problem when at restaurants with no signal!

And a cold food buffet is a nightmare if it's not food you normally eat, just log it anyway you can and update!

my rule is - 1 blowout a week!!!!

senyosmom

Right on! I log it all, the good the bad and the make my thighs even bigger ugly.

My regret the next day helps me from having a repeat performance.

sarahharmintx

Ive had this debtate with myself before. I realized it was silly and the whole point of counting/logging/time/effort/MFP was to track food intake. So I came to the conclusion to add everything- the good, the bad and the liquor. LOL.

If I feel guilty or know it wasnt the best choice, I wont log it RIGHT AWAY. I will enjoy it, wait, then log. But it still goes down on paper (so to speak). Oh and if I remember something I didnt put the day before, I will go back.

Besides: when I look back over the week or even a month later, if the ugly isnt there then its not accurate at all.

justal313

I don't bother logging my black coffee. Apparently a cup of black coffee is 5 calories so I'm sometimes under logging by about 20-35 calories a day. If I get an iced coffee with skim milk (or a 2% latte, or a beer/shot/glass of wine/etc) I log that. I'm rarely within 40 calories of my Net goal so I'm not going crazy about it. I also haven't been logging my water for a while. I know that a trip to the gym is 24 oz of water and a couple of my water tumblers at work is another 40 so generally I hit my 8 glasses on a work day and I drink 3 or 4 fruit2Os on a weekend day so I'm close enough.

As far as food, I log everything I eat and do my best to guess portion sizes and weights if I can't actually weigh my food or get nutrtional info from a restaurant's website or scan a barcode. Those days I generally make a point to come slightly under my net goal to account for error.

zellagrrl

I log everything-- if I remember. Sometimes, it just doesn't happen due to crazy and/or very late days.

inverseofmissy

I log every single bite. I had just 1 tostito chip with mexican dip yesterday at a cookout and you better believe I logged that! I just don't want to cheat myself. I underestimate my exercising and overestimate my calories, if necessary. Like you said, that's the whole point of counting calories and this website- to keep yourself accountable. If I binge one day, I want to log it so I have to know how bad it feels and it will discourage me from doing it again (hopefully). That's also why I keep my diary open to my friends- encourages me to make better choices about the things I eat since I know people will be looking at it!

cmayfield3

I don't log when I go over and I know I should. My problem is I have kind of a perfectionist attitude about logging. I don't like to guess. So if it's a bad day already and I eat at a restaurant where I don't know the portions, I kind of sabotage myself by saying there's no point in logging it since I don't know the calories and I'm already over. Or if I'm eating everything in the cabinets, I'm not likely to slow down and put that second bowl of cereal on the food scale so that I can add it to my already deep-in-the-red diary.

This post is a kick in the butt to change my attitude about this, so thank you for posting it. The perfect is the enemy of the good, it's better to log a guess than nothing at all.

illuminatusObservor

Going over one day and not logging it isnt a big deal. One day is VERY small and has nearly no impact on the big picture. Sometimes it is nice to just enjoy a day and not log it. I don't want to feel guilty because I went over my calories and enjoyed myself.

REET420

sometimes I dont keep track when I have a bad food day i'll quick add 10 000 calories so i know it was a bad day

tinana_RN

I log everything as well. Pointless to not log things if you want this to actually work-- it's ok to eat what you want, but it's really great to keep it logged so you can see it if you're not seeing the results you want to.

xerotolerance

I try my best, but sometimes if it's my cheat/refuel day, I just want to enjoy it rather than be 100% on my logging game. This is just me, personally, of course.

marieautumn

on the rare occasion i am going to be over 100 calories over i just stop logging out of guilt. but that same guilt allows me not to make the same mistake the next day.
OR if i've been drinking...then all logging bets are off.

SkettiGurl

I log everything regardless of what I've eaten...If I don't, the only person I'm hurting is myself right!

dane11235813

i hardly log anything. once you reach a point where you know what your body needs to eat in a typical day i don't find it necessary.

Jennloella

I don't log anything ever. I use this site for motivation, to find like minded fitness friends, find new recipes, etc. To each their own, I guess! When I first started I used the quick calorie add, but quickly found I never really ate more than I estimated so...it just kind of tapered off. Lost all I wanted and more so something was working.

Carri1

I log it so that if I need to go ride my bike because I went over on something without realizing I can go do it. I am not dieting tho. I am eating healthy and not starving myself. Its actually good to eat more some days...keeps your body guessing. JMO

amanda3588

I typically log everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. The only time I didn't log was over this past weekend because I ate a lot of random foods that I would have no way to account for. I know what I ate, and the sodium weight showed on the scale, so I am staying accountable to myself.

lporter229

I also try to log the good, the bad and the ugly. Most days on my calendar are complete to a tee. However, there are a few "best guesses" and I always try to over-estimate to cover. But this weekend was a disaster. We had a house full of people all day on Sunday, so my eating consisted of picking at the "buffet" of food. In all honesty, I probably drank more calories than I ate, so I really would not even know where to begin to log Sunday.

cindyhoney2

I log everything...I'd rather be able to review my food diary to see why I didn't drop any lbs this week and see accurate readings. It just makes good sense to me if you're going to go through the trouble of monitoring your food/calorie intake why not do it as accurately as possible.