Logging food on a "free" day

Le_Joy

I have been on MFP since last August and don't think I've gone over on food by more than 500 cals in that time. My birthday is on Thursday and I am going to a buffet and I am going to have dessert. While I don't really do cheat days I really don't want to stress out about food on my birthday. After logging for almost a year I know enough about calories that there is no way I will stay anywhere near 1640 cals with a normal breakfast and lunch, then a buffet for dinner with dessert. I am trying to decide if I should even try to log my food (hard to tell ingredients and portion sizes at a buffet) or if I should just skip logging that day.

One thing I am considering is taking pics of my plate or plates of food and posting them on my blog so I have some record of what I ate, but don't have to try to figure out which cheesecake is closest to the one I ate or how much taco meat and cheese I put on my salad.

Any ideas?

flukes9

Enjoy your birthday dinner! One day isn't a big deal, but I still would log it with a rough estimate of "quick calories"...ballpark figure, and write a note about it, so you can at least remember what it was later. Have fun and enjoy!

Drastiic

The MFP police won't arrest you for taking a day off. Enjoy yourself and start back up the following day.

katharynjohnston

I wouldn't log the food, but if you know you are going to have a big dinner and dessert, have a very light breakfast and lunch and for the rest of the week just stick to 100 calories or so under your target. It will all even out in the end.

Pebble321

It's really up to what you want to do.

I went out for my birthday last year and initially just added about 1500 quick add cals so that I had a "place holder" in my diary to give me a clue of where my cals were for the week. I did go back afterwards and take a guess at the cals in each course (there were 8!) and though I'm sure it wasn't accurate, it was kind of fun to see how it all stacked up.
I don't stress if I'm over calories on any given day - I know I'm under other days and I'm certainly not going to stop enjoying a special night out now and again.

Enjoy, log if you want to, or just leave it blank and go back to normal programming the day after.

this1bigdog

I vote that you give it a shot, but don't worry about even remotely staying under!
I would try to make it up by the end of two weeks or something like that..
or throw in a couple hrs of extra work outs in the next two weeks.
or don't even bother logging it

but don't tell the MFP police about my advice..I think they are stalking me!

Pimpmonkey

I have been on MFP since last August and don't think I've gone over on food by more than 500 cals in that time. My birthday is on Thursday and I am going to a buffet and I am going to have dessert. While I don't really do cheat days I really don't want to stress out about food on my birthday. After logging for almost a year I know enough about calories that there is no way I will stay anywhere near 1640 cals with a normal breakfast and lunch, then a buffet for dinner with dessert. I am trying to decide if I should even try to log my food (hard to tell ingredients and portion sizes at a buffet) or if I should just skip logging that day.

One thing I am considering is taking pics of my plate or plates of food and posting them on my blog so I have some record of what I ate, but don't have to try to figure out which cheesecake is closest to the one I ate or how much taco meat and cheese I put on my salad.

Any ideas?

Check and see if the Database has the Buffet you are going to listed already and then just guestimate portions.

startatted

I feel like the important thing is, 95% you are cognizant of what you eat and you are careful. I have eaten like crap and logged every bit, and I have eaten "well" and not logged in. And let me tell you, I lost much more doing the former.

workoutgirl23

Just skip the logging for the one day. Its your Birthday. you've been working so hard all year staying on your diet. you deserve, to take one day for your birthday,and eat whatever you want. Enjoy yourself. i promise you, that one day, will not hurt your weight loss progress. go out and enjoy!!!

Happy birthday.

shaynak112

Quick add calories to be a large amount of calories.
That's what I did for my bf and my anniversary when we went to a buffet