Do you plan to track for the rest of your life?

Kathy_Noring

I am still quite a way from my goal, but already thinking ahead to when I hit it. I wonder, will I always need to track to hold myself accountable? Or will I learn the right way to eat and do so instinctively?

Do you plan to continue tracking when you've hit your goal?

If you have reached your goal, do you continue to track?

AQ3107

I plan to eat everything in balance so that I can run as I love running.
I also plan to live forever. So far so good.

nmcfatter

Well, maybe not for the rest of my life, but it has become a habbit.
It makes me more aware of what I eat.
It has really helped since I have had surgery...and will be having a second in
a few weeks.
I am usually very active. I teach exercise classes. So I know that because the
Doc told me no physical exercise (ie: sit-ups, running, spinning, etc.) I have to
keep my caloric intake down.

missionimposs

I plan to track at least untill I get to goal !!!!!!!!!!! and maybe afterwards to keep me in line :bigsmile:

LoraF83

Yep.

wannatangle

I am planning to keep it up after I reach my goal. I do not want to gain it back. I used to be able to eat what I want as long as I exercise. Not anymore.

icimani

I think (hope?) a lot of it will become instinct. But for now, and I'm guessing for a long time t ime to come, I'll be tracking. It keeps me mindful.

Andrew_peter

Hopefully will have better eating/nutrition habits and true dedication to exersize by the time I get there, but thinking a weekly weigh-in to keep me in line is in order. If I have to lose 5 or 10 lbs, after ditching the 93lbs I am working on now, I figure it will be no sweat!!

danibu98

Every time I have gotten close to goal.and stopped tracking I put the weight back on, so I'm in this for the long haul.

BridgeKiki

I don't know, I haven't even thought about it!

cwolfman13

I view this as training to re learn how to intuitively eat once I reach my goal

Seajolly

No, at this point I don't even really need to track anymore, as I have a good idea of how many calories are in things. Once I get to my goal weight I plan on monitoring the scale but not tracking everything.

majope

Probably off and on. I lost 35 pounds in 2011, and kept it off by paying attention to my weight and going back to tracking when I went up a few pounds (which tends to happen twice a year: when summers get hot and I slack off on running, and when the holidays hit because NOM!). Came back in January to lose the holiday/travel weight and another chunk o' weight after that.

Should add that once I got to my stopping point last time, I did spend a few weeks tracking at maintenance just to make sure I had a feel for it. Will probably do the same this time.

efirkey

I plan on watching the scale once I hit my goal weight. If I gain 5 pounds then it is time to start counting calories again.

Timshel_

I kinda know my eating habits and levels needed to stay healthy. I will probably be off and on for life and I am good with that. Time will tell. Tracking really isn't that hard so no biggy if I do.

LadyRoff

What a great question..... I think ill probably continue to track past my goal, its so easily and simple to track on here, it has almost become a habit now!

RamaOtster

I haven't been using the app that long but the more I do the more I am finding that I already had a good idea of how much I should be eating I was just getting carried away with how much I was eating or eating the wrong things twice a day, so I don't really think I am going to need to keep track forever but I feel like I will until I get to my goal.

I do find that weighing myself regularly is helpful so I will keep doing that for the rest of my life. I think the reason I put the weight on in the first place is that I didn't have a scale so even though I was buying larger sizes of clothes I didn't realize just how much weight I had put on.

hannah_ryann

I'm with wolfman; I see this as training. Do I trust myself enough right now to stop tracking and continue this healthy lifestle? Not so much. I'll track until I get comfortable with serving sizes, portion control, etc. The overall calories I'm okay on, but measuring food out is still a big hurdle for me and I use my scale every day.

If I have to track my food for the rest of my life to be the healthy person I'm meant to be, I will. I'd like to give myself more credit than that, however. Maybe in a year from now I won't have to and I can continue to be healthy.

aliciagetshealthy

Probably not to the extent that I do now. Yes, if I'm working at specific fitness goals. No, if I'm just going about day-to-day living, but still keeping my overall eating and fitness/weight range in check. It would be more likely that I'd monitor for a week, once a month, to make sure I'm still within an acceptable range.

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

Yes. I don't plan on ever maintaining so it would be a good idea to track my calories and macros throughout the never ending bulk and cut cycles.

gabriellejayde

probably off and on, but I'm sure i'll remain aware of how many calories are in the choices i'm making.

NJL13500

At this point I feel like yes. I have been maintaining for 4 months now and I think that if I didn't track that the weight would creep back on. Maybe after I maintain over years I'll change my mind.

Ed98043

I plan on watching the scale once I hit my goal weight. If I gain 5 pounds then it is time to start counting calories again.

Ditto. I'll keep a close watch on the scale and how my clothes are fitting, and nip any gains in the bud by tracking as needed. Hopefully it'll become second nature at some point, but who knows.

ThisGirl2013

I have only been doing this for a couple weeks on MFP and a few weeks on top of that from other calorie counter websites. MFP is the best though and I can already feel like what my intake is. You do just start to recognize calorie intake and feel when you are full when you apply portion control. So, my answer is no, I will not plan on doing this the rest of my life. For now, it is nice to have the support and accountability because I am so new at it. When I am REALLY strong, I will say hasta la bye bye and hit the next chapter of my journey

Serah87

Yep. :bigsmile:

UndefinedLoser

I think I'll eventually stop tracking when I'm able to automatically know what and how much I'm eating. I believe tracking (when done consistently and correctly) makes room for automaticity so you don't have to keep a food journal nearby for the rest of your life.

Sabine_Stroehm

I got to my goal about 10 years ago. I logged for a bit after, then stopped. Any time my weight increases a few LBS I log to get back on track. And, now that I'm going through "the change", I'm logging everything because I don't want to gain a bunch of weight.

SweetestLibby

I haven't given it much thought honestly. Now a lot of my food choices are habit and I don't think about it much. I was able to maintain a weight of 125 (90lbs lost) without tracking (overall eating a healthy and balanced with my normal workout schedule) for about 5 months. Now that I'm trying to lose the last 10 pounds I'm tracking again. I hope that I'll be able to maintain my goal weight like I was able to maintain 125 without tracking.

Carolyn_79

I just recently stopped logging as an experiment. I was finding it mentally draining because I would get wrapped up in the numbers; For example, I'd reach my daily goal of 1800-2000 calories or whatever but I was still hungry, but felt I couldn't eat because then I'd be over. It was stressing me out so I stopped. I'm very active with lifting and training for my half marathon so if I'm hungry then I'm eating, end of story. It's been nearly 2 weeks now and I'm happier and my clothing still fits exactly the same so I think I'm fine to continue this way.

TheStephil

For the most part yes, I may skip days when i need a break or when I'm eating places without nutritional information available. I didn't track and it got me overweight. If I stop tracking, I'll doubt how much I'm eating and either overeat or undereat and neither is healthy.

olDave

Ya...I plan to keep tracking.