Anybody not counting claories?

peacek
peacek Posts: 211
in Health and Weight Loss
I am not finding the motivation to log everything I eat.
My diary is blank most days.

Anybody has success without tracking calories?
How do you do it? Please share!
«1

Replies

  • Itzli
    Itzli Posts: 78 Member
    I got the fitness pal app on my phone and its super easy. I just log as I go. It really helps me make better decisions on what I'm eating and drinking and it also helps keep me motivated to stay under my cal goal. I haven't noticed a "dip" in lbs yet, but man, I tried on some jeans that were too tight a week ago and they fit NO MUFFIN TOP!
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    I'm not tracking but I'm also bulking and not cutting. I'm not tracking because for ME, it gets mentally exhausting and I tend to get a bit OCD about things so I did this as an experiment to see if I could gain at a reasonable pace by eating intuitively. So far, so good.

    In March when I start cutting again I'll resume tracking.
  • smokinjackd
    smokinjackd Posts: 341
    For me the only reason i use this site is to keep my calories and nutrients in check.
  • EmilyOfTheSun
    EmilyOfTheSun Posts: 1,548 Member
    When I first started working out, I didn't give two sh*ts about what I ate. I did still lose weight. When I started taking food into account too, I lost weight much more steadily/consistently.
  • Kayciemae02
    Kayciemae02 Posts: 58 Member
    I also use the app on my phone most of the time. I have the hardest time logging on the weekends. But for the most part I will log everything I brought to work for food in the morning so I know where I'm sitting calorie wise ahead of time. Then if I don't eat something I can always delete it.

    I haven't noticed any major loss yet - but what it helps me with the most is making better food choices. Some things you don't expect to be THAT high in calories and you get the major shocker when you log it. Again, why I like to pre-log if I can. :happy:
  • elainecroft
    elainecroft Posts: 595 Member
    I go in phases - I'll track well for a while, then lose it and not track for a few days/weeks/months. I find that I eat better and stay on target more when I am tracking, so I try to get motivated to do it.
  • alpine1994
    alpine1994 Posts: 1,915 Member
    It takes a little while to get used to logging everything you eat, but it really is the best way to keep yourself honest. I got a digital food scale at Target, lots of measuring cups and spoons, and I log it all. I had a major reality check that I was eating way more than I thought I was. 7 months later, I still use the scale and spoons/cups all the time and log everything, even the bad stuff.
  • tkcasta
    tkcasta Posts: 405 Member
    I've been having issues with it lately. I'm going to plan my major meals out ahead of time and pre-log them. So I'm going to have a cooking and logging day that way I don't have to obsess about it every day. But if I don't track, I mindlessly eat, and therefor overeat.
  • vlebje
    vlebje Posts: 1
    Been there, done that. I am now posting all I eat, but must admit that it is difficult to do all the time. The better approach for me has been the Atkins, where the only thing I count is carbs. At first that is somewhat difficult, but after a few days on Induction, anyone can memorize the carb content of foods that you commonly eat and thus you don't spend time counting calories.
  • mommyfauc
    mommyfauc Posts: 54 Member
    I lost 40 lbs tracking religiously. I then stopped working out and went back to bad habits. I gained 13 lbs back. I now have started exercising again, and eating healthy but not counting calories. Down 5 lbs so dar and I think doing good. So going to continue like this for awhile since I am happy and seeing results. I don't have the time to track all the time. So I'm doing this my way.
  • ally1130
    ally1130 Posts: 18 Member
    I recommend you just tell yourself that if you are not logging what you eat, you don't KNOW WHAT YOUR EATING. Losing weight takes a very specific calorie input and output. I started logging calories daily when I started realizing that my "guess" of calories and nutritional values were way off. I started logging just to find out the caloric and nutrition content of the foods I ate. Now that I have logged for so long, I am much better at estimating while I'm out and about... It has made me much more effective at knowing and controlling what I eat.
  • danasings
    danasings Posts: 8,218 Member
    The reason for my success and continued maintenance is weighing, measuring, and logging food. Not everyone has to do that, but that is what works for me.
  • BrettPGH
    BrettPGH Posts: 4,716 Member
    I'm not tracking but I'm also bulking and not cutting. I'm not tracking because for ME, it gets mentally exhausting and I tend to get a bit OCD about things so I did this as an experiment to see if I could gain at a reasonable pace by eating intuitively. So far, so good.

    In March when I start cutting again I'll resume tracking.

    ^I do what he does. Because.. well look at the man!
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    In Soviet Russia, calories count you.
  • dorianaldyn
    dorianaldyn Posts: 611 Member
    For me, logging my food and staying within my calorie guidelines has made ALL the difference. I can't actually envision a future where I'm not keeping track... maybe I won't have to be *quite* so diligent someday, but the results from tracking are undeniable so I'm going to stick with it.
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
    I'm not tracking but I'm also bulking and not cutting. I'm not tracking because for ME, it gets mentally exhausting and I tend to get a bit OCD about things so I did this as an experiment to see if I could gain at a reasonable pace by eating intuitively. So far, so good.

    In March when I start cutting again I'll resume tracking.

    ^I do what he does. Because.. well look at the man!
    ^^ look at both of them

    that said...doesnt work too well for me.
    I tend to eat everything in sight...oops!

    i do take a 2 week break in the summer, and again over Christmas and New Years.
  • drmerc
    drmerc Posts: 2,603 Member
    I should be...
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
    i'm here for thong thursday
  • MacInCali
    MacInCali Posts: 1,012 Member
    I'm one of those freaks who actually likes to weigh/measure/log everything I eat. I've gotten to the point where I will now eyeball a serving before placing it on the scale to see how close I am (and I'm damn good at getting close), but I still put everything on the scale before it goes in my mouth. I'm sure it satisfies some kind of control issue in me and I'm okay with that. :laugh:
  • sarahisme18
    sarahisme18 Posts: 574 Member
    I actually use my diary as a meal-planning tool. I track the day or the week before (loosely... I give myself freedom to change it if something comes up or I don't feel like eating something I logged). It helps with staying on track, grocery shopping, meal planning, cooking, and also takes the guess-work out of it for the day/week. If I forget what I'm having, I just look at my "menu" on the diary.

    Works great for me! I've tracked every single day since October, I believe, except for a week at Christmas. I was visiting family, and I did log what I ate afterwards, but I didn't plan it ahead of time.

    FYI tracking also really helps if you get sick or you want to know why you're experiencing something... I hope that makes sense. For example, back in November, I started increasing my protein intake and lifting, and I got really sick... I couldn't figure out what the problem was, until I went back and reviewed my diary. Turns out, I'd started getting most of my protein from whey... cottage cheese, shakes, etc. and as soon as I started eating that amount of whey, I had started feeling bad. It was nice to have a log to figure out what was causing the problem!

    It came in handy again last week when I started not being able to sleep for a few days in a row. I went back and looked at my diary, and realized I'd had caffeinated coffee in the afternoon every day I couldn't get to sleep. Bingo!


    Anyway, hope that helps! :)
  • dare2love81
    dare2love81 Posts: 928 Member
    I'm not tracking but I'm also bulking and not cutting. I'm not tracking because for ME, it gets mentally exhausting and I tend to get a bit OCD about things so I did this as an experiment to see if I could gain at a reasonable pace by eating intuitively. So far, so good.

    In March when I start cutting again I'll resume tracking.

    ^I do what he does. Because.. well look at the man!
    ^^ look at both of them

    that said...doesnt work too well for me.
    I tend to eat everything in sight...oops!

    i do take a 2 week break in the summer, and again over Christmas and New Years.

    ^^^Look at all three of them!

    Like Crank said, if I don't log, I tend to eat keep eating - unnecessarily, and typically less healthy food. I didn't log during the holidays either.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    How do you do it? Please share!


    I like Tom Venuto's breakdown on this issue:

    Stage 1: Unconscious incompetence - you are eating the wrong foods in the wrong amounts and you're not even aware of it. (You don't know what you're doing and you don't know that you don't know what you're doing)

    Stage 2: Conscious incompetence - you are eating the wrong foods in the wrong amounts, but for some reason, you now become aware of it. This is often because of a "hitting bottom" experience or an "I'm not gonna live like this anymore" epiphany. (You don't know what you're doing and now you know that you don't know what you're doing!)

    Stage 3: Conscious competence - you educate yourself and begin to eat the right foods, but it takes a lot of thought and effort to eat the right things in the right amounts. (You know what you're doing, but you have to think about it and work very hard to make it happen because you're using willpower and still learning)

    Stage 4: Unconscious competence - you've made the conscious effort to eat the right foods in the right amounts and you've counted calories and kept a nutrition journal for long enough and with enough repetition that these behaviours become habits and a part of your lifestyle. (You know what you're doing and you do it easily and automatically without having to think about it).

    In short, I think it's a state you have to transition too. You could try a "diet" plan which makes you spontaneously eat at a defcit without counting calories (Paleo / Atkins / Dash etc) but I think that gives you less flexibility or control in the long run.
  • sarahisme18
    sarahisme18 Posts: 574 Member
    How do you do it? Please share!


    I like Tom Venuto's breakdown on this issue:

    Stage 1: Unconscious incompetence - you are eating the wrong foods in the wrong amounts and you're not even aware of it. (You don't know what you're doing and you don't know that you don't know what you're doing)

    Stage 2: Conscious incompetence - you are eating the wrong foods in the wrong amounts, but for some reason, you now become aware of it. This is often because of a "hitting bottom" experience or an "I'm not gonna live like this anymore" epiphany. (You don't know what you're doing and now you know that you don't know what you're doing!)

    Stage 3: Conscious competence - you educate yourself and begin to eat the right foods, but it takes a lot of thought and effort to eat the right things in the right amounts. (You know what you're doing, but you have to think about it and work very hard to make it happen because you're using willpower and still learning)

    Stage 4: Unconscious competence - you've made the conscious effort to eat the right foods in the right amounts and you've counted calories and kept a nutrition journal for long enough and with enough repetition that these behaviours become habits and a part of your lifestyle. (You know what you're doing and you do it easily and automatically without having to think about it).

    In short, I think it's a state you have to transition too. You could try a "diet" plan which makes you spontaneously eat at a defcit without counting calories (Paleo / Atkins / Dash etc) but I think that gives you less flexibility or control in the long run.


    Niiice. Looking forward to getting to Stage 4!

    Anyway, that is cool, thank you for posting!
  • peacek
    peacek Posts: 211
    Thank you all for the responses.
    Looks like majority of you recommend tracking calories. I am going to give it one more try.
    And hope to get to stage 4 as msf74 says.
  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
    I think I'm somewhere between stage 3 and stage 4. I no longer track calories, but I still use a food scale to make sure the portion size is correct.
  • hnewell1030
    hnewell1030 Posts: 13
    I find that tracking is sometimes a pain in the butt, but it makes me accountable for what I'm eating. And getting a digital kitchen scale has helped me tremendously too
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
    raises hand

    i take pictures of my food.

    i dont want to take pictures of ugly fattening food, so i try to make beautiful healthy food.

    i tracked at first, got a good grip on what costs what calorie-wise, now i barely even take pictures of the food - i just go for beautiful.
  • lacurandera1
    lacurandera1 Posts: 8,083 Member
    Almost all I lost was from eating without tracking calories, it was before I found this site. I've found that colorful is a good goal to strive for- it;s a good indicator of getting a reasonable array of vitamins and minerals. Kinda goes hand in hand with Yoovie's "beautiful." It helped me to break my carb addiciton, too...bc before a meal of a ton of pasta and a ton of bread was normal, or no big deal, but that's just too much brown and white. :) it probably goes without saying, but i cut out processed foods and stuck with whole, fresh, home cooked food.

    The only place "colorful" failed me was in the protein department. I was exercising heavily and ended up with a deficiency. (I was eating just as much as i ever had, but the increased activity needed more fuel.) Anyways, I track now. Mainly to keep an eye on that tricksey protein and to maintain a small deficit.
  • hnsaunde
    hnsaunde Posts: 757 Member
    I like Tom Venuto's breakdown on this issue:

    Stage 1: Unconscious incompetence - you are eating the wrong foods in the wrong amounts and you're not even aware of it. (You don't know what you're doing and you don't know that you don't know what you're doing)

    Stage 2: Conscious incompetence - you are eating the wrong foods in the wrong amounts, but for some reason, you now become aware of it. This is often because of a "hitting bottom" experience or an "I'm not gonna live like this anymore" epiphany. (You don't know what you're doing and now you know that you don't know what you're doing!)

    Stage 3: Conscious competence - you educate yourself and begin to eat the right foods, but it takes a lot of thought and effort to eat the right things in the right amounts. (You know what you're doing, but you have to think about it and work very hard to make it happen because you're using willpower and still learning)

    Stage 4: Unconscious competence - you've made the conscious effort to eat the right foods in the right amounts and you've counted calories and kept a nutrition journal for long enough and with enough repetition that these behaviours become habits and a part of your lifestyle. (You know what you're doing and you do it easily and automatically without having to think about it).

    In short, I think it's a state you have to transition too. You could try a "diet" plan which makes you spontaneously eat at a defcit without counting calories (Paleo / Atkins / Dash etc) but I think that gives you less flexibility or control in the long run.

    I stopped logging for two months over the holidays because I was mentally exhausted and I was becoming obsessed about food.

    I find I have much more motivation to log again now that I've had that break, even though I did gain weight when I wasn't logging. I was also curious to see which stage I was at (I'd seen this posted before), and it turned out I was at Stage 3, and not yet onto Stage 4.
  • Nessiechickie
    Nessiechickie Posts: 1,392 Member
    I track my calories, but I my problem is eating enough to maintain energy and a workout.
    Most of the time I don't get on at the end of the day so I add my nighttime calories the next day.

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