Is Calorie Counting a Sustainable Practice

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  • msvip213
    msvip213 Posts: 9
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    I think it's a very slippery slope to stop weighing everything, personally. I mean, now I can tell when I have 300 calories left and can afford a piece of chocolate or even some ice cream. How would I know if I wasn't tracking? I'd probably think it's fine, when it's not, and it would just keep adding up until I put weight back on again... I'm guessing it's more sustainable if you count calories but still consider 'junk' a once in a while treat. When you can fit some of it in your diet most days, that's when it gets dangerous.

    Another option I guess is to keep weighing every week and just track again when we gain weight. Now of course, to be honest, I rarely reach my goal as it is so I might be under all the time at maintenance and just not worry about it at some point anyway... We'll see. Not quite there yet.

    I know for me I plan my meals out at the beginning of the day and have little baggies with my snack assortment of the day. So I don't track it but I know that its all within my allotment of calories for the day if that makes sense.
  • aszwarc
    aszwarc Posts: 200 Member
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    I plan to track forever. I sat down and figured out that my weight gain was the result of eating only 30 calories more per day than I burned, over the course of 15 years.

    30.

    If I don't want to end up right back where I was, I will have to log until the end of my days.
  • CarlaMichelle
    CarlaMichelle Posts: 67 Member
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    I lost 100lb while doing very strict calorie counting. Towards the end I stopped tracking so much and eventually stopped. I think the goal of MFP (in my mind) is to help us UNDERSTAND why we gain/lose weight and to know what foods cause us to gain weight and what lifestyle choices allow us to lose weight. I haven't really tracked in a while and I can pretty much tell when I will gain or lose weight based on what I have eaten. It just kind of becomes a skill :) So no, you don't need to do it forever because it becomes a part of your knowledge base!
    [/quote
    ^^^ This! After a while you train your body on eating the right foods in the right portions HOWEVER, to be truly healthy you need to know that you're meeting your body's needs for protien, carbs, fat etc so if i can't sit down and write out a weeks worth of meals and know whether you'll gain or lose that week then you should keep tracking until you know it all :) that was a joke, but you know what i mean.
  • apothecarist
    apothecarist Posts: 193
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    Logging has become a part of my overall life. I don't have to stop anything in order to log, because logging is something that I do. I make the time to do it. It's like exercise. I don't squeeze exercise in around the other tasks in my life; I squeeze the other tasks in around exercise. These things are a part of my life now.

    I also log primarily from my phone, which makes it super easy. I can log anywhere, anytime. This makes a difference in your logging experience, when you don't have to sit down in front of a computer to log.

    I echo the above sentiments. I actually "enjoy" logging in every day! I'm sure there will come a time when I won't be logging in but for now, and I'm currently on "maintenence", I'll keep logging!
  • katejkelley
    katejkelley Posts: 841 Member
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    You name the diet, I've been on it, and once I went on "maintenance" (or "off"), the weight crept back up. This is working for me, so I am going to keep counting calories indefinitely.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    IMHO, it's a crutch...it's training wheels. It taught me how to eat right again...taught me what kind of foods I need to make staples of my diet to achieve certain nutrition and fitness goals....it taught me what a portion of something looks like, etc. I can actually estimate pretty good now just looking at something on a plate. It has taught me to listen to my body and eat when I'm hungry (and actually hungry, not bored) and to stop when I'm satiated.

    When I'm just maintaining, I don't bother logging and I maintain just fine...I might check in a day every few weeks or so to spot check myself, but that's it. I log when I'm actively trying to lose because you have to dial it in...I'm pretty bad about it right now because I only want to drop some aesthetic weight...about 5-10 Lbs, but I have difficulty sticking to a deficit when I'm training hard (which I am right now).

    But like I said, when I'm just trying to maintain I don't worry about it...I've learned a lot and take that with me. My diet (noun...the way I eat) is sustainable; I don't think counting calories until you die is.
  • mwilke
    mwilke Posts: 378 Member
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    I think that I am going to have to track calories for a very long time. I have a huge problem with portion control still, and find that if I don't track, I overeat very easily. Plus I still have so many other bad habits that I have from before, and I find that if don't track I slip into the old ways too easily. Basically for me, it is a check and balance system.
  • jlahorn
    jlahorn Posts: 377 Member
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    I've been at my goal weight several times. Each time I got there, I'd eventually think, "I'm so tired of tracking. I've got this down so there's no need to track." The old habits came back and so did the weight. So for me, tracking is the way to go.

    Ditto. Every time I've stopped tracking, it coincided with weight gain. Tedious as it may be, I think food logging has to be a lifetime habit for me.
  • iarelarry
    iarelarry Posts: 201 Member
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    I have found not tracking my food intake more unsustainable. When i don't log, I have a tendency to eat anything and everything.

    As tedious as it is to prep and log food, its really the only solution to effectively lean out :cry:
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
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    I don't see any reason to stop tracking... I have MFP on my phone, and I work at a computer all day so it's really not any extra effort to log. I've logged every day for 155 days now, and it's definitely part of my daily routine. Maybe when I get to maintenance I'll feel confident enough to stop logging and eat intuitively (while keeping an eye on the scale to make sure I'm doing well) but for now I think it's worth it!
  • maybeazure
    maybeazure Posts: 301 Member
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    I did Weight Watchers for a while and tracked my food and was successful. One day I said to myself, I don't need to log my food any more. I know what I have to do. I didn't work! Slowly, I went right back to the way I was eating before. I have to hold myself accountable for the food I eat and if that means coming in here every day and logging in my food then, so be it.


    I totally did the same thing with weight watchers. In the beginning I tracked everything, and back in the olden days it was on little pieces of paper, which I was forever losing. Then I got so I would keep sort of a running total in my head for the day, and the week, and then gradually I started cheating a little bit more, and then pretty soon, I was way off of the wagon.

    I find tracking on here a lot easier than little pieces of paper, especially after adding a bunch of food that I normally eat. So I'll keep it up at least until I'm happy with my weight, and then we will see. That's a long way off.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    I'm 650+ days in, have tracked my food every single day. So far so good. :wink: I think I may have formed a habit.... :bigsmile:
  • dakotababy
    dakotababy Posts: 2,406 Member
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    I used to track every day. Now I just track for a week every 4 weeks...and especially if I am noticing my weight loss is stalling. It helps remind me of portions and keep calorie counts in my head. Essentially - it is like a reminder every so often to keep me on track.
  • TheCaren
    TheCaren Posts: 894 Member
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    I don't want to hijack this thread so apologies to anyone who may think that. It's just that my husband thinks tracking leads to obsessive behavior and he knows people who have lost weight on diets where you don't count things. His parents have lost the same amount of weight as me in the same time on Slimming World but I've tried it and can't do unlimited carbs. I think if it aint broke don't fix it so I will carry on for now but I agree that I don't want to log forever.

    I got a little obsessed toward the end of my weight loss. But that has more to do with my body image issues and fear of re-gaining. My tracking wasn't really the issue. It was my need to eat LESS than my goal every day to feel "safe" about maintaining my weight that was the problem. Just started tracking again, but now not weighing and measuring every little thing. Trusting myself to eyeball things now that I've been doing this for nine months. I don't recommend eyeballing for those just starting out because my eyeballs tended to lie to me in the beginning (gee that looks like about a half cup - try again it's actually a full cup).

    As for your husband. What works for one doesn't work for all. His folks found success in one way. Great for them. Doesn't mean you way is wrong.
  • awesomek001
    awesomek001 Posts: 167 Member
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    For me, the logging / counting is much more than just counting the calories that go in my mouth. it's about looking at what is happing with my food. If you don't log it (even if you don't look at the calories or macros) you can't see where there are trends and where you might have issues.

    For example, I found that although I don't ever intend to give up bread, if I eat bread at supper I consistently have a weight gain. Does that mean I give up bread? No, but it does give me pause for thought.
  • msvip213
    msvip213 Posts: 9
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    When I first started I was a die hard tracker watching every little thing that I at and making sure to come and log it in here. As life happened it just didn't seem feasible to stop what I was doing to log my foods.

    This really jumped out at me. It was because I didn't/couldn't/wouldn't stop what I was doing that I became obese in the first place.

    Logging has become a part of my overall life. I don't have to stop anything in order to log, because logging is something that I do. I make the time to do it. It's like exercise. I don't squeeze exercise in around the other tasks in my life; I squeeze the other tasks in around exercise. These things are a part of my life now.

    I also log primarily from my phone, which makes it super easy. I can log anywhere, anytime. This makes a difference in your logging experience, when you don't have to sit down in front of a computer to log.

    For me it has become an inconvenience of sorts because it feels like the only thing I have to "fit" in so to speak. I am a hiker and so most of my physical activity or exercise comes from that so I didn't feel like I had to work that in but logging isn't so second nature so for me personally I either do it near obsession which burns me out or I do it kind of will nilly. I guess I haven't found that happy medium where I don't get so consumed or on the flip uninterested.
  • Sqeekyjojo
    Sqeekyjojo Posts: 704 Member
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    It takes about five minutes out of my day to log food. That's not obsessive for anybody.

    The length of time that it's possible to spend on the boards is a completely separate matter.



    And I would ignore the guy complaining. The calorie method is perfectly adequate and recognised worldwide. Selling a branded version with the USP being you don't have to use big numbers, you can do it using your fingers, isn't a good enough reason to change the system that works.
  • slkehl
    slkehl Posts: 3,801 Member
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    Calorie counting is annoying, but it's a no fail way of keeping your weight in check if you're accurate and consistent. That's what keeps me logging. Minor inconvenience for excellent results!
  • laserturkey
    laserturkey Posts: 1,680 Member
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    I'm planning to keep tracking pretty much forever. It works well for me and I am always near my phone or computer or both, so it's convenient.
  • babylemonade
    babylemonade Posts: 250 Member
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    I tracked for a year and it didn't even bother me in the least to go on and put what I'm eating. Sometimes I'd plan out my meals for the next few days because it was easier. When I moved I obviously lost sight of that and everything was pretty hectic but it's becoming a habit again to track. I wouldn't stop tracking because slowly you start forgetting what portions are supposed to look like (or I know I did, that's how I gained the weight back).

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