Do you plan on logging forever?

I tried to maintain when I was going though my divorce and stressing over my job. I didn't log consistently and while I thought I was doing fairly well, I did gain back about 15 lbs. I lived in an area where there were no restaurants so I wasn't eating out and didn't buy junk food. I thought I was staying within my limit as I had been tracking and logging for over a year.

So, I hope I don't have to log forever when I go back to maintenance but I may need to be more cautious about what I am picking and the amount because it can be easy to slip into old habits.

This is my first time keeping track of calories and I find it highly invasive only because some days I don't feel like eating or I fill up on veggies which have very little calories, so having to log everything to me is a pain. On the other hand being part of this site is the best thing I ever did. Knowing what I eat on a daily basis not only helps me feel better about losing weight but it also allows me to stay within the normal range. For instance if I decide to eat 5 stuffed jalapenos, counting calories will help me avoid eating over 1000 calories for one meal. If you stop logging your calories there is a chance you could slip up. Congrats on all your success!

Nope. Not gonna log forever. Pretty sure when I'm 80, I'm not gonna give a *kitten* about logging my damn calories. hahaha
:laugh: :bigsmile:

Probably.

Sadly, I spent the ages of 8-20 with eating disorders, and then without those, I gained weight.

I have denial about what I eat. I'm scared of ever getting an eating disorder again, and I don't want to be overweight either. So, I guess so!

Every time I stop I gain weight, so I guess so.

I've been at maintenance since late March. I log my food off and on. I ran into an issue where I was having a hard time making sure I'm eating ENOUGH calories (began to fear I'd gain weight and had a hard time forcing myself to eat at maintenance level) so I log my food on those days where I'm concerned I might not eat enough. Some days I quit logging when it becomes clear it's not going to be an issue. So I'll log breakfast and lunch and then not log dinner. This weekend I went out of town and ate stuff I knew would be more than sufficient to meet my calorie needs. So I didn't log at all.

One good purpose for logging is making sure you're meeting your nutritional goals also (getting enough protein, lowering sugars, in my case). So logging is great for me for that. I'm about six weeks away from being on MFP for a year.

I weigh in once a week and I plug that weight into MFP (but I did turn off the function that posts all my losses to my feed so I'd quit getting high fives for losing the same pound and a half that I fluctuate on a regular basis! LOL). That's my accountability. If that number starts going up consistently (versus one week of water weight issues, or whatever) then I know it's time to buckle down and start measuring and logging all my food. Hasn't happened yet, but I'm prepared to do it if necessary.

I will continue to log because when I don't things start to go wrong,slowly

I plan on getting to goal logging my food and exercise, but once I get there I plan on phasing it out. I still plan to weigh in once a week (and use the fit of my clothes) to make sure that I am not gaining, but I don't plan to log every day unless there is a reason to (i.e. the healthy habits that I thought I had down pat aren't working quite so well!).

I've always been curious about the philosophy of intuitive eating, so I'll probably get to target and then start to play around with that (while keeping an eye on the scales, just in case!).

Basically, I don't plan to log forever, but if that's what it takes to keep me at target, then its only a couple of clicks.

Yes...Im going to have to if I want to stay where I am. I did WW previously, when I got to goal I went off logging and gained over 40 pounds in that process (highest I have ever been in my life) So some days I feel like just throwing the towel in for a few days, but I know I dont trust myself. It's that behaviour that led me down this path and I know that if I just stopped logging it would eventually all come back on in the process. by the time I would want to do something about it it would be to late.

i am over 400;
i am GOD.

830 days. one day you will be, my child.

I'll probably be logging forever. As a former weight watcher member (several times over), the program worked for me because of the measuring and logging. After I had lost X amount of weight, I'd think that I could do it without measuring or writing things down. But the weight would eventually creep back. Now that I'm older, I think it would be in my best interest to be as accountable as possible. I am getting closer to goal so I have to stay motivated. I guess I'll just think about my track record, lol.

I lost about 30-35 lbs 10 years ago by counting calories and was able to maintain without counting calories, but my job situation changed around the time I finished losing the weight and my lifestyle was more active.

I've had to lose more weight this time around from a combination of going back to a desk job and depression over a family problem, so I don't know how maintenance will go this time around, but I definitely plan to keep logging at least 4-6 months after reaching my goal, after all I've been doing it almost a year now and it is a habit now.

I don't want to regain weight again but by the same token I don't think it was a lack of logging that caused me to regain, so I guess I will just have to see how it goes when I get there and keep my eye on the scale and how my clothes are fitting.

I still log!! 445 days and counting! To easy to slide back into unhealthy eating. Besides, I've made some good fitness buddies on this website. So for now, for me, I log.

well I reached my goals in fall of 2011 and gained it all back.

This time around I need to figure out a balance--because the maintenance settings on MFP did not = maintenance for me personally.

Also I need to be really honest about my logging when I reach maintenance (I travel a lot for work so that makes it tougher).

My numbers are the following:

1,200- to lose lb/week
1400- to lose .5 lb/week
1600- to maintain

So when I was in maintenance and working out that meant I was taking in more than 2,000 calories/day on average. It might actually be something like 1,800 in food and a 500 calorie workout thrown in per day (on average) to maintain. We shall see.

I plan on logging as long as I can. I can't keep losing the same 20 lbs...that's not healthy.

Logging keeps me accountable, so I don't see stopping. I feel that I make good choices, but that seeing what I eat allows me to make better ones. Like knowing your bank balance.