When to stop counting calories?

I've already accepted the fact that I'm going to use MFP to count calories and macros the rest of my life. Without it, I know I'll NEVER be able to eyeball calories well enough to maintain, or take in optimal macronutrient intake and calorie intake. I find MFP not only extremely effective, but very very easy to use. Entering food takes only a couple minutes a day, and it's not a big deal to me, but everybody is different.

+1

I actually like it.

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I'm not at maintenance yet and I see myself counting on maintenance. However, how about using the scale or your measurements as your guide? Weigh yourself every week or measure yourself every month. Set yourself a range you want to stay within and if you begin approaching either end of that range, you know what to do to adjust.

I feel your pain, but I found out that maintaining weight without tracking is a lot harder that it sounds. At one point during my recent extended plateau, I decided to give my mind and body a break and just maintain for a bit instead of trying to lose. I made the decision that I would try to do it without counting calories. What I found out is that it really isn't a matter of willpower -- it's kind of hard to explain. I was earnestly trying to only eat reasonable, healthy things most of the time and only eat when I was hungry and only until I was full. I didn't have a battle of willpower with myself over things -- I had an occasional treat and didn't worry about it. I never once sat there and said "I know I shouldn't have those oreos, but I'm going to anyway" or "this is probably too much food, but I'm going to eat all of it anyway because I really want it." It was more of my mind playing tricks on me, like I just didn't realize that I was eating that much. I think it's that those of us that have trouble with keeping our weight down often have a distorted view of food that may never be resolved even after we learn healthier habits. Our idea of reasonable portions will start to slowly get bigger if we don't weigh and measure. Our perception of how calorie-filled a meal is or how much food we've eaten in a day will get steadily more and more out of proportion to reality if we don't take the time to check actual numbers. Our notion of what an "occasional treat" is will get more and more frequent if we aren't being forced to fit it into a meal plan. What I found trying to eat this way is that I started to slowly put a few pounds back on (this was after over a year of maintaining in my plateau) and, when I forced myself to simply track what I was eating, I had somehow crept over what I should have been eating by 300-400 calories a day. Not a huge amount, but enough to start adding up over time.

I am planning to count my calories for the rest of my life. I'm not planning to be obsessed with my weight for the rest of my life. I'm taking the attitude that being aware of what I'm eating is simply part of my overall health plan. It's just something that I do, like taking my blood pressure medication or going to the doctor when I'm sick.

TL;DR: I tried not counting, it didn't work, I'm planning to count forever, but not obsess over it.

You need to learn balance. Too much losing gaining up and down in your write up.

I don't know whether I'll count forever or not.....but what I do know at least for now, I must remain conscious of what I eat and what my body really needs. It will change as well as I grow older, stronger, etc.

It's a great tool!!

After a couple of years on maintenance I allow myself a day or two of not logging each week, but that's all.

You've worked so hard to lose the weight, don't get lazy now.

Guesstimating is what gets you to have to come here in the first place.

Do the work, reap the rewards. Don't and, well, as has been posted, factual evidence about regaining weight does not look favorable for you. Maybe you will get lucky, but why take that chance, especially with a tendency toward binge eating and the easy availability of too many indulgences?

NEVER. I stopped logging this summer. Learned that was not a good plan despite the fact I have maintained for 2 1/2 years. Promptly put on 10 pounds in short order. Now I'm back on track and on my way to getting back to goal weight. Will continue to log to hold myself accountable.

How about instead of just not using MFP at all, cut back how much you use it? Use the scale, and if your weight starts going up, count calories for a few days to get yourself back on track. Maybe come up with a 3:4 thing, where you track three days a week and not the other four, or something.

Even if I don't use MFP I count calories naturally in my head as I've been using it for so long.. is that a good thing?

I've already accepted the fact that I'm going to use MFP to count calories and macros the rest of my life. Without it, I know I'll NEVER be able to eyeball calories well enough to maintain, or take in optimal macronutrient intake and calorie intake. I find MFP not only extremely effective, but very very easy to use. Entering food takes only a couple minutes a day, and it's not a big deal to me, but everybody is different.

Same with me. I have accepted this fact. I must count calories and stay on MFP. If I don't, I will revert back to my original weight.

I've already accepted the fact that I'm going to use MFP to count calories and macros the rest of my life. Without it, I know I'll NEVER be able to eyeball calories well enough to maintain, or take in optimal macronutrient intake and calorie intake. I find MFP not only extremely effective, but very very easy to use. Entering food takes only a couple minutes a day, and it's not a big deal to me, but everybody is different.

THIS.

at one point in my life i was over 200 lbs. my mind honestly does NOT have that voice that says "hey magen you are full stop eating". i therefor realize that i may be using mfp for the rest of my life to count my calories and just like the above pointed out it really is not that big of a deal for me. I have the app on my iphone and log my food usually on my commute to work in the am. now that i have been at maintenance for a year i find that there are some days like on the weekends where i wont log and thats okay with me, but for the most part i still am tracking my calories every day

Alright, so for the past two days I have eaten whatever junk food has come my way. I work in a cafe so that means frappucino's, scones, panini's, cookies, brownies, definitely not low cal stuff. However I'm actually under my goal weight and realized I need to gain back a few pounds. I know this is not the healthiest way to do it, it's just what happened this past weekend. I let myself be free with food for the first time in the past year since losing all the weight.

But now, as I've finished this binge and feel fulfilled in a sense, I realize I don't want to keep counting.

I want to live.

The problem is, I don't know if I really know how. I know how to gain weight, obviously. I know how to lose weight. But maintaining is a foreign concept to me. Even as I've tried to maintain using this website, it doesn't really work. Because I keep having that mindset when I look at the number I feel like it needs to be lower. I realize that's not a happy mindset and I want to change that. My basic question is, how did the people who lost all the weight successfully maintain after?

I gotta believe there's enough will out there to be able to do it without counting for the rest of your life. Because while this is an extremely effective tool, I don't want to see myself relying on it forever.

Successful maintenance depends on how you gained the weight in the first place, how long you were overweight, how much you've lost and how long it took you to lose it. If you just recently gained weight, if you spent as much time losing it as you did gaining it, if you didn't have to lose much, then probably your eating habits and metabolism have returned to a natural state for you which will allow you to maintain without having to pay too much attention to what you eat. (And it sounds as if that's how you'd like to live - without having to pay too much attention to what you eat.)

But the longer you were overweight, the more you had to lose and the faster you lost it, increases the chances that you do not have natural eating habits that will allow you to eat as you please and not gain the weight back. Yes, you may have to pay attention to how and what you're eating for a long time, maybe forever.

Is it a pain to do? Yeah, over time it is.

Is it worth it? Well, for me, I was very unhappy before and now my life is completely different. If I can have the life I have now forever and all I have to do is pay attention to what and how I eat - that is a small price to pay. Because now I'm living the life I want.

Jeanne

How to maintain . . .

All the research says it's harder to maintain than to lose. To lose you need to watch your diet. To maintain you need to exercise (an hour a day!), eat normally (including yummy stuff in small doses), and carefully monitor your weight. Logging really helps. (This is from the federal weight loss registry.)

If you don't log, you need to WEIGH OFTEN. If you go above a very narrow weight band, you need to go back and log everything - in other words, back to the full MFP push.

You might also, as you're going into maintenance, start by logging everything every other week. That will give you baseline information but does allow you to loosen up. If that works for six months, go to every three and just weigh yourself.

I've said this in other threads, but I'll say it again here:

If I have to count calories for the rest of my life, but I don't become diabetic or get heart disease, then I will consider that a fair trade.