Is it worth logging days when everything goes wrong?

Dude, I suggest logging all the things. Even on binges. Then later on, when you're back on track, go over it and review what happened. Don't just look at that day, look at patterns. Did you get low protein or other nutrients the week before? Were you on your period (if female), did you skip something you usually had (no coffee for breakfast on Monday = a bad day for me), or did you have something you normally don't (eating too many carbs early in the morning for me is a bad thing, sets off cravings big time)? If it keeps happening, look at the pattern, and when you can think of it, use the food notes section to keep track of anything unusual in your life: family visitors, trips, sick kids, unusual stress, demands on your time, whatever. These things can help you discern patterns that throw you off your plan and help you fix the problems that are sabotaging your success. If you notice that you "always" have a "plateau" right before a major milestone, then look at your logging. Are you having more cheats? If so, that's a clue to your mental state. None of us radically change our bodies without having some emotional / mental health issues around it. This is YOUR data, it belongs to you. It is your key to understanding yourself. Why would you rob yourself of the critical information you need to evaluate your process? It's not like not logging will magically make it all have no calories. It's not like looking at the numbers is REALLY any more shameful than the extra inches on your hips or waist. No one will get through this without slipping up occasionally. The key is this: Did you learn from it? Or did you take the cheapest, crappiest, worst possible advice in the history of the world, "Let's ignore it and hope it goes away."? Choose wisely.

Yes, it's worth logging. It's naive to "reset" and start over. It's also naive to avoid logging the "special occasion days". That's labeled denial. You're still eating, right? Just because it's not logged doesn't mean it equals 0 calories for the day. How many people avoid logging their "over" days, special or not, only to complain a few weeks later that they've seen no weight loss? Logging everything keeps one honest, and helps one make sense of their progress.

YES!. We ALL have those days. The only way to change the bad habits is to take accountability for them. It will imprint in your mind what was good and bad during the day. when you look back at what you ate or didn't eat it will reinforce your healthy eating habits and make you more aware of what you need to do to be the person you want to be. NEVER give up on YOURSELF!

Dude, I suggest logging all the things. Even on binges. <<snipped>>The key is this: Did you learn from it? Or did you take the cheapest, crappiest, worst possible advice in the history of the world, "Let's ignore it and hope it goes away."? Choose wisely.
^^This - by @action_figure

I think those are the MOST important days to log.
^^that from @seltzermint

How many people avoid logging their "over" days, special or not, only to complain a few weeks later that they've seen no weight loss?
^^Bingo - from @socomary

Food is not the enemy. Weight loss and lifestyle change is all about developing a healthy relationship with food.
^^ and this from @Keshisdsp

So I had one of those days. Those days when you have no idea why you're even trying to eat healthy, so you just... give up. I have never been a "binge eater", so that doesn't quite describe my day, but I was easily 1000 calories over my goal. Easily. And I didn't work out. Well, I did do 2 lunges. While carrying bacon to the computer.

Is today even worth logging? Should I really re-live every mistake I made and catalog it? Do I really need to see the "if every day was like today, you would weigh xxx in 5 weeks!" Or should I just pretend it never happened, go to bed, and wake up fresh and back on my routine when I go back to work tomorrow?

Thoughts from someone else who's had a fail day?

If you don't log it you're cheating yourself.

And denying yourself the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

If you have one of those days when you go a couple of thousand over your cals, log it. Next time, you'll look back and think "I've had one of them recently, time to get back on it". If you look back and it shows nothing went wrong, you'll allow yourself to deviate again more easily. New behaviour patterns require feedback (both positive and negative) to establish them. Don't rob yourself of a potential part of the mechanism.

I had one of those days on Saturday, & didn't log it because it was just going to be too annoying (ate out, had a little bit of everything, an indeterminate amount of wine... etc.) but I've logged other days where I messed up. Once you do it, it's not so scary! (& sometimes you even realize you haven't messed up THAT badly)

I think it's worth it to do your very best to log everything as often as you can. Here's why - at least once a week I see people posting on here asking for help with plateaus and supposedly unexplained gains then you go and check out their diary and see days where they don't log anything and when confronted many admit that they had a bad day and were too embarrassed to log it.

If you don't use the tools correctly, they won't work correctly for you.

As everyone has said. Log your good days AND your bad days. You will learn a lot about yourself by doing both and it might drive you to learn different coping strategies for said bad days. Ranging anywhere from learning how to not indulge quite so thoroughly, skimp so heavily, to learning that sometimes its ok to say fuggitall and do whatever for one day and know it isn't going to set you back to square 1 unless you let it. Good luck to you.

Log it in no matter what. We all fail at some point, but the good thing is, we can always START over! Don't GIVE UP!

Is today even worth logging? Should I really re-live every mistake I made and catalog it? Do I really need to see the "if every day was like today, you would weigh xxx in 5 weeks!" Or should I just pretend it never happened, go to bed, and wake up fresh and back on my routine when I go back to work tomorrow?

Thoughts from someone else who's had a fail day?

Yes, log it. Then just move on and pick yourself back up!

I personally don't. I suffer from disorder eating tendancies and on days where I have restricted heavily (less than 600kcals) or binged heavily (eaten easily 3500+ kcals) I don't log, because it just helps continue the bad cycle - I'd rather just forget the day and try and get back on track, not have a reminder.

Log it anyway. I was pleasantly surprised by my cookie binge the other day. It was less than I thought. I had a whole ton of junk as I was just so tired and when I am tired like that I need junk. I was well over calories still but under 2000 so not really as bad as I thought. Log it, and move on. At least that way you can track what might have influenced any fluctuations

I just have to say that " I Love" that you typed that you did 2 lunges while carrying bacon to your computer!! lol ...... nothing like a good sense of humor!! lol, love it!! ............ to answer your question though, I usually don't log on days that I screw up and eat whatever I want but today for some reason I did, I think I wanted to see the actual damage today to see if maybe I could make up for it in exercise and not eating the calories a few days this coming week. With that said, I say, " do what ever makes you feel happy ". As long as you get back on the horse after you fall off then you'll be fine, that's what counts

I agree, I think that's just the most hilarious image. From now on, when carrying bacon I will always do 2 lunges, no matter where I am, in tribute to that comment....

OK. I logged it. And it was worse than I thought it was. I was 1500 calories over my goal.

However.... it was useful because the harm wasn't where I thought it was. Apparently you can eat half a pound of bacon for breakfast, and still be able to recover just fine. After my 8th slice of bacon, I gave up. I shouldn't have. It was what I ate AFTER that bacon that killed me. Not saying the saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, etc was great, but as far as pure calories go... bacon is actually reasonably low! Once again, I'm not saying bacon is good, I'm saying, I shouldn't have said, "Oh, I f***'ed up by eating half a pound of bacon, I'll just eat what i want for the rest of the day because it's screwed to hell and back anyways".

^^ Exactly the reason you should log it anyway. You learned a very good lesson, and are on your way to getting rid of the 'all-or-nothing' mentality.
Had you taken the time to log the bacon, you would have seen that your whole day wasn't blown before you said screw it, and ate all the junk afterwards. And you would not have been truly hungry after all that fat and protein.

BTW Bacon IS good!

And calories eaten do not just simply disappear by calling it a reset day. If you don't at least make a note or add x number of quick calories, then you forget about a binge day and a month later you are up a lb and don't know why. But there are a few unlogged days that you forgot about, or selectively remember as 'not that bad'.

It is all about honesty and accountability to yourself.

I saved back some calories nearly every day this past week, knowing I was going to have a nice restaurant dinner on Saturday night. I ate lightly on Saturday and logged everything, but made the conscious decision not to log dinner. After reading this thread I rethought that decision and went back to add all the food I ate that night, just to see. Even attempting to overestimate the amount of food I had, I still came in under my DAILY calories, never even dipped into the saved calories I'd set aside all week. Lesson learned: log everything! I could have had a 2nd beer with dinner last night!