How strict are you on calorie counting?

I'm strict on the counting -- pretty much weigh all solids (unless it's a packaged food and I'm eating the whole package, such as a can of soup) and measure all liquids at home, and do my best to estimate when I eat away from home at places that don't post their nutrition values. Everything gets logged (except occasionally when I'm lazy I'll skip herbs and spices, vinegar, mustard, zero-calorie drinks, and small amounts of very low-calories veggies, like the lettuce on a sandwich).

But I'm pretty relaxed about the number I hit every day. I have a net goal that's close to 700 calories below maintenance , but I don't worry about going over that goal. As long as I'm below maintenance, which is about 95% of the time, I don't see anything to fuss about -- it's not a race. On those days I go over maintenance, like Thanksgiving and Christmas -- well, as long as I'm below maintenance for the week, it's still a win. I think I've only had one week (vacation) where I was over maintenance for the week, and I knew (because I still logged everything) that I was only over by about 1000 calories a day, or 2 lbs for the week, so when the scale said I had gained about 7 lbs, I didn't let it worry me too much, because I knew the rest of it had to be water and undigested gluttony still moving through me. The next week's weigh-in all but 2 lbs of what I had gained was gone.

If you feel that being overly strict about counting is part of the reason for gaining why don't you agree to not log one day a week?

I have mild OCD and one thing for me is numbers (sounds weird I know) and I could feel myself getting obsessive about logging (I logged continually for 3 months) so now I don't log weekends, BUT I am not looking to lose massive amounts of weight, I am already a healthy weight (my ticker has a weight goal but it's probably a little too low as I lift and workout a lot), I think it's more important to be strict if you are trying to lose lots.

I guess what I am trying to say is approach this in a healthy way (for both body and mind) if you feel logging every day will make you crazy/regain don't log everyday or set up an agreement with yourself that you allowed to go up to 100/150/200 calories over your limit without freaking out. The weight will come off if your week is at a deficit and as someone else said it's not a race if you are trying to lose weight for a certain time/event losing slowly isn't a bad thing.

Good luck!

I don't measure and I'm not overly strict. Some days I don't count at all.
I've lost 55kg

I was really strict for the first couple months, tracking every single thing I ate right after I ate it to make sure I didn't go over my calorie allotment but the counting was driving me nuts and I was slowly losing weight which wasn't what I wanted (trying to maintain). I made some adjustments to allow for more calories and now I pay less attention to how much I consume. On days I do track, I seem to stay within 100-200 calories give or take anyway and I'm not losing anymore weight so this is how I'll operate from here on out.

Calorie counting can really turn into an unhealthy obsession if you don't actually understand how you should go about it and what's going on with your body.

I log 100% of what I eat, weigh/measure 98% of it...sometimes I can't weigh etc as I am in a resturant or out and about.

Prior to maitenance I would try to stay in daily goal sometimes a few under (but I was at 1600 not 1200) but I would always look at my weekly goal and try to stay at that....

But that being said it didn't always happen. If it wasn't going to happen on a day (celebration etc) I wouldn't stress it.

My goal while losing weight was 1600...I averaged 1750 which includes holidays (Thanksgiving/Christmas) and other various celebration such as Birthdays, graduations etc.

There is no point in stressing it....that just raises cortisol levels etc. and makes losing weight too stressful.

Not stressing obviously works as well...note ticker below.

It's called calorie counting not calorie guessing so I'm probably around 98% accurate. If your going to do it there is no point doing it wrong. If you don't have accurate data if it's not working you have no information to go on

As long as you eat under your TDEE (which is probably around 500 more calories than your goal), you will lose.

I used to be much stricter, but I'm very close to my goal so it's no big deal if I just maintain instead.

My calorie goal is 1800 and I go over it probably 50% of the time. I only go over by at most 300 calories and usually only 50-100 calories though. I've been losing fine although it's only been 6 weeks.