Can you maintain your weight by not tracking food

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Replies

  • scrittrice
    scrittrice Posts: 345 Member
    I think because i workout more than most people, i felt more justified in rewarding myself.

    This is the biggest thing I've learned in a year on MFP: Working out, even working out hard every day and being generally active otherwise, is not a license to eat whatever I want. It's still a bitter pill for me to swallow!

    That said, a few weeks ago I had no Internet service for a few days and I didn't log, and I was amazed to see afterward when I put in what I'd eaten that I was exactly on target, but slightly under. Had the same experience on vacation--I tried to eat intuitively (and wasn't working out, aside from some hiking), but I had dessert and wine every day (otherwise, what kind of vacation is it?), and I came back to discover that I had lost at exactly the rate I was losing when I was at home in my routine. That made me hopeful that one day I'll be able to step away from logging. If anything, I feel like without logging I wouldn't fuel myself properly for working out right now, but I bet eventually I'd start cutting myself too much slack.

    I am very much a creature of habit, and I think that helps. That's another thing I've learned in a year on MFP: I eat the same things over and over.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    You can Loose, Maintain or Gain with out logging- fitness didn't start with MFP.

    But I would ask this question.

    Why are you here?

    If you have a 100% handle on your weight and have a life style that support being healthy then why would anyone sign up to the internet to keep in shape?

    I guess what I am trying to say is "its your body/life" and you need to figure out weather out you have the knowledge or will power to maintain your weight/ fitness goals.

    Most sign up and log religiously for a while. Once they have a handle on it, they may stop logging but have made "internet" friends and stick around. Also, the MFP forums are a great source of knowledge and entertainment.
  • Mylolamia
    Mylolamia Posts: 86 Member
    Not even going to try! It's a lifestyle change which for me includes tracking my food and exercise. If I was paying attention to my food and exercise in the first place...I would not have put the weight on:wink:

    I agree! Even though I have a good idea of what portion sizes look like, it is easy to go over on estimates and eat too much. I too have tried not logging food, but for me, I know I need to log...it just feels more comfortable and now i don't even think about not logging my food, and I am not sedentary by any means.

    Good luck with your decision.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
    Yep, of course you can. Millions, if not billions, of people do.

    I maintained for close to five years before not counting calories. When I regained it had nothing to do with delusion, I knew that I was overeating.

    I've lost the last 110+ pounds...without tracing, counting, or logging. I'll be maintaining without tracking. I get my deficit in by practicing a combo of intuitive eating and intermittent fasting.

    The idea of tracking/logging for my life is absurd and abysmal.
  • smashley_mashley
    smashley_mashley Posts: 589 Member
    I have been maintain for several years w/o tracking. I felt that it was time for me to lose so I Started tracking again to lose the weight but was not able to lose without tracking
  • kayla554
    kayla554 Posts: 99 Member
    I don't log, I used to and will never go back. You should be able to have enough self control to eat freely without having to write down every little thing you eat every single day, that just unnatural. I know a lot of people on here log and that's fine I just don't see how you guys manage to do this or why it's needed 24/7. Really sorry if I offended any trackers by this
  • pds06
    pds06 Posts: 299 Member
    NO! Tried it and gained it all back. If you really want to keep it off, TRACK until you don't care, are sick or dead :drinker:
  • pds06
    pds06 Posts: 299 Member
    I don't log, I used to and will never go back. You should be able to have enough self control to eat freely without having to write down every little thing you eat every single day, that just unnatural. I know a lot of people on here log and that's fine I just don't see how you guys manage to do this or why it's needed 24/7. Really sorry if I offended any trackers by this
    Remember that in 20years when you've had a couple kids and a few life experiences. At 19 life is good.
  • jasonctyler
    jasonctyler Posts: 40
    Oddly enough, I think you can. I remember back when I played hockey, our teams nutritionist/dietician gave each player a set of containers, and we did something VERY similar to that "21 day fix" by team beachbody. Basically at every meal whatever food we could fit into the different containers for the different groups of the food pyramid... we could eat, and that was considered a healthy meal. Back when I did that I fluctuated maybe 3lb ~ 5lb under or over month to month on average. I always stayed in an acceptable weight range to train and play, we all did. Granted it was still a form of weight control, but rather by portion sizing than obsessing over numbers. We still had to eat a mostly clean diet too. Unless you were one of the lucky ones who was under weight when you signed up... then you were on the seefood diet. If you saw food, you had to eat it.
  • pds06
    pds06 Posts: 299 Member
    Oddly enough, I think you can. I remember back when I played hockey, our teams nutritionist/dietician gave each player a set of containers, and we did something VERY similar to that "21 day fix" by team beachbody. Basically at every meal whatever food we could fit into the different containers for the different groups of the food pyramid... we could eat, and that was considered a healthy meal. Back when I did that I fluctuated maybe 3lb ~ 5lb under or over month to month on average. I always stayed in an acceptable weight range to train and play, we all did. Granted it was still a form of weight control, but rather by portion sizing than obsessing over numbers. We still had to eat a mostly clean diet too. Unless you were one of the lucky ones who was under weight when you signed up... then you were on the seefood diet. If you saw food, you had to eat it.
    that is tracing just not writing itdown.
  • d4rkkn16ht
    d4rkkn16ht Posts: 77 Member
    So back to my question, does anyone maintain without counting but keep up wth exercise?
    I've done it for 2 yrs already.
    But now it's time for a change since I want to get my ideal BMI (around 23).
    Before my BMI is around 24.9 & I never log my food.
    I love to eat but I also exercise to burn it.
  • hearthwood
    hearthwood Posts: 794 Member
    I plan to continue logging in my food consumption. It's hard to lose weight, and I sure don't want to find it again.
  • bonjour24
    bonjour24 Posts: 1,119 Member
    i lost weight. i got fed up with logging and so stopped. i maintained for a while, but i guess my eating habits changed without me noticing. now im trying to get off the 5kgs i gained.
  • brutalrage
    brutalrage Posts: 34 Member
    I have to keep track of what I eat specially while unemployed. I don’t get out or able to pay for a gym membership any more. If I don’t keep track of what I eat I will begin to rapidly gain weight again and may end up not being able to walk.

    With logging I keep track of what I eat, I use fitbit to keep track of my steps and what I burn off walking around and finally got a scale again to see where I am at again.
  • just4me123456
    just4me123456 Posts: 35 Member
    i did it for three weeks while on vacation. I gained a pound, but also ate out 7-9 times per week, so I count that as a success.

    I did find that in my mind I was still "tracking." I tended to eat breakfasts and lunches for the most part that I knew the calories for and then tried to make conscious choices for dinner. I do find that the tracking keeps me honest, as others mentioned.
  • 98bikinisuitedlbs
    98bikinisuitedlbs Posts: 416 Member
    The last month, I weigh daily and don't track food. However in the past I tried both methods and failed every time.
  • JessMyOpinion
    JessMyOpinion Posts: 15
    There are lots of people who maintain without tracking but I am not one of them. What I have been doing is using the app TwoGrand to monitor what I'm eating. I love MFP for the community forums and to track when I need to be hardcore about my intake (like vacation or big event) but I love TwoGrand to get an honest glimpse at what I'm eating and to get some recipe ideas :)
  • ValGogo
    ValGogo Posts: 2,168 Member
    Sure you can. WE can't obviously or else we wouldn't be here. But yeah, it's called eating like a normal person and not like it's going out of style.

    Shoot, I remember being able to eat pints of Ben & Jerrys and still rock the belly shirt. But I was 22. Now, not so much.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    I do. I've been maintaining for quite a long while now.

    I check in once in a while, if I start eating something really new. Or if the scale creeps up.

    But yes, because it's really my lifestyle (healthstyle) I am always eating with good nutrition AND great taste in mind. I workout as I did while losing, and I eat basically as I did while losing, with a few more indulgences along the way.

    For me, personally, counting/weighing/measuring is not a lifestyle. Making good choices and being honest about portion sizes and hunger are.
  • Laura3BB
    Laura3BB Posts: 250 Member
    I sure can. My profile has a little blurb about my going a month or 6 weeks or so without logging. While you may be able to do it without formal logging, you can't do it without awareness - you still have to be somewhat aware of what you are eating. You still have to be aware of your metrics (weight, measurements, whatever you like). With the awareness, you can make minor adjustments and maintain without a log.

    same here.
  • csuhar
    csuhar Posts: 779 Member
    can you maintain your weight by not counting calories and tracking every bite you take as long as you keep up with exercise? When I was in my late teens and 20's andmid 20's .I would loose weight by just going to the gym without watching my diet.I would loose until I reach a healthy weight and just stop loosing and maintain my weight as long as I exercise without watching my diet and eating whatever I wanted.Everytime I get less active or stop going to the gym, I gain the weight back.Then again maybe my metabolism was high since I was younger. Now I am in my late 20's and I gained 2 5 pounds by not exercise and eating too much.So I started going to the gym again before I found this site and lost 10 pounds my own without counting calories. I even had 2 people at work told me that it looks like I am loosing weight.Then I found this site and have been tracking my food and still exercising. The weight is coming off even though the scale is barely moving .I am going to use my skinny jeans to see my progress. I will stop loosing when I can fit into them again. So back to my question, does anyone maintain without counting but keep up wth exercise?

    It is possible. But only you will be able to figure out if it works for you.

    For you, it could be as simple a matter as watchng the scale or still feeling comfortable in those skinny jeans. That might be all you need to know as far as your diet and activity balance goes.

    For me, as someone who loves trying new recipies and foods as well as someone who likes exercising and trying new activities, what works for me is keeping a general food diary going. I don't get as detailed as people who will weigh out every ingredient in every recipe, but I still like having that ballpark idea of how much I'm eating (especially because being conditoned to ignore hunger can mean I tend to need to add more food to support my activity level).
  • canadjineh
    canadjineh Posts: 5,396 Member
    You may be able to, if you remember it's still about awareness of what you eat... You might not write it down or electronically enter it but you do notice your portion sizes and food choices. If you tend to graze and eat little handfuls of this & that, you may run into problems with weight creep. I'm logging in maintenance because I eat such a huge variety of foods that it's hard for me to remember the details of them all. I'm not actually counting calories but seem to hit about the right amount for maintenance because I am not packing my meals with prepared foods, I cook from the raw basics A LOT.
  • kluvit
    kluvit Posts: 435 Member
    I have! I have taken several breaks from logging, and it works for me because I am a creature of habit and eat a lot of the same foods and adjust based on exercise/activity level. I have successfully maintained for months without logging, but I use a few cues to know when I need to log again:
    1. Weight creeps up by 2 pounds...log to regain focus and lose the extra two pounds before it becomes 5. :noway:
    2. I notice my habits changing...extra dessert, afternoon snacks, bigger lunches, etc. and start logging to refocus.
    3. I add new foods to my diet. I log to see if I need to make other adjustments to fit into my calorie "budget."
    4. I amp up my workout program and want to track.
    5. I miss my friends and want to log in more often.
  • Seesawboomerang
    Seesawboomerang Posts: 296 Member
    I lost about 30lb a few years back but about 10lb crept back on so I started logging again about a year ago. In that time, I yo-yo 5 or 6 lbs above and below that re-gain.

    But ... my clothes have fit the same in all this time, so I guess I'm packing some muscle. Either that or my scales are wack.

    Logging gets tiresome but it does make me accountable to myself and I do make generally healthier choices when I'm writing it all down.
  • RHachicho
    RHachicho Posts: 1,115 Member
    Personally I think that once you have maintained and logged a while you will become very familiar with the "right" amount of food to eat in a day. and may not need to log because of it. I haven't hit my goal yet so what do I know tho XD.
  • aedreana
    aedreana Posts: 979 Member
    I think you first need to determine whether you have set your caloric intake at the correct level for dieting. If your scale is barely moving, you are basically eating on a maintenance level already.
  • Nachise
    Nachise Posts: 395 Member
    Lots of people maintain weight without ever having to log a calorie. They never worry about it, either. I'm here because I am incapable of doing that.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    The odds are against us, so why not shore up those odds with keeping track of food? The very few people I know who have kept the weight off for a long time have either logged until today, or became very active during their time here.

    For me, when I quit logging I started gaining.
  • littleburgy
    littleburgy Posts: 570 Member
    I think sometimes that depends on your weight. I think if I was willing to be about 10 pounds heavier, I probably wouldn't have to log as much, if at all. But I really like the weight I'm at and have found to be more successful if I do log most days. When I took a few weeks off from logging completely and not going to the gym quite as often as normal, I did gain a couple of pounds.

    Logging really only takes about 5 minutes out of my day, so it's no big deal to me. I'm still a few months in maintaining and figuring it all out.
  • icrushit
    icrushit Posts: 773 Member
    I think the most important thing for me from here, when I lose the weight I wish to, will be to have the right tools to shed weight if it goes back on. So for example whether I decide to stop logging food or not, I shall be checking things probably daily, be it with a scales or a calipers, to keep a keen check on my weight, so it if starts to go up or down, I know what to do. At least thats what I'm thinking right now, but have already begun to think about how I maintain even while I am still losing, so I shall be prepared. I know only too well, how easy it is for lost weight to creep back on gradually, and I don't intend to let that happen again :)

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