Logging calories for the next day?

This is my suggestion and others will have better ideas. I would keep each day separate. Otherwise you are kind of punishing yourself the next day. What does work is to look at a weekly average. During a seven day period some days you might go over and somedays you might go under. Work it out so that you go under more days than you go over. I hope that that makes sense.

I thought about doing it that way sometimes but I could tell I was going to set myself up. Kind of like with exercise, if I were to put off finishing a goal to the next day, the procrastinating would stack against me. So what's working for me now is logging only when I have the food with me or after I eat it while trying to keep the calories and macros in check. At the end of the day, I generally have some extra left and that works perfectly because I do better if I have a small evening snack before bed. Depending on the calories left, I could have just a couple string cheese or a servings of nuts, etc. But like I said, that's mostly because I know where my weakness is so I try to stay ahead of the procrastination temptation.

I log by the day but balance my calories for the week. I go over some days and under others. The phone app has a nice "Nutrition" option that tracks nutrients on a daily and weekly basis to keep me in check.

If I did that, it would leave me no calories for Saturday.

I don't think logging calories for the next day is a good idea. It's kind of like carrying over a balance on your credit card. Eventually, you "pay" too much. When I run out of calories, I face two choices... quit eating or exercise.

sounds like a never ending payday loan.

Not only are you cheating yourself your diary isn't accurate...just stop going over your goal. Self control.

I roughly plan out each day either the evening before or first thing, and then make minor adjustments as I put my meals together.

I know some people focus on weekly logging, but for me this is a matter of living my life every day, so I want to know that I'm hitting my targets as often as I can. It's a bit like weighing myself every day, or making sure I get exercise every day. It's just something I do, and doing it every day gives me a sense of achievement.

BTW. If you want that cookie, it's taking you over your calories AND you're still hitting your weight loss/gain/maintain targets, why not just add some more calories to play with and add it in as a daily snack?

I noticed there is a lot of confusion about the whole IIFYM concept, but instead of adding calories for the treats, which are usually carb-heavy, make it fit your macros.

Say if you're macros are 100g protein, 20g fat, and 120g carbs (just throwing random numbers out). Make most of what you eat throughout the day focused of meeting the protein and fat goals. If by the end of the day, you still have 30g of carbs left and you REALLY want a cookie or two, instead of eating brown rice, sweet potato or whatever else "clean" that you would normally eat, indulge in said cookie(s). But don't overindulge. If two cookies will get you precisely 30g of carbs, only eat 2, and not any more. That's the key in IIFYM.

Yesterday I ate 2 swiss rolls and the chocolate+peanut butter Special K protein bar as some of my snacks. Both carb-heavy but at the end of the day I still came in under my 197g of alloted carbs.

Work to your weekly calories rather than daily. The weight loss will be the same.

Can you find some lower calorie alternatives to cookies?

I used to do this all the time, but it eventually meant that I had no idea how many calories I was having every day and was feeling like a failure when I'd actually done great. There were some days I couldn't eat, too. And there were times when it became an excuse to eat more than I needed and I actually gained weight while counting calories and feeling guilty/deprived all the time. This method can work, but if it results in weight gain I would suggest forgetting the previous day and just sticking to your normal deficit for that day.