120lbs down! Advice on goal-weight, and stop tracking needed!

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  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    You were a cutie when you were fat. Lucky duck. You are drop-dead gorgeous now. I don't think you need to lose another ounce, if you want to concentrate on fitness and being more toned, start lifting weights.

    It is unlikely that you'll want to weigh every bite of food you take for the rest of your life. If you rely on that and then your daughter gets cancer and you're out of town for weeks on end getting treatments, you could fall off the wagon.

    Maybe start changing from portion control to Lifestyle Change. Learn to know how to eat, how much to eat, et cetera, without weighing everything. Maybe some practice. Maybe working in more healthy food, whatever. Practice learning to live without a scale until you get that down and it's part of your life, not just a diet or forced portion control. Weigh and measure what you eat and jot down the amounts, but don't enter them and see the calories until the next day. See how you're doing that way.

    I don't have the answers, of course. Just some suggestions.

    And, again, you look fabulous!!!! Good for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...!......!!...

    !...



    !

    :)
  • amblight
    amblight Posts: 350 Member
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    cheripugh1 wrote: »
    Well... congrats you look great and you did amazing to lose 120 in 10... I think you can stop logging if that is what you want to do, but keep an eye on the weight if it goes up, go back to logging... as for losing more, you do not look like you need to lose any at all BUT if you are going to stop logging I'd lose another 10 so that you have that to gain if needed without tripping out, while you are learning how to eat on your own (without logging).

    I did 77lbs while logging :)

    I do plan to keep tabs on my weight, and if it even starts to go up a little bit, I'll just log for a week or 2 to keep it down - So I'm not planning to delete my MFP app or anything, I know I will 'have' to keep it as my secret weapon ;)

    I have considered losing an extra 10 by doing just below maintance, so that I have more of a 'range' I'd like to stay within. Then I could also start to get heavy with the strenght training, as that tends to make your weight wobble up and down a bit.
  • sun_fish
    sun_fish Posts: 864 Member
    edited October 2014
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    amblight wrote: »
    sun_fish wrote: »
    Congratulations on your loss - you look fantastic!

    I also desired to lose the last few pounds and maintain without logging, or logging occasionally. I started with not logging one day a week, and just really paying attention to my serving sizes and getting the right balance of macros in each meal. It was really hard - I didn't trust myself to estimate correctly or believe that I was getting enough protein. Over time, it became easier, and I eventually went from one day a week to two, then four, then finally where I am now which is the last day I logged was 23 days ago. I have maintained my weight. I think it is like any other new habit, I had to learn how to do it, by practicing.

    As far as your question of when to know if you are finished - that's a tough one. I changed my goal weight a couple of times and finally found what I think is good for me. I went more by what I saw in the mirror vs a scale weight. My original goal weight was just what I used to be a long time ago, and my revised goal weight was lower than that. Now I am working on body recomposition, which takes time to see results. I am on a progressive lifting program.

    Good luck!

    Cutting it down one day per. week at a time sound pretty good. Then the 'completionist' in me could say I did 10months of complete logging, one month of easing out of logging, and one month of loss with no logging, adding up the total to 12months before being completely at maintance.

    I'm a bit scared to trust my own judgement on my weight, though: There are so many people who think they should lose weight when they shouldn't, and they don't even have the extra obstacle of the risk of seeing your past self rather than current. On the other hand, I don't want to settle on 'good enough', just because it's an even number or what ever.

    I've considered going a bit 'too low' (not underweight, just low), and then bulking up on the weights, as I know it's better to be at a surplus for that. Did you start lifting progressively while losing? I strength-trained a lot in the spring while also at a deficit, saw great results scale-wise, but nothin really in muscle definition.


    It is common to have body image issues when you have lost a lot of weight. People who knew you before might say "you're too thin" as they are not used to seeing the new you. I encountered that. I talked to my doctor about my weight, and she feels I am at a good weight and BMI. I also got a body fat estimate in the Eat, Train, Progress group here on MFP. If you did both those things, you would have a medical opinion and an unbiased opinion to go by.

    I started lifting one year into my 2 1/2 year weight loss (68 pounds). I wish I had started at the beginning but I didn't know about retaining muscle, etc. You may not have seen much muscle definition when you lifted as there was probably still excess fat over it. And yes, should you choose to do a bulk and cut cycle, you do have to eat at a surplus. Another option is to eat at maintenance and do body recomposition.

    Edited to add that before I reduced logging, I started by removing use of the food scale first. I did that for about a month.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    I read your posting a few times and I still don't quite get why you want to stop logging. Is it the additional steps including the excel spreadsheets or not being able to fit some of your favorite foods in? If the latter, you many not be there yet. I liked your thought about doing maintenance (you could probably use your goal weight to calculate it). If you lose, you lose. But another person said it. You were a cutie before, you're a hottie now.
  • amblight
    amblight Posts: 350 Member
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    20yearsyounger wrote: »
    I read your posting a few times and I still don't quite get why you want to stop logging. Is it the additional steps including the excel spreadsheets or not being able to fit some of your favorite foods in? If the latter, you many not be there yet. I liked your thought about doing maintenance (you could probably use your goal weight to calculate it). If you lose, you lose. But another person said it. You were a cutie before, you're a hottie now.

    I want to stop logging, because I get caught up in 'how to log' rather than 'how to eat' - for instance, if I'm cooking, rather than adding ingredients however I see fit, I add only the amount I've carefully weighed out, even if it turns out that I cooked too many lentils, for instance: it's "too much trouble" to try to estimate how much of them I am then not adding to the dish, since they've now been cooked, and I did the original weight while they were dry. And I've almost stopped seasoning my food, as logging a ½tsp of this, a dash of that, etc. is just a lot of logging. For accurate logging, I can only cook alone, and I cannot share food. These are just a few examples, but basically, it takes away a lot of freedom with food, if you want to keep it accurate. And I don't see the point of inaccurate logging - besides, things where I have had inaccurate loggin, I tend to really overestimate, which makes me unnecessary worried.
  • sun_fish
    sun_fish Posts: 864 Member
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    amblight wrote: »
    20yearsyounger wrote: »
    I read your posting a few times and I still don't quite get why you want to stop logging. Is it the additional steps including the excel spreadsheets or not being able to fit some of your favorite foods in? If the latter, you many not be there yet. I liked your thought about doing maintenance (you could probably use your goal weight to calculate it). If you lose, you lose. But another person said it. You were a cutie before, you're a hottie now.

    I want to stop logging, because I get caught up in 'how to log' rather than 'how to eat' - for instance, if I'm cooking, rather than adding ingredients however I see fit, I add only the amount I've carefully weighed out, even if it turns out that I cooked too many lentils, for instance: it's "too much trouble" to try to estimate how much of them I am then not adding to the dish, since they've now been cooked, and I did the original weight while they were dry. And I've almost stopped seasoning my food, as logging a ½tsp of this, a dash of that, etc. is just a lot of logging. For accurate logging, I can only cook alone, and I cannot share food. These are just a few examples, but basically, it takes away a lot of freedom with food, if you want to keep it accurate. And I don't see the point of inaccurate logging - besides, things where I have had inaccurate loggin, I tend to really overestimate, which makes me unnecessary worried.

    This is pretty much where I was at before pulling away logging. I felt like I had gone from one form of mindless eating that made me fat, to another form of mindless eating where all I paid attention to was whether the food scale said 100 grams of chicken.

    I don't think there is anything wrong with someone wanting to continue logging, providing that is working for them. For some though, like myself and OP, pulling away from logging is not only desired but a positive step in the right direction of not allowing food to control us.

  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    What it looks like to me is that you may be prone to overestimate and by not logging, you might be setting yourself up for failure. Is there a way you can overestimate your actual portions and see how it works out in your log before you go cold turkey? At maintenance, with the exception of sodium, you probably still have some room.
  • amblight
    amblight Posts: 350 Member
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    sun_fish wrote: »

    This is pretty much where I was at before pulling away logging. I felt like I had gone from one form of mindless eating that made me fat, to another form of mindless eating where all I paid attention to was whether the food scale said 100 grams of chicken.

    I don't think there is anything wrong with someone wanting to continue logging, providing that is working for them. For some though, like myself and OP, pulling away from logging is not only desired but a positive step in the right direction of not allowing food to control us.

    This, exacty! :)
  • amblight
    amblight Posts: 350 Member
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    20yearsyounger wrote: »
    What it looks like to me is that you may be prone to overestimate and by not logging, you might be setting yourself up for failure. Is there a way you can overestimate your actual portions and see how it works out in your log before you go cold turkey? At maintenance, with the exception of sodium, you probably still have some room.

    I don't understand, could you try to rephrase?
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    For instance, you need to use .5tsp. You don't want to measure, but you figure that there is no way you used more than 1.5tsp. So you use 1.5 in your log. Therefore you used conservative numbers that will help you reduce the need for exact measurement. If it fits within your macros, no problem.
  • terar21
    terar21 Posts: 523 Member
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    I don't have much advice but wanted to say AMAZING JOB!

    Maybe you can try eating a maintenance for a little while and get a mental feel for what it feels like for you to eat at maintenance. Once you get ahold of that, you can stop tracking and just stick to making the right decisions on healthy food and portion sizes.
  • sun_fish
    sun_fish Posts: 864 Member
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    20yearsyounger wrote: »
    For instance, you need to use .5tsp. You don't want to measure, but you figure that there is no way you used more than 1.5tsp. So you use 1.5 in your log. Therefore you used conservative numbers that will help you reduce the need for exact measurement. If it fits within your macros, no problem.

    I'm not sure that inaccurate logging is the best way to go for what the OP's goals are.
  • amblight
    amblight Posts: 350 Member
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    20yearsyounger wrote: »
    For instance, you need to use .5tsp. You don't want to measure, but you figure that there is no way you used more than 1.5tsp. So you use 1.5 in your log. Therefore you used conservative numbers that will help you reduce the need for exact measurement. If it fits within your macros, no problem.

    So essentially, not weighing, and just over-estimating?

    That's what I do when I'm somewhere I can't measure - like eating at work (I cook at a restaurant), or at familys' etc. And the overestimation stresses me out. For instance, I teach at camps, so I had a whole weekend of just estimating food (since I ate what was served with the students) - I didn't snack, and I was the one eating the smallest portion at the table - yet by my overestimations, it showed up as 3000cal/day: Obviously, this could not be the case, yet it still stressed me out.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    You might have to find the right balance between logging and not logging. No use stressing out about this stuff. That's even worse. The good news is that you know what you did to get where you are.
  • amblight
    amblight Posts: 350 Member
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    20yearsyounger wrote: »
    You might have to find the right balance between logging and not logging. No use stressing out about this stuff. That's even worse. The good news is that you know what you did to get where you are.

    I know, but it's hard :( Essentially, there's nothing wrong with the logging and tracking, just something wrong with how I get stressed out about it. So I think I'll follow what someone else suggested, to do some 6 days/week of accurate logging, and the 1 without, then 5/2, then 4/3 etc. Phasing out, while still still living up to the 'all or nothing'-approach I've developed.
  • kwantlen2051
    kwantlen2051 Posts: 455 Member
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    I've maintenance for the last 4 months now and find that I still have to keep track of my calories. I can't totally let go or I run the risk of gaining it back. I tried not to log for a few days and I found that I was under calculating my calories and kept going way over. Maybe some people can stop logging all together and be successful but others can't. myself included.

  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    amblight wrote: »
    20yearsyounger wrote: »
    You might have to find the right balance between logging and not logging. No use stressing out about this stuff. That's even worse. The good news is that you know what you did to get where you are.

    I know, but it's hard :( Essentially, there's nothing wrong with the logging and tracking, just something wrong with how I get stressed out about it. So I think I'll follow what someone else suggested, to do some 6 days/week of accurate logging, and the 1 without, then 5/2, then 4/3 etc. Phasing out, while still still living up to the 'all or nothing'-approach I've developed.

    Sounds to me like you have a good starting point.do not give yourself undue stress.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
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    kwantlen2051 wrote: »
    I've maintenance for the last 4 months now and find that I still have to keep track of my calories. I can't totally let go or I run the risk of gaining it back. I tried not to log for a few days and I found that I was under calculating my calories and kept going way over. Maybe some people can stop logging all together and be successful but others can't. myself included.

    Honestly, I gave myself other reasons to keep logging so it's somewhat like a game for me now to eat the right mix of foods.
  • amblight
    amblight Posts: 350 Member
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    20yearsyounger wrote: »
    kwantlen2051 wrote: »
    I've maintenance for the last 4 months now and find that I still have to keep track of my calories. I can't totally let go or I run the risk of gaining it back. I tried not to log for a few days and I found that I was under calculating my calories and kept going way over. Maybe some people can stop logging all together and be successful but others can't. myself included.

    Honestly, I gave myself other reasons to keep logging so it's somewhat like a game for me now to eat the right mix of foods.

    I made it a game for me too, so I've fun with it while it lasted :) I'm probably a bit too 'competetive' with myself though, so the game turned exhausting.
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,643 Member
    edited October 2014
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    Well sometimes when games get exhausting it means you have to take a break. I like your beginning strategy. Just see how it works. You always know how to correct it.

    I handle that exhaustion by knowing exactly what I'm going to eat on certain days, a bit predicatable but less to think about those days.

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