Fine line between counting/logging and obsessing?

I get this accusation from my wife on a fairly regular basis. Suffice to say it's definitely annoying but I don't let it bother me. I'm getting results, logging is usually a pretty seamless part of my life at this point, I have my methods and processes down for most situations I find myself in, I'm planning/expecting to do it forever and that thought doesn't concern me in the slightest. Is logging, or comments and reactions regarding my logging, annoying sometimes? Yes. But it's far less annoying than being fat.

It helps, in my case at least, that I've noticed my wife mainly makes that accusation when she's annoyed that I've asked about something she's made because neither of us have any clue how much of anything she put in it.

Frankly, comments from anyone other than my wife, my kids, or my parents are met with less-than-polite responses from me. Particularly is said commenter is overweight themselves.

SideSteel wrote: »

I would ask yourself how the logging behavior affects the quality of your life. If you find that it's creating problems then I would seek other methods that allow you to either stop logging or reduce the frequency of it.

These are wise words. I'm at maintenance and still logging food. It takes at most 5-7 minutes a day, most of the time: a minute each for breakfast and lunch (I'm pretty consistent in what I eat then), and somewhat longer for dinner. It doesn't bother me, nor does it detract from my quality of living. If it begins to do so, I'll seek alternatives.

At one point, I definitely crossed the line from just trying to hit my goals and becoming obsessed. I didn't care what most people thought about it, but I did care about what my wife thought about it and how things were impacting our relationship.

Basically, I was to the point where I didn't want to go out on dates and eat out...I couldn't sit down and just enjoy a meal and a couple glasses of wine with my wife because I didn't know exactly how many calories was in what or if it was going to throw my macros off or what if this or what if that.

I remember the tipping point actually...I had booked a couple of nights over a weekend at a local resort for a birthday getaway for my wife. We got there and everything was great...until we headed for dinner that evening. Here I am at a 5 star restaurant trying to treat my wife and I'm thinking about just ordering a garden salad because I'm scared to death of anything else. I couldn't even sit out on the balcony with my wife and enjoy a bottle of wine.

It was ridiculous and my wife told me so...she basically told me that she liked me better when I was fat, but fun. That was it for me...I had become overly obsessed to the point that this was no longer healthy (and health was my whole purpose for starting this in the first place).

I stopped logging and keeping my diary shortly after that...that doesn't mean I'm not mindful of what I'm doing...I am. But I started focusing my energies on my fitness aspirations and focusing my diet on simply making more healthful choices overall rather than obsessing about a number. I've been able to maintain, more or less for over 1.5 years now without logging and obsessing about every little calorie...worrying about some silly dollop of ketchup, etc.

I just eat healthfully and I work out..it works for me and I'm a lot more fun to be around these days...and I actually enjoy a nice, indulgent meal out and don't think much of it anymore.

I am exactly the same way! I've been doing this for over a year now with no end in sight. You said it best when you said, "I KNOW that if I overeat (too many calories) ...I will gain weight." I'm never going back to being lazy and fat - if it takes being obsessive then so be it!

tammylee57 wrote: »

Thanks everyone! I find it kind of odd that I hear/read that you don't need to diet...that you only need to change your lifestyle? Isn't it true ...that the lifestyle change they are speaking of (usually) is reducing the amount of calories you eat? Isn't it all "obsessive" in that you have to be aware and sensitive to WHAT you are eating and how many calories it has? If it's a "lifestyle" change ( really kind of being overused IMP) ...it's STILL counting calories, even if it's disguised as eating more fruits and vegetables and avoiding sweets and junk. Same thing...??? Anyway... I just don't consider maintaining weight loss for over 7 months by counting calories and logging them into MFP as being a negative thing? I think attentive, strict, and conscientious are better words than obsessive. If I didn't log, I would often be unaware of how many calories a day I have eaten..especially outside of home. It is no wonder our country has an obesity epidemic...I had no idea until using MFP how many calories most restaurant dishes have. WOW

I understand what you are saying but it's not necessarily true that you always have to be aware of the number of calories you are consuming.

It is possible, over time and with the correct resources, for some people to learn eating habits that allow them to respect hunger/satiety cues and use that, along with good food selection habits, to eat a reasonable range of calories for their goal.

It's not simply "eating whatever you want" but it's also not "mentally tracking calories" either.

I think the reality is that there are many people who are here for whom calorie counting is the only method that has worked, so they are willing to do whatever it takes to use that method.

Perhaps for some people this might be true, but it's also a possibility that they have not yet learned the habits necessary to have success without logging.

Fortunately, it's quite possible to learn those habits WHILE you are tracking intake so that AT SOME POINT you do not have to keep logging.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

amandarunning wrote: »

Obsessed is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated...

Oh please...

IKR!

I really hate those inspo quotes. Nine times out of ten they are just plain stupid.

amandarunning wrote: »

Obsessed is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated...

good quote.

The nice thing about obsessing over it for a while is that you get really good at guesstimating calories so there could come a time where you could just eat intuitively.

yusaku02 wrote: »

amandarunning wrote: »

Obsessed is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated...

good quote.

The nice thing about obsessing over it for a while is that you get really good at guesstimating calories so there could come a time where you could just eat intuitively.

IMO, its a terrible quote.

Obsessed:
"preoccupy or fill the mind of (someone) continually, intrusively, and to a troubling extent."

It does happen - and its apparently good? And when that observation is made by someone, that person is lazy? Really?

SideSteel wrote: »

Lrdoflamancha wrote: »

SideSteel wrote: »

amandarunning wrote: »

Obsessed is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated...

This is ridiculous.

Ridiculous probably.... But it is also the truth...

This is a bunch of fitspo garbage and it's insulting to people who actually develop obsessive attitudes towards their diet.

Troll

tammylee57 wrote: »

I can enjoy an indulgent meal too. But the only way I can is by tracking in MFP. I use the weekly nutrition function...and when I see leftover calories that I have not consumed...I feel totally OK about the indulgence. Without tracking I wouldn't have that information. To each his/her own...but tracking works for me. I am so tired of being laughed at and derided for it.

who's laughing or deriding you about it? people are just pointing out that there's a huge difference between logging and keeping track of something and obsessing about it.

I logged for about 9 months and was very successful...and early on, it wasn't really a big deal...but down the road several months, and i didn't every want to eat anywhere that wasn't a chain and didn't provide nutritional info...I was meticulously weighing out a dollop of ketchup and god forbid if I forgot to log those 10 calories.

There is a fine line. Yes, calorie counting taught me a lot...but ultimately I had to look at it as training wheels...it was to the point that what I was doing was unhealthy. Fortunately, I learned a lot of healthful habits and learned a lot about nutrition in general as those tools have helped me maintain without having to keep a diary anymore.