Do you ALWAYS track?

2

Replies

  • TracyV125
    TracyV125 Posts: 100 Member
    It's your birthday. It only comes once a year so enjoy it! I've been successfully maintaining for 2 months and have cheat meals here and there. Sometimes it's just impossible to log it.

    What I do before I know I'm going to eat badly is make sure I eat right for breakfast and lunch plus get a run or workout in before I go. Then I get right back on track the next morning. If I have too much sodium my weight will be up for a day or too but then it comes right back on track.

    Go and enjoy yourself! Happy Birthday!
  • higgins8283801
    higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
    I track but now that I'm in month 3 of maintenance, I don't always weigh out the creamer for my coffee, or that glass of oj. However I will check myself once and awhile and have learned that im getting pretty good about eyeballing a proper serving.

    Yesterday I eyeballed out a perfect 2.0oz of turkey breast for my sandwich. That was my nwm for the day. Lol

    But yes I track, I just am learning to be less rigid about it.
  • dopeysmelly
    dopeysmelly Posts: 1,390 Member
    I don't track on significant feast-day holidays where food is a big deal (think Thanksgiving, Christmas Day). I also don't track on vacation, or when I'm on business trips (I travel maybe one week a month at the moment). I also don't track when I'm going out for a special date (about once or twice a month). I don't track the odd day at the weekend when I'm whacked and just want to relax.

    I basically track when I'm at home and when I do track, I weigh everything.

    BTW this is no different than what I did when I was losing.
  • gail1961
    gail1961 Posts: 111 Member
    You do realize that we're in the maintenance forum and therefore most of us are not trying to lose weight anymore, don't you? We're trying to learn how to have a life without gaining the weight back. Taking the occasional break isn't necessarily for the purposes of creating a "cheat" day. Maybe people are trying to learn how to do this without tracking. Maybe they've learned they can trust themselves for a couple days to eat mindfully and not go crazy. I've been in maintenance for 8 months. After the first 4 months, I decided I wasn't going to track at all until I reached the top of my range. After a couple weeks, I realized I missed knowing my macros and micronutrients. So, I started tracking again so I would know I was getting enough fiber, enough fat, enough iron... Just because I choose to take a day off on occasion doesn't mean the other 95% of the time that I do track is worthless.[/quote]

    This^
    and it's your birthday, if it would take away from the fun of celebrating don't track, or track breakfast and lunch and not dinner if you are going out. I was only on maintenance for 2 weeks before my birthday and I went out for dinner and ate and drank what I wanted. I tracked VERY carefully the rest of the week and there was NO change in my weight. My husbands birthday is exactly a week before mine, so that was 2 dinners out in 7 days, and no problem.
  • Jubee13
    Jubee13 Posts: 132 Member
    I can see that everyone has different opinions and experiences. What works for one may not work for another. I am going to sign in to MFP and track my exercise on my birthday (plan on going to Spin class in the morning because I love it!), then not track food for that day. I really like tracking my eating, but it's nice to know it's ok if I take a break now and then. I'll have to wait and see how hard it is to get back with it the next day, but I don't feel as though it will be difficult for me. It seems like a good balance. Reading about the experiences of others who have been at this longer than I have was very helpful.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    edited April 2015
    I always track, but some days I know that I'll go over. I just like to know how much. Come on, it's your birthday? Does that mean you can't track breakfast and lunch? Go out and party and the next day, try to remember what you ate. What's the big deal? You don't have to have the cell phone out and log at the bar.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    I always keep mental track. But I don't generally other wise track/log.
  • TitaniaEcks
    TitaniaEcks Posts: 351 Member
    If you're so concerned about it, why not just compensate by eating less the day before? A sort of "cabbage soup" day?
  • _whatsherface
    _whatsherface Posts: 1,238 Member
    I personally log everything. I'm always tracking. It reminds me how bad my habits used to be and it puts me in check to continue striving to better myself the next day. Plus, if for some reason I'm upset about a loss or a slight gain, I can look back and remember why.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    It depends. I usually always track, but I may wait until the end of the day to enter everything in, just to see an estimate of how much I ate. That's what I did on Christmas last year - probably Thanksgiving too. I don't restrict calories on holidays unless I'm in the middle of a strict cut (I didn't splurge on Easter this year, for example). When I went on vacation last October, I didn't track at all for the week and ate like a pig the whole time. It was fun.

    It's okay to go over in calories from time to time. It's even okay to go totally off track from time to time. As long as you find your way back, brush yourself off, and keep on keeping on toward your goals. We're humans, and we deserve to let go every once in awhile. Just don't let your birthday turn into a month of excessive calorie intake.
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
    I always log (at least so far) -
  • tami101
    tami101 Posts: 617 Member
    I almost always track, except for the odd day here and there. However, I do not track on Birthday week, (there are four birthdays in my family that week) Thanksgiving week, (due to work and family circumstance I have at least 3 T-day dinners that week) and Christmas week (because too many desserts around to log them all). I did this while losing weight and since maintaining. I actually lost 3lbs. after that first Thanksgiving! Happy Birthday! Enjoy your day! =)
  • runningforthetrain
    runningforthetrain Posts: 1,037 Member
    I "need" to track- an ocd thing; I think. I am not sure now that I've started I will ever stop. I am an accounting type and logging gives me a fix.
  • flyrodn
    flyrodn Posts: 1 Member
    I've been at my goal weight range for over 6 months. It's the 3rd time over the last two decades. I got "fat" by not tracking. So, yes, I track both activity and what I eat, and try to balance them on a weekly basis. I figure keeping track of what I eat, do, and weight are a lifetime process now, as I've been unable to maintain my preferred weight (my choice) otherwise.
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    I usually always track. I'm a Lifetime WW member and therefore receive eTools for free every month so I've kind of been going back and forth with tracking my calorie intake here for a while and then I'll track using the WW point system. As of yesterday, I started tracking here on MFP again because my Fitbit Charge syncs better here than on the WW site. Also, the WW site over estimates activity points using Fitbit by as much as 6 points or more. For myself it doesn't matter as much since I always stick to 1800 calories or 37-39 points a day anyway to maintain my current weight. However, for someone on WW who does eat back all of those activity points from Fitbit I can see how that could cause them to gain weight and not even realize that is the reason. For now, I'll keep track of calories in VS out using MFP as it seems to be a more accurate method of tracking when using it with a device such as a Fitbit.
  • bfanny
    bfanny Posts: 440 Member
    @ Eileen S
    I'm also a Lifetime member in WW logging here trying to lose 5 lbs that are taking forever!!! I was tracking on E-tools but got sick and tired of finishing my WP in 2 days (weekends) and feeling discouraged the rest, I have an AL and was earning a lot of AP 7+ a day but didn't work for me 'cause I was eating those and was maintaining
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    edited April 2015
    bfanny wrote: »
    @ Eileen S
    I'm also a Lifetime member in WW logging here trying to lose 5 lbs that are taking forever!!! I was tracking on E-tools but got sick and tired of finishing my WP in 2 days (weekends) and feeling discouraged the rest, I have an AL and was earning a lot of AP 7+ a day but didn't work for me 'cause I was eating those and was maintaining

    Those last 5 pounds can take a while to come off, especially if you are very close to your correct body weight already. Hang in there, they will come off.
  • betuel75
    betuel75 Posts: 776 Member
    Ive just gotten so used to tracking. Everytime im eating i whip out my ipad or iphone and log the food. Now sometimes when i walk to the kitchen and get a tsp of PB2 or jelly/jam i wont log that but other than that im just so used to it...
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    edited May 2015
    As of today I am done with tracking/logging my food for the Month of May. If no weight gain and I doubt there will be. I am not going to track/log my food anymore. Calorie counting seems to have become more of an obsession now and is something that is no longer needed. I do believe it was good for a while as it has taught me a lot about heathy eating and the right amount of food that my body needs daily in order to maintain a healthy weight for my height..... Today was hard, though. Because every time I ate something I found myself opening the MFP App and almost tracking it. Hopefully as the days go on I will stop doing this.