Great idea or recipe for disaster?
Options
ab6046
Posts: 371 Member
I'm considering taking a break from logging. I feel like if I exceed my calorie goal, which I've continually increased to maintenance, I just end up bingeing because I feel like I've blown it. I wonder if not seeing the numbers would help me. I would continue weighing my food on a scale and writing it in my food journal as always, but would not calculate calories or anything like that. Has anyone experimented with this (or anything similar)? I tried it with not weighing myself and it did not go well at all. I really need to have a good week because I'm feeling horrible about myself, my clothes barely fit, and I'm being unproductive when I have all sorts of big deadlines coming up.
0
Replies
-
I have to journal food and I have to weigh. Otherwise, I feel that I have no consequences. It's okay to eat as much as I want of whatever I want because no one is keeping score. For me, not keeping track is a way to avoid facing hard truths.
Your model may vary.0 -
I will definitely keep weighing and journaling my food. I just won't log it on MFP and won't calculate the calories. This is pretty much what I did for years until I started MFP about a year ago, and although I did binge sometimes it wasn't like how it is now. I'm thinking of doing a one week trial starting tomorrow. I can always go back and log everything after since I'll have the weights and stuff written in my food journal if I need to see the calorie counts, but I'm pretty familiar with calories and whatnot so I think I'll have an okay sense of whether or not I'm getting carried away. I'm just so desperate to find a solution.0
-
This is pretty much what I did for years until I started MFP about a year ago, and although I did binge sometimes it wasn't like how it is now.
As JeepGirl says... 'your mileage may vary.' There's pretty clearly no 1 size fits all fix for this. So, you really MUST try any ideas that you even think might help. And there seems to be some correlation between starting MFP / loggin, and binging..... for you.... for me... and maybe for others. I haven't logged in a long time... it seemed to be driving me over the edge. I can't say that NOT logging has helped or hurt.... but, I never weighed my food, I always guesstimated and used the MFP database, etc. I was a sloppy logger, but I figured by my scale weight, I could judge how accurately I was logging. Or at least if I needed to adjust up or down.
I pretty strongly feel that for myself personally, getting to wrapped up in my weight, just made the binging worse. In my current semi-zenlike state... I seem to be less inclined to binge ( knock on wood ) and my weight may be dropping, albeit very slowly.... but, I'm trying to make that the point. If I'm not going up, and I'm not binging... I gotta be happy with that.... at least for now. For me, I think it's been all the radical moves I've made that made me like this in the first place. I even have this quote in my profile....Otter <in Animal House> wrote:"I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!"
And I'm thinking, I might really need to rethink that. :huh:
0 -
Great advice and thanks for sharing. I think I might as well give it a shot, I have nothing to lose. I'll probably start tomorrow.0
-
sloth3toes wrote: »I pretty strongly feel that for myself personally, getting to wrapped up in my weight
*** too ***
0 -
I'm on day four of not logging any food and not weighing myself (or my food). I'm going to try to do it for a month and just live with whatever weight consequences arise.
As mentioned above, everyone is different, but in all the research I've done it seems as if "dieting" is a major factor for the development of binge eating. I'm still trying to eat the way I would have if I was staying under a calorie goal, but honestly the logging and weighing was making me crazy after 2.5 years of doing it. I had a bit of an epiphany last week when I logged in to change the weight of my baby carrots from 94 grams to 97. I just thought "this has gone too far" and things suddenly became a bit more clear.
It's only been a few days but I will say it's incredibly liberating. I've actually eaten very sensibly on my own. Even though my calorie goal was relatively high, I'm hoping that ending the idea of "restriction" will help alleviate the urges to binge. Nothing else has worked so far so this seemed like a logical step.
Weekends are tough in general, so this first one will be a big test. Particularly this weekend where I have a ton of kid related things to do and my wife is out of town.
Right now I'm just trying to live my life under the mantra that says: I'm just a regular person who tries to eat and live a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes I slip and that's ok. But the number that comes up on the scale and the number that is printed on the tag of my jeans doesn't make me who I am.
Will report back on progress but I had to make a drastic change for my mental health as well as physical.0 -
sloth3toes wrote: »I pretty strongly feel that for myself personally, getting to wrapped up in my weight, just made the binging worse. In my current semi-zenlike state... I seem to be less inclined to binge ( knock on wood ) and my weight may be dropping, albeit very slowly.... but, I'm trying to make that the point. If I'm not going up, and I'm not binging... I gotta be happy with that.... at least for now. For me, I think it's been all the radical moves I've made that made me like this in the first place. I even have this quote in my profile....Otter <in Animal House> wrote:"I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!"
And I'm thinking, I might really need to rethink that. :huh:
This is spot on in terms of how I feel and the way I've been operating to this point as well......0 -
I'm on day four of not logging any food and not weighing myself (or my food). I'm going to try to do it for a month and just live with whatever weight consequences arise.
As mentioned above, everyone is different, but in all the research I've done it seems as if "dieting" is a major factor for the development of binge eating. I'm still trying to eat the way I would have if I was staying under a calorie goal, but honestly the logging and weighing was making me crazy after 2.5 years of doing it. I had a bit of an epiphany last week when I logged in to change the weight of my baby carrots from 94 grams to 97. I just thought "this has gone too far" and things suddenly became a bit more clear.
It's only been a few days but I will say it's incredibly liberating. I've actually eaten very sensibly on my own. Even though my calorie goal was relatively high, I'm hoping that ending the idea of "restriction" will help alleviate the urges to binge. Nothing else has worked so far so this seemed like a logical step.
Weekends are tough in general, so this first one will be a big test. Particularly this weekend where I have a ton of kid related things to do and my wife is out of town.
Right now I'm just trying to live my life under the mantra that says: I'm just a regular person who tries to eat and live a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes I slip and that's ok. But the number that comes up on the scale and the number that is printed on the tag of my jeans doesn't make me who I am.
Will report back on progress but I had to make a drastic change for my mental health as well as physical.
This is very encouraging, thank you. Please do report back and let us know how it goes! I've decided not to log my food on MFP until the following day. If that doesn't help, I may stop logging all together. But I think for now I will continue weighing and writing my food in a journal. We will see how it goes!0 -
I am also not currently logging or weighing my food. I am trying to learn to listen to my body and only eat if I'm truly hungry and most importantly, eat what I WANT and not what I think I should eat or what fits in my macros. Currently haven't binged since Tuesday and feeling pretty good.0
-
I am glad y'all brought this up. I'm going to be interested in seeing how this works for y'all.0
-
I am also not currently logging or weighing my food. I am trying to learn to listen to my body and only eat if I'm truly hungry and most importantly, eat what I WANT and not what I think I should eat or what fits in my macros. Currently haven't binged since Tuesday and feeling pretty good.
This is amazing! Those are pretty much my long term goals: to listen to my body and eat when hungry, and to eat what I want when I want (based off of physical cues, not "I want doughnuts because I think I shouldn't). I'm excited that this is going so well for you. Please keep us posted about this, I am very interested and inspired.
0
