I still log but have lately (past couple of months) been right in the same boat you're in (and as a result I'm up 11lbs over my lowest weight and 8 above my happy weight, at least last I was able to check - we're on vacation so no scale).

I think a logging break might work for me, in much the same manner as you describe, and here's my reasoning:

Being on vacation has been an exercise in guesstimating portions. I've still been logging and we even brought a food scale but I have only been able to use it for "downstairs apartment" things like measuring the coconut oil into my coconut chai tea. "Upstairs things" like all the community meals, I've had to guess.

Well, today in Washington, it is raining. Gee whiz. I reluctantly pulled out the single pair of jeans I brought. Reluctantly, because, when I got them off eBay 3 weeks ago they "fit" but were very tight and I was afraid they would be even tighter now. They actually fit better today than they did the day I got them in the mail! So I must be doing SOMETHING right even with the sloppy logging. I think it has turned me more conservative in my guesses. I'm going to be at my aunt's house today for a bit so if I manage to not eat before then I'll have a peek on her scale just to see. I know the comparison won't be super accurate since it isn't MY scale nor same conditions, but just for curiosity's sake I'm dying to know.

I have stopped logging at the minute but am following ZC so only eating meat and animal products no veggies so this would all be OK and I am eating to hunger

I log most of my meals every day, even if I'm going over my calories or over my carbs. That way I know what I can have the next day and what I should do for the rest of the week. If I have a big mac and a large fries for dinner on some splurge day then I log it and know I gotta keep it clean the rest of the week and have nothing but low carb friendly meals. As far as calories go I don't pay too much attention and keep them in a range of 1600-1800.

You can also "bank" calories if you have them left over at the end of the day. If you didn't eat those 100 calories on Monday, save them for Tuesday and have a little more, or save 100 calories a day and eat an extra 500 calories on Saturday.. OR don't eat them at all and they will count towards more weight loss.

For me no logging means thinking I'm doing great and really not so much. I need to log to see where I am. What I have learned though, is how to eyeball things like four ounces of meat. I've gotten really good at that.

I quit logging for about a year and a half. I did OK at first...but portion size crept up slowly over time, as well as more frequent and larger snacking. If I have to write it down I am much more thoughtful and intentional with my snacks and meals. I also tend to eat out of boredom and habit rather than actual hunger. I am trying to re-learn how to listen to my hunger cues now. I had gotten so good at stopping when full, only eating when hungry, etc before. It seems like such a simple concept to me, that I should just be able to do it naturally. I do get obsessive about food when I am tracking sometimes, so I get where you are coming from. Why not try for a couple of weeks and see how you do?

I have a lot more weight to lose, but for me, it actually makes me think about what I put in my mouth. I'm going to have to log this and everybody will see it and I'm going to have to look at it. It keeps me from lying to myself. It doesn't work that way for everybody, obviously. You have to do you.

I've been doing low carb for three years. When I first started, I did log my food (not here tho, usda's website of all places, lol) to get a sense of how many carbs different food choices contained. After about six weeks I stopped logging altogether and just stuck with foods I knew were low carb. Lost 50 lbs in seven months and maintained the loss, until I got pregnant with my fourth child. I bumped up the carbs during the pregnancy (still lowish tho - about 100 g per day). I was gaining faster than I wanted, so I joined MFP and started logging, which helped slow down the gain to a more reasonable rate. My takeaway from that experience was that if I go up to about 100 g if carbs per day, my appetite gets screwed up and I need to log calories. Once the baby was born (nearly a year ago) I went back to my usual carb levels (50-80 g per day). I logged periodically while losing, just as a "spot check", and the baby weight (50 lbs, ugh) was gone by the time she was seven months old (and she was born in August, so that included me not being super strict around the holidays).

I have found that when I log consistantly (I did a challenge back in May, where I logged everything for a month) it seems like losing actually becomes harder for me. Just like what you mentioned, when I see there are calories "left over" at the end of the day, I'm tempted to eat them, even if I'm not genuinely hungry. When I'm not logging I have to rely on hunger cues as I have no earthly clue how many calories I've consumed, and I seem to do much better (so long as I stick wi low carb foods!). It probably doesn't help that I've never weighed or measured my foods, I just estimate, so when MFP says I have calories left over, in reality I probably don't, lol. Maybe if I used a food scale, logging would be more useful to me. But I don't want to weigh and measure food, and I don't like the idea of having to log everything, everyday, for the rest of my life. I just stick with simple low carb foods and the calories seem to take care of themselves

I log every day to keep myself 'honest' and it's the only way I can stay within my daily MacroNutrient goals.
If I dont log, I tumble off the wagon in a heartbeat.

I've logged for 165 consecutive days as of today. Id like to get to a place where I don't log someday but it's just so effective I'm kind of like why not?!

I've never had a weight problem per se but I lived in a walking city(Chicago) and was strict paleo and worked out 3days a week for years. Never logged food or Exercise once and wS in the best shape of my life.

Now I have a 3 year old, Live in a driving city (LA) and am basically a stay at home mom. I work out 4-6 Times a week and log everything but since pregnancy have never been able to be as strict as I once was with my diet and obviously I'm just not burning the cal in daily life like I was when I was working full time and walking/running everywhere.

I'm also a small framed short person under 5 feet so cals add up fast. Maybe in a year or so I'll just sort of mentally log my calories but idk. It's still kind of fun!

I log like a wh0re sweats in church. I like to. Mostly, it's an OCD/organization thing for me, and also, I'm a foodie (I hate that word, but for lack of a better one, Ima leave it), so I obsess over meal planning, recipes, and stuff. I enjoy cooking like pigs love mud, so there's that, too. Logging recipes I've created gets me off. I'm weird, lol.

I will log 1 meal a day out of habit but other than that, I don't bother. Just started ZC this week, so I am concentrating on that instead of logging.

Ironically, in the past (my first round of low carb, when I did Dukan) it seemed like logging (when I dabbled in it, though Dukan doesn't require in it) was almost like bad luck: I'd lose pretty well but any stretch when I tried logging I'd stall out.

On keto it's gone well but recently I've had some days where I don't log and if I'm "in the zone, it seems to pay off. My appetite regulates itself. B/c yeah, I think sometimes I totally eat b/c I have calories left and not b/c I'm hungry. (Though my calorie level is only 1350 so there's not a WHOLE lot of that! I do also eat back at least half my exercise calories too most days.)

I find logging a PITA, but after a year of being very slack (IDK... 3 days a month?) it's pretty easy for me to just add thousands to my calories in low or no carb food (like random cheese just because I feel like it) and of course I wouldn't ever get the last 5 lbs above my 'scream weight' off. My range for maintenance is 4.5% of my goal body weight (6 lbs or 131-136 with goal weight at 132).

I logged religiously from sometime in November (shortly after my diabetes diagnosis) through shortly after my breast cancer diagnosis in May - when I was told I needed to up my calories in preparation for surgery, radiation, and healing - in general.

I started logging again, when I went back on the Blood Sugar Diet (to complete my attempt at diabetic remission) in September/October.

I've been spotty since then. I use my blood sugar to determine if my carb count is right nd my weight to determine if I'm in the ballpark on calories. Other than that, I log a few days if the scale is outside of my 5 lb target range, to make sure I'm not feeding my face out of habit. I log new recipes (and servings) to make sure I'm not unconsciously eating more carbs that my body tolerates.

But - generally - I now how many carbs something has, and as long as I'm below 20 in one sittting, my body is happy. Aside from nuts - I'm not likely to eat excessive calories since appetizing things are too high in carbs (and have to be spread out - limiting the quantity), sp the risk of putting on weight is pretty small.