Opinions on breaks from calorie counting ?

Gibby349
Gibby349 Posts: 119 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Okay so altogether I'm down 33 pounds since January. For the last week or two I've been eating what I like and haven't gained because im active all day so maybe that's what keeping those scales down ;).I've been staying the same thankfully .I was thinking of staying on this break until the 26th of September as it feels good to have more delicious food.I would like your thoughts and opinions on this. I'm not counting calories or anything I'm just enjoying myself more by eating the things I always enjoy.I'm really active five days of week from working so I think that Is what is doing the trick for me..Should I continue to stay on my break by not counting calories or should I not ?
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Replies

  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
    Gibby349 wrote: »
    Okay so altogether I'm down 33 pounds since January. For the last week or two I've been eating what I like and haven't gained because im active all day so maybe that's what keeping those scales down ;).I've been staying the same thankfully .I was thinking of staying on this break until the 26th of September as it feels good to have more delicious food.I would like your thoughts and opinions on this. I'm not counting calories or anything I'm just enjoying myself more by eating the things I always enjoy.I'm really active five days of week from working so I think that Is what is doing the trick for me..Should I continue to stay on my break by not counting calories or should I not ?

    Sometimes I take mini breaks from counting calories. Most of the time this is when I go away on vacation, or have a weekend to myself to relax and don't want the hassle of logging. Recently I had an 85-day streak going and broke it. Now I'm at an 8-day streak (something like that). It's nice to not count, but personally, I like to KNOW for a fact that I'm in-line with my macros (more so the protein intake and staying below sugars, I usually have a general idea about the calorie intake). Sometimes I feel "stuck" and wonder if I'll be counting forever (it's been a LONG time...since I was in fifth or sixth grade) but then again I feel like I would be "incomplete" without my logging time. As my boyfriend says, the fitness lifestyle is an "outlet for my OCD." It's up to you though! I encourage a break. Just don't get too leniant and snap right back into the habit if you feel yourself slipping up.
  • Gibby349
    Gibby349 Posts: 119 Member
    FrothyGibblets wrote: »
    Why not count, but still indulge in the foods you want up to your calorie goal? There was a very interesting thread doing the rounds yesterday of a guy who did a 10 month experiment eating nothing but "bad" foods whilst keeping a defecit and managed to lose the same amount of weight as if he'd eaten traditional "healthy" foods.

    Ultimately it's on you. Are you happy where you are? Would you be happier no longer counting the calories? It's all about what will make YOU happiest.

    I fully anticipate there will come a time when I've reached goal where I might want a break from counting everything, so I plan to set myself a limit of 10lbs when that time comes. Over whatever length of time, if I gain 10lbs from goal weight, the counting will be picked up again. Easy to say now of course. My concern would be the number of people on here for the 2nd, 3rd, 10th time, who lose, stop counting and before they know it are back up to the weight they were when they started.

    That is very true .I'm gonna go straight back to a deficit on the 26th .So I'll start counting again after the break. Want to try the break beause im gonna have to do it sometime because I'm not going to be counting calories when I reach my goal .when I reach my goal I'll stop counting but IF it creeps up again I'll start the counting again
  • Gibby349
    Gibby349 Posts: 119 Member
    Keladelphia wrote: »
    Gibby349 wrote: »
    Okay so altogether I'm down 33 pounds since January. For the last week or two I've been eating what I like and haven't gained because im active all day so maybe that's what keeping those scales down ;).I've been staying the same thankfully .I was thinking of staying on this break until the 26th of September as it feels good to have more delicious food.I would like your thoughts and opinions on this. I'm not counting calories or anything I'm just enjoying myself more by eating the things I always enjoy.I'm really active five days of week from working so I think that Is what is doing the trick for me..Should I continue to stay on my break by not counting calories or should I not ?

    I personally think breaks from counting calories are great! I think as long as you are monitoring weight/measurements to make sure you are staying in line with your goals it's fine. My only concern is that you mentioned "it feels good to have more delicious food." If you feel you need to not count calories in order to eat more delicious food that sounds like a slippery slope to me. Regardless losing 33Lbs is amazing progress. Keep up the great work!

    Well when I'm in a deficit I can have delicious food also but not as much , it wouldn't be satisfying for me to eat like one slice of pizza. Thats what im kinda doing when im in a deficit.If it's gonna be a lifestyle change what am I going to do when I go to friends houses and they are having sweets and pizza and stuff and I just sit there eating one slice while they can indulge. I know for definite I won't be able to do that for the rest of my life.I know people are saying it shouldn't feel like a diet,but honestly no matter what kind of diet you are doing you are always missing out on a certain amount of delicious food. For example what if you ate all your calories for the day and your friend messages you and says wanna go for ice cream .You can't actually refuse just because you ate your calorie allowance for the day .
  • Gibby349
    Gibby349 Posts: 119 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    I tried it this summer. I was just done counting calories and tracking everything. It was really hard for me, personally, to get back on track afterward. I'm not sure what the solution is, but a complete break was not the right answer for me.

    My break is like 10 days though I'm gonna go straight back to the deficit
  • Gibby349
    Gibby349 Posts: 119 Member
    peaceout_aly wrote: »
    Gibby349 wrote: »
    Okay so altogether I'm down 33 pounds since January. For the last week or two I've been eating what I like and haven't gained because im active all day so maybe that's what keeping those scales down ;).I've been staying the same thankfully .I was thinking of staying on this break until the 26th of September as it feels good to have more delicious food.I would like your thoughts and opinions on this. I'm not counting calories or anything I'm just enjoying myself more by eating the things I always enjoy.I'm really active five days of week from working so I think that Is what is doing the trick for me..Should I continue to stay on my break by not counting calories or should I not ?

    Sometimes I take mini breaks from counting calories. Most of the time this is when I go away on vacation, or have a weekend to myself to relax and don't want the hassle of logging. Recently I had an 85-day streak going and broke it. Now I'm at an 8-day streak (something like that). It's nice to not count, but personally, I like to KNOW for a fact that I'm in-line with my macros (more so the protein intake and staying below sugars, I usually have a general idea about the calorie intake). Sometimes I feel "stuck" and wonder if I'll be counting forever (it's been a LONG time...since I was in fifth or sixth grade) but then again I feel like I would be "incomplete" without my logging time. As my boyfriend says, the fitness lifestyle is an "outlet for my OCD." It's up to you though! I encourage a break. Just don't get too leniant and snap right back into the habit if you feel yourself slipping up.

    I agree but its only gonna be a little more indulging for ten days;) after that im going straight back into deficit until I reach my goal
  • JennieMaeK
    JennieMaeK Posts: 474 Member
    Many people recommend taking a break from a calorie deficit and having cheat days or eating a maintenance for a week or two. Personally, I find it difficult to get back in the swing of a calorie deficit after that. I've done it (on vacation, stressful week, etc), but overall I prefer to stay at my deficit until I hit maintenance.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    For a long time I was puzzled by this seemingly unsolvable mystery: Why did I always lose weight on holiday? Every day I would eat large meals of delicious, decadent foods! So was it because I was more active? But I haven't been that active!? I think that eating delicious food and things you enjoy, is helping you maintain your weight, not threatening to wipe out your effort. I am doing this, and maintaining, effortlessly, without counting calories. The thing is, I don't overeat anymore, because I look forward to meals, I only eat at meals, and I don't even want to eat all the time when I eat food I really like and food that satisfies me. Eating unsatisfying foods just makes us prone to overeating, cheating, dropping out.
  • gmallan
    gmallan Posts: 2,099 Member
    I think it's not a bad idea for some people and can definitely be good for mindset/mental health to have a break as long as that break isn't an excuse to go back to the way you ate that caused you to gain weight in the first place. I have frequent periods of non-tracking and just eat normally for me generally without putting on a lot of weight. As long as you keep track somehow of whether you're gaining so you can reign things in if needed it seems to work okay. It doesn't even have to be formally keeping track, if you're like me you can just go on the mirror or fit of clothes. Some may prefer to weight or measure though for complete honesty
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,616 Member
    I take breaks from counting now and then ... in fact, I've only been half-heartedly counting for a couple weeks now.

    But I still weigh myself every day to monitor what's going on there. If I get concerned about that, I'll start counting regularly again.
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
    JennieMaeK wrote: »
    Many people recommend taking a break from a calorie deficit and having cheat days or eating a maintenance for a week or two. Personally, I find it difficult to get back in the swing of a calorie deficit after that. I've done it (on vacation, stressful week, etc), but overall I prefer to stay at my deficit until I hit maintenance.

    This is what works for me - I don't stop counting, but I take regular two-week breaks from being in a deficit and eat at maintenance levels. I've found that I can get back to the deficit without any problems, and the break seems to give me a renewed sense of purpose when I get back to trying to lose, but I guess that doesn't work for everyone! :) And if I had a much longer break, possibly I might find it harder to go back... I don't know.

    Gibby, so long as you're keeping a check on your weight and not letting it creep up, I don't see the harm in trying to learn how to eat reasonable amounts of what you want without counting the calories. Like you said, life happens and there will be ice cream and pizza with friends. But you won't be able to eat as much as you want of whatever you want every day, you'll have to learn some limits or you'll end up back where you started. :)
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    Diet breaks are great from a physiological and psychological stand point. Eat roughly at maintenance, keep active and then return to a deficit after 7-14 days.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    Gibby349 wrote: »
    For the last week or two I've been eating what I like and haven't gained because im active all day so maybe that's what keeping those scales down ;).

    So I'd draw a distinction between not counting calories and not eating at deficit, and not tracking. What you seem to have described is the latter.

    I'm personally comfortable with not counting calories, as I'm pretty familiar with my intake, my expenditure and the effects they have. I don't need to track calories as long as I'm comfortable with other metrics; running performance, cycling performance and clothes fit. IF any of those start to deviate then it's back to tracking.

    Not eating at deficit for a period is, for me, not an issue. It's something I do consciously at times in the season as I do need to prepare for big races and refuelling is part of that. In the final week before a long race I'll go over maintenance a little. And in the week following I'll be well over maintenance, just to catch up. Burning 4000-5000, or more, calories in a race isn't something I'm going to recover from in a day.

  • niallcavanagh
    niallcavanagh Posts: 29 Member
    PinkPixiexox wrote: »
    I do this regularly and it works well.

    Especially around the christmas period. I will not track, I will not count and I will most certainly enjoy myself. Once the christmas period is over, I will eat at a deficit for a couple of weeks to get rid of any sneaky pounds. This has worked really well for me and it also means I can enjoy christmas like a normal human being! :)

    I also do this for holidays (vacations).

    I most definitely neither count nor track during vacations or Christmas, otherwise my wife would kill me!
    I try to sneak in some extra cardio to make up for the excesses.
    I have also been known to claim toothache to avoid being force fed sweet things (!)
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
    I think mini breaks are good--as long as you can get yourself back in the habit of tracking when you're done!
  • Trina2040
    Trina2040 Posts: 214 Member
    I always count calories and have for the past 2 years while losing 52+ lbs. I'm at maintenance now but every 2 months I take a break from the gym for a week to rest and recharge. I still stay active walking, etc. but that one week off the weights and cardio really helps me stay fresh. While losing weight over the last 2 years I also took a "maintenance break," eating maintenance calories and staying active for a week, then it was right back to my deficit. Worked well for me, but I'll always have to count or calorie creep creeps back into my life.
  • hollen_carol
    hollen_carol Posts: 121 Member
    Trina2040 wrote: »
    I always count calories and have for the past 2 years while losing 52+ lbs. I'm at maintenance now but every 2 months I take a break from the gym for a week to rest and recharge. I still stay active walking, etc. but that one week off the weights and cardio really helps me stay fresh. While losing weight over the last 2 years I also took a "maintenance break," eating maintenance calories and staying active for a week, then it was right back to my deficit. Worked well for me, but I'll always have to count or calorie creep creeps back into my life.

    I love your way of thinking for a break from the gym and from strict counting. I think that sort of mentality would really work to keep things fresh and not feel so trapped and obligated. I'm getting tired of this but I can't stop counting for the long term or I know what the results would be. I like to overindulge way too much :)
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    A break with logging/counting or a break without logging/counting? I think this boils down to personal preference. I do believe a maintenance break is always good for the body and mind especially when "dieting" for long period of time, or burned out, going on vacation, perhaps the break includes an exercise break as well.

    I personally do "diet" breaks with logging.
  • Keladelphia
    Keladelphia Posts: 820 Member
    Gibby349 wrote: »
    Keladelphia wrote: »
    Gibby349 wrote: »
    Okay so altogether I'm down 33 pounds since January. For the last week or two I've been eating what I like and haven't gained because im active all day so maybe that's what keeping those scales down ;).I've been staying the same thankfully .I was thinking of staying on this break until the 26th of September as it feels good to have more delicious food.I would like your thoughts and opinions on this. I'm not counting calories or anything I'm just enjoying myself more by eating the things I always enjoy.I'm really active five days of week from working so I think that Is what is doing the trick for me..Should I continue to stay on my break by not counting calories or should I not ?

    I personally think breaks from counting calories are great! I think as long as you are monitoring weight/measurements to make sure you are staying in line with your goals it's fine. My only concern is that you mentioned "it feels good to have more delicious food." If you feel you need to not count calories in order to eat more delicious food that sounds like a slippery slope to me. Regardless losing 33Lbs is amazing progress. Keep up the great work!

    Well when I'm in a deficit I can have delicious food also but not as much , it wouldn't be satisfying for me to eat like one slice of pizza. Thats what im kinda doing when im in a deficit.If it's gonna be a lifestyle change what am I going to do when I go to friends houses and they are having sweets and pizza and stuff and I just sit there eating one slice while they can indulge. I know for definite I won't be able to do that for the rest of my life.I know people are saying it shouldn't feel like a diet,but honestly no matter what kind of diet you are doing you are always missing out on a certain amount of delicious food. For example what if you ate all your calories for the day and your friend messages you and says wanna go for ice cream .You can't actually refuse just because you ate your calorie allowance for the day .

    Ahh from the OP I didn't realize you weren't trying to keep a deficit I thought you were just saying take a break from counting calories. As I said I think taking a break from tracking is great in my opinion but I usually do this when my goal is to maintain or lose.

    I personally find it MORE important for me to count calories when I want to go over my allowance because yes, on a Tuesday a friend might ask me to go get icecream after I've eaten all of my calories (and I should) but I personally need to remind myself that I had that icecream and was over 1000 calories on Tuesday so I don't give myself permission to do it again on Saturday. The slippery slope I referenced was the fact that if i'm not tracking those overages from indulging in foods I dont usually eat than I tend to start to have them more frequently.
  • LEAS86
    LEAS86 Posts: 144 Member
    I recently gave myself a break. It started as a lack of motivation after a couple of bad days but then I decided to give myself 2 weeks rest. I still logged in to MFP, but not religiously, I didn't set a calorie goal - some days I made healthy choices, some days I didn't, regained a couple of pounds (which was mostly water weight as my carbs went through the roof!), but came back last week recharged and ready to go.

    I find a break is a good thing. If I'm less less enthused or getting bogged down or bored it can be the boost I need. That said, personally I don't think I would be able to go longer than 2 weeks as I'm not good at self regulating and I know the weight I've lost would creep back on.
  • bfanny
    bfanny Posts: 440 Member
    If its working for you I don't see why not, just check your weight once in a while and if you start gaining then you know what to do...enjoy your "freedom"
  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
    edited September 2016
    I think an intentional break, with an end in sight, is better than an unintentional break. Since you asked, I think you should do it without measuring but being mindful and keeping an eye on what your portions look like and how you feel (how full, satisfied, energetic, etc.) I think the experience could be enjoyable and you could learn something from it.

    edit: if you do it, I'd love to read an update when you're finished
  • icemom011
    icemom011 Posts: 999 Member
    I don't log and don't count, but I'm staying at the deficit and getting very close to my goal weight. Sometimes i would check thw weight of whatever i eat, like my chicken salad today, for instance, mostly because i want to know an estimated calorie worth of it plus bread I'm having it with. Most of the time,i can estimate well. It helps when i eat out, or eating something i didn't prepare, and overall with my daily eating habits. Onse in maintenance, i plan to follow same pattern that I've learned those past few months. I think your idea of indulging and having as many pizza slices as someone else is not a sound one. That's probably how most of us got to be overweight and ended up on mfp trying to do something about it. For myself, i know better not to. Yes, it sucks sometimes, when there's food that you love, but shouldn't have a plateful of, but then again. You can indulge, meaning have a reasonably small amount that fits into your goal, eat it slowly and enjoy. How's that not indulging? I don't have any forbidden food, the only limit is the quantity of it. So that's good enough for me, it allows me to stick to it long term and i am good with that.
  • brialger
    brialger Posts: 41 Member
    Personally, I log and count purely because I like to be aware of what goes into my body lol I guess you can say I'm a planner in every aspect of my life and eatings no different for me
  • Jcl81
    Jcl81 Posts: 154 Member
    Any break from something people get obsessed with is a good thing.

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