Stopped Logging: Looking For General Advice

Domicinator
Domicinator Posts: 261 Member
edited November 21 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hi all--

It has been a LONG time since I posted here!

Long story short, I hit my goal weight roughly 2 1/2 years ago. I was religious about my food log during the weight loss process, and have been pretty strict about it since hitting my goal as well, but have recently decided to finally stop logging. Things are working out just fine so far--logging my food and keeping track of my exercise and calorie burn has taught me all the skills I need to maintain my weight and have a good sense of when I'm overdoing it on the eating or not exercising enough.

My question is this though: Does anyone have any general advice for me as far as going forward over the next few months without the food log? I've only been off of it for a couple of weeks now and I feel like I'm probably MORE strict about what I eat because I know it's all up to me to remain vigilant about what I put in my body. I haven't gained any weight or had any relapses or anything like that (other than my weekly cheat day). What other things should I be careful to watch for?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Replies

  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    Personally, I would keep doing what you are doing. A couple of weeks is too early to tell if you have been restricting to the point of losing weight again, and I bet the weekly cheat day might negate any deficit.

    Give your self a weight range and just be watchful of weight creep the exceeds your max weight range for a period of 7 days or so.
  • Domicinator
    Domicinator Posts: 261 Member
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    Personally, I would keep doing what you are doing. A couple of weeks is too early to tell if you have been restricting to the point of losing weight again, and I bet the weekly cheat day might negate any deficit.

    Give your self a weight range and just be watchful of weight creep the exceeds your max weight range for a period of 7 days or so.

    Yeah--I realize it's a bit soon. I am still keeping track of calories in my head too. I try to keep my breakfast and lunch each to about 500 calories, and then I know that I have anywhere between 500 and 1000 to play with at dinner depending on how hungry I am.

    I also never go nuts on my cheat days--it usually translates to a couple of extra beers or *gasp* eating dessert. If I'm at a party or something, I might use that day as my cheat day and go a little crazy, but my cheat days have never really affected my weight negatively.
  • Domicinator
    Domicinator Posts: 261 Member
    dieselbyte wrote: »
    Congrats on maintaining for over 2 years! I completely stopped logging foods for over a year, and did not experience any weight gain. I've only recently started logging again because I was losing weight, and wanted an honest calculation of caloric intake - My wife and I had a new addition, and with the stress of new parenting, changing schedules and running around more, I realized my current intake wasn't sufficient. In fact, I was taking in much less then I realized, and have since adjusted. Like you, I had already created the habits, and look at food as fuel... I was just being overly strict on certain items - and that is one thing I would be careful of. For some individuals, there will be a tendency to be overly strict and under-eat. Since you mentioned you exercise regularly, the concern can then be that you aren't hitting your training goals because you aren't fueling properly.

    Another thing I would be careful of is micro-nutrient deficiency. I'm a creature of habit, and was even more so when I stopped logging early on. I found myself eating the same foods over and over - I didn't care from a satiety or taste standpoint because I enjoyed everything, even ice cream and cookies. But lack of variety may lead to vitamin deficiency/imbalances. If you are worried about eating different foods and the caloric intake, track different items so you have a rough estimate of the calories/macros. You won't know exactly what you are consuming, but maintenance is all about being in the ballpark. Eventually this allowed for me to have more variety, while not being overly concerned with weighing and feeling everything needed to be logged.

    Hope that helps.

    Thanks! That's exactly the stuff I want to know to watch out for, so I appreciate your comments.

    I'm the exact same way as far as being a creature of habit with what I eat, so I try to make sure my dinners have a lot of different items, especially green vegetables--I tend to skip those if I don't make a conscious effort to eat them and then my doctor yells at me about my vitamin D levels.

    I'm also the same way about being overly strict. I think I naturally tend to keep myself at a deficit now because I'm so afraid of gaining weight back, but I also know that 2100 calories a day seems to be a little too much for me--I tend to slowly but surely gain weight back at that amount, so I try to keep it between 1800 and 2000 if I'm maintaining and maybe a little less than that if I'm trying to shed a couple of pounds.

    All in all, everyone who told me that maintenance is harder work than losing was 100% right. But I definitely feel a new sense of freedom without the food log--almost kind of like I've cut the leash and am going out into the world with my new knowledge about eating and exercising. I feel like there's a lot less pressure on me, but at the same time, I feel very confident that I know what to do to keep from falling back into my old patterns.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Just keep an eye on your weight and how you feel. Everyone is different but I find I tend to gradually become more lax and periodically have to get back on track. I can often feel I'm getting off track before the scale actually shows it. If I don't rein it back in right away the scale will show it within a week or so though.
  • Domicinator
    Domicinator Posts: 261 Member
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    Just keep an eye on your weight and how you feel. Everyone is different but I find I tend to gradually become more lax and periodically have to get back on track. I can often feel I'm getting off track before the scale actually shows it. If I don't rein it back in right away the scale will show it within a week or so though.

    Yeah, for sure. I try to weigh no more than once a week and just keep an eye on the trend. As long as I'm staying in a 5 lb. range of my "normal" weight one way or another, I'm fine. Above or below that and I start getting concerned. But my body just feels different when I've been eating more than I should, so I can spot bad patterns pretty quickly and get a hold of myself.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    I haven't logged since about 3 months in and continued losing steadily for 2 more years and maintaining for 1 year. I know my portion sizes and I estimate portions based on the size of my hand, fist, or finger, depending on what it is. This gives me an objective measure. If I just went by feelings or intuition it wouldn't work. That's how I got fat to begin with.
  • Domicinator
    Domicinator Posts: 261 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    I haven't logged since about 3 months in and continued losing steadily for 2 more years and maintaining for 1 year. I know my portion sizes and I estimate portions based on the size of my hand, fist, or finger, depending on what it is. This gives me an objective measure. If I just went by feelings or intuition it wouldn't work. That's how I got fat to begin with.

    I definitely hear you on that. If I just ate "until I'm full" at every meal and snacked as much as I wanted, I'd be right back where I started, and it would happen fast. I also tend to forget about snacks I ate during the day, so I try to keep my snacks small and at a frequency that I don't forget about any of them.

    I do continue to do mental math at every meal. Rather than adding up calories all day, I look at it in terms of, "If I eat this, how much will I have left for dinner?" Dinner is the meal that gets me in the most trouble, because that's always been the time of day when I most want to go crazy and eat everything in the house. I try to make it so that I've eaten enough during the day that I'm not ravenous at dinner time, but also have enough calories left for the day that I can eat a satisfying dinner.

  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    Yep - keep weighing yourself regularly to catch any trend drifts relatively early and maintain a general ballpark awareness of your caloric intake and you'll be fine.

    Food logging isn't terribly helpful in maintenance because there's no action to be taken from it. If you find your weight drifting up, you know that you need to start logging again. What caused the increase in calories in the past isn't terribly relevant.

    One thing to keep in mind...you might find it helpful to continue to measure one day a week or something like that just so you make sure that your visualizations for portion sizes, etc. aren't drifting too far off. This holds especially true when/if you start allowing yourself new foods (for example, adding a dessert once in a while or getting takeout a couple of times a week) since it will allow you to plan and recalibrate your meal sizes to account for the changes.
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
    I also don't log anymore. I eat pretty much the same thing and I exercise every day, so I figure, what's the point? I'm here though, and I enjoy cheering others on.
  • icemom011
    icemom011 Posts: 999 Member
    I don't log as well, estimate my portion sizes, make sure i eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, and weigh daily to keep an eye on things. I watch the high calorie foods more closely, but generally i trust myself and the scale.
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