Maintaining a healthy diet without tracking

johnforfitness
johnforfitness Posts: 1 Member
edited December 2017 in Health and Weight Loss
I like using MyFitnessPal. It keeps me honest.

But around this time of year, it's hard to track my food perfectly. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners include a lot of homemade dishes, which can never be quantified exactly. I also travel a lot around the holidays, which means a lot of eating out. Sure, there are some meals in the MyFitnessPal database which are similar to meals that restaurants offer. But the difference a wrap at one restaurant and a wrap at another restaurant can be enormous.

At times like these, I'm not motivated to track at all.

So... how do you maintain a healthy diet when you're not tracking? Do you have another diet or set of rules that you fall back in situations like this?
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Replies

  • crewgirl86
    crewgirl86 Posts: 28 Member
    I generally don't track everyday and still lose weight. I have some general principles I follow that work for me, keep me feeling full, and meet my dietary requirements (I have some food intolerances.) Generally if I eat plenty of lean protein (meat!) and tons of vegetables, eat eggs for breakfast, and am reasonable about cooking oils, sauces, etc. I continue to lose. If I'm concerned about what I'm planning to cook that week, I track my recipes and see where it leaves me. I'm sure if I were more precise, I'd lose more weight faster, but I am still losing this way and it helps me not feel so obsessive and tied to tracking #s. This seems more sustainable to me in the long run.

    Aso for holidays, etc. try as hard as you can to keep as many meals "good" as you can! A few meals off here and there aren't going to screw up your long term progress, but that's only if you truly limit it to those few meals (don't get off track for the rest of the day, or following days- easier said than done! :) If I know I am going to have a big, special dinner I will eat lighter the rest of the day (eggs, lean meats, veggies) Fill up on water as much as you can and make sure you squeeze in a workout of some sort on the days you're going to eat a lot- even if it's just a little walk!
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    I've been logging for quite some time and I know the calories for a lot of foods and what portions should look like for me. I do my best to keep logging every day even if it isn't the most accurate.

    To make lower calorie choices without logging:
    Go light on things like cheese, condiments, dips, dressings, butter, nuts, nut butters, seeds, cream, bread, rice, pasta.
    Get grilled meats instead of fried, breaded meats. Choose leaner meats.
    Watch your drinking. Choose more lower calorie or no calorie drinks.
    Fill your plate with vegetables.
    Take smaller portions of things you think are higher calorie.
    Bring foods you feel comfortable eating.
    Check out grocery stores instead of just restaurants when traveling.
    You don't have to eat everything just because it is there. None of these foods are that rare.
    Stay active. Try to get enough sleep.





  • elsinora
    elsinora Posts: 398 Member
    megs_1985 wrote: »
    I definitely don't plan to track forever. That sounds awful to me. I think tracking should be about learning portions, your hunger signals, and resetting your tastebuds and satiety signals. Track your weight and if you see it start to creep up then go back to logging for a few weeks so you can see where to tighten up your diet.

    Tbh, this is how I feel but yet over 8 years later, as soon as I stop logging and guess, the weight creeps back on and I’ve put on weight and never been able to maintain. I really wish I could not have to track forever but this seems so impossible for me.
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
    I'm 52. For 42 years of my life I was not fat. For 10 years I struggled with weight. I've been tracking for about 5 months and to me it's not a burden. I wish I had done it 10 years ago. It would have saved me from gaining about 75 lbs. To me it's a very small inconvenience to pay if I can reach goal weight and maintain it. More power to you if you can do it without tracking.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    I no longer log. But just because I no longer log, that doesn't mean I am not calorie aware. What keeps me on track is keeping my snacks to no more than 300-400 cals per day. I know the rest of my meals never go beyond a total of 1500 calories so it would be extra snacks that COULD derail me. This method works perfectly for me (in year 4 of maintenance).

    Stepping on the scales regularly is a must for me. If I found after several weeks of being at the higher end of my goal range then I would go back to logging.
  • JoLightensUp
    JoLightensUp Posts: 140 Member
    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    I no longer log. But just because I no longer log, that doesn't mean I am not calorie aware. What keeps me on track is keeping my snacks to no more than 300-400 cals per day. I know the rest of my meals never go beyond a total of 1500 calories so it would be extra snacks that COULD derail me. This method works perfectly for me (in year 4 of maintenance).

    Stepping on the scales regularly is a must for me. If I found after several weeks of being at the higher end of my goal range then I would go back to logging.

    I'm glad you posted this. This approach might work for me. I'm only a couple of kilos off maintenance and I think I'll continue logging for a while, but snacks are really my biggest problem. At some point, I might stop logging and just try to keep a calorie limit on my snacks. Or even just log my snacks for a while.

    Thanks for the idea. It's a way to keep some structure and accountability without logging every bite.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    I try to make better choices than I would have before MFP.
    Log as best as I can, and be aware of what I am actually eating and drinking.
    Lastly, eat within my calorie allotment on days where I am not celebrating the season.
    It is only a few days and I will no longer let overindulging become a daily habit. Just the way it has to be for me.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    @JoLightensUp I think snacks gets most of us, so its just managing them. Of course I wish I could eat whatever I wanted but I can't if I don't want to gain. So planning for them and sticking to that works.
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
    For the holidays I don't track as religiously as I do during the non-holiday season (I've been religiously logging for 5 years and don't intend to stop). I do log as much as I can, however. So if I'm going out to a Christmas party that night, I will eat less during the day and log what I eat. That way I know how many calories I can eat at the party. If I don't log a meal, or know that it will be impossible to log, then I pick foods high in protein and stay away from foods high in fat or carbs.

    Over Halloween I went to a party and decided to eat what I want and go all out. I figured one night wouldn't hurt me and I hadn't done that in years. Boy did I regret that. I was very sick all night long. I've learned that since I've started eating healthier my body likes it better and I pick healthier foods while I'm at a party because I don't ever want to feel like that again :D

    I think if you follow the 80/20 rule--eat right 80% of the time--then you'll get through the holidays just fine.
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,383 Member
    I generally don't log during the weekends, and it doesn't affect my progress too negatively.

    When I know I have a special dinner coming up, I eat lightly before it. So I'll skip breakfast, have a light lunch, then eat whatever I like during the special dinner. I do try to eat mindfully and slowly and not gorge myself. Having a stomachache is a quick way to put a damper on the rest of the evening, so I have to mentally remind myself to only eat until I'm no longer hungry - not stuffed and bloated.
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    I don't track my food and have no problem eating healthily or controlling/manipulating my weight.
    Just daily weighing to keep an eye on my weight trend plus being mindful of calories works for me.

    Caveats:
    This style of maintenance/calorie balance is normal for me, even when I was fat for 20 years I maintained in a fairly narrow range.
    Food logging and losing my excess weight was really just an interlude.
    My food choices don't change (don't need to change) whether I'm losing/gaining/maintaining my weight.
    It's not intuitive eating (I wish that worked for me!), it's mindful eating and making conscious decisions as my intuitive level as far more than I actually need.
    An upper intervention weight keeps me in check so a slide doesn't become an avalanche. I often use breakfast skipping as a simple and painless way for me to cut a few hundred calories if required.

    This is pretty much me as well. The thing I find most helpful is the upper limit that signals me it's time to buckle down again.

    I log daily but I love having other people prepare my food so it's a lot of estimating which I find a lot less restrictive.
  • Lesscookies1
    Lesscookies1 Posts: 250 Member
    I don't track anything, and I've managed to lose almost 40 pounds now. I think it's about knowing portion sizing and knowing how to control your portion intake as well. I do stay active, and I use the scale to know how what I ate the day before impacted my weight. If I eat Chinese one day, and I'm up by a pound I know why it's because I consumed too much. Usually drinking more water and staying active the pound is gone shortly.

    Good Luck!!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I haven't counted calories in years...I'm not sure what that has to do with choosing to eat a healthy diet or not. I personally also don't worry about things like holidays and other special occasions as these things are pretty immaterial to the rest of what I'm doing and the way I go about living my life.

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