Are you going to track FOREVER?@!

jeffjeff85
jeffjeff85 Posts: 118 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Just got a.link to [yet another] site supposedly about weight loss. From my height and weight, it decided i am "obese". Wants.to sell me body fat percent caliper, food scale, body scale, fitbit, and supplements. I assume when I buy that it will also recommend fitness equipment and 'workout' apparel ROFL
Obese? Hardly. 5' 9 1/2 " and 204lbs. Visible abs and I can press a pair of those 80lb dumbbells all morning 😏
Seriously, how.much of this stuff is just a sales tactic?
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Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,939 Member
    ...and yeah, BMI is pretty useless for people with a lot of muscle, but you're being sales-targeted based on numbers, nothing more.
  • jeffjeff85
    jeffjeff85 Posts: 118 Member
    Well, 'a lot' of muscle is subjective opinion (Arnold doesnt even know who i am) but yeah, I have enough lean tissue that only way I'd ever weigh less than 190 or so would be to remove one limb 😂
    That said, I'm going to aim at getting to 190 and.we'll see how that carries.
  • jeffjeff85
    jeffjeff85 Posts: 118 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »

    Not too sure what your main point was: If it's that you're much more muscular than the average guy your height, that's great - sincerely. Go, you!

    Yeah, I'm a bit.more muscled than some, plus I wanted to take a shot at the marketing.people, if just for a minute 😎
    Never really had much extra weight until illness required meds. The meds alone didnt make me gain weight - the diet you have to eat to make the meds WORK is not good though. So, I DID (and still do) have some to remove.

    I wouldn't do it long term, but if tracking gives you a better result than not tracking, carry on!
  • SmithsonianEmpress
    SmithsonianEmpress Posts: 1,163 Member
    No. I stopped a while ago. I know what I need to eat at this point.
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 500 Member
    The weight guidlines are way off for shorter people. At 5'7 i was 211 at my highest weight ever in my life and while i would say i was above my optimal weight, i was hardly "obese". I have yoyo'd a lot over the years and at one point got down close to what these guidlines recommended i weigh, and everyone told me i looked sickly. As far as tracking forever, i assume you mean calories and weight, I probably should since everytime i stop tracking after i reach my goal weight, i end up putting it back on in 3-4 years.
  • Cricketmad88
    Cricketmad88 Posts: 415 Member
    I think I will track forever but I won't weigh everything forever. Once I get to maintenance it will be more guess work than accuracy, obviously if the scales start to show I'm gaining I will log more accurately.
  • jwoolman5
    jwoolman5 Posts: 191 Member
    I love numbers and so don't feel oppressed by food tracking. People who find it aggravating might look to other ways to keep an eye on how they are eating. It's not the only way to lose weight and keep your weight steady.

    Tracking can be helpful for other things beyond weight loss. It helps me see at a glance if I am eating enough variety and the kind of foods that make me feel best. Some foods I can only eat occasionally, and this helps me make sure I don't get into a rut of eating them too often (food allergies/intolerances), plus it lets me see how much protein and fiber I am getting over the course of a week. I also use the tracker for medications and supplements for me and the cats, creating a food called Timer to track the actual time food and supplements/meds are taken.

    Sometimes I have to track to make sure I'm eating enough. That's why I started using a tracker in the first place. Pain issues and illness/medication and other stresses can kill my appetite. Also some conditions might be related to food or certain macros, so tracking can help me decide if there's a real correlation or not. I like to track my steps and certain tasks anyway, since some conditions definitely improve if I get enough exercise, and the tracker is always in my pocket (i.e., my phone).

    I usually weigh things for convenience, especially small items in small amounts, but don't mind estimating sometimes for my purposes. What I am eating is more important to me than exactly how much. Databases and labels are only approximate anyway.

    But if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you are eating fine and feeling fine and your weight isn't creeping upwards without tracking, then you don't need to do it.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,977 Member
    edited November 2019
    Yes and weigh myself daily as well

    It's the way I lost weight, the way I continue to maintain that wt loss and there's no reason to believe that I can become complacent and continue to do so w/o doing so.

    It's no big deal to me. Been doing it about 4 yrs and it's a habit now that I would miss doing if I stopped.
  • HotFrieZ
    HotFrieZ Posts: 35 Member
    I've gone on and off for about 10 years. I've never been overweight but i will say this. Initially learning about calories was huge for me. In my late teens I would try to eat as little as possible during the day and then have a big dinner. After several years I started binging-duh lol. By learning about calories, I found that I can fuel myself properly during the day without gaining weight and not binge so much.

    The one issue I have with counting is many calculators grossly underestimate calorie needs. I'm around 5'2, 115-118 lbs and lose weight eating 2000 calories. I spent several years trying to follow the guidelines telling me I should eat 1200-1500 to lose a couple vanity lbs which led to more binging, me being crabby and losing muscle.

    So I will probably continue to go back and forth. I'm here now as I'm at the higher end of my maintenance range and would like to lose a few lbs post baby. I can't exercise as much as I used to pre baby so I need to pay more attention to my diet. But I imagine once I'm where I want to be and am able to workout more (which I thoroughly enjoy, when I have the time I like to exercise for at least an hour a day) I'll stop logging. I like having the option and think it's helpful when you don't have as much time to workout. I try to do a little something 20-30 mins a day but that's like nothing compared to what I used to do lol. And my baby isn't crawling yet so taking care of her involves a lot of sitting still. Totally worth it to soak up all the baby snuggles!

    Whew that was long-winded lol
  • FireyChimera
    FireyChimera Posts: 155 Member
    I don't track calories or my weight at all anymore and I feel so good to get rid of those awful shackles! <3
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,136 Member
    I track but not too religiously or with much consistency. I do keep track of my body weight and how the clothes fit. This is how I was able to stay in control for the last nine and half years of maintenance.

    I take a break from logging and weighing when I am on vacation and sometimes during the weekends as well or when I am lazy or pissed off about the whole process :'( And restaurant food doesn't make it to the diary.

    But we are all different and some people need, want or like to track and log due to different reasons. Some have no control, others like to binge, others like to eat everything so they need the accountability that seeing the numbers bring. We all do what we think is best for us and what gives us the best results as well.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,981 Member
    apullum wrote: »
    nytrifisoul wrote: »
    The weight guidlines are way off for shorter people. At 5'7 i was 211 at my highest weight ever in my life and while i would say i was above my optimal weight, i was hardly "obese". I have yoyo'd a lot over the years and at one point got down close to what these guidlines recommended i weigh, and everyone told me i looked sickly. As far as tracking forever, i assume you mean calories and weight, I probably should since everytime i stop tracking after i reach my goal weight, i end up putting it back on in 3-4 years.

    What evidence do you have for this generalization? I’m under five feet tall and maintaining happily—and healthily—in the middle of my optimal BMI range after losing 100 pounds.


    I beleive the BMI guidelines can be slightly off for very tall people.

    However OP is 5 ft 9 or 10 - that is very average height for a man and so whether BMI guide is slightly off at either end of the height range is irelevant to him.
  • dewd2
    dewd2 Posts: 2,449 Member
    At 5' 9" I weighed 225 pounds. I can tell you for sure the guidelines are not wrong. I was a fat *kitten*. Compare pictures from before to now. The difference is dramatic. I was so outta shape and I looked like hell. The thing is I didn't think I had an issue. Now it is obvious.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,981 Member
    Re the original question - forever is a long time.

    However I reached my goal weight nearly 6 years ago and I have been logging ever since.

    admittedly loose approximate logging and I do take a break from it now and then - if I am away on holiday.

    I dont know about forever - but I intend to keep doing this for the foreseeable future.

    It works for me - and if it aint broke, I wont be fixing it.

    Re sales items -I already owned a basic human scale and I bought a basic food scale, from my local supermarket, cost me under $20.
    Didnt buy anything else.

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