Curious: do you track on Thanksgiving (or any holiday)?

I log everyday, whether it's a holiday, birthday, or just a day when for some reason I eat more than usual. That way I'll know if I went overboard with my calories or not, and by how much.
Of course, I'll have to guesstimate the food that I didn't cook, but that's no different from guesstimating whenever I eat out. Still better than not logging it at all.

I don't expect to accurately log this year's U.S. Thanksgiving meal. I did, once, and found that my 'plate' is a reasonable meal.

NovusDies wrote: »

Katmary71 wrote: »

You all have me thinking of tracking on Thursday, especially since my weight is up this week! I was going to just enjoy it but have been debating on what's really worth splurging and what's not. So much for going in with abandon! Dessert is worth it though, it had better be good as I've been waiting 2 months for it!

Logging and eating as much as you want are not mutually exclusive. I will eat way more than I need but I will enter something in my log so that later when I go to crunch my numbers I do not have a major gap. If I eat 2000 calories worth and only log 1750 I am off by 250. If I log nothing I am off by 2000.

And in contrast I usually don't eat a particularly huge amount at Thanksgiving and when I was losing I did try to stay around maintenance that day, which isn't so hard -- turkey is low cal, there are lots of vegetables (although they usually have more fat added than my normal vegetables), and with mashed potatoes it's all about the serving size. Yes, I'd have a piece of pie with ice cream, but I only have a light breakfast and then the big meal.

I didn't log (when I was logging) not out of some kind of denial of the calories being consumed or because I'd feel guilty going over (I wouldn't have) but because I just find it annoying and burdensome to try to estimate things there's no way to really do accurately, and I wasn't going to weigh foods when dishing up or cooking anyway.

I think it all comes down to goals. If you are trying to keep a running TDEE tally, I agree that estimating is better than skipping, but if you don't care about that there might be no reason to care about logging on a particular day. I mostly didn't calculate overall TDEE when I was losing, so having a gap wasn't important to me. (I mostly don't log at maintenance and when I do it's usually for a few weeks at a time.)

There are about a dozen days a year that I let the Fat Man off the Chain and eat like the 300lb Fat Man I once was. Thanksgiving is one of those days. However I always go to the gym Thanksgiving morning and throw down a monster workout to help with the calorie load later in the day.

Yes, l log on Thanksgiving and other holidays but I don't hold myself to any specific calorie goal. If I'm over by 1,000 or 2,000 or whatever that's fine, I just want to know. If I don't log it's like it doesn't count... just pig-out. If I know I'm going to plug everything into my phone I will at least see how good/bad I did, there is some accountability (to myself). It means I don't eat that 2nd or 3rd piece of pie that I otherwise might.

I had no plan to log, as I mentioned earlier. But then I thought about how I would be eating these foods as leftovers, so I'd want the calorie info for the following days. I spent part of this afternoon entering recipes for everything. It ends up being more calories than I expected! I'll still have to figure out some of the amounts since off the top of my head I'm not sure if I eat one quarter, one sixth, one eighth, etc of a recipe.

I do track on Thanksgiving and other holidays. It's actually easier than tracking on days I go to a restaurant or going to someone's home at other times of the year, because I spend the holidays with family and we have food traditions that don't change much from year to year. Almost everything that is served is already in my food log from past years. So I just copy last year's Thanksgiving and make whatever tweaks are needed. (I estimate amounts, but because I have been tracking regularly with a food scale for over six years, my estimates are reasonably good.)

lemurcat2 wrote: »

NovusDies wrote: »

Katmary71 wrote: »

You all have me thinking of tracking on Thursday, especially since my weight is up this week! I was going to just enjoy it but have been debating on what's really worth splurging and what's not. So much for going in with abandon! Dessert is worth it though, it had better be good as I've been waiting 2 months for it!

Logging and eating as much as you want are not mutually exclusive. I will eat way more than I need but I will enter something in my log so that later when I go to crunch my numbers I do not have a major gap. If I eat 2000 calories worth and only log 1750 I am off by 250. If I log nothing I am off by 2000.

And in contrast I usually don't eat a particularly huge amount at Thanksgiving and when I was losing I did try to stay around maintenance that day, which isn't so hard -- turkey is low cal, there are lots of vegetables (although they usually have more fat added than my normal vegetables), and with mashed potatoes it's all about the serving size. Yes, I'd have a piece of pie with ice cream, but I only have a light breakfast and then the big meal.

I didn't log (when I was logging) not out of some kind of denial of the calories being consumed or because I'd feel guilty going over (I wouldn't have) but because I just find it annoying and burdensome to try to estimate things there's no way to really do accurately, and I wasn't going to weigh foods when dishing up or cooking anyway.

I think it all comes down to goals. If you are trying to keep a running TDEE tally, I agree that estimating is better than skipping, but if you don't care about that there might be no reason to care about logging on a particular day. I mostly didn't calculate overall TDEE when I was losing, so having a gap wasn't important to me. (I mostly don't log at maintenance and when I do it's usually for a few weeks at a time.)

For me the goal is to keep a running analysis of where I am but it is also to put my choice out in front of me. I have already pre-logged tomorrow so I have an idea of how many calories I think it is acceptable in advance. I will probably not eat as much as I have planned.

Of course both of us are just throwing things out there for people who haven't gone through a holiday yet to consider. There is no right or wrong. You just have to evaluate the options and then see what feels right. My personal system requires logging because it is one of my primary methods of awareness and personal responsibility. After all this time I can evaluate what I am eating pretty well without logging but I want to see it on the screen. When I see it I want to ask myself if it was worth it and what would I change next time.

Going into tomorrow I have banked some calories and I have a big calorie burning event planned for tomorrow on top of my normal exercise.

It is not the desserts that get me. It is the cornbread dressing. That stuff is highly caloric.