To track or not to track on Thanksgiving

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ChickenKillerPuppy
ChickenKillerPuppy Posts: 297 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a plan for eating on Thanksgiving which basically involves indulging in limited quantities in foods that seem like they are worth the calories, not eating just for the sake of eating, but otherwise trying to relax and enjoy the holiday and if something looks delicious, I will enjoy a reasonable portion of it.

What I can’t decide is if I should track my food tomorrow. I love the idea of not worrying about trying to track and really just taking this one night off, but I also have been really diligent about tracking and wonder if it’s better to stick with the habit. I have tracked religiously so far and lost 20 pounds and am 10 pounds from my goal weight (I’m a 5’4 woman who now weighs 140 (down from 160) with a goal of 130).

Thoughts? What are other folks planning on doing?
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Replies

  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    Lots of thoughts here:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10773382/curious-do-you-track-on-thanksgiving-or-any-holiday/p1
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,467 Member
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    Just a thought. If you do decide not to track for one day, pre-log the day after, or maybe two days, so that there is no temptation to let the day turn into the weekend, which turns into weeks. Right back to it.
    Whether you really need to track that day depends on you. Are you a numbers geek who needs those numbers for that day?
    For myself, I just log quick add 1000 calories for a big holiday meal. Keeps me in the habit of logging without any stress of guessing numbers.
  • healingnurtrer
    healingnurtrer Posts: 217 Member
    edited November 2019
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    ChickenKillerPuppy wrote: »
    I love the idea of not worrying about trying to track and really just taking this one night off, but I also have been really diligent about tracking and wonder if it’s better to stick with the habit.

    I also like the idea of taking a break from the "work" of logging but if I felt like logging on the holiday "for fun" I'd do it. I've taken a day off before just because I didn't feel like it and I still was able to stick with the habit afterwards. I have no deadline for my weight loss goal, I'm doing this for me and will take breaks when I want to. :smile:

    I hope you find a good solution for you- congrats on your success and good luck with your future goals!
  • Shortgirlrunning
    Shortgirlrunning Posts: 1,020 Member
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    I’m just taking the day off of logging. I just want to focus on enjoying the holiday and for me that does not include spending time thinking about calories.
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
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    I’m going to loosely log, but allow myself to go up to or over maintenance calories. Then I’ll get right back to my calorie deficit on Friday and over the weekend. I’m also going to run in the morning as a preemptive strike on at least some of those Thanksgiving calories!
  • nighthawk584
    nighthawk584 Posts: 1,994 Member
    edited November 2019
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    I'm tracking, just won't be very strict today. I am not pulling out a weight scale in front of family and be anal about weighing all my food, even with them knowing I do this on regular basis at home... I'll just take a photo and rough estimate later on. I've allowed myself a 2 lb weight gain for all 4 days since I will be staying with my sister through the weekend. Doing a long session of cardio this morning and will also be working out at her house. Bring on the mashed potatoes and gravy and PIE!
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
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    For me tracking allows me to relax. It’s likely your scale weight will be up after a holiday due to water and waste gain, and knowing how many calories I ate means I know it’s not “real” i.e. fat gain. I am also diabetic and need to be careful because Thanksgiving food is heavy on the carbs.
  • Lobsterboxtops
    Lobsterboxtops Posts: 92 Member
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    Hah...was just pondering that same question a USA Today article said the average T-day dinner is ~3000 calories. That seemed low to me. I just logged 5000 and am calling it done. I will try to be mindful of my portions but I’m not getting that worked up about it.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 13,247 Member
    edited November 2019
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    I think maybe there's a slight difference between logging and tracking.

    Tracking, to me, implies precision. It implies measuring/weighing. This would be inconvenient at best at an event like a communal Thanksgiving feast, a potluck, or many other situations. If I were going to a Thanksgiving dinner, I would not TRACK.

    Logging, to me, implies just that -- journaling what you eat. I will do this every day. Some days it's not precise at all. Before I go on a dive trip or river trip, I pre-log my days with one of two "recipes" I created that are just a combination of fat, carb, and protein to add up to what actually is way more than my daily goal. It's good enough. Surely the more often someone is precise, by weighing what they cook and eat, the better one gets at estimating when that's more appropriate.

    The research suggests that simply WRITING DOWN what you eat leads to eating fewer calories. It suggests that writing it down WHEN YOU EAT IT is better than trying to remember at the end of the day. People tend to underestimate what they eat, so just the act of writing it down helps. I do this too. I carry a little pocket notebook, and if I'm eating something and don't want to log it right away, I make a note in my pad and log it later.

    I have found a lot of value just logging what I eat. There are many ways to approach our goals, and I think we all need to find what works for us. But yeah -- log but not track on some days. This is what I did on Sunday. That's when I had the closest thing to a Thanksgiving meal. Annual tradition at a local tavern -- free Thanksgiving dinner for the entire community. I was moderate in what I put on my plate, but I didn't measure it. I did find a reasonable entry in the database for "Thanksgiving meal," and I said that's good enough.

    Does that make sense?


  • Whydahdad71
    Whydahdad71 Posts: 316 Member
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    I have worked hard to get into shape. I agree with the above-mentioned post though, it'one day...live a little bit!
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
    edited November 2019
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    I created an entry called "Dinner time! Let's just say I ate this much", serving size "1 big ole plate", 1700 calories, just for today. It's good enough. I did track breakfast coffee and lunchtime salad accurately though.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    tracydnevins wrote: »
    I DID track... what a disaster!!!!! But, this is ONE DAY!!! If it’s Christmas, Thanksgiving, things like that, I’m gonna splurge! I feel like depriving myself just makes me more likely to give up. I ate almost double in calories. Not good. But tomorrow is a new day. ☀️

    It's fine. You're in a long term deficit, an occasional blip won't hurt you. You're the tortoise not the hair.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,902 Member
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    hobbitses333 wrote: »
    One day is not going to be the end..it took you a lot longer to gain all the weight... I track freely on holidays...no way to really know calorie counts so I just put in a quick 3000 cals and forget about it for the day. Back to careful tracking the very next day..

    This year is really different for me.
    "Normally" I have downed 5 pumpkin pies by now with whipped cream. But this year I have had maybe 5 pieces. Dont miss it and just kept putting it off till later.

    Same with the Christmas treats...years before it would begin as soon as they hit the store...now I am saving them for later. Dec 24 to Jan 01 will enjoy all my "not nows" like baileys, after eights, rum and egg nog, stained glass cake, boursin cheese then right back at it on Jan the 2nd!

    I find I dont like the way I feel when I over indulge now. To think I used eat whatever until absolutely stuffed everyday!

    Yes, I didn't have seconds of dinner or dessert and didn't miss the "turkey coma."

    I enjoy my pecan pie so much more if I've had time to digest a little beforehand. We had just enough daylight left to get in a 1.5 mile walk after dinner and before dessert. I told everyone "Walk or do dishes" and the two who didn't want to walk got all the dishes done while we were gone, which was wonderful.

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