Simplified ways of tracking for maintenance

adrienneh88 · April 2020

Has anyone simplified their way of tracking for maintenance? For example, instead of weighing every vegetable for the day, just logging a preset generic entry for veggies. Some days you may eat more, some days less, but it averages over time. I am just thinking of ways to simplify tracking for the long run.

janejellyroll · April 2020

I have experimented with various ways of simplifying tracking, but none have been accurate enough for me and I've gone back to pretty much logging as I did when I was losing.

NovusDies · April 2020

adrienneh88 wrote: »

Has anyone simplified their way of tracking for maintenance? For example, instead of weighing every vegetable for the day, just logging a preset generic entry for veggies. Some days you may eat more, some days less, but it averages over time. I am just thinking of ways to simplify tracking for the long run.

I do something like that with lower calorie vegetables now. I log an amount that I do not think I would normally exceed though. I do not expect it to average out, at least not there.

An example is onion which I use pretty much daily in my eggs. I log 200g. Since I am preparing it in a bowl and the bowl is in the scale I still weigh the onion but no matter if it is 150 or 180 I still log 200g. If I am doing something different I might skip weighing the onion if the one I use is approximately the size I normally use.

You might think this is pointless but it is not weighing that I find time consuming it is logging and changing values. I would rather use the previous entries as much as is reasonable. In this way I do not have to stop and either write it down or log on the spot.

On higher calorie items I try to use the same amounts as much as possible and I try to stick to package serving sizes when possible. It may not seem like much but it is still faster to enter 2 servings of cheese instead of 56 grams.

AnnPT77 · April 2020

People do all kinds of things, and different things work best for different people - they may be tight or loose.

For me, the easiest thing (when eating at home, as I mostly do) is to pop things on the scale, note the weight, and log the meal at that level of detail after I eat. I don't even think about whether something is "too small to log", I just reflex log it all. That's lowest effort, lowest stress, for my way of eating and my personality. It wouldn't be that, for everyone.

In maintenance (I'm in year 4+ at a healthy weight, will hit year 5 in 2020 sometime), I sometimes don't bother to log days/meals that are extra-complicated (like a dinner at an Indian food restaurant with a buffet, say); I don't worry about that as long as it's fairly infrequent, and the scale stays in a reasonably happy place. That's really the only change in behavior, vs. 2015 when I was losing weight, other than having more calories to play with now, and being more skilled at playing with them.

IMO, the key is to know your own personality and preferences, and tailor your maintenance routine to it, so it's easy for you, and low stress. One size doesn't fit all.

sijomial · April 2020

My logging has become very simple - I only track my exercise and not my food!
(My exercise is very variable and sometimes extreme in terms of calories so I find it's helpful to my mindful eating to know my goal if not my precise intake.)

But I didn't go straight from logging all food to no food in one go. I estimated/eyeballed food more, weighed less, stopped weighing food that wasn't particularly calorie dense, used quick add calories more, had some weeks off food logging, had long spells not logging and then back to logging for correcting slides in weight or for special events such as big bike rides when I wanted to be a particular weight at a certain time.

One of the many good things about maintenance is that you have the rest of your lifetime to experiment.

GBO323 · April 2020

I don't track veggies. Hailing back from my WW days...veggies are free. Aside from that, I continue tracking most days with an occasional planned no-track day. Really, it's about balance but doing it any differently will put me back where I started.....because I know me. Can't let up.

kristen8000 · April 2020

My 2020 goal was to weigh in 1x a week (I picked Sunday). I don't log food in maintenance (I find if I do I don't eat enough, because my MFP mind is set in losing weight, not maintaining). If my weight is in a range, I'm good until the next week. I start feeling uncomfortable or getting out of that range I tighten up, maybe going back to logging. Since January it's been working, even during "lockdown" so I'll keep it up.

cupcakesandproteinshakes · April 2020

I’m a lazy logger. I weigh high cal food (nuts for example) otherwise guesstimate fruit and veg. I also stopped logging in maintenance just to see what happened and I maintained within a 5 pound range.

adrienneh88 · April 2020

Thanks for all the tips. I have been maintaining my weight but logging can become slightly obsessive for me. I want to find a balance between logging my food but not tracking every single gram of lettuce I eat if that is at all possible.

Annie42019 · April 2020

I did a bit of a weight watchers twist on MFP. I set my calories about 200 per day below the suggested for weight loss. I did not track veggies other than potatoes and don’t track berries ( most of the other fruit I like is much higher in calories and I track that). It made things simpler. I lost 75 pounds in 9 months and am coming up on a year of maintenance. It worked well for me and probably encouraged me to eat more veggies. ... I eat a HUGE amount. I still in maintenance track everything else.

adrienneh88 · April 2020

Thanks Annie42019. I was thinking of trying something along those lines. I would love to make salads more but hate weighing 10 different veggies. I am glad this worked for you. Do you make a lot of salads or mainly just have 1 portion of veggies at each meal?

cmriverside · April 2020

I made a couple "Meals" here on MFP for salads. Once you make a meal and then enter it on a future date you can tweak/add/subtract individual ingredients from the FOOD diary.

I have an entry I titled, Small salad, one for Large Salad and they both are just for the regular portions of vegetables I would usually use - no dressing or cheese or avocado or croutons.

When I add one to the FOOD diary, I add the extra stuff separately.

Close enough is good enough for salad vegetables that are low cal.

I don't do that for heated side vegetables like corn, beans, peas, carrots, potatoes. For them I still add them using my food scale. I like the numbers.

Annie42019 · April 2020

adrienneh88 wrote: »

Thanks Annie42019. I was thinking of trying something along those lines. I would love to make salads more but hate weighing 10 different veggies. I am glad this worked for you. Do you make a lot of salads or mainly just have 1 portion of veggies at each meal?

I eat a TON of salads with tons of veggies. Like 3-4 night per week and it’s a huge bowl....the sort you’d use for mixing a cake mix! I track only the protein and dressing.

Luciicul · May 2020

Yeah, I don't bother weighing or logging food or exercise, because in the past I've found this unsustainable long term (for me). Throwing together a salad or meal is so much easier when not splitting hairs about logging - especially when cooking for multiple people who might need more or less than me (different serving sizes), or batch-cooking, or eating different amounts depending on hunger on a given day.

I focus on sticking to certain eating principles (for me: liberal LCHF wholefoods & intermittent fasting). Most foods I eat are super healthy and can't do me harm, and only a few things need to be carefully moderated (dark chocolate, red wine, etc), in which case I have other ways of moderating that don't require weighing/logging.

For example, I will drink one glass of red wine with dinner 3-4 nights a week: I don't drink more than that. Chocolate is a temptation and my biggest weakness; to moderate the "damage" I only buy 85% dark chocolate (lower in sugar and carbs), and only buy a limited amount, so if I eat more than I should in a sitting, or over a few days, then it runs out and I have none for the rest of the week or fortnight.

However, while I don't weigh or log food or exercise, I do weigh myself! If my weight starts to increase, it means I have to cut back on discretionary foods (like chocolate!) and/or change my eating/fasting ratio; ditto in reverse if my weight starts to decrease too much. I also track other measurements (hips, waist, etc), but less regularly, so does not feel like a lot of time or effort.

spiriteagle99 · May 2020

I don't weigh my food or measure it any more. I have several preset meals that I eat regularly where the only thing I might change is the vegetable. My regular diet is pretty repetitious, so logging doesn't take any time at all. My 'medium banana' or potato or apple entries work fine, without needing an exact weight. Sometimes the banana is bigger than medium, sometimes it's smaller. I don't need absolute accuracy. It has worked for me, since I've been maintaining for several years.

Simplified ways of tracking for maintenance

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