Does anyone still track calories in maintenance?

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Replies

  • 425Recess
    425Recess Posts: 257 Member
    @Mithridites - I would have said the same thing if you didn't say it first. Totally agree. I have occasionally skip counting for a day or two. Then again, I have missed brushing my teeth a couple of times too. 😊
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,958 Member
    I track on and off...
  • tuckerrj
    tuckerrj Posts: 1,453 Member
    I do. I used to fight it, but now it's become second nature. When I stop logging, I overeat. The end.

    EGG-ZACKLY!
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    I am just going to start a new thread. But I logged every single thing I ate for 8 years. I just take a break from logging last week. But I expect I will start again in a month or so.
  • awnurmarc
    awnurmarc Posts: 125 Member
    In response to original post:

    It is unrealistic to track every single meal every day (or it is too high a social cost) but...

    There is nothing unsustainable about tracking your food most days and tracking your weight every day so you know when you need to reduce or increase calories.

    Smart phones, food scales, and labeling systems (even if their accuracy could be better) make it easy for us.

    For me, trying to maintain weight without these tools is unrealistic and unsustainable.
  • teeohknee
    teeohknee Posts: 9 Member
    Tanie98 wrote: »
    I lost weight when i started tracking my food and was able to keep it off for few years because I had a very active job and was going to gym regularly..so i kept losing weight even though i stopping counting calories. I started getting you're getting too skinny comments. I was at my lowest at 115 lbs

    Then I switched jobs and started working with food. I started snacking and tasting food constantly and wasn't exercising as much and i gained some of the weight back. I weigh 134 and trying to get back to 125. So i started tracking again.

    However, I have came across video's on YouTube of people talking about counting calories doesn't work long-term and is not sustainable because we can't count forever to keep the weight off. I find when i stop counting, I get off track and start gaining. That could also i'm not exercising enough

    So does anyone still track on maintenance? Does exercing regularly and watch your diet work to maintain without counting calories?

    Yep! i still track on maintenance but thats cos it works for me and i kind of need to. The answer to your question, its going to be, it DEPENDS on the person. Even tracking my calories for 3 years im just not good at eyeballing my servings and i could either under eat or over eat. Especially now ive switched from a desk job to a warehouse job, its safe to say i need to eat more to maintain my weight (keeping in mind as i have no desire to lose weight).
    Regarding that youtube video you mentioned and why tracking might not be sustainable or longterm for someone its because of the mental challenges, i understand it can somewhat be overwhelming, you may become pedantic and obsessive with tracking every single gram and every single calorie that it may stress them out to quit tracking - but i feel there are alot of factors and variables - is it a very specific diet? are calories too low? are the ratios limiting them to enjoy certain foods? Thats just my take on it.