Has anybody continued to track every single thing they eat even after reaching their goal weight?

Yep, been tracking for 7 years. As @nossmf said, I eyeball a lot of food rather than weighing it now but I record everything. If my weight goes up or down unduly then I tighten up my logging and accurately record the calories. I use it as a tool to ensure I get my protein for my sport - left to my own devices I’d probably exist on carbs.

It doesn’t take me long at all; my OH is used to it but some family members / friends think it’s obsessive. But then they also think me exercising 4x a week for my sport is obsessive; that my desire to eat well to keep myself fit and active into old age is obsessive, and that preferring to eat home cooked food is obsessive.

Strange how they don’t think their alcohol intake is obsessive (I do drink - just not to excess and usually only 2 days a week); or that the fact they don’t get enough exercise and will find lots of excuses not to go out for a 20 minute walk is obsessive.

Different strokes for different folks!

@jessifieldsierra
I have been in maintenance for almost 15 years, while keeping my wt. in check with few fluctuations (not counting the odd readings in the doctors' office-scales).
I wt. and log "most" of my food intake "most" of the time, but I also estimate amount and portions while skipping logging restaurant meals altogether. I don't log while on vacation either. The present food database in MFP is corrupted and the values are not accurate, and we are no longer able to update or correct wrong entries in the database. I take all the logins with a grain of salt, so I am careful and discipline with my cooking and food/portion choices.
I don't like measuring, weighting, and login everything that I prepare or go inside my mouth. I find it time consuming and not quite normal, so I need to keep a balance and my sanity. If I were to cook only for myself (I don’t like cooking) I would not be in MFP, but since my cooking is for two peoples and I prefer variety I am still around.
Once in a while I skip logging all together for several days, and as long I exercise my weight stays within a normal range of 2 lbs. (+/-). I also count on my clothes more than the scale.
I am using MFP to keep a better track of the macros rather than the calories. I am a very petite and short old woman, and what is normal (minimum of 1200 calories/day) for a regular female, is too much for me without exercise.
If you can have control on your eating habits, skipping tracking could work. If not, then you will have to log for eternity.

Some do, some don't. I mostly have. For sure, I logged everything in the first months of maintenance, because I was still focused on making sure I had the right eating habits dialed in to stay at steady weight. I'm now in year 8 of maintenance, year 9 of calorie tracking.

Eventually, after the first year or so, I got more casual, and would skip logging days that I knew would be unreliable wild guesses, and just relied on the scale as a backstop. (Long experience tells me that what I do on repeat nearly every day has much more impact on my body weight than what I do on some truly rare single day, whether that's eating indulgently on a couple of holidays, or working out for 5 hours now and then.

Lately, I haven't been logging online at all (last couple/few months), but still write down what I ate on paper. (My habit when logging online has been to write on paper while cooking/prepping meals, then logging later.)

A couple of thoughts for you, besides the idea that different strategies are best for different people:

If you've been doing this for a month, you're potentially still at a point on the learning curve where the process is not yet totally easy and automatic. IF that's true, then you may find logging more sustainable after you've been doing it for a while.

Logging is a surprisingly subtle skill, plus there are parts of MFP that it takes time to learn to use efficiently. We need to get our recent/frequent foods populated with accurate entries, figure out when and how to best use the Recipes and Meals features and get those populated with useful stuff, etc. All of that makes the process easier.

I'd also observe that people sometimes hesitate to use a food scale because they expect that to be fussy and difficult, but once a person learns the tips, it's actually not only more accurate than eyeballing, but also quicker and easier than using cups/spoons. (Examples: Put the peanut butter jar on the scale, open. Zero the display. Take out a blob of peanut butter with the knife. See the negative number on the scale, log that many grams of peanut butter. Super quick, super easy. Also, build sandwiches (or whatever) right on the scale, zeroing between items, and noting the weights of each.)

For me, logging a normal day takes 5-10 minutes at most now. To me, that's a small price to pay for staying at a healthy weight for 8 years now, after around 30 previous years of overweight/obesity.

Finally, some people feel that logging forever can become dangerously obsessive, to the point that they don't want to eat things they can't log (like eating at non-chain restaurants or other people's homes), and they feel anxiety about precision. That's not good. Letting logging take control of our lives can be destructive. This is kind of a personality-driven issue. IMO, it's not the logging itself that matters, it's our feelings about it: Obsession, if it exists, is a thing happening inside our head, more than out in the world.

In that respect, I think we need to know ourselves. For me, calorie tracking feels like a fun, productive science fair project for grown-ups. If I forget to log something, or need to estimate, it's no big deal, a tiny drop in the ocean of life. I'm comfortable guessing (or skipping a meal/day) and going on with life. For me, I have less anxiety when I log, because I really, really want to stay at a healthy weight permanently - such a quality of life improvement! - and logging makes that easy and low stress. It would be different for some other people.

I want to underscore one thing: I feel very strongly that for weight management, the main focus is routine habits, the things we do day in and day out, our regular exercise routine and daily life activity level, the meals we eat in regular rotation, how we snack (or don't), etc. Whether logging forever is a good habit for a person or not, establishing the happy, practical new routine eating/activity habits is a key success factor.

Best wishes!

I’ve continued to log for three years or so since reaching goal weight.

It helps me make sure I’m reaching my protein goals, which are high because I’m very active.

It helps me monitor what’s going in my mouth, because I am an excellent rationalizer.

And when I travel for long periods, to unusual places, or both, I still log as best I can, even if I have to guess what the ingredients are.

I’ve gotten so good at it I can estimate to the pound how much I’ll gain by the time I return home.

And when I return home, having continued the habit of logging means I can more easily return to my good habits and get back to where I want to be.

It doesn’t take long to log these days. As @xbowhunter says, I eat similar stuff most the time, but vary dinner, so it’s easy.

My big gripe, in play yet again since I was traveling and eating many new foods and products, is that if I don’t log a food for 10-15 days, it drops off my list, and it’s a time-consuming PITA to re-find them again.

sbrewingmarketing wrote: »

The majority of people SHOULD continue tracking their food intake after reaching their goal weight to ensure long-term success. They can keep track of their caloric intake, portion sizes, and balanced nutrition. It’s a tool for accountability and allows flexibility while preventing weight regain.

Fixed it for ya.

If the majority of people would continue, the boards wouldn’t be overrun by “I’m back and need to lose it all over again” posts.