Quitting food logging???

I don't trust myself I will log for a year even two. If need be, but I want to get a good idea of what foods are what, and how we make them into portion sizes and how many calories and so forth. But this site as long as it's still here I will always be here. I know weight is a battle, can go up without even thinking your doing anything wrong. So even when the day comes I hardly log anymore. I will log if I need too and if I'm unsure of a food I might eat.

I think if you want to, you should try it and see how it works for you. If you feel like it doesn't work, or you find you're eating too much/gaining weight, start logging again!

I think it's a personal choice and what works best for you. I've logged and not logged. Sometimes I gained, and sometimes I lost. Just all depends on your preference. As others have said, try not logging, if you start gaining, go back to it until you find out why.

I think my plan once I hit my goal and maintain for a bit will be to taper off logging. Maybe log once a week, or log for a whole week once a month or something like that. I will be able to tell if I am treating my 'log days" differently which would indicate to me I need to go back to full time logging.

The way of eating that I have chosen is supposed to encourage weight loss without logging. It involves eating healthy whole foods with a minimum calorie density. I decided to stop logging for the past couple of months and I didn't lose any weight. I didn't gain either, but I had 90 pounds to go, so maintenance wasn't cutting it for me. Even though I was sticking to only the healthiest of foods, my portion sizes were getting extreme. I was overeating even the simplest of foods like plain brown rice.

After a weekend at a nutrition study seminar, I started logging again this week. I am down 5 pounds in the past week. While I do intend to quit logging someday, it is clear that now is not the time.

If you do quit, be sure to stay on top of your weight. If you gain more than a couple of pounds, I would start back with the logging.

I think I will be a lifetime logger.....tried not logging and was not successful.

I would not only not quit logging now but even when you reach your goal weight I would make sure you have maintained for 3-6 months before stop logging. Almost all people gain weight back after reaching their goal weight because they don't bother to reset it by maintaining it for several months. Even losing more weight will mean that you haven't reset it.

I don't see why continuing to log after hitting weightloss targets is a 'dismal future'? It takes a couple of minutes out of your day to log. Thinking about what you eat is hardly a difficult thing to do, and logging helps me to make sure I eat in a balanced way (it isn't only about calorie counting).

I will probably aways need to log to be able to manage my weight. The idea of a future in which I have no control over my eating is dismal to me. Staying healthy isn't.

I absolutely agree with this. I was heavily in debt for many years, then I learned how to budget and control my money. It means I have to track my spending every week so that I stay on top of things, but I've accepted that so that I no longer have to worry about money.

This site is the same thing for me - I treat logging food and exercise the same way as balancing my budget.

I know myself. I know that if I didn't adhere to tracking my finances, I would fail, because I'm terrible with money. Same with food. If I don't log, I will fail - but that's a small price to pay for success, as far as I'm concerned!

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I logged on a different site religiously for over 8 months. In 6 months I lost 50 pounds. Then I got lazy, and started taking portion size, exercise, and bad foods for granted again. Didn't happen in a day, but three years later, I am up 20 pounds again, and back to logging again. I won't stop again this time, I don't want to keep losing the same weight again and again. It is a small price to pay, I didn't get to the size I was by being honest with myself after all!

I lost 23 lbs from Sept. to Dec. on curves complete. No logging, weighed and measured food for the first few weeks. I have been faithfully logging now for 45 days and have only lost 1 pound. Hmmm...??? Plateau perhaps?

Been at the logging for 5 months. 3 months on another site and then stumbled upon MFP that has a better food database. I am interested in tracking various nutritional components, and so it's good for that. Weight loss happened for me pretty quickly, set some realistic goals, achieved them, set some new ones, so now it is more about optimizing the diet composition and exercise. I do recognize that this is all about being a marathon and not a sprint from here on, and weight is only one factor, which is why I enjoy the new hobby of logging in all of the various stuff. How I will feel about that in a year, for example, who knows. I enjoy reading all of your opinions in the posts for some additional perspective.

i quit logging FOUR MONTHS AGO and i haven't gained a pound. so for those naysayers out there that it didn't work for them.. it would seem you didn't learn enough by logging your food to begin with.

How lovely it must be to be perfect...

I just write down throughout the day what I eat & the calories in a small notepad. Then I log on later that night or next morning to add it to mfp. Instead of searching the data base though, I just add it all in as quick calories & manually put them in. I felt I was spending too much time on here searching for something in the data base before I ate it. & logging on here every time I ate something.

So, I will probably always log, but it is less time consuming & easier for me to do it in a little note pad...then I can add to mfp when I have time. Different things work for different people though...do whatever makes you comfortable/happy.

Agree with post above - I'm planning on logging for around 3 months after reaching my goal to make sure I can stay there after taking so long to get there in the first place lol.

I don't find it too annoying to have to do it though, I don't change my food from week to week (generally, obviously there are exceptions) and I've saved pretty much every combo I might have as a meal so it only takes 5 mins to do. I like logging exercise in particular, and just feel this makes things much easier to work out than having to calculate in my head.

For me logging takes forever. I rarely have the same foods week to week. I am pretty atypical. I don't have 1 go to recipes, I probably have 45 in my normal rotation. And I generally try something new once a week. I don't even bother creating meals, since the odds of it being the same are low.