I don't understand the "I'm not gonna log it" mentality

Does anybody else overestimate rather than underestimate? If I'm cooking something, I put it in a recipe analyzer (or if I'm lazy, I'll just log all the ingredients separately), but I round the ingredients up rather than down. If I've got, 5.4 oz of something, I log it as 6. It's a neat way to trick yourself the other way. You 'meet' your calorie goal, but you might really have a hundred left over, which isn't harming you, most likely.

Plus, I generally tend to immediately look up anything bad before I eat it. If I eat it, then discover it's 1000 calories, I'm going to feel like crap. If I see that it's 1000 calories before I eat it, it may not look as appetizing anymore. Or I can at least ration it. Which is why I love the app. I don't have to go home to log and in the meantime forget something.

Going over one day and not logging it isnt a big deal. One day is VERY small and has nearly no impact on the big picture. Sometimes it is nice to just enjoy a day and not log it. I don't want to feel guilty because I went over my calories and enjoyed myself.

So going over one day and recording it makes you feel guilty, but going over one day and *not* recording it doesn't? I don't understand. I would think going over would make you feel guilty whether you recorded it or not.

Actually, I would expect you to *not* feel guilty either way since going over one day isn't a big deal...and that's true whether you recorded it in MFP or not.

Does anybody else overestimate rather than underestimate? If I'm cooking something, I put it in a recipe analyzer (or if I'm lazy, I'll just log all the ingredients separately), but I round the ingredients up rather than down. If I've got, 5.4 oz of something, I log it as 6. It's a neat way to trick yourself the other way. You 'meet' your calorie goal, but you might really have a hundred left over, which isn't harming you, most likely.

Plus, I generally tend to immediately look up anything bad before I eat it. If I eat it, then discover it's 1000 calories, I'm going to feel like crap. If I see that it's 1000 calories before I eat it, it may not look as appetizing anymore. Or I can at least ration it. Which is why I love the app. I don't have to go home to log and in the meantime forget something.

I do the second one -- when I know we're going somewhere, I plan what I'm going to have.

I don't do the first one -- I would rather enter the decimal, and since I have the food scale I might as well be as accurate as possible within the limits of the scale.

You are here to better yourself and be healthy. The support is one way of reaching that goal.

Logging (like other activities) is for your benefit. As an adult, you are responsible for finding out what will help you or not help you.

If you think (based on self-knowledge) that logging does not carry benefit for you -- don't log.

If you want to log it because you feel it will help you (again, based on what you know of yourself), log it.

Best wishes for your journey. :happy:

I'll log it but put down an explanation of what why I went over so when I look back I'll remember why the day ended up with bad numbers. For example, I go to friends place for dinner and a few beers while we watch a game or movie, I'm not about to refuse what they cooked because it wasn't made the way I would make it. I enjoy myself, drink my worthless beer and enjoy the wonderfully flavorful food, then log it in the next morning and make note why I let it go that day.

I view MFP as a tool to track with, not as a prison to restrict my behavior. I'll not let one day knock me off course, so no need to try to lie to myself and pretend it didn't happen. If anything it proves to be a positive reinforcement that you can still have significant progress without totally giving up every bad food (or drink) craving you have.

I record it. I'm more concerned with a weekly average than I am with a daily count, so if I go over a day or two, even severely over, I want to account for it.

at about 10pm last night while catching up on some game of thrones, i had a cheesecake drop.
it's basically about a tblsp of cheesecake filling, dipped in chocolate, and refrigerated.
it was only 100cals, but my thought was sheesh...how sad...eating a treat at 10pm...i'll just sweep that under the carpet.

but then it dawned on me...**** that...i ate it, i need to be accountable for it.

logged.

if you;re gonna hide the bad ****, then just dont log anything. you want kudos for the salad you ate, but scared of the "tsk tsk" for the nachos?...be accountable for all of it.

The problem with NOT logging is simple - it leads to a "this is a lost day I might as well eat this other food" mentality.

Your body does not follow an arbitrary 24-hour clock, and there isn't some magic reset button that will purge excess calories eaten after you stop keeping count (well, there is, but it's called an eating disorder, the reset button is located in the back of your throat, and it's a really bad thing to do).

If you eat it, it's in your best interest to log it. That way, you don't turn a minor mishap into a complete disaster by engaging mister "well, if I eat the WHOLE CHOCOLATE CAKE and chase it down with a gallon of ice cream before midnight, I technically don't have to log it today."

As long as you don't develop that mentality, though, you're fine. I went to a pot luck for my local farmshare this weekend, and ate probably more than I should. I didn't track any of it because there were a lot of things I couldn't possibly track anyway - inventive homemade stuff. I concentrated on enjoying what I ate and focusing on things that were made from healthier looking ingredients (not a problem from a bunch of people interested in a farmshare - everything was from scratch and looked made from healthy ingredients). HOWEVER, I also said to myself "this meal will be all I eat today, and when I get home I will drink only water for the rest of the day, and I did not pig out at the last second to "make the most of my splurge while it was over". I thoroughly enjoyed small helpings of everything, and went back for modest seconds or thirds of a few things, then had a plate of delicious homemade desserts.

Next day, I was down a pound.

Go figure.

I always log everything. After a huge cheat/binge, it's hard to look at the numbers but I still like to hold myself accountable.

I don't log bc I don't restrict calories, but even when i have watched calories in the past, I've noticed that I have zero trouble lying to myself, lol.

Not to sound rude, but why do you have a weight loss ticker if you're not trying to restrict calories or track your food. What is your goal? Why are you using MFP?

Even if you have an awful day and you feel guilty about it, you should log it anyway so you can see how your whole week looks - chances are if you are doing well the rest of the week you will still be running a caloric deficit for the week - so you should still be losing weight.

That ought to eliminate some of the guilt

Agreed, ideally, everyone would log, all the time. For me to go over and not log, that's giving into my demons, and that's bad for me...that's the whole reason I'm here....but we should remember that this site is about encouragement, not criticism of others' habits.

I definitely do better when I log honestly, even when I "overeat," it's not as much as if I did it "in secret."

I used to lie to myself about being depressed, and eating was my way of "facing" and "dealing" with my problems.......I'd feel it, hate the pain, push it down and move on. <---Extremely unhealthy thing to do.

But being honest with yourself might be my demon and not so-and-so's, you know? For some people, exercising everyday might be their biggest weakness. It was never one of mine.

I was one of those people-- and I will acknowledge that it's one of the reasons I've lost and then put back on the weight or stalled. After rounds of this rodeo, I've FINALLY realized that while I can lie to my brain about portion sizes and foods I don't log not counting, my body is ALWAYS counting (IT KNOW ... muahaha).

They'll learn or they won't. I don't ever want to have to lose this weight ever again, so brutal honesty with myself about how much I'm eating and learning from that is going to be key.

Take care everyone!

Wow this is exactly the epiphany I had two days ago. I realized that I was pretty much stalled since DECEMBER! So I said screw it, who am I cheating by not logging?? Only myself. I want this weight off so I have to log and be held accountable. Thanks OP, seeing it in black and white somewhere else just opened up my eyes even wider :-)

Denial. We all suffer from it from time to time.

Sometimes I don't feel like spending 5, 10 minutes (my system can be slow) looking up foods that may or may not be in the database, and sometimes I'm not sure of the quantity.

Sometimes I just can't log, because I'm eating at places that don't have nutritional info, or I'm eating what someone else has cooked, and I honestly can't see the point of picking the closest thing in the database, because they could be out by 100's so you aren't getting an accurate picture anyway. Sometimes I just feel like taking a day off from it all, without always thinking what I'm eating. However, if I have logged all day, then eat or drink extra in the evening, I generally go back and log that, even if I do it the next day.