Do you log your calories every day?

I was doing really well and logging nearly every calorie I ate--for a month and a half.  Now all of a sudden I've had several days where I've eaten home cooked meals that other people cooked (no idea of calories) and last night I went to a wedding.  I don't even know what half the stuff I ate was!  So I've been bad and not been logging calories, though I'm trying to stay aware of what I'm eating.

So do the rest of you log calories every single day? Is it okay not to log as long as I watch what I eat?  Or am I on the slippery slope to self defeat? 

I run into the same problems.   During the week, I'm in complete control of what I eat and portion sizes... but then come the weekend, it's always out to dinner with my boyfriend and dinner at my mom's.  I watch what I eat, but I know that I don't eat nearly as healthily as I do during the week.  I have no idea where to even START logging all of that stuff on Sunday night.  It's pretty much impossible to remember exactly what you ate, what's in it if you don't make it, and how large each serving was.  As long as you still watch what you eat, I'm pretty sure you'll be fine.  It's probably healthier not to be so OCD about calorie-counting and take a break every now and then anyway :) 

I've found that following it all week and then having a little break from it on the weekends is working well for me and helping me to stick to healthy eating.  With the diet I was on before, there were no breaks and I had to keep track of everything constantly and it just got to be too much of a hassle.  This way is working much better :)  Good luck with getting back on track, and don't worry worry about the past week.  The calorie tracker is just a tool for you to keep track of what you're eating to help you eat healthy... if you are staying aware of what you're eating, it really doesn't matter whether you write it online or not.

I need to log everyday because I zig-zag and use the averages to make sure that I'm on target.  If I don't know a particular food I just guestimate as best I can by using the foods and recipes in the database.

I try to log every day but sometimes I just say forget it. NOT "forget eating healthy and calorie counting".. because I still do a quick count in my head of what I've had that day when deciding dinner/snacks etc. But occasionally I just don't feel like logging everything. This happens to me like once a week..

Sometimes I log everything until lunch time, and then I don't bother logging dinner and snacks. Because if I've eaten 1000 calories and my dinner is 300 calories and I have a 200 calorie bar as a snack for later, I KNOW that I'm doing fine.

But I do find that my eating is a lot better when I really try to put the effort into logging on a regular basis.

Yeah, I always log as best as I can, just because I like the monthly/weekly averages to be as close as possible to accurate-- I know that if I took one zero it'll screw the average and that'd bother the CRAP outta me.

I'm getting close to maintenance so I want to practise eating without counting. So for me I don't count everyday. I would say at the moment there are more days where I don't than I do.  And I'm still losing!

So...it depends. It's great practise but if you stop losing then you gotta count them!

I log everyday unless I'm in situations like those.  My parents live about 2 hours from me and about every month or so I go visit them for the weekend.  When I do that I don't log my calories because I don't know how they make certain dishes and I don't want to focus on counting calories instead of on my family.  So, on those weekends I try to focus my efforts on maintaining portion control and just being aware of what I eat (stocking up on fruits and veggies instead of the lasagna, etc).

I think you will be fine as long as you get back to it! :) 

Logging definitely keeps me on track. I understand this much better after the horrible 5 days I had last week. I had a midterm on thursday and since logging cals takes some time(thinking about what I'm going to eat, making sure I'm getting enough %s in everything and logging takes me at least 30 mins, sometimes up to an hour) , I felt like I couldn't lose time logging food. So I didn't log anything. I ended up binging :(. I didn't binge horribly, I was only 200-300 cals over my limit, but still 300x5=1500 extra cals stopped me from losing weight this week.

Now, am I ever going to skip a day by not logging my food again?

Never. :)

 

 

I DO NOT log every day.  I don't think it is healthy to obsess.  I do like to check myself every now and then to make sure my estimating isn't far off, but living every day calorie by calorie is a waste of time.  I swear so many of these people never think about anything else except calories. 

Thank you, everyone, for your advice!  It looks as though I'll be okay if I miss a day (or two) every now and then.  My ultimate goal is to eat healthier without actually counting calories, anyway, so this will be good practice.

I don't log anymore. It's much too time consuming for me, and it seems like every day there's another food I have to enter the values in for because it's not listed already. Instead I just have limits and minimums I must meet for eat meal. Each meal must be under a certain number of calories, and have a certain amount of protein. I also keep track of my calcium, pretty easy since a lot of the foods I get calcium from I eat on a daily basis. And I make sure to get 4 servings of fruits and vegetables a day at minimum. Most days I exceed my minimum requirements, so if I fall a little short once in a while it's not big deal.

For the first few months, I logged religiously. It was a great way to train myself how to eat properly and understand what I should eat on a daily basis. Wonderful tool for starting out on dieting.

I've been at this for more than 6 months now, however, and I don't log that often anymore. If I do, it's usually for breakfast and lunch only, just so I can see how much I have left over for dinner.

I might do it more often again though because I've just switched over to maintaining. It's a weird place to be because I'm not used to eating more than 1350 calories a day (on average). It's weird to think about eating 1900 calories + daily. So I'm probably going to have to go through a re-training.

i normaly like to count my calories i dont when im at my churches potlucks which is like once a month cause i dont know half of what i eator porpotions or calories and stuff like that i wont when im going to be at someone elses house for more than two day cause its rude to write it right there at the table and i forget later on so

I log everyday using fitday.com.  It has become habit and they have almost any food you can think of on the site. If I run into something they don't have, I just go to caloriecount, get the nutritional info and enter it into fitday.com. 

If you slip and don't record your calories, just make a best effort to remember what you ate. I alway err on the high side so I don't get in the habit of lowballing my calorie intake.

btw, fitday.com has charts, graphs, journalling, goals, profiles, etc. so you can manage your weight at one website.

Good luck.

You think that's bad, I went with some friends to a fancy tapas restaurant on Saturday night. And I had just started using Calorie Count Plus that morning.

Ever had tapas? This was my first time. We were served a large number of dishes, each one containing a tiny quantity of pricey food that was shared among several people. We each got only a couple nibbles of each dish. I guessed it wouldn't break my diet because I was a long way from full when we finished. Also, I didn't have any bread.

When I got home the next day, I painstakingly reconstructed the little nibbles I'd had the night before, estimating ingredients and quantities the best I could. About all I had going for me is that tapas recipes are fairly simple, so I could make educated guesses about what I'd had.

I've scrupulously logged my first 3 days now, and wonder how long I can keep it up before I start skipping days -- because I've been spending hours each day at Calorie Count Plus. This the first time in my life I've counted calories and the software is so helpful.

I try to log everyday, but have a tough time on the weekends. I use the averages for the week and guesstimate the weekend take-in (usually a bit more than the week). However, I find it helps me to stay on track Mon-Fri. The less I have to think about on the weekends, the better. I still try to watch what I eat, but feel good about a "cheat" day on Sunday. I have been logging food here since February and as of today have lost 8 lbs, which in my opinion is a safe and realistic rate.

yep i do log every day. when - about once a month - i cannot exactly count every calorie, i guesstimate. i have slipped before and know stopping counting would be a road to eating unhealthy. it will possibly change after getting to the goal, but not now

i have that problem. when im at my flat i can log calories easily but when im home (parents house) i always find it much harder to log calories. all the stuff i have there for dinner is home made and a made up recipie so i either over estimate my calories or jsut skip logging them for a couple days and eat healthy. i think if you keep a sketchy, basic log of your calories then that should do enough maybe.

Logging helps keep me in check. During the week I sit at a computer so it's easy to enter it in CC.com after I eat it and go on with my day. On the weekends I tend to log all day Saturday - cheat Saturday night and try to log in Sunday but it doesn't always work.  I've become pretty good at figuring out calories so often times I just do it in my head on Sunday.

I log in potlucks etc and just do my best to guess. I don't log it as a recipe but look for something similiar.  I always log in when I cheat during the week, for me its about accepting the consequences for what I ate. I also tend to go back and look at past weeks and months to see how I'm doing so this keeps it accurate.

When I don't log I find I could eat 100-250 calories and not consciously know it so for me it's a slippery slope but it may not be for you.

i log everyday... if there is something that I can't find I google it and then just put in the calories.  It's an estimate... but that's better than nothing.  If I am away from a computer, I write down or remember everything I ate and log it in the next day.  That way, I always know what I ate and at least how many calories I ate.  I like to look at the 7 day food log to see where I can, "cut out" bad stuff and where I can "add" healthy stuff.  I think it depends on your personality though.

I log every day... but I'm spending less time worrying about it than I used to. I just ask myself 'is it semi-healthy', 'is it a reasonable portion' and 'is it something I REALLY want to eat?'... and then I eat it, and plug it into my log when I get the chance.