Another benefit of tracking/logging food intake! - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

deanna125 · 10-05-2008, 07:36 PM

I used Fitday to prevent a slip from turning into a fall! Have others found this out too?

I have been doing well again for about 10 days and tracking everything on Fitday. Yesterday I had a very food filled evening, none of which I had planned to eat.

Anyway, this morning I had that well known feeling of "what the heck. I've blown it now. I might as well eat everything in sight." Before I had breakfast, though, I made myself sit down and log everything from last night onto Fitday.

Amazingly, I was still under 2000 calories for the day. Finding this out was such a relief that I immediately lost that "I've blown it" feeling and was able to get right back on track. I thought I'd eaten 5000 calories yesterday.

I wonder if I have always exaggerated how bad my slips have been in the past in order to justify throwing up my hands and quitting.

Weird. I've been tracking for about a year but never used it like this before. Hope this helps someone else!

full of grace · 10-05-2008, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deanna125

I wonder if I have always exaggerated how bad my slips have been in the past in order to justify throwing up my hands and quitting.

I've definitely used a "failure" as justification for really going off the deep end! I totally agree, that tracking keeps that from happening as much, because we really can overdo our estimate when we're looking for that "reason" to go off-plan for more than a meal or two.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deanna125

Weird. I've been tracking for about a year but never used it like this before. Hope this helps someone else!

Definitely! Great reminder! So glad you got right back on track (and weren't so far off to begin with). Wonderful!

mermaid20 · 10-05-2008, 09:48 PM

I use fitday too and it has totally helped me make the transition between diet/attempt into lifestyle/change. Tracking my food, it makes me see all the times I had been underestimating my bad eating habits, and now helps me realize I am overestimating (and like you said) not actually blowing my calorie limit. It was hard to get used to, but once you have a lot of your daily foods input into the system, it gets easier to log and use. And has really helped make an impact on my weight loss.

PhotoChick · 10-05-2008, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Amazingly, I was still under 2000 calories for the day. Finding this out was such a relief that I immediately lost that "I've blown it" feeling and was able to get right back on track. I thought I'd eaten 5000 calories yesterday.

Totally. Tracking has helped me with this a few times. For me, it's no so much about going whole hog and binging, as it is about saying "well, if I'm gonna be 1000 over anyway, what's another 150 calories".

So to log and see that I'm not 1000 over, makes me realize I really DON'T want to add that extra 150 calories. Or whatever.

I have found that pre-logging helps me a lot, too. I log my full days meals first thing in the morning and then tweak as I go along. If I don't eat my apple in the morning, I take it off later. Or if I have a V8 in the afternoon, I add it and can still tweak my dinner amounts. It really helps keep me on track to know where I'm going the rest of the day instead of logging it afterward and then thinking "oh I screwed up".

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luvja · 10-05-2008, 09:55 PM

dumb question here... does 'fitday' add the calories for you? i just don't have time to log/track food/calorie intake.. i'm not organized enough.

mermaid20 · 10-05-2008, 10:02 PM

Yeah, fitday has its own database, so you can scroll through it and press add.. and then you can just type in how many servings or whatever, to tweak it to fit what you ate. However, their selection is limited and a bit odd, but if you just spend like one hour inputting the few staples of your diet that their database doesn't already have... then it stays there and its like a one click thing from there on... so the one hour you spend up front, saves you for however long you use the program. Like it does have a lot... but I go to panera bread a lot and chili's and eat the occasional lean cuisines... so I had to add that stuff myself. It takes like 5 minutes per item, so I have done mine as I go along, but if you can just take inventory and do it within an hour upfront.. you wont have to waste time. It does all the math for you and everything.. if you ate 2.3674 servings lol.. (an exaggeration since we can just round anyway) it changes all the stats to fit you. you should check it out!

luvja · 10-05-2008, 10:04 PM

oh wow, i totally will. thank you.

PhotoChick · 10-05-2008, 10:06 PM

You can do the same with Daily Plate which is what I use.

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kelly315 · 10-05-2008, 10:26 PM

I used to always go completely off the deep end if I "cheated", and just continue eating horribly. Now, I count my calories in a journal every day, and I look at heavier days as ways to restart my metabolism. Definitely prevents a 1700 calorie day from becoming a 3000 calorie day!

cassieroll · 10-05-2008, 10:45 PM

I find when I track my calories or at least what I've shoveled into my mouth, I am more conscious of what I am shoving into my gaping yap. LOL! I don't know if I take smaller portions or just really enjoy and eat what I want and skip the stuff I don't enjoy.. not sure. But when I do go back and journal it all, it's never as bad as I thought it would be.