**** no, I tried it but found it alot easier to eat more calories than I thought (despite knowing most calories in foods inside out).

I've found counting the most effective.

There are absolutely days where I eat more because there are calories left in the budget. "Hey, I've only had 1400 calories; I'll have ice cream!" But, I think FAR more frequent are the days that the log keeps me from eating too much. I especially like that I'm able to alter dinner or lunch based on what I ate or plan on eating for the other. If we have a heavier lunch, it's fish for dinner! A lighter lunch lets us enjoy a heavier dinners. And, we still eat some junk. Keeping track lets me know when I can sanely have that sometimes treat and how much.

For me....not one day - has 'not tracking' worked.

The part of me that knows how much to eat is broken. Actually, tracking is the only thing that has given me any sanity with food - ever.

Awesome quote.

When I first started weight watchers, I did track my food intake. But that slowly died within a month or so, I just couldn't be bothered lol.
I don't anymore, and I'm doing just fine.

My hope is that I can maintain without tracking. I'm a long ways off from that point though. The first few weeks of my new WoE I practically lived at fitday. Then I backed off, on purpose, to see if I could continue to lose reliably without tracking. I was still keeping an eye on things, especially when I went out, and I would use fitday to double check my calorie guesses but I wasn't using it every day. And I was still losing weight.

Then I discovered my scale was wildly inaccurate. Not even accurate compared to itself. I know I've lost weight because I'm comfortably wearing jeans two sizes smaller, but I don't know how much weight or at what rate I took that weight off. I don't know if not tracking worked or if it was setting me back.

And now I'm finding it hard to get back to tracking, which I think I should do now that I have a reliable scale. I need a baseline. I thought I had it and I'm a bit peeved to start over.

Ultimately, I am hoping to get back to not tracking - being aware but not super detail oriented. But I can't yet say if I can do it or not...

You know .. I think for a lot of people maintenance w/out tracking will be much easier than losing w/out tracking. I know a few months ago when I hit a plateau and sort of "accidentally maintained" ... I decided to take some time off of the whole diet mentality and stop being so strict in my tracking for a while. I actually did maintain w/out tracking ... and I think a lot of it was having tracked for so long allowed me to keep a running mental list and make healthy choices.

So ... I do think maintenance "tracking" will be very different from losing tracking for me.

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Well then, I probablsy should track, LOL. I really like teh idea of kind or "tracking: before eating, as in meal planning. I will try that. Thanks for al of the input!!!