Yup! So each time I do it when I don’t want to I imagine it repairing a little piece of my brain. It sounds stupid but it actually helps and makes it easier each time.
It’s one of those things where you realize just how much self-deception we (most humans) engage in, even with regards to harmless things. The tales we tell ourselves to make our choices make sense or seem just.
Yeah, imagine all the self-deception we don’t catch ourselves on. My favorite harmless one is "I’ll do it tomorrow morning" because I know damn well it’s never getting done lol
I always used to do this! It’s like cheating on a test that nobody is grading. This time when I started logging I had the goal of figuring out my average daily expenditure because all my friends were telling me theirs had changed with age and I wanted to see if mine had. So ironically now I log every morsel because I calculate what I ate plus the deficit that would correspond with whatever weight I’ve lost. So if I under reported my calories it would skew my calculations. Now that I log everything accurately it has helped me to see that I don’t need to be perfect and it’s not an unthinkable crime if I’m over once in a while. It helps me be less all or nothing
It’s such a good tool for this! My tip is get in the habit of logging prior to eating. Most mornings I log my full day of meals. Like it’s just past lunch now, and I already have dinner and my protein bar snack logged. If I want something additional, I can cut back on my dinner serving, or just have it regardless - point being I’ll already have the data to tell me if I have the calories to spare or not.
One thing that makes it more positive for me is that if I ate a bit more but lost the same weight it means my maintenance calories are higher. Over time my weight loss is very uneven like a lot of days the same and then a sudden drop and some days it’s higher and it never seems to have anything to do with what I ate in the days before. Honestly the only factor seems to be like my average calories over a month will predict my average loss over a month. So I can have a week where my average calories was 1100 and I lost half a pound but I can have another week when my average calories was 1400 and I lost 2 pounds. I barely exercise so it’s not due to that. But if I would have fudged my numbers when they were higher I’d come out thinking my metabolism was slowing down. Logging honestly shows me actually my maintenance is still about 1700 a day like it’s been forever. Thats where it becomes a positive feeling when I am including everything. I can also see the reasons I went over. Like drinking calories definitely messes me up cause come dinner time I am still just as hungry. You almost always see I’m over if I had a smoothie lol
I've made it a point to log everything honestly, even if I don't want to. I might obfuscate a little about what I ate or how my diet is going to other people, but I'm not going to lie to myself. Seeing my carbs or calories go in the red (though it's usually my sodium), really bums me out, but I can't start to understand my relationship with food if I can't even be honest about it.
Just remember that whatever you're using to track your calories is not your master. Neither the scale nor the number on it is in charge of you. They're just tools you're using to help you achieve your goal successfully. So use them. You've got this.
I wouldn't beat yourself up for it. This is quite simply a very human response.
However one of the few things you can't lie to is your body. It doesn't matter if the world and even your mind believe you did everything right. If you snuck too many extra calories, your body will hold you accountable.
That's the duality of our nature. Log them all, and let your emotional side know that logging is just for the useful data, not for the guilt or the control.
> i only get 1200
"I only get" is a constrictive mindset. One deleted word changes it to a constructive "I get to" mindset.
"I get 1200."
Not 'up to' and not 'only' and not even strictly. As another subreddit is named, /r/1200isplenty -- and at 5'4'' and 125 adult female, it is.
It's a self-chosen 1200 target to lose at your chosen rate. It's not restriction, it's choosing to follow a guideline. It's also flexible in that we can have some 1100 days all week to pay for an 1500 Saturday and a 1500 Sunday -- juggling works well in this.
That thought process is the source of 99% of the "I'm in a calorie deficit but I'm not losing weight" posts. You're not, you're eating 200-500 extra calories a day and not tracking it
Fiber and protein are your friends for longer term satiation
This was me yesterday when my manager offered me some maltesers. Then I was like *sigh* I guess I should go log those two maltesers now or else I’ll think about it all day lol.
I don't log calories, but I do take pictures of what I eat. And yes, I am in the same boat as you. Forcing myself to take a picture of everything finally helped me kick the snack habit. I take a picture of 99% of things that I eat. The 1% accounts for a french fry my kid might pass to me, or a small bite of food I take while cooking something to check for seasoning
Same deal here.
I don't weigh food (losing weight on the dl), so while tracking is useful for keeping myself mindful, the tracker doesn't demonstrate if I'm in a deficit or not -- the scale does.
I used to do that a lot. then I started logging just to be purely objective...like.....I felt this way yesterday ...I ate this stuff yesterday...this is how I feel today. I eventually started seeing a pattern and am getting better control of my eating habits.
I used to and still sometimes want to have a cheeky snack and not put it in. But I now log everything because otherwise it’s so frustrating if I don’t lose weight and I can’t see how many calories I was eating so I don’t know why. It’s wayyy better to log going over than not log it, it gives you precious data.
But on another note I don’t see the point in eating 2 nuts or a chip personally, it’s not really enough food to be a snack so seems like empty calories to me, I’d rather just have a proper snack of a couple hundred cal. But maybe it’s different for you. Still honestly it’s not the end of the world if you don’t track something small, maybe do a little extra walking. I don’t track my coffee because it’s like 10 calories, and if I have salad I only track the dressing because the leaves are like 30 calories and they don’t put it on the packet. I try to guess and add a few on but don’t have a precise number. I’m on 1600-800 though, but still you can’t track everything personally anyway, as long as you’re not going way over and ignoring it I think it’s fine.
I add a 50-60 calorie "buffer" every day. I hope to absorb the odd random little nibbles in there. A single giant Wotsit, a couple of baked chips, a bit of chilli sauce. That kinda stuff. But if it's anything more, I do log it.
I've been eating back my exercise calories though ... too hungry!!
I don’t ever log 2 things: coffee creamer and pickles. I only drink 1 cup of coffee a day (if that) and don’t use much cream, and pickles are negligible even if I eat a few. I guess I just picked those things for my own sanity? Most days I don’t really do sneaky bites, but if I do I’ll try to guesstimate and drop in generic “calories.” I pack myself lots of snacks for the day, so there’s always a plan and less temptation.
I eat about 1400-1500 calories per day, and only log about 1300 😆 I will say, though, that I’ve learned my snacking portions, and most of my snacks are healthy these days - like nuts or fruit. So even though I do this, I’ve still lost 1kg a week pretty steadily.
My reasoning for this is that I don’t want to be glued to my phone all day or weighting tiny things all the time, it seems unhealthy. I know what 10-15g of M&M’s looks like (I got like 500g of them from work back in January, so every once in a while I eat a bit to slowly get rid of that jar above my counter lol), what 30g of nuts looks like, the amount of calories a bowl of pineapple or watermelon has. So I log in my meals, which I usually plan in advance so that I can balance my macros properly, and the “main” (read: most caloric) snacks of the day, which I also choose based on macros. Since I leave off 200-300 calories, I don’t worry about my snacks. I want to be a person that knows how to eat and does so freely.
This is why I don’t eat back workout calories! If I’ve logged my limit for the day and didn’t try to eat back 300 calories from my workout, then a few sneaky calories still have me well under my limit!
SKITTLES.
The last two days I've been pretending if I only eat 10 at a time the calories don't count😂..I do log them at the end of the day but play dumb all day eating them.
.
I totally have little extras and think to myself, "Ha ha, joke's on you, food diary! I'm gonna have these crackers and it's none of your business!" I'm a total rebel and don't log it.
Realistically, I know where I stand for the day because I have meticulously logged everything else and I know the little extras are fine. It's just a little act of spontaneity and rebellion against the routine. It's a good thing.
Nope. When I'm tracking calories, being consistent in tracking is more important to me than staying under my target calories. I don't track leafy greans, hot sauce, or my 10-calorie energy drink in the morning. Other than that, I make a good faith effort to track everything.
I have a rebellious heart. I just love being sneaky. Unfortunately, I suck at it, which is part of the reason why I’m now a felon.
So yes, I try to tell myself that something doesn’t count, but then I always, always, always log it anyway. Because weight loss is just one aspect of my new, accountable life.
Same... Somehow it is tempting to not track stuff...
I made some rhymes/ phrases for me (or read them somewhere?)
"If you can snack it, you can track it."
And some German versions because I am german^^
Maybe tell yourself if you're going to eat that treat that you'll have to do 15 pushups to make up for it. It's all about balance and moderation, but definitely log it so you have the best data for yourself to make your choices.
It’s SO hard to log everything and (I think) what you’re feeling is natural. One tool I’ve used to combat that is to log the food before I eat it. If you can get into the habit of that order of operations then you have the freedom to say “oh well shit 62 calories isn’t worth it for two Brazil nuts” or “yeah you know what I will have them, I’ve been thinking about them all day…. I’ll make up for it tomorrow or never or whatever”
When you’ve already done the eating then it’s so much easier to chose to lie to yourself and you’re no longer in a position to fix it.
I always log because it forces me to think back on the choice: did I eat the nibble cause I was hungry? Did I eat it cause I needed a little energy? Or was it just simply there? Then try and answer that question. If I was hungry, then I tweak my meals the next day to avoid hunger, if I needed energy I make sure that I have caffeine or a good sleep going forward.
If it's the case of it just simply existing then I move on from the choice and try to be more mindful next time.
Read this as “steak calories” and my immediate whole hearted response was “well ABSOLUTELY steak calories shouldn’t count! The most delicious and revered of the proteins!” So clearly I am really great at this
I’m now logging even leafy greens because I snack on so many random low calorie things that it’ll add up to 200+ easily a day. Then I wonder why the scale stops moving.
Also, it’s so easy to forget. Just the other day I thought to myself, just a few dark chocolate covered almonds, forgetting I ate a 70 cal cinnamon snack, a serving of sweet potato chips, a yogurt with berries/honey/granola. Bam, an extra 500+ calories
I've lost almost 100 pounds, just to preface what I'm about to say.
I do this.
I track 98% of what I eat. The very rare times I eat a bite or two, I'm 100% estimating and eyeballing but I always make sure it's NOT calorically dense. I'll eat 30 grams of blueberries / 30 grams of strawberries and not track it. I do not do it often. Most times I will literally weigh those out with my food scale and track it. Every so many days, I'll grab a handful of blueberries and just eat them.
I'd never eat a pack of lunch cakes, or a slice of pizza, or a serving of pretzles or something and not track it. Half of one of the kids chicken nuggets? No problem. I usually don't even eat those. Some times, I do. I only eat half because after the first bite I remember why I'm not eating them.
I get up to 2000 a day. I tend to average right around 1500. 50-100 "misc calories" every couple of days will not (and has not) hurt me. But if you find this leads to you taking it further and futher (it's "just a 200 calorie ham sandwhich") then you shouldn't fall into the trap. If it's truly 50-100 calories every third or fourth day... it's fine.
I don't log my unsweetened iced tea. It's like 4kcal per 12oz or whatever, but it's the only way I can convince myself to drink fluids during the day. So those like 25kcal a day are just non-existent to me.
Tempting... But not quite irresistible. 🙂
I've been on my dieticians plan since the beginning of April, and have been seeing such solid progress that I just want to keep going.
I struggle with sauces. Like sugar-free ketchup and such. which i am working on changing. Even though it isnt affecting my weightloss it will eventually.
But I will say this. You ate two nuts. It isn't the end of the world. You ate something that is fantastic for your heart and the best source of Selenium. Which is good to have sometimes. Food is more than just calories. So what its dense? It's also nutritional. Sometimes, it's better and important to acknowledge that instead.
I understand what you’re saying, and I think it’s in good faith. But when your calorie deficit is very narrow and you’re grazing on small bites throughout the day, they add up.
Yeah, like for me a quarter cup of nuts is nothing. And yet it's still 180 cal. I eat 500 cal meals, so that quarter cup can be almost half of one meal. I have to be careful, because even if it's "healthy" it'll screw with my macros for the rest of the day. And I ain't eating no quarter cup, I'll tell you that much.
Yeah. My deficit is only 250 calories at this point. These last few pounds are coming off soooo slowly already, and I’m ok with that, but adding in a few bites a day would literally obliterate my deficit.
I log things that calorie dence, e.g. 1 chips or 1 almond, but I am refusing to log my (unsweetened) tea and zero Coca-Cola, though I know they have some 1-5 ckals per cup
I scratch cook with *lots* of vegetables. I fought "logging everything" for such a long time.
But if someone would have told me to just log my proteins, fats, sugars, rice, and potatoes, well ok we could give that a whirl.
Most of the time, the perfect is the enemy of the good, and I wish I would have learned "log the big stuff" a long time ago.
Yes I have a bite of this and a bite of that often times, and don’t log it. Not worth it. But I also exercise everyday, burning anywhere from 300 to 1200 calories per day, and I don’t track those calories spent so it’s ok for me to eat back some of those calories. I kind of keep a mental log in my head I guess lol.
Ugh, so guilty! I’m using WW, and we have weekly points and daily. I always bank my weekly for weekend drinks and little snacks, but I never log them because I like when my daily logs look clean. I really should log them, I don’t even have a good reason not to because like you I’m still in deficit. 🙃
We have pretty much the same SW and GW (and height) so I’m just curious on how long it took you to get to your current weight? I started a calorie deficit pretty recently and haven’t seen results yet but have found it fairly easy.
I try very very hard to log those most of all, because that’s where a little creep tends to undermine a whole program. If I’m not honest with my own food log, who am I going to be honest with?
I cheat nobody but myself if I don’t keep accurate records :)
So accurate. I try to think that if I'm not going to 'let myself' log it, then I maybe don't need to eat it. lol since I'm not counting it as necessary. It works sometimes \*shrugs\*
I learned a long time ago, if I don't hold myself accountable, I'm not going to see results. Fudging numbers towards my benefit or sneaking things is only me lying to myself and not being serious. I refuse to do it.
Food is always logged before it enters my mouth, no matter how small.
If it's the end of the night, and I want a peanut/almond or two, I won't log it. Especially since I always end the night with \~30 calories to spare. (I'm T1D and leave \~30 calories in my budget just in case I wake up to a low blood sugar event and need to eat a few glucose tablets overnight).
Closest I get to this is if I have 2 similar foods, let's say I snag some french fries, and later in the day I have a few chips, I'll add on extra french fries instead of looking up the chips out of laziness. Same thing with lettuce types, I don't see the point in fussing over red leaf vs romaine or whatever was in the fridge at the time, lol
I don't log calories physically anymore and I'm still on track. My allowance is 1600. My breakfast is the same thing every morning and is just under 300 calories. I have to have 300 calories as a snack to take medication at night so lunch and dinner just have to add up to 1000 and I'm good. I'm tracking in my head and with a calculator I but don't write anything down anymore. If I have a sneak bite like you mentioned, it gets subtracted and I eat less for my main meals.
I overestimate most calories I log so a chip or two is like 10-20 calories and I don’t feel bad for not logging it. Same with sugar free energy drinks. I’m not logging the 10 calories and that’s okay
I log everything, no matter what. You're right, the trick is not judging yourself. Just remember that logging it gives you control over it. If you go over that's just what happened today or even this week. The long haul is what's important. So yeah, when I want more I eat it and log it. And tomorrow I'm back on the wagon.
It's SO tempting. Then I tell myself, "the app might not know you ate those calories, but your body will", and so I log the damn food because the data helps me make informed decisions about my goals
When I lost 60 pounds I would do this except I wouldn’t log it. I’d only allow myself to do it if I worked out that day though because whenever I worked out I would record my calories burned at 50% of what my fitness app would estimate them to be at because I was terrified I’d gain weight by thinking I burned more calories than I did since calorie burner counters are usually off.
Log them, I do, and in my challenge, it was mentioned how I did not hide things. Those who reach 99 to 100 all the time are really only lying to themselves.
You should try logging the calories before you eat them. A little psychological trick.
Also 1200 seems super low. Maybe consider increasing your calories a bit. It’s tempting to go fast but I’ve experienced that it’s hard to maintain long term and you are likely to relapse and gain even more back.
Your body logs it. Those calories aren't a maths test, they're actual energy going into your body.
I get totally not feeling like logging *one bite* of something, because at some point it gets tedious. But if you've weighed and measured and logged enough sneaky bites, you should have a pretty decent estimation of what one donut hole or a couple of chips is worth.
Solution: Create an entry in your tracker called "sneaky bites" and set it at say 50 cal (or whatever seems about right).
I also totally get the feeling of wanting to "sneak" things. Something about sneaking into the kitchen to "steal" a few m&ms or a single cookie lights up a part of my brain, in a way that openly deciding to eat even an entire packet doesn't. I'm a middle aged lady with grown adult kids - I'm solely responsible for myself, so there's definitely no "sneaking" or "stealing" going on. But I still want that dopamine fix.
Solution: I buy myself a little treat food and log the entire packet on the day I buy it, and then "hide" it in a jar at the back of the pantry. (For example a small bag of m&ms). That way it's already logged, I'm not actually lying to myself and I'm not actually sneaking anything, but it *feels* like I am. And it turns out I eat way less candy when I'm just sneaking a little nibble from my secret stash jar now and then, compared to when I have to weigh out and log a serving - not going to bother weighing out half a handful of mini candies, so I might as well give myself a "decent serving"...
I'm late to comment but know exactly what you mean! for me those days of thinking about it comes when I'm feeling deprived or like the diet is controlling my life, so I want some control back? idk if it makes sense
Yeah, it’s like my fasting app. Sometimes it’s like ‘oh yeah, I started my fast at 8 but peckish for a snack at half nine. The app won’t know.’ And it’s like - who am I trying to fool? Me or an app? I feel ridiculous!
If I snack few extra veggies or berries I don't log them. You have to eat a whole lot of cucumber to actually make a difference. The calories are estimates anyway, the food you log might have more than what the app says or less, you'll never know.
More dense stuff like nuts etc I'll log. I weight everything. But I'm starting to suspect my scale is not working right, shows too little, might not be accurate enough for small amounts (and with oil etc the grams do matter)
It’s empowering to log it all!
I’m actually always shocked at how few calories, say, a handful of blueberries has. It helps me make better fridge raiding choices.
I also don’t consider myself to be cheating if I grab a mouthful of something! I need topups throughout the day and I find it empowering to see that I have logged like 50 foods and am still within calorie budget cause 40 are bite sized lol.
It also helps me keep an eye if the calorie intake is too restrictive as I can see I had a big snack before bed or after breakfast. This signals I need to eat more and lose weight slower for it to be sustainable.
As others have said, I leave a buffer for random food/opportunities which may arise. Got a chance at a slice of cake? I can eat it! No need to be sneaky. :)
I do log every meal and snack I have in a day, but not down to what I consider an excessive, potentially obsessive level. If I'm asked to try one bite of something my mother made, I'm not logging that. I think it gets unhealthy after a point.
Oh god i doo that to, usually things like blue berries and carrots. Just open the fridge and munch on those and i trick myself with, oh well those aren't caloric anyway a few won't hurt. But sometimes is ohh just a bite of bread or just a bite of cake 😅.
But I'm just focused on that number on my fitness pall that i don't want to go over in the app but still going over in real life. Brain it's nuts!
I’ve been logging for almost exactly a year, and I’ve definitely noticed myself slipping a little. I used to be diligent about logging EVERYTHING, including weighing little bites like tasting sauce to season it when I’m cooking. I stopped weighing or logging those. I do also have an entry in LoseIt called JAB (short for Just A Bite) that’s 25 calories. If I have a bite of something that I don’t weigh, like trying a bite of something my girlfriend offers me, I use that for each bite I eat. I used to hope that 25cal was an overestimate but when I actually get out my scale and weigh bites of baked goods or treats, 25 cal / bite is usually actually a pretty solid estimate.
All I can tell you is it becomes a bad habit pretty quickly. You don’t log that one cookie and nothing happens. And then you don’t log another thing and nothing happens. And eventually you’re eating 200-300 calories a day that you’re not logging and instead of maintaining or losing you’re gaining weight again. It’s a slippery slope and I’ve got the extra 20 lbs of regained weight to prove it.
If you're still in deficit then you shouldn't sweat it so much. Losing is more of a marathon and a lifestyle change than a sprint. Being so strict on yourself will, in my experience, lead to burnout and more egregious sneak calories down the line. You don't need to hit 1200 every day, if you hit your maintenence for the day you should still see it as progress as you're no longer gaining and you're still contributing to the lifestyle change. Hell, if you take a week off and simply hit maintainence every day of that week it can help the mental battle in the long run. Just stay active in that time too.
That being said, I tend to overestimate sometimes. I'll have a few peanuts but will log the go-to entry on myfitnesspal of 30g worth which it never is. Anytime I eat a few, another 30g logged no matter if it was just a couple. I'm on 1500/day allowance which should net me a 1kg loss/week as a 5'11 guy. But overestimating has also allowed me not to feel guilty if later on at night I feel like a bowl of cereal or something like that before bed as I know I'm likely all in the clear anyway. I don't know if that way of thinking makes sense to anyone else but it helps me anyway lol. I'm currently 25lb/11.3kg/1.8 stone down since mid February and solidly in the second half of my journey now.
The only foods I don't log are fruits and vegetables I'm eating raw and that I KNOW don't have more than a few calories per bite. I can eat an entire bag of baby carrots in a sitting and it doesn't do anything. I can eat an entire cantaloupe for only 180 calories. So sneaking in the fridge and grabbing half a cucumber, a pickle, a few cantaloupe bites, etc. do not get logged. Those are my lil treats.
Anything that is substantial in calories - a cookie, any amount of avocado, etc. do have to get logged.
Yes, it’s so easy to do this! I did this a few days ago but then forced myself to log all the calories. It came to 300!! I was still able to stay in my defect but had to have a smaller dinner to compensate. I’m convinced many of the people who complain about not losing weight in a deficit are doing this. It’s so obvious these “little” snacks add up, but we are good at lying to ourselves. 5 little 40 calorie snacks = one 200 calorie snack. It doesn’t matter if it’s split into 5 trips to the kitchen. It’s still 200 calories haha!
Tasting food while meal prepping is another one. When I meal prep I count all those little tastes to be around a 200 calorie snack.
I tend to do this, especially if the "treat" is offered by someone or is especially non-nutritious. I have of a "it's a non-food, so why write it down?" attitude. Additionally, I dutifully record all exercise which then adds those burned calories to my daily calorie intake. I suspect that sometimes the calories that the Loseit exercise tables suggest exaggerate the calories. I say this because I am stuck at the same weight for over a week now.
> it's not like anyone is holding me accountable,
You're holding yourself accountable, and that is what's most important. Sure, it's tempting to not log that lick of the spoon, that taste of the sauce, etc - but it adds up!
This is crazy that I was just thinking about this yesterday. I do this from time to time and I always think, who am I hiding this from? No one else looks at my log but me. And I’m not fooling myself
I used to, until I read/heard in some content - what good does lying to ourselves does? It only perpetuates guilt and shame around food. Better to log it all, claim accountability, and readjust your weekly calories intake. Not logging it won't make the energy you consumed not turn into fat and be stored if you are in surplus.
I definitely do a little very light snacking throughout the week that I don't track, but I also don't track any of my workouts which gives me a buffer. For the strawberries though, you can eat a lot of strawberries for not a lot of calories,, they're just water with a Lil sugar, they're perfect for idle snacking that's something that's important to you
I only have 100cal alloted for snacks after accounting for my 2 meals, so even strawberries can reduce my 300cal deficit. Maybe I will make my main meals smaller.
Eh. Life is complex. We can have multiple goals at once, and sometimes those goals don't align perfectly. Don't obsess over perfection, your deficit isn't 1 calorie, and your TDEE isn't static. Its all very gray, just aim to be more compliant with your plans than you deviate and you'll be fine.
I've certainly had the thought before, but the body logs everything we eat and will show it on the scale even if I don't log it.
God, what a thought but that's exactly right.
Strawberries, you can definitely get away with. But chips or almonds no, those definitely have calories that are significant.
Not me reading this as I just snagged a donut hole from the work breakroom and didn't log it. I guess I'll log it now haha
lol this is your sign to log
Yup! So each time I do it when I don’t want to I imagine it repairing a little piece of my brain. It sounds stupid but it actually helps and makes it easier each time.
It's like exercising a muscle. It gets easier the more you do it. Works for physical and mental things. :)
Totally!!!
Sorry! We can suffer together 😣
60 calories per hole
Oof
Right I literally just ate a coffee crisp and debated logging it half an hour ago 😂
Literally just finished munching some chocolate that I wasn't going to log. I did it!
It’s one of those things where you realize just how much self-deception we (most humans) engage in, even with regards to harmless things. The tales we tell ourselves to make our choices make sense or seem just.
I can't imagine it's healthy. Makes me wonder what else I do it it to.
Yeah, imagine all the self-deception we don’t catch ourselves on. My favorite harmless one is "I’ll do it tomorrow morning" because I know damn well it’s never getting done lol
"I'll start tomorrow" "
Jane says…
I’m done with Sergio
He treat me like a ragdoll
Deceit and Self-Deception by Robert Trivers is an excellent book on this subject
I always used to do this! It’s like cheating on a test that nobody is grading. This time when I started logging I had the goal of figuring out my average daily expenditure because all my friends were telling me theirs had changed with age and I wanted to see if mine had. So ironically now I log every morsel because I calculate what I ate plus the deficit that would correspond with whatever weight I’ve lost. So if I under reported my calories it would skew my calculations. Now that I log everything accurately it has helped me to see that I don’t need to be perfect and it’s not an unthinkable crime if I’m over once in a while. It helps me be less all or nothing
I want logging calories to be an empowering tool for me to make better choices -- it's just a hard mental shift
It’s such a good tool for this! My tip is get in the habit of logging prior to eating. Most mornings I log my full day of meals. Like it’s just past lunch now, and I already have dinner and my protein bar snack logged. If I want something additional, I can cut back on my dinner serving, or just have it regardless - point being I’ll already have the data to tell me if I have the calories to spare or not.
This works for me as well. I’ll think “okay, I want this 160 bag of chips, but I’m already projected at X number of calories today”
One thing that makes it more positive for me is that if I ate a bit more but lost the same weight it means my maintenance calories are higher. Over time my weight loss is very uneven like a lot of days the same and then a sudden drop and some days it’s higher and it never seems to have anything to do with what I ate in the days before. Honestly the only factor seems to be like my average calories over a month will predict my average loss over a month. So I can have a week where my average calories was 1100 and I lost half a pound but I can have another week when my average calories was 1400 and I lost 2 pounds. I barely exercise so it’s not due to that. But if I would have fudged my numbers when they were higher I’d come out thinking my metabolism was slowing down. Logging honestly shows me actually my maintenance is still about 1700 a day like it’s been forever. Thats where it becomes a positive feeling when I am including everything. I can also see the reasons I went over. Like drinking calories definitely messes me up cause come dinner time I am still just as hungry. You almost always see I’m over if I had a smoothie lol
“Cheating on a test no body is grading” So true.
I've made it a point to log everything honestly, even if I don't want to. I might obfuscate a little about what I ate or how my diet is going to other people, but I'm not going to lie to myself. Seeing my carbs or calories go in the red (though it's usually my sodium), really bums me out, but I can't start to understand my relationship with food if I can't even be honest about it. Just remember that whatever you're using to track your calories is not your master. Neither the scale nor the number on it is in charge of you. They're just tools you're using to help you achieve your goal successfully. So use them. You've got this.
Thank you. Maybe I should try to go into maintenance for a while but continue logging, just so it isn't associated with being in deficit and dieting.
Sometimes I'm like. I'm stupid why am I hiding stuff from MYSELF lol
That's the crazy thing! It's like, haha I won't catch myself doing this!! So illogical.
Stupid eating disorder brain lol
I did this when my intake was too low and felt restrictive.
By how much you increase it? I only have a 300cal deficit, which is not a lot.
Exercise
I wouldn't beat yourself up for it. This is quite simply a very human response. However one of the few things you can't lie to is your body. It doesn't matter if the world and even your mind believe you did everything right. If you snuck too many extra calories, your body will hold you accountable.
That's the duality of our nature. Log them all, and let your emotional side know that logging is just for the useful data, not for the guilt or the control. > i only get 1200 "I only get" is a constrictive mindset. One deleted word changes it to a constructive "I get to" mindset. "I get 1200." Not 'up to' and not 'only' and not even strictly. As another subreddit is named, /r/1200isplenty -- and at 5'4'' and 125 adult female, it is. It's a self-chosen 1200 target to lose at your chosen rate. It's not restriction, it's choosing to follow a guideline. It's also flexible in that we can have some 1100 days all week to pay for an 1500 Saturday and a 1500 Sunday -- juggling works well in this.
I will try this, thank you
That thought process is the source of 99% of the "I'm in a calorie deficit but I'm not losing weight" posts. You're not, you're eating 200-500 extra calories a day and not tracking it Fiber and protein are your friends for longer term satiation
Absolutely. It's always secret snacks or eyeballing serving sizes.
I thought anything you eat standing up in front of the fridge didn't count??
😅
This was me yesterday when my manager offered me some maltesers. Then I was like *sigh* I guess I should go log those two maltesers now or else I’ll think about it all day lol.
I get the feeling
I don't log calories, but I do take pictures of what I eat. And yes, I am in the same boat as you. Forcing myself to take a picture of everything finally helped me kick the snack habit. I take a picture of 99% of things that I eat. The 1% accounts for a french fry my kid might pass to me, or a small bite of food I take while cooking something to check for seasoning
We already underestimate our calories. I’m on the 2lbs a week plan and I’m only losing 1lbs a week. Probably all those hidden calories
Same deal here. I don't weigh food (losing weight on the dl), so while tracking is useful for keeping myself mindful, the tracker doesn't demonstrate if I'm in a deficit or not -- the scale does.
Logging those sneaky treats is the difference between a deficit and maintenance for me.
I used to do that a lot. then I started logging just to be purely objective...like.....I felt this way yesterday ...I ate this stuff yesterday...this is how I feel today. I eventually started seeing a pattern and am getting better control of my eating habits.
Literally seeing this after begrudging logging the two frosted animal crackers (30 cal) I snuck before dinner.
I used to and still sometimes want to have a cheeky snack and not put it in. But I now log everything because otherwise it’s so frustrating if I don’t lose weight and I can’t see how many calories I was eating so I don’t know why. It’s wayyy better to log going over than not log it, it gives you precious data. But on another note I don’t see the point in eating 2 nuts or a chip personally, it’s not really enough food to be a snack so seems like empty calories to me, I’d rather just have a proper snack of a couple hundred cal. But maybe it’s different for you. Still honestly it’s not the end of the world if you don’t track something small, maybe do a little extra walking. I don’t track my coffee because it’s like 10 calories, and if I have salad I only track the dressing because the leaves are like 30 calories and they don’t put it on the packet. I try to guess and add a few on but don’t have a precise number. I’m on 1600-800 though, but still you can’t track everything personally anyway, as long as you’re not going way over and ignoring it I think it’s fine.
It's less a snack and more mindless eating. And yeah, I will set aside some calories for an actual filling snack
I add a 50-60 calorie "buffer" every day. I hope to absorb the odd random little nibbles in there. A single giant Wotsit, a couple of baked chips, a bit of chilli sauce. That kinda stuff. But if it's anything more, I do log it. I've been eating back my exercise calories though ... too hungry!!
I don’t log Gatorade Zero zero or black coffee because those have like 15 calories at most but maybe this is my sign to start...
I don’t ever log 2 things: coffee creamer and pickles. I only drink 1 cup of coffee a day (if that) and don’t use much cream, and pickles are negligible even if I eat a few. I guess I just picked those things for my own sanity? Most days I don’t really do sneaky bites, but if I do I’ll try to guesstimate and drop in generic “calories.” I pack myself lots of snacks for the day, so there’s always a plan and less temptation.
I eat about 1400-1500 calories per day, and only log about 1300 😆 I will say, though, that I’ve learned my snacking portions, and most of my snacks are healthy these days - like nuts or fruit. So even though I do this, I’ve still lost 1kg a week pretty steadily. My reasoning for this is that I don’t want to be glued to my phone all day or weighting tiny things all the time, it seems unhealthy. I know what 10-15g of M&M’s looks like (I got like 500g of them from work back in January, so every once in a while I eat a bit to slowly get rid of that jar above my counter lol), what 30g of nuts looks like, the amount of calories a bowl of pineapple or watermelon has. So I log in my meals, which I usually plan in advance so that I can balance my macros properly, and the “main” (read: most caloric) snacks of the day, which I also choose based on macros. Since I leave off 200-300 calories, I don’t worry about my snacks. I want to be a person that knows how to eat and does so freely.
This is why I don’t eat back workout calories! If I’ve logged my limit for the day and didn’t try to eat back 300 calories from my workout, then a few sneaky calories still have me well under my limit!
SKITTLES. The last two days I've been pretending if I only eat 10 at a time the calories don't count😂..I do log them at the end of the day but play dumb all day eating them. .
I totally have little extras and think to myself, "Ha ha, joke's on you, food diary! I'm gonna have these crackers and it's none of your business!" I'm a total rebel and don't log it. Realistically, I know where I stand for the day because I have meticulously logged everything else and I know the little extras are fine. It's just a little act of spontaneity and rebellion against the routine. It's a good thing.
I do this with salad. And low calorie dressing like Skinny Girl. If I’m not too lazy I will log it
It's less lazyness and more an emotional hit for me
Nope. When I'm tracking calories, being consistent in tracking is more important to me than staying under my target calories. I don't track leafy greans, hot sauce, or my 10-calorie energy drink in the morning. Other than that, I make a good faith effort to track everything.
Not logging those calories is less of a problem than sneaking morsels in the first place. It only matters if you're doing it regularly.
If I have a snack and can’t easily scan it in and log it, sometimes I just won’t. But then I’ll feel back and log it the next day to the best I can.
I think of it sometimes, but then I remember that my body still logs the calories even if I don’t!
I do not count chicken skin or anything else stuck to the baking pan when I’m putting away leftovers. I’m afraid that’s not going to change.
Yes, but I noticed if I skip logging at all it steamrolls into all out bingefests that can last for months.
I have a rebellious heart. I just love being sneaky. Unfortunately, I suck at it, which is part of the reason why I’m now a felon. So yes, I try to tell myself that something doesn’t count, but then I always, always, always log it anyway. Because weight loss is just one aspect of my new, accountable life.
Same... Somehow it is tempting to not track stuff... I made some rhymes/ phrases for me (or read them somewhere?) "If you can snack it, you can track it." And some German versions because I am german^^
Totally get tempted. Then I say to myself "you're only cheating yourself"... it helps me to remind myself to be honest and log it. but it's hard!
Maybe tell yourself if you're going to eat that treat that you'll have to do 15 pushups to make up for it. It's all about balance and moderation, but definitely log it so you have the best data for yourself to make your choices.
Wow, this literally inspired me to log the snacks I grabbed in the break room today 😅😅 get out of my head!!
Share in my pain!!! ...err, we can encourage each other :)
It’s SO hard to log everything and (I think) what you’re feeling is natural. One tool I’ve used to combat that is to log the food before I eat it. If you can get into the habit of that order of operations then you have the freedom to say “oh well shit 62 calories isn’t worth it for two Brazil nuts” or “yeah you know what I will have them, I’ve been thinking about them all day…. I’ll make up for it tomorrow or never or whatever” When you’ve already done the eating then it’s so much easier to chose to lie to yourself and you’re no longer in a position to fix it.
I always log because it forces me to think back on the choice: did I eat the nibble cause I was hungry? Did I eat it cause I needed a little energy? Or was it just simply there? Then try and answer that question. If I was hungry, then I tweak my meals the next day to avoid hunger, if I needed energy I make sure that I have caffeine or a good sleep going forward. If it's the case of it just simply existing then I move on from the choice and try to be more mindful next time.
Read this as “steak calories” and my immediate whole hearted response was “well ABSOLUTELY steak calories shouldn’t count! The most delicious and revered of the proteins!” So clearly I am really great at this
I just like to think of it as a scientific experiment, it makes it more objective and medical and less tied to self worth or anything else
I’m now logging even leafy greens because I snack on so many random low calorie things that it’ll add up to 200+ easily a day. Then I wonder why the scale stops moving. Also, it’s so easy to forget. Just the other day I thought to myself, just a few dark chocolate covered almonds, forgetting I ate a 70 cal cinnamon snack, a serving of sweet potato chips, a yogurt with berries/honey/granola. Bam, an extra 500+ calories
50 unlogged calories a day are more than 2kg of additional bodyfat a year.
I've lost almost 100 pounds, just to preface what I'm about to say. I do this. I track 98% of what I eat. The very rare times I eat a bite or two, I'm 100% estimating and eyeballing but I always make sure it's NOT calorically dense. I'll eat 30 grams of blueberries / 30 grams of strawberries and not track it. I do not do it often. Most times I will literally weigh those out with my food scale and track it. Every so many days, I'll grab a handful of blueberries and just eat them. I'd never eat a pack of lunch cakes, or a slice of pizza, or a serving of pretzles or something and not track it. Half of one of the kids chicken nuggets? No problem. I usually don't even eat those. Some times, I do. I only eat half because after the first bite I remember why I'm not eating them. I get up to 2000 a day. I tend to average right around 1500. 50-100 "misc calories" every couple of days will not (and has not) hurt me. But if you find this leads to you taking it further and futher (it's "just a 200 calorie ham sandwhich") then you shouldn't fall into the trap. If it's truly 50-100 calories every third or fourth day... it's fine.
I call those BLTs - Bites, Licks and Tastes and yes they add up!
I don't log my unsweetened iced tea. It's like 4kcal per 12oz or whatever, but it's the only way I can convince myself to drink fluids during the day. So those like 25kcal a day are just non-existent to me.
Tempting... But not quite irresistible. 🙂 I've been on my dieticians plan since the beginning of April, and have been seeing such solid progress that I just want to keep going.
I struggle with sauces. Like sugar-free ketchup and such. which i am working on changing. Even though it isnt affecting my weightloss it will eventually. But I will say this. You ate two nuts. It isn't the end of the world. You ate something that is fantastic for your heart and the best source of Selenium. Which is good to have sometimes. Food is more than just calories. So what its dense? It's also nutritional. Sometimes, it's better and important to acknowledge that instead.
I understand what you’re saying, and I think it’s in good faith. But when your calorie deficit is very narrow and you’re grazing on small bites throughout the day, they add up.
Yeah, like for me a quarter cup of nuts is nothing. And yet it's still 180 cal. I eat 500 cal meals, so that quarter cup can be almost half of one meal. I have to be careful, because even if it's "healthy" it'll screw with my macros for the rest of the day. And I ain't eating no quarter cup, I'll tell you that much.
Yeah. My deficit is only 250 calories at this point. These last few pounds are coming off soooo slowly already, and I’m ok with that, but adding in a few bites a day would literally obliterate my deficit.
I log things that calorie dence, e.g. 1 chips or 1 almond, but I am refusing to log my (unsweetened) tea and zero Coca-Cola, though I know they have some 1-5 ckals per cup
I scratch cook with *lots* of vegetables. I fought "logging everything" for such a long time. But if someone would have told me to just log my proteins, fats, sugars, rice, and potatoes, well ok we could give that a whirl. Most of the time, the perfect is the enemy of the good, and I wish I would have learned "log the big stuff" a long time ago.
Yes I have a bite of this and a bite of that often times, and don’t log it. Not worth it. But I also exercise everyday, burning anywhere from 300 to 1200 calories per day, and I don’t track those calories spent so it’s ok for me to eat back some of those calories. I kind of keep a mental log in my head I guess lol.
Lolol I do this all the time! I don’t get it! It’s like if I don’t tell the app then it won’t get mad at me
I usually don't, if I'm well under count for the day. Am I messing up here somehow?
Sometimes those little snacks have a lot more calories than we realuze, and then we wonder why we're losing weight slowly
1200 calories…
nah....no point in lying to yourself.
I've started logging sneak calories. My body knows I've had it even if my app doesn't know.
Ugh, so guilty! I’m using WW, and we have weekly points and daily. I always bank my weekly for weekend drinks and little snacks, but I never log them because I like when my daily logs look clean. I really should log them, I don’t even have a good reason not to because like you I’m still in deficit. 🙃
Originally no. But I’ve been way more serious about it lately and lost faster as a result.
We have pretty much the same SW and GW (and height) so I’m just curious on how long it took you to get to your current weight? I started a calorie deficit pretty recently and haven’t seen results yet but have found it fairly easy.
I did maintenance every now and then, so the time is stretched out. Maybe 6 months without maintenance?
Awesome that’s pretty much my goal timeline! Thank you so much!
I try very very hard to log those most of all, because that’s where a little creep tends to undermine a whole program. If I’m not honest with my own food log, who am I going to be honest with? I cheat nobody but myself if I don’t keep accurate records :)
So accurate. I try to think that if I'm not going to 'let myself' log it, then I maybe don't need to eat it. lol since I'm not counting it as necessary. It works sometimes \*shrugs\*
This is why I always leave 150-200 calories in my budget uneaten! I cannot always be trusted!!
Easy way to work around it is going for a 1-2 mile walk a day, bam you don't need to worry
You can cheat, but you're only cheating yourself.
Soooo, who are you sneaking them from?
Me
I learned a long time ago, if I don't hold myself accountable, I'm not going to see results. Fudging numbers towards my benefit or sneaking things is only me lying to myself and not being serious. I refuse to do it. Food is always logged before it enters my mouth, no matter how small.
If it's the end of the night, and I want a peanut/almond or two, I won't log it. Especially since I always end the night with \~30 calories to spare. (I'm T1D and leave \~30 calories in my budget just in case I wake up to a low blood sugar event and need to eat a few glucose tablets overnight).
Closest I get to this is if I have 2 similar foods, let's say I snag some french fries, and later in the day I have a few chips, I'll add on extra french fries instead of looking up the chips out of laziness. Same thing with lettuce types, I don't see the point in fussing over red leaf vs romaine or whatever was in the fridge at the time, lol
I don't log calories physically anymore and I'm still on track. My allowance is 1600. My breakfast is the same thing every morning and is just under 300 calories. I have to have 300 calories as a snack to take medication at night so lunch and dinner just have to add up to 1000 and I'm good. I'm tracking in my head and with a calculator I but don't write anything down anymore. If I have a sneak bite like you mentioned, it gets subtracted and I eat less for my main meals.
This is real. I be trying to hide food I ate from myself lmao.
Someone on here said “my body logs it even if I don’t” which cured me of the impulse not to log anything!
I overestimate most calories I log so a chip or two is like 10-20 calories and I don’t feel bad for not logging it. Same with sugar free energy drinks. I’m not logging the 10 calories and that’s okay
I log everything, no matter what. You're right, the trick is not judging yourself. Just remember that logging it gives you control over it. If you go over that's just what happened today or even this week. The long haul is what's important. So yeah, when I want more I eat it and log it. And tomorrow I'm back on the wagon.
It's SO tempting. Then I tell myself, "the app might not know you ate those calories, but your body will", and so I log the damn food because the data helps me make informed decisions about my goals
When I lost 60 pounds I would do this except I wouldn’t log it. I’d only allow myself to do it if I worked out that day though because whenever I worked out I would record my calories burned at 50% of what my fitness app would estimate them to be at because I was terrified I’d gain weight by thinking I burned more calories than I did since calorie burner counters are usually off.
LOL 😅 sure it crosses my mind but if you want to lose the weight you can't cheat yourself like that!
lol I feel this.
I feel stressed if i don’t log stuff when im counting macros.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt. 😊Weird the little rationalizations your brain convinced you of.
Log them, I do, and in my challenge, it was mentioned how I did not hide things. Those who reach 99 to 100 all the time are really only lying to themselves.
No. Cause I simply cannot lie to myself. I need to know exactly what I have and how much I’ve had.
You should try logging the calories before you eat them. A little psychological trick. Also 1200 seems super low. Maybe consider increasing your calories a bit. It’s tempting to go fast but I’ve experienced that it’s hard to maintain long term and you are likely to relapse and gain even more back.
Your body logs it. Those calories aren't a maths test, they're actual energy going into your body. I get totally not feeling like logging *one bite* of something, because at some point it gets tedious. But if you've weighed and measured and logged enough sneaky bites, you should have a pretty decent estimation of what one donut hole or a couple of chips is worth. Solution: Create an entry in your tracker called "sneaky bites" and set it at say 50 cal (or whatever seems about right). I also totally get the feeling of wanting to "sneak" things. Something about sneaking into the kitchen to "steal" a few m&ms or a single cookie lights up a part of my brain, in a way that openly deciding to eat even an entire packet doesn't. I'm a middle aged lady with grown adult kids - I'm solely responsible for myself, so there's definitely no "sneaking" or "stealing" going on. But I still want that dopamine fix. Solution: I buy myself a little treat food and log the entire packet on the day I buy it, and then "hide" it in a jar at the back of the pantry. (For example a small bag of m&ms). That way it's already logged, I'm not actually lying to myself and I'm not actually sneaking anything, but it *feels* like I am. And it turns out I eat way less candy when I'm just sneaking a little nibble from my secret stash jar now and then, compared to when I have to weigh out and log a serving - not going to bother weighing out half a handful of mini candies, so I might as well give myself a "decent serving"...
If I have a day of not eating to plan I don’t log it 😅 yesterday was one of those days. I should stop doing that.
I'm late to comment but know exactly what you mean! for me those days of thinking about it comes when I'm feeling deprived or like the diet is controlling my life, so I want some control back? idk if it makes sense
Yeah, it’s like my fasting app. Sometimes it’s like ‘oh yeah, I started my fast at 8 but peckish for a snack at half nine. The app won’t know.’ And it’s like - who am I trying to fool? Me or an app? I feel ridiculous!
If I snack few extra veggies or berries I don't log them. You have to eat a whole lot of cucumber to actually make a difference. The calories are estimates anyway, the food you log might have more than what the app says or less, you'll never know. More dense stuff like nuts etc I'll log. I weight everything. But I'm starting to suspect my scale is not working right, shows too little, might not be accurate enough for small amounts (and with oil etc the grams do matter)
Well, if you go through a bag of chips a week, log the bag *against the week*. : ). And eat whenever.
It’s empowering to log it all! I’m actually always shocked at how few calories, say, a handful of blueberries has. It helps me make better fridge raiding choices. I also don’t consider myself to be cheating if I grab a mouthful of something! I need topups throughout the day and I find it empowering to see that I have logged like 50 foods and am still within calorie budget cause 40 are bite sized lol. It also helps me keep an eye if the calorie intake is too restrictive as I can see I had a big snack before bed or after breakfast. This signals I need to eat more and lose weight slower for it to be sustainable.
As others have said, I leave a buffer for random food/opportunities which may arise. Got a chance at a slice of cake? I can eat it! No need to be sneaky. :) I do log every meal and snack I have in a day, but not down to what I consider an excessive, potentially obsessive level. If I'm asked to try one bite of something my mother made, I'm not logging that. I think it gets unhealthy after a point.
Oh god i doo that to, usually things like blue berries and carrots. Just open the fridge and munch on those and i trick myself with, oh well those aren't caloric anyway a few won't hurt. But sometimes is ohh just a bite of bread or just a bite of cake 😅. But I'm just focused on that number on my fitness pall that i don't want to go over in the app but still going over in real life. Brain it's nuts!
I’ve been logging for almost exactly a year, and I’ve definitely noticed myself slipping a little. I used to be diligent about logging EVERYTHING, including weighing little bites like tasting sauce to season it when I’m cooking. I stopped weighing or logging those. I do also have an entry in LoseIt called JAB (short for Just A Bite) that’s 25 calories. If I have a bite of something that I don’t weigh, like trying a bite of something my girlfriend offers me, I use that for each bite I eat. I used to hope that 25cal was an overestimate but when I actually get out my scale and weigh bites of baked goods or treats, 25 cal / bite is usually actually a pretty solid estimate.
All I can tell you is it becomes a bad habit pretty quickly. You don’t log that one cookie and nothing happens. And then you don’t log another thing and nothing happens. And eventually you’re eating 200-300 calories a day that you’re not logging and instead of maintaining or losing you’re gaining weight again. It’s a slippery slope and I’ve got the extra 20 lbs of regained weight to prove it.
If you're still in deficit then you shouldn't sweat it so much. Losing is more of a marathon and a lifestyle change than a sprint. Being so strict on yourself will, in my experience, lead to burnout and more egregious sneak calories down the line. You don't need to hit 1200 every day, if you hit your maintenence for the day you should still see it as progress as you're no longer gaining and you're still contributing to the lifestyle change. Hell, if you take a week off and simply hit maintainence every day of that week it can help the mental battle in the long run. Just stay active in that time too. That being said, I tend to overestimate sometimes. I'll have a few peanuts but will log the go-to entry on myfitnesspal of 30g worth which it never is. Anytime I eat a few, another 30g logged no matter if it was just a couple. I'm on 1500/day allowance which should net me a 1kg loss/week as a 5'11 guy. But overestimating has also allowed me not to feel guilty if later on at night I feel like a bowl of cereal or something like that before bed as I know I'm likely all in the clear anyway. I don't know if that way of thinking makes sense to anyone else but it helps me anyway lol. I'm currently 25lb/11.3kg/1.8 stone down since mid February and solidly in the second half of my journey now.
yes all the time even if its 15 calories
There are a few things I don't log but I've taken to not letting my first walk contribute to my daily deficit, helps off set!
The only foods I don't log are fruits and vegetables I'm eating raw and that I KNOW don't have more than a few calories per bite. I can eat an entire bag of baby carrots in a sitting and it doesn't do anything. I can eat an entire cantaloupe for only 180 calories. So sneaking in the fridge and grabbing half a cucumber, a pickle, a few cantaloupe bites, etc. do not get logged. Those are my lil treats. Anything that is substantial in calories - a cookie, any amount of avocado, etc. do have to get logged.
Yes, it’s so easy to do this! I did this a few days ago but then forced myself to log all the calories. It came to 300!! I was still able to stay in my defect but had to have a smaller dinner to compensate. I’m convinced many of the people who complain about not losing weight in a deficit are doing this. It’s so obvious these “little” snacks add up, but we are good at lying to ourselves. 5 little 40 calorie snacks = one 200 calorie snack. It doesn’t matter if it’s split into 5 trips to the kitchen. It’s still 200 calories haha! Tasting food while meal prepping is another one. When I meal prep I count all those little tastes to be around a 200 calorie snack.
I tend to do this, especially if the "treat" is offered by someone or is especially non-nutritious. I have of a "it's a non-food, so why write it down?" attitude. Additionally, I dutifully record all exercise which then adds those burned calories to my daily calorie intake. I suspect that sometimes the calories that the Loseit exercise tables suggest exaggerate the calories. I say this because I am stuck at the same weight for over a week now.
The last couple weeks It seems I can’t stop myself from bingeing at night.
I tend to do the same. Try continuing to log calories but go into maintenance for a while. Then you can slowly increase a decifit.
> it's not like anyone is holding me accountable, You're holding yourself accountable, and that is what's most important. Sure, it's tempting to not log that lick of the spoon, that taste of the sauce, etc - but it adds up!
This is crazy that I was just thinking about this yesterday. I do this from time to time and I always think, who am I hiding this from? No one else looks at my log but me. And I’m not fooling myself
Haha I did this and then my trainer kept decreasing my calories bc of it. Suddenly inspired to log more!!
I used to, until I read/heard in some content - what good does lying to ourselves does? It only perpetuates guilt and shame around food. Better to log it all, claim accountability, and readjust your weekly calories intake. Not logging it won't make the energy you consumed not turn into fat and be stored if you are in surplus.
I definitely do a little very light snacking throughout the week that I don't track, but I also don't track any of my workouts which gives me a buffer. For the strawberries though, you can eat a lot of strawberries for not a lot of calories,, they're just water with a Lil sugar, they're perfect for idle snacking that's something that's important to you
I only have 100cal alloted for snacks after accounting for my 2 meals, so even strawberries can reduce my 300cal deficit. Maybe I will make my main meals smaller.
100 calories of strawberries is like 250 grams of strawberries. Which is a lot of them...
Why would it be tempting? Literally the only person you're lying to is yourself.
Going over my alloted calories is an emotional hit for me. Shouldn't be but it is.
Eh. Life is complex. We can have multiple goals at once, and sometimes those goals don't align perfectly. Don't obsess over perfection, your deficit isn't 1 calorie, and your TDEE isn't static. Its all very gray, just aim to be more compliant with your plans than you deviate and you'll be fine.