Do you track?

I know that when I was losing weight, I found that tracking both my activity levels and intake really helped me manage my weight loss. Often if I found my weight loss stalling, I'd check and find that my caloric intake was too low or I wasn't getting enough protein in. When I'd make the appropriate adjustments, I'd get going again. The other thing I found was that when tracking my activity I realized that I needed to up my caloric intake a bit to be sure that I was getting that baseline of 800 to 1000 calories a day to be sure that I didn't drop into starvation mode where your body gets more efficient with less calories.

Now, that I've lost the excess weight and shifted to the maintenance phase of my journey, I find that I don't journal my intake or activity nearly as much as used to. Now, I only do it if I see a trend occurring that I don't like... Either dropping or gaining too much weight. When I look at my logs, I find that I can actually see what I'm doing and when I make the appropriate corrections, so that I'm getting in enough protein, my weight balances out very quickly. 

I have tried Fitday, Sparkpeople and LiveStrong/MyDailyPlate. I really like www.mydailyplate.com the best so far because I don't have to reinvent the wheel when I'm logging my food choices. I like the graphic pie chart that immediately shows me a visual so I can 'see' if my proportion of protiens, carbs and fats are on track. 

So, my question is do you track your intake or activity? Have you found it helpful? Which tools have you tried and which do you like?

I use to tracl but now I only track when I am afraid I am loosing reality. I do it in a note book. I need to start my protein shakes again. Tracking is a good thing I need to check out the sites you are using.
Thanks
Myrtis

Hi Myrtis,

Like you, I only track now if I feel like I'm losing control of my weight... for whatever reason. It pretty much gets me back on track as I focus on what I need to do and off I go. I never feel like I'm dieting, I'm just refocusing my efforts to be sure that I'm doing what I need to do to take care of myself. 

Ben also used to use a notebook to track his intake, but found that he 'learned' more when he used the online programs. With the tracking systems, he was able to really learn the 'values' of what he was consuming and to be honest, he had been underestimating the coloric value and over-estimating protien value of many item he had been logging manually. 

Wishing you all the best and continued success,

I don't track, but I know that I should.  I'm very good at managing portions, but I'm not as good about making sure I got ENOUGH protein in daily.  Today, for example, I'm in a deficit and I really need to have a protein-hearty dinner meal.  I do watch my sugar grams still, because I'm very sensitive and dump if I'm not careful ... but I know that I should be watching everything else, too. 

I haven't really tracked anything since about a week before my annual dietician/surgeon visit, where I took in a log to show them what my average intake is.  It wouldn't hurt me to do that at least once/month for a week! 

I track using my iphone but not all the time.  I will do it for a week or two then not track for a few days.   It's working for me so far.  

Kelly