Many experts suggest logging your food to lose weight. When you log, you know for sure exactly how much you are eating. Logging helps hold you accountable. Also, when you know you’re going to log your food, you may be less likely to sneak in an extra bite or choose a high-calorie treat.

Probably for all of these reasons, research shows that people who log are more likely to lose weight and keep it off.

Still, not everyone does. You may find it boring or time-consuming or inconvenient. You may feel as though you don’t need to. Or you may have started off logging, but now find that you’ve gotten into a pattern where you eat pretty much the same thing every day.

So, do you log? What stage of the pre-op or post-op weight loss surgery journey are you in? Was there ever a time when you stopped logging and went back to it? Please share your experiences – and also the program you use for logging!

MFP daily. My daughter uses it as well to check her macros through the day. Proteins, carbs, fats instead of relying on cals. This is something I'm starting to do as well

I don't know what MFP has but what I like about Liberating Daily Plate is ability to add recipes (and any food for that matter) and ability to set your own micronutrient goals. I would use a BariatricPal app that had these.

You can do all this with My Fitness Pal.

I've never used the myfatsecret app. But, candidly, I would never, ever, ever use an app with that name. It sucks.

I know!! I never did like the name, but at that time I was really new to all this and it was the first thing I came across.

I'm four months out and I don't track at all. I keep a rough totally of fluids and protein but nothing more. Have tried tracking apps but it seems so tedious. I try to focus on getting in protein foods and fruits and veggies only. At this point I know that when I get off track 2-3 days of protein only will get me back in the swing. Luckily my sleeve dosent care for anything "carby" so it helps to keep me on task. I feel like it is so cumbersome to get accurate entries.

I am a tracker - MFP. My calories creep up and protein goes down whenI dont. It also allows me to enjoy variety without the worry of meeting my goals.

I enjoy the history of a food diary and the weigh in for my time line.

Love the nutrition breakdown that shows protein, carbs and fat for the day.

I'm four months out and I don't track at all. I keep a rough totally of fluids and protein but nothing more. Have tried tracking apps but it seems so tedious. I try to focus on getting in protein foods and fruits and veggies only. At this point I know that when I get off track 2-3 days of protein only will get me back in the swing. Luckily my sleeve dosent care for anything "carby" so it helps to keep me on task. I feel like it is so cumbersome to get accurate entries.

Geez, nice to know I'm not entirely alone

You know what I never see here? Someone who comes and posts something like this:

Help! I've regained 40 lbs and I don't know how to lose it or get back on track. My eating is out of control. I eat carbs every night when I get home from work. I weigh or measure all my portions and log them on MyFitnessPal and I know exactly how many calories, carbs, and grams of protein I eat every day.

Okay the first part we see every single day here. But it's never accompanied by the second part. So for me, I aim for logging. It's just a habit to me now, like brushing my teeth or putting my seat belt on.

I do eat pretty much the same things on most days, but I still log. My dietitian says it is great to eat the same things every day, that most healthy weight people actually do eat the same thing at least for breakfast, lunch, and snacks every day. It really doesn't bother me. I am pretty much a creature of habit.

For Alex, things I would like to see in a tracker but don't get on MFP (at least not in the free version):

• Ability to set macro nutrient goals by gram rather than percentage
• Ability to set goals as either a floor (I want to get a minimum of 75 grams of protein), a ceiling (I want to get no more than 60 grams of fat), or a range (I want to get between 30 and 40 carbs)
• Ability to decide whether to regularly add burned exercise calories into the daily food diary
• Ability to set target calorie ranges below MFP's stupid 1000/1200 calorie floors without being punished for it/yelled at by it
• Be able to search the food database and restrict my results to only "official" USDA type entries rather than user-input ones. If I search for apples, I want the USDA standard info for apples, not Betty Sue Random's entry for apple fritters.

eta: even if all of these things were in a new logging app, I wouldn't use it if it didn't have a robust food database similar to what is on MFP. The data in the MFP food database is awesome -- they just have an incredibly bad, pathetic, and weak search engine for it. /librarian mode

Yes! It's a habit now and I'm afraid that if I didn't do it I'd end up back over 300lbs again.

I don't track. I find it hard to guestimate meals out and meals I make at home like turkey chili, which I eat a lot of. One of the reasons I don't track other than finding it confusing is that I can get obsessive about things like that and don't want to drive myself crazy with it. I know that if I did I would be calculating in my head how to lessen something one day to allow myself something else the next day or how much to cut out daily to reach a certain weight by a certain day etc. I know myself and that would be agonizing and counterproductive.

That being said, I try to be conscious of what I am having, do not have complex carbs or sugars, have at least one Protein shake daily, and make sure I get all my Water in. I am hoping that will be enough.

I still log all food and exercise at 25 months out. Lost about 150 pounds and reached goal in 9 months. Gained 10 pounds in the last 6 months but recently lost 4.

I use CalorieCount.com on my phone. For me, this is a necessary part of the process. I compensate for deficient nutrients, know when I have to stop eating, and know when I have some capacity for a small treat.

I track evrything with my FitBit Surge including calories in, calories burned, steps, exercise, and fluid intake. So far, dishes from the restaurants I eat at are in the database.

I track everything in my Fitbit app. (I also have the Fitbit scale so everything goes straight into the app so I've got my food, weight, Water intake, exercise etc.) I love to do it this way because I am on a lot of challenges with my family and this motivates me.

I'm 2 months post-op but started tracking right at my first intro meeting. I really think it helped me lose almost 70 pounds before surgery. I'm going to keep it up.

I logged up until month seven (the nurse in my Bariatric program told me I could quit logging in month six). I found my weight loss slowed dramatically so started up again in month nine and am losing steadily again

I use MyFitnessPal as it was recommended during pre-op and found it helpful then too. I realized there were some foods that should be eliminated right away. It was great as I managed to lose 41 pounds prior to surgery.

Very off and on.

When I feel I'm getting off track, I'll start logging religiously. When I feel I'm back on track, I'll log sporadically just to keep myself in check.

I'm not disciplined enough to do it all the time, admittedly

You know what I never see here? Someone who comes and posts something like this:Help! I've regained 40 lbs and I don't know how to lose it or get back on track. My eating is out of control. I eat carbs every night when I get home from work. I weigh or measure all my portions and log them on MyFitnessPal and I know exactly how many calories, carbs, and grams of Protein I eat every day.

Okay the first part we see every single day here. But it's never accompanied by the second part. So for me, I aim for logging. It's just a habit to me now, like brushing my teeth or putting my seat belt on.

I do eat pretty much the same things on most days, but I still log. My dietitian says it is great to eat the same things every day, that most healthy weight people actually do eat the same thing at least for Breakfast, lunch, and Snacks every day. It really doesn't bother me. I am pretty much a creature of habit.

For Alex, things I would like to see in a tracker but don't get on MFP (at least not in the free version):

• Ability to set macro nutrient goals by gram rather than percentage
• Ability to set goals as either a floor (I want to get a minimum of 75 grams of protein), a ceiling (I want to get no more than 60 grams of fat), or a range (I want to get between 30 and 40 carbs)
• Ability to decide whether to regularly add burned exercise calories into the daily food diary
• Ability to set target calorie ranges below MFP's stupid 1000/1200 calorie floors without being punished for it/yelled at by it
• Be able to search the food database and restrict my results to only "official" USDA type entries rather than user-input ones. If I search for apples, I want the USDA standard info for apples, not Betty Sue Random's entry for apple fritters.

eta: even if all of these things were in a new logging app, I wouldn't use it if it didn't have a robust food database similar to what is on MFP. The data in the MFP food database is awesome -- they just have an incredibly bad, pathetic, and weak search engine for it. /librarian mode

THIS THIS AND THIS.^^^

That's why when I know I'm off track, I start logging so I know what I'm doing, right or wrong. How can I possibly fix the issue if I don't know where I am on it?