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!

I'm 22 months post op. Lost 100 pounds in the first seven months and then stopped losing with fifty to go. I logged until I didn't. Once I stopped I began making poorer food and drink choices. Gained ten pounds back from my lowest weight.

I began logging again back in December, and now I work with an OA sponsor too. I commit my food a day ahead in MyFitnessPal. I can change it, but if I do, I relog the correct food and tell my sponsor. Since mid December, I've dropped 8 pounds of the 10 I gained.

Logging works for me.

I am nine months out from surgery and below goal weight. I started out logging using My Fitness Pal. My husband uses Lose it!. I personally think My Fitness Pal is better. I actually had to stop logging a couple months ago. I was not eating enough when I logged so my weight loss SLOWED down. My surgeon told me to eat 1200 to 1400 calories a day. I was only eating about 650 to 700. The high numbers scared me and I didn't want to eat that much. I had to stop because it was a mind struggle. I still portion out my food about a half cup of solids at a time or a cup of Soup. Most days I am getting somewhere between 800 and 1200 calories. I definitely read labels though. It does not go into my cart if it is bad.

No I don't track. I knew it was something I wouldn't do. My nutritionist is great and works with me. 15 months out 11 at goal. I still focus on Protein and have 5 small meals a day. I stay within a 3 lb weight range. If I hit the top of it I cut the carbs. You have to find what works for you.

~LA

I log on My Fitness Pal every day. I can never complete an entry because I never eat enough compared to what they think I should, but it still allows me to track everything. I find it extremely helpful.

Absolutely. Anything I eat or drink gets weighed/measured and logged. I have been doing this since I got my Fitbit 2 years ago. It's become part of my routine. I like the "add note" feature on the Fitbit food tracker, this was very helpful the first 6 weeks post-op because I could make notes of what foods worked and didn't, and now I can go back and see how far I've come along.

I do not log my food. I did briefly when I first started back on solids just to get a sense of where I was at. And I do very rarely track my food for a day or two as a "spot check" just to make sure I really am where I think I am in terms of Protein and calories.

I'm in maintenance now and I just started training for a half marathon. I started logging my food as part of my training to make sure I am eating ENOUGH calories not to lose anymore weight now that I'm doing such intense exercise. I plan to only track for maybe a month, make sure I'm not losing weight, and then go back to not tracking again, armed with the new information.

So, I guess my point is, tracking can be useful when you need information to evaluate and assess where you are. But tracking every day seems very unnecessary to me.

Every bite. SparkPeople.com.

I'm in a 3 week stall and at least know where I'm at nutritionally.

I have logged everyday for 3 years since my VSG if not on my fitness pal I have a pad and paper I wrote everything down on (Internet is bad at work) but I always try my best tokeep on track of course I have had many bad days along this journey but I love tracking it helps me stay accountable

Instagram: smallbird_vsg

I'm similar to @@Babbs above. I log sporadically. If I feel I'm losing control or losing track I start logging again. I use MFP and I weigh/measure all of my meals unless I eat out. If I don't know the nutritional value of a food I'll input it to check/guesstimate. And this may be lazy of me, but even if I do log, it's usually just breakfast, Snacks and lunch. I want to make sure I'm up on my Protein and not getting too much of anything else in.

This is a great topic because I recently started tracking again. I am almost eight months post op and decided around month 4-5 that I was going to quit tracking because I ate the same thing every single day. I am just four pounds from my goal and I cannot get that four pounds off for the life of me, so decided to start tracking, using MyFitnessPal. The program is easy to use, has a great database of foods you can search and once you enter something into a meal, it's in your drop down list forever, so you don't have to search for it again. Like Alex said, if you track, you are less likely to put something that should not go in your mouth, in your mouth - I have experienced that several times over the past two weeks! Keep tracking!!

Would love this app!

Our goal is to create something similar to MyFitnessPal but targeted towards weight loss surgery patients. It's currently a work in progress. Is there anything you would want from MFP that they currently don't offer that would be interesting to Bariatric patients?

Very timely! Thank you all for the gentle push to get back to logging my food.

I have been using Sparkpeople.com for years off and on. I've been trying to be more consistent since I decided to have WLS. I am currently pre-op, the big day is 2/2/16. Although logging can be time consuming, I love Sparkpeople. Not only can you log food, you can log exercise, link it to your Fitbit, calculate recipes, search/save/share/log recipes, read articles, watch exercise videos, join teams, etc. They have an android app as well, which I prefer to use over the website to log food and Water as it seems to respond faster.

I also log my water intake to make sure I get in my minimum 64 oz. I use Carbdroid (free in the Google store). It is pretty basic but I like that it does not have a bunch of annoying advertisements.

Edited January 28, 201610 yr by cknhealthyme

I no longer log on paper or in an activity tracker. I'm nearly 3 years post op. I started out as a logger and then things just kind of became routine but I've always kept track in my head, adding up the calories of what I ate that day at the end of the night. So I do still keep track just not as detailed.

Our goal is to create something similar to MyFitnessPal but targeted towards weight loss surgery patients. It's currently a work in progress. Is there anything you would want from MFP that they currently don't offer that would be interesting to Bariatric patients?

I currently use Cron-o-meter, but have used MFP, Lose it, and some others attached to devices (like BodyMedia and Up.) Here's my wish list:

• Detailed micronutrient tracking. Cron-o-meter is FABULOUS at this and I appreciate it more and more as I transition to solid food. It tells me if/when I'll be ready to drop particular supplements.
• Along with this - a real blue-sky dream - an app that can suggest particular foods that will help me meet my goals. For example, if I'm not getting enough Iron, suggest liver or other foods that are super-dense in that particular nutrient(s)
• Goal ranges instead of discrete ceilings or floors
• A way to log my hunger at the beginning, middle, and end of a meal (a simple 1-10 scale would be fine)
• A place to keep notes on how I'm feeling (stressed, tired, bored, celebratory) and some way to mine that data back out (see reporting/exporting)
• A good recipe builder. One of the things I appreciate about Cron-o-meter (and I hated about My Fitness Pal) is the fact that it keeps a running weight log for any given recipe, so when I eat it, I can just weigh my portion and put that in (as opposed to determining set portions.)
• The ability to translate and move easily between measurement units (g v. ounces, volume)
• The ability to scan barcodes
• The ability to sync bi-directionally with my fitness apps (see: Jawbone, MapMyFitness, etc.) so I only have to log things like biometrics (weight, fat %) in a single place
• Robust reporting and exporting so you can see patterns and make connections (e.g. changes in macronutrient ratios when you're tired, etc.)

I'm not a huge fan of crowdsourcing foods...UNLESS they include ingredient lists with amounts. Otherwise, how do I know what's in that chili, or if it's nutritionally similar to MY chili? That's my main beef with MFP (but not my only one.) I don't trust the data.