When to stop doing a food diary

frankied

Silver Member
I've been doing SW for about 3 months now and currently I'm still making fairly detailed food diaries. But I have been wondering when to stop as I know I need to at some point but able to do the plan without having to write down everything I eat i.e. follow the plan as lifestyle. I need to be able to relax a little and still be on plan. But I'm anxious about stopping the food diary and having a small loss and nothing to look back on.

At what point did other people stop doing food diaries? (unless of course of problem started to come up e.g. more than one unexplained gain)

When do other people think is the right time to stop?
Do other people think I've lost consistently enough now to relax on such tight monitoring?
 
SW don't encourage keeping food diaries on a long-term basis but the way I see it, if it helps you stay on plan then carry on doing it for as long as you feel you need to.
 
I can't see myself ever completely stopping. If only to keep track of my syns - thats what i use it for now - and i can go a few days without looking at mine - i'm 14 weeks in. I did go through a colour coding all my food stage which i have now grown out of thankfully :)
 
I started in January, still do one, and plan to keep on. I have a brain like a sieve and would forget what syns/hex I'd had otherwise.
 
I have been keeping a food diary religiously for over a month now and it's really helped with my motivation, much easier to keep track of my syns. Even when I had a blow out last weekend I still wrote it all down and worked out the syns which helped me get back on track literally the next day, seeing it in black and white meant that I was accountable for it.

I would say keep doing it for as long as you think you need it :)
 
I only track my healthy extras, syns and what day I'm doing. It's good to look back if you had a good or a poor loss that week to see what you did. I have a notebook as it's tidier than bits of paper imo.
 
I still do my food diary, it's a habit now and I've been at target for over a year. Thing is, i like doing it, i look back at say last Easter to see how I coped, what I did etc.
If you like doing it, carry on I say. Anything that helps you succeed can't be a bad thing. If you get to a stage where you WANT to stop, then that's a choice you'll always have.
 
If it helps you i'd say don't worry about it. xx
 
I still do it 4 stone in. I can't imagin stopping any time soon, maybe in the future I'll just record my syns but for now I like having a record of what I eat.
 
ive been doing sw for over 3 months and ive kept a food diary all along and im going to continue doing it. the week before last i didnt keep a diary for 4 or 5 days and i put up 1.5lbs that was my only gain since i started. it depends on the person really if u feel like u dont need to do it anymore then stop, u can always start again if u feel the need to..
 
I've stopped for a little bit, because being in the last few weeks of my pregnancy it has been hard to be 100% on plan, as my appetite has decreased and I have found myself going off foods again.

However once baby is here I will be straight back on plan and I intend to carry on doing a food diary until I get to goal, once at goal I will then relax a bit more and just follow the plan from how I know it rahter than writing everything down.

I do think there has to come a point when you stop doing a food diary. As otherwise it will never be something you can continue for life. However if you still have weight to lose, it can help you to keep on track.
 
If they did a decent app on the pc or smart phones etc then I'd do one.

It's a pain to have to leaf through the book to find syns or HeA's etc.

The online diary doesn't print out on a nice neat form either, and 1 day per page
 
I write down everything I eat in a notebook and have done since I started in December. There's no way I could keep track of everything otherwise, and I like to look back and see how I've been doing. I intend to keep on doing it at least for the forseeable future as I find it a great tool to keep me on track.
 
I'm on week 12, I still keep a food diary for C incase I don't have a great week & also keep a diary on here! I NEED to write things down although like a previous poster wrote I'm also a little obsessed with list making lol :D x
 
I think as long as you're doing SW you'll always do a food diary whether it's written down or in your head.
I now write down my diary the next day, I keep a log in my head of the number of syns and HE's I've had and then record the morning after. I don't even read back through my diary but I don't know, it kind of feels like I'm doing it if I've written it down. Once i'm at target I will probably stop recording it on here or see how I go for a while but will still mentally record it as I don't think I'll ever stop doing SW.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I think I am going to keep going with it as I think it does help me stay on track. I have a long long way until target and maybe thinks when I'm closer after I've lost the next 2 stone I'll have a review and rethink.
 
Back
Top