Just giving this thread a late bump to thank
@bostonfred for recommending MFP. I started using this back in early May thanks to this thread. At the time, I was 10 pounds above where I really wanted to be and 15 pounds above "racing weight" which isn't that big a deal since I don't race much any more but that was still a good secondary target. Tracking calories was a game-changer in terms of knowing approximately how much I was eating and just forcing me to be more mindful about what I consume.
I finished off those 15 pounds back in July, and I actually ended up losing a few more unintentionally just by momentum more than anything else. Currently down 20 from my squishy post-lockdown max. I still track everything daily using MFP for a bunch of reasons.
1) I really don't want to fall back into my old habits of grazing on processed foods, loading up on ####ty fast food for lunch multiple times per week, drinking a ####load of calories more nights than not, etc. I've worked some processed foods back into my diet, and I don't feel bad about hitting Panda and CFA from time to time, but it's so much easier to keep this sort of thing in moderation if I force myself to record those empty calories. (I'm also drinking far less than I used to, but that's because I also made an informed decision to start using cannabis. Bostonfred is a great guy, but he gets no credit for that lifestyle change. Sorry GB).
2) The last couple of pounds I lost were a little too much. My pants went from not fitting right because I really needed a larger waist size, to now not fitting right because I can pull them right off if I don't wear a belt. For the past couple of months, my calorie-tracking has been almost as much about making sure I get up to my allowance as about staying under. One of my favorite weekend lunches now is a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter. Tasty, healthy, satiating, and relatively calorie-rich compared to the turkey sandwiches I had grown accustomed to. MFP makes it fairly easy to make intelligent food decisions.
3) I like seeing how my calorie consumption varies from day to day and how most weeks fall into a predictable pattern. I usually do my long runs on Saturday, and nearly every Saturday ends up being some ludicrously low-net-calorie day as a result. Yesterday was a nice example: 10 mile run, about 2 miles of walking back to my house (listening to an audiobook, intentionally chose a course that left some walking at the end to enjoy a crisp fall day), and cut the grass for the last time this year. End result was a < 600 net calorie day. I don't think I've gone over 1000 net calories on a Saturday in months. By way of contrast, a typical weekday is something like 200 calories or so "over" my allowance. I think it's interesting and counterintuitive than I'm pretty much always under-budget on Saturday and Sunday when I'm just sitting around the house but usually at or a little over on weekdays when I'm locked in the office away from my pantry. I'm fairly sure that my weekends were way worse when I was drinking more though.
4) As BF has often noted, tracking calories is so easy that there's really no reason not to do it. Suppers can be tricky because there's usually no entry that corresponds exactly to what my wife made, but it
is easy to approximate it. This thing doesn't need to be an exact science and there's no reason to fret over 100-200 calories here and there. Good faith guesstimates are great for staying on target and keeping yourself honest.
Long story short, thanks
@bostonfred! I still hate the Patriots though.