How to “take a break” without messing up my stats (too much)? Topic

U1196195634 11/08/23
For my own sanity, I take a break from calorie counting once a week (not really a “cheat day”, but rather a day where I just don’t do the extra work of weighing and measuring and tracking what I eat). I also take such breaks if it’s not really feasible to count my calories (e.g., a family potluck), or on special occasions (my birthday, while I’m on vacation, that kind of thing).

So, what I’d like to know is: what is the least impactful way to manage these breaks (which may be a full day, multiple days, or just a single meal) in terms of my stats? Obviously these breaks will mean my analysis is less accurate and that’s fine - I don't need it to be perfect, just relatively close so I can see generally how I've been doing and make better decisions.

What I've been doing so far is: for a full-day or multi-day break, I simply don’t log anything, and leave those days “incomplete”. If I was able to log part of the day but not all of it, I will do something like log 400 or 500 generic calories per meal I was not able to log, and 100 to 200 calories per snack/treat I was not able to log (knowing full well that those numbers may be way off, but just for the sake of removing some calories from my “budget” in order to aid in decision making for the remainder of the day)

Is this a reasonable approach to take, or are there some other tricks that will allow me to skip meals/days without those meals/days being used in my analysis and skewing the results?

(please no advice to always track everything - after much trial and error, this is what works for me, and not taking these breaks would make calorie counting unsustainable for me in the long run)

Dietician 11/08/23
Hi there U1196195634- Good for you for finding what works best for your lifestyle and sanity! Tracking is meant to be a useful activity, not a grade or stressor. There's no harm (besides as you mentioned a bit less accurate analysis) in taking breaks. Achieving health goals is a marathon, not a sprint. You've got this! Joanna (MyNetDiary Dietitian)

How to “take a break” without messing up my stats (too much)?