You shouldn't feel like you need to eat a perfect diet all the time to lose weight. However, when you deviate from your plan, you should still monitor your calorie intake and keep track of what you're eating.
"Since we know tracking food increases likelihood of success exponentially, not tracking when you deviate from your plan is horrible," Dr. Zeltzer said. He explained that if you eat an average of 1,600 calories a day but go over three days a week and your weight still goes down, you could maybe raise your caloric goal and still lose weight.
"But this only works if you know how many calories you went over," he explained. "There is also a subconscious component, which may keep someone from having that extra donut right before bed if they know they have to track it."
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