I think most people over think tracking food. Often, we download a food tracker and immediately start counting every calorie, we start micromanaging our macro nutrients and obsessively worry about every little morsel that goes into our mouths. This adds a lot of unneeded stress and an unhealthy, unproductive relationship with food. Stress causes inflammation and inflammation is exactly what we’re trying to avoid.
Yes. If you’ve got a goal to be an Olympic champion or if you’re cutting for a photoshoot then this type of tracking is what you need to keep your body in pristine condition. But that’s not us. We’re regular dudes trying to get back in shape and keep ourselves in shape, hopefully, for the rest of our lives.
I do, indeed, recommend a food tracker for everyone who signs up for my EV180 program. It’s an essential part of the program. However, it’s not for the reason you may think.
I do it because, if used correctly, food trackers drastically improve your relationship with food. When tracking with the right mindset, you learn how your body reacts to food and which areas of your nutrition are way out of whack. A food tracker is probably the most essential tool in your dietary toolbox.
When I ask people to track their food, I tell them they only need to eat and plug everything in. At first, I tell them NOT to look at their calorie intake or other details and just get into the habit of putting foods in. The next week, I’ll ask them to start thinking about how food made them feel. Were you sick after a meal or snack? Were you lightheaded or dizzy after your morning coffee? Did you feel full of energy and ready to attack the day? Were you satisfied, if not a little too full? Did you have the runs the next morning?
I ask my clients to answer these questions and then look back at their food log and see which foods might have caused these sensations. Then I’ll ask them to experiment and adjust their consumption and see how that affects how they feel.
This part takes a lot of trial and error, but it’s worth the effort because it begs the question; “What’s more important to me? The immediate gratification of the taste, or the way I feel after eating?” And that’ll be different for everyone and every food. Me? I was perfectly fine cutting out ice cream completely, but pizza? No WAY! Pizza gives me heartburn every single time, but I just love it. That, and I found that if I have a large salad with dark leafy greens, the heartburn is bearable or sometimes completely absent. I wouldn’t have learned that without tracking. That’s my personal experience. Yours will be different.
Once that’s figured out, and only when it is, I ask people to look at their micro and macro nutrients. For many apps, you’ll have to pay the premium subscription fee, and that sucks. However, you’ll likely only need it for a month or two and so I believe that’s $30 well spent. I encourage my clients to look only for areas that are consistently out of whack, not one day spikes or dips.
A great example is sodium. I live in South Korea and with pickled vegetables, ramyeon, soups, and sauces at every single meal the Korean diet is loaded with a mind-boggling amount of salt! (Which is very interesting because when Koreans travel abroad, they often complain about Western food being too salty despite Westerners consuming a fraction of the salt Koreans do. That’s another story for another day, though.) It’s common for a client to have 5 – 6 times the daily recommendation of sodium. Sometimes it’s a one-day spike. If it is, I say don’t worry and move on. If this is a trend, however, I’ll ask them to take a closer look at that tab and see which foods are pushing their sodium content up.
Now it’s time to make adjustments.
Generally speaking, huge spikes in something usually means they’re lacking in another nutrient. If your sodium intake is high, often your potassium isn’t where it should be. (**Note: This isn’t a hard and fast rule, just an observation I’ve noticed with my clients.) At that point I’ll ask clients to substitute salty foods for high potassium foods. Clients will often swap out kimchi for more mushrooms or bean sprouts for example.
After making these substitutions and ONLY after making these substitutions, do I ask clients to look at their calorie intake. I ask them to go back to when they first started tracking, look at their calory intake, and compare that number to the most recent couple weeks. Most of the time, the latter is lower. It’s usually low enough to shock my clients. That’s often a Eureka moment for clients because they are seeing for the first time how nutrient dense foods can make you feel nourished whilst naturally consuming fewer calories. It’s that eureka moment that inspires people to continue tracking and adjusting their diet.
Especially if these changes are flavorful and enjoyment levels are up, the fact that you’re cutting calories without even noticing is a bonus. It’s that eureka moment that supercharges the weight loss process. That’s where you’ll start seeing the most significant changes to your body and overall health.
It’s easier said than done because modern diet culture has us wired to look at certain numbers and human nature has us shooting at arbitrary targets. But obsessing over calories and micromanaging our macro nutrients, and arbitrarily adding/subtracting foods to hit these numbers doesn’t do anyone any long term good. Instead, use your qualitative data to assess what foods make your feel good and which foods are making you feel sick. Use that data to gradually optimize your overall diet and you’ll be surprised how the other numbers smooth themselves out.
I recommend the myfitnesspal app by Under Armour because it’s got the largest food library of any app out there and is super in depth. It’s also got a large international library so you can accurately log almost anywhere in the world. NO! I’m not sponsored by them . . . . yet! Lol I do have a list of food trackers I recommend depending on your personal desires. (external link)
If you’d like to know more about tracking and/or are interested in the EV180 program, please check out more and sign up for a FREE, zero pressure health consultation.