A Healthy Obsession?
I have tracked every calorie I have eaten or burned since June 2009. Every meal, snack, and workout has been logged in the Lose It app on my iPhone. I can look online and tell you the foods most frequently eaten over the last 12 months (tomatoes, hummus, lettuce, peanut butter, and spinach) or which exercises I have spent the most minutes doing (running, walking, yoga, and bicycling). I can see line graphs showing my weight or calorie trends for the last year, or any number of other useful bits of information.
Sound like an obsession? Probably. But I enjoy tracking, logging, and analysis. Admittedly, I also have a tendency toward obsessive self-documentation — hello, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Dailymile, and WordPress. These things satisfy me somehow. I like record keeping. After all, what is more fascinating than one’s own life, captured in all its glorious minutiae? Uh, right?
Nonetheless, I think I’d like to eventually move away from tracking all of my calories every day. I don’t think I want to be using the Lose It app as a maintenance tool for the rest of my life. But when should I stop the tracking, and how?
For one thing, I’m not really sure how many calories I should be eating on the average day. Yes, there are tons of places one can go to find an approximate number, but the numbers I get for my height, weight, sex, and activity level are anywhere from 1600-2100 calories, which seems like a big range. That 500 calories could mean the difference between having fries and a beer with my veggie burger or going side-salad, no-bun, ice-water style. Those are two very different dinners, you know?
So here is my plan for the moment: I am still tracking everything, staying between about 1600-1800 calories per day (the lower end on rest days, the higher end on work-out days), and weighing in every week. So far my weight has only fluctuated up or down by about a pound every week for the last month. If I can keep it steady like this for another month or so, I think I will be ready to try life without food tracking. I’m not sure what that will look like or if I will have a specific plan for how I’ll go about it, so I’m open to suggestions from you guys. I’ll be honest, though: the idea of intuitive eating is a little scary. Last time I was left to my own devices, I gained weight like Homer Simpson at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Can I trust myself to know when to stop eating?
August 31st, 2010 at 4:25 pm
To some extent, I think the calorie-tracking, although obsessively fun in and of itself, is more about learning to have an accurate idea of what calories are in different foods. Once you’ve learned that and you get to a stable point, you can try to keep track in your head.
But yeah, it’s easy to slip if you’re not actually committing to writing it down. I wonder about “saying grace” whenever you eat something, doing some quick math in your head before you dig in. Even if you’re not tracking, taking time to actually *think* about what you’re eating, and the calories therein, might strike a nice balance…?
Alternatively, keep logging everything for the rest of your life ; Just think how much historians in the future will love all that data!
August 31st, 2010 at 7:24 pm
How do you track recipes and what not on LoseIt? It seems really hard to cook for yourself and use that app.
September 1st, 2010 at 3:40 am
Have you used the Harris Benedict Formula? That’s what my nutritionist used to calculate my range. I was scared to stop tracking, too, but I’m so glad I did. And it turns out that after months of tracking, I had the calorie count of almost everything memorized.
I still track, but just in my head. I have a range I like to stay in for each meal, so that makes it a little easier – instead of having to worry whether I’m at 1430 or 1475, I just try to stay in my range for each meal.
September 1st, 2010 at 5:02 am
Yeah, it sounds like you probably know what it feels like to indluge a little (have the fries or the beer!) or to hold back on days you don’t work out. If you’re not ravenously hungry and maintaining your weight, and you’re happy with your weight, I’d say you’re already intuitively eating as it is. The calorie counting could be a bit of a crutch to make you feel like you’re in control–but I bet you don’t need it…assuming that once you stop, you don’t give yourself “permission” to go hog-wild and eat with wild abandon. That’s not intuitive eating (listening to what your body wants and your taste buds desire), that’s just pigging out.
You can do it!
September 1st, 2010 at 8:46 am
Here’s the thing about calorie counting (an activity I believe is beneficial, and have taken heat for on this very site, as some think paying attention to the number of calories you eat means all you eat is 100-calorie snack packs). I have two different containers of raw almonds in front of me right now. Both ingredient lists say ALMONDS. One container says a 1 oz. serving is 160 calories. The other says a 1 oz. serving is 190 calories. Restaurants self-report the calorie counts in their meals, and have been found to be underestimated by hundreds of calories. If we can’t even get a straight answer on the calorie count in RAW WHOLE FOODS BY WEIGHT, it can be tough to correctly estimate the calories in meals that are purchased, or that you prepared yourself. There has to be some common sense applied as well.
September 1st, 2010 at 8:58 am
Something else that I think it helpful is to keep paying attention to serving sizes, even if you’re not tracking calories. Still keeps you mindful about eating, without nearly as much work/fretting as with calorie counting.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:14 am
Thanks everybody for the thoughtful comments. You are encouraging me to give it a try without the tracking. I am going to continue tracking this month as I mentioned, but I think next month I will be ready to give it a go.
To answer some questions:
MrsG – I find it is pretty simple to create a recipe on Lose It. I have created quite a few over time and I now have all my favorites in there. When I try cooking something new, it only takes me a couple of minutes to add it to my growing list. The FAQ explains how: http://loseit.com/faq.jsp#how_to I love it!
What Chris, Rachael, and Kate G. said sounds really doable – I can keep a good sense in my head about what I am eating, think about reasonable portion sizes, and aim for the right range. I do indulge every now and then (tater tots just last night, y’all!) but I will just have to keep that reasonable, like I am currently.
MEP – you are so right about those frustrating inconsistencies. I just try to do my best, knowing that I won’t ever get an entirely accurate number even if I am diligently tracking everything.
Thanks again everyone for sharing your ideas and support!
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:52 am
One questions: When you stop tracking calories, will you still continue weighing in as often as you do? If you continue, I don’t think you’ll have any problems. You know what a portion looks like and you know what it’s like to feel satisfied without being stuffed. That scale will continue to give you the accountability that’s been so important throughout this process, so, you know, if you suddenly see your weight going up one week and don’t remember overeating, you can always go back to tracking for a week or two. It doesn’t have to be a final decision or anything.
September 8th, 2010 at 7:00 am
Oops, Kristen, I didn’t mean to ignore your comment over here!
To answer your question, I do plan to keep weighing in about once every week or two. That should definitely help me spot any problems and correct them before anything could get out of hand. I will also probably keep the app installed on my phone to track my weigh-ins and look things up if need be, so I could always use it here and there if I wanted to.
Thanks again everyone for the encouragement!
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