In this article we’re going to cover the issues that pop up around food tracking apps like MyFitnessPal and Chronometer among many others in the context of fat loss…
The problems, how to sidestep said problems if you’re interested in using one of these applications as well as the approach that I personally take with my nutritional coaching clients in order to get them great results!
Right off the bat, if I had a nickel for every time that I’ve heard a variation of the following statement, I’d have more few nickels…
‘I’m eating ‘x’ number of calories (and that number is always extremely low relative to the person’s bodyweight that I’m chatting with) and I’m not losing fat,’ for example…
Just the other day I received a message from someone on social media who shared with me that they are 265 lbs eating 2000 calories per day according to their tracking app and not losing fat…
For reference, that is INCREDIBLY low for someone of that size. Realistically this persons maintenance calories or in other words the calories that they require to maintain 265 lbs just living their day to day life is probably right around 4000…which might sound like a fair bit, but 265 lbs is A LOT of bodyweight to support!
Another variation that I’ve heard too many times to count is, ‘I was eating 800 or 1000 calories per day and I couldn’t lose weight’ or ‘I was actually gaining weight’…
So, what’s going on here!?
Why is this such a common issue where calorie intakes tracked via apps don’t reflect what’s actually happening in the real world in terms of peoples body composition and results?
There is one BIG overarching problem and we’re going to break it down into parts…
The first issue is that anyone can enter foods, meaning anyone using an app can create their own foods with custom calorie counts as well as macronutrient breakdowns so protein, carbs and fat.
What’s the problem with that? Once someone creates a food, it goes into the database in MFP at least…and who’s to say that it’s accurate? For example…
Right now I could create a food in MFP and type in whatever calories and macros that I want to and if you searched that same food, it would pop up! It might not pop up as the first option, but it will be there if you scroll down far enough.
The second issue is a funny one and it’s that when folks search a food there are plethora of options to choose from and many of their calorie counts as well as macronutrient breakdowns are different like we just mentioned, the kicker is…
People will often just pick the option that they see that happens to have the lowest number of calories per serving size and the reason that they do this is because they want to eat more food, which is entirely understandable, however…
If someone searches a food and one option says that it’s 500 calories per serving and the other says that’s 350 calories per serving, a lot of people will just go with the 350 calorie option simply because it’s lower…and that’s totally fine if it’s accurate, but if it’s not accurate all of a sudden their calorie count is now off by 150 from only 1 item.
And you may be thinking…’150 calories whatever, no big deal’ and okay but…that’s assuming that that’s the only inaccurate thing that was entered meaning, these little incongruencies really add up over the course of days, weeks and months and all of sudden you think that you’re eating 1500 calories daily, but it’s actually closer to 2500+.
The third issue is related to cooked vs. uncooked foods, for example…if you type in something like whole wheat pasta, there are going to be a ton of options to choose from and the thing is that some options are going to be cooked measurements and others are going to be precooked measurements and they are drastically different in terms of their calorie count, however…
If you don’t know that or it doesn’t say on that specific entry, it’s just a shot in dark as far as whether you happen to pick the right one or not and this applies to a lot of foods!
The fourth issue is the actual portioning itself and if you’re not using a food scale, man…you straight up don’t know how much you’re eating plain and simple.
‘It was a tablespoon of peanut butter’…was it though? Was it 16g, which is how much a tablespoon of nut butter weighs or was it closer to 60g?
That may not sound like a huge diff, but the difference between 16g and 60g is almost 400 calories!! Also, I’ve seen enough folks on social media adding a quote unquote ‘tablespoon’ of nut butter to their meal to know that unless you’re physically weighing it, it’s almost always a lot more than a tablespoon!
This isn’t just relevant to peanut butter, it’s relevant to every single food that you’re entering because if it’s not weighed or measured, you’re guessing.
The fifth problem is a simple one, but it’s actually the most insidious and it’s just straight up forgetting to track things that you ate…literally just foods that don’t make it into the app.
This is outrageously common just because it’s easy to forget, I know first hand!
If tracking isn’t a habit for you yet, you’re almost certainly going to forget to log some stuff. A lot of people will play the remembering game and log at the end of the day or the following morning or even worse…the end of the week…they’ll be like oh I had ‘x, y and z’ and it was this, this and this portion…it’s honestly just a shitshow because our memories are so far from perfect!
The sixth issue is…weekends! Oh boy…I used to track via MFP religiously and I’ve looked back in the app at times just to see what I was eating at a specific point and there are quite a few weeks where Monday to Friday afternoon is logged really nicely and then the weekend is just completely blank lol!
The weekends might be even more important to track than the weekdays purely from a behavioural and societal structure standpoint…most people eat and drink a lot more on the weekends than they do during the week and so this means that there’s even more room for error.
The seventh issue is neglecting to log things like alcohol, sauces, dressings, nibbles while you’re cooking, bits and bites of your kids food if you happen to have them…all of this stuff is seemingly minor in the moment, but really adds up quickly big picture!
I like to think about little things that don’t seem like much at the time like coffee…buying a $5-10 coffee daily on route to work depending on how fancy your order is doesn’t seem like much in the moment, but if it’s closer to that $10 mark…that’s $50 a week, $200 per month and $2400 per year…that’s easily a week-long vacation! I personally love coffee and I think that it’s worth every penny, but that’s not the point, the point is little things add up and they add up fast!
Oh and just as a side note, I’ve worked with a lot of fitness professionals to help them lose fat and get healthier and honestly, they’re usually not much better at tracking than quote unquote ‘regular folks.’ That might sound surprising, but a lot personal trainers for example know shockingly little about nutrition just because it’s not their wheelhouse…they know training, but they don’t know diet and diet is infinitely more complex.
I did personal training alongside my nutritional coaching for the first 7 years that I had my business and nutritional coaching requires way more knowledge and skill and that’s not a slight to trainers…it’s just true.
Issue number eight, food tracking apps don’t account for food quality…now Chronometer does have a lot more info in terms of vitamins and minerals consumed however, you can absolutely use the app and not even really look at that stuff…
And food quality is massively important for health of course, but also for sustainable fat loss because simply eating fewer processed foods and controlling solely for total calories is a poor long term strategy because you’re going to be hungry and hunger is not sustainable.
So, as you can see the BIG problem with these apps is user error…believe it or not food tracking is a serious skill and speaking of skill, how do you sidestep all of these issues if you are using an app or you plan to?
Here are a few key takeaways before we get into what I do with my clients…
One, your body never lies meaning, if your app says that you’re in a calorie deficit which is required to lose fat, yet you are not losing fat, there is nothing wrong with your metabolism…there is a tracking issue because you CAN’T NOT lose fat in a calorie deficit, it’s physiologically impossible.
Two, practice tracking…like I just mentioned it is a skill and so the more that you do it the better and better you’ll get.
Three, educate yourself on various calorie counts of foods so that when you type something into an app, you roughly know what sort of calorie range that food is going to be in because if you have no clue, you’re guessing.
How? I’d recommend googling exactly what food you’re entering, for example…if you’re having salmon for dinner and you’re usure of the calorie count…type into google, ‘how many calories are in 150g of cooked wild caught salmon’ and then simply reference that count in your app! You can do this for any and all foods.
I wouldn’t recommend just taking the lowest calorie entry that you come across because remember, your goal is fat loss and so you’re really not fooling anyone because revert to takeaway number one…the body never lies and so you either get results or ya don’t no matter what your app says.
Four, be sure that you’re tracking in the correct form so cooked vs. uncooked foods for example. Also, stay mindful of serving sizes and units so whether it be grams, ounces etc…just be sure that your app is reflecting the proper measurement unit.
Five, track absolutely everything, alcohol included and I’d recommend logging everything before you actually consume it because this is the best way to take the forgetting element out of the equation! So, as you’re making your dinner, log everything before you start eating, it’s far harder to forget this way!
Six, track for at least 10 days because we want a weekend in there…not just a Monday morning to Friday afternoon setup
Seven, emphasize food quality even if you’re using an app like MFP because we want to go about this in both a healthful way and a sustainable way!
What do I do with my clients…?
Very few of my clients actually use tracking apps and they don’t follow set meal plans either in the sense that it’s not eggs and oatmeal for breakfast 7 days per week…I use a hybrid structure, for example…
My clients have dozens and dozens of protein, carb, fat and fruit options to choose from at any given meal and their specific portions are written into their programs based on their goals, preferences, priorities, schedules etc.
So, they literally have thousands of meal combinations to choose from, but we’re also sure to account for the portion piece and so those are detailed too.
We also focus on movement, sleep and stress management because while nutrition is the key for fat loss and body composition without a doubt…movement, sleep and stress management are essential components that complement the nutrition piece really nicely and…they play a huge role in big picture health of course!
I think that tracking your food whether you use an app, taking photos of your meals or even just using good ol’ fashioned pen and paper…is an awesome exercise to increase food awareness and it doesn’t have to be a 24/7 365 thing, it might be for a month or two a couple times per year just to keep things in check and…
The most important takeaway is…
Your body never lies…do not override or ignore your body because your app says something…your body is the ultimate truth teller and so listen to it, honour and you cannot go wrong!
