By Allison Knott
Allison Knott is the Official Dietitian of Team Ordinary and is the founder of ANewWell.co, where this article was originally posted.
Calorie-counting apps aren’t known for their stellar reputation. Proponents point to research that shows tracking can have positive health effects including increasing mindfulness, providing education, and improving awareness. Some even compare calorie tracking to financial tracking with success being applied to both. Those against the apps point to a risk for obsession, restriction, binging, or a reductionist approach.
Note: All of these risks are real and should not be ignored. Anyone who has a risk for developing disordered eating behaviors or a history of an eating disorder should not turn to a calorie tracking app.
No matter which side of the argument you’re on, the fact remains: these apps aren’t going away. According to the Journal of Medical Internet Research, there were over 325,000 health-related apps in the app store as of 2017. Apps continue to be developed as technology becomes an integral part of our daily lives. And the demand isn’t slowing anytime soon with the American interest in tracking everything from heart rate to sleep. So is an app right for you? These lessons learned may help you find the answer.
You may learn more about your food.
The data on calorie-tracking apps goes beyond calories alone. Many apps offer macronutrients (carbohydrates, fat, protein) plus fiber, sodium, micronutrients and other useful nutrient data that can provide more detailed education on your food.
But, the data may not always be accurate.
Check to see if the nutrient content has been verified before relying on the app to make a decision. Many apps crowdsource their nutrient information which may lead to inaccurate data.
You won’t always meet your daily goal.
Sometimes you’ll be under and sometimes you’ll be over. The takeaway? Using an app is a tool, not a rule. Your hunger cues are always paramount to what the app is telling you. In other words, if you’re hungry – eat. If you’re not hungry, but still have plenty of calories remaining for the day – don’t eat. Remain aware of your internal cues no matter what the app is telling you.
You might find dietary patterns.
Some apps offer the option to identify patterns of healthy eating. Unfortunately, many of these patterns are limited to the connection between the food and total calories you’ve eaten for the day, but this can still be a useful tool. Seek out and focus on patterns that connect certain foods to other nutrients such as grams of fiber or milligrams of sodium. If you have a goal to stay within a certain range or increase one or more nutrients then it’s important to understand which foods and eating patterns will help you reach that goal.
You may increase your awareness.
Tracking can help with raising awareness about the foods you’re choosing. Couple that with the ability to critically look at why you’re choosing the foods you’re choosing and you are on your way to understanding behaviors and how to change them. Caution, this awareness can be a slippery slope to obsession for some. Know when to walk away or find help if you realize you’re becoming obsessed.
You could increase your physical activity.
Calorie tracking apps track calories in, but also calories out via exercise. However, this can quickly become a problem if you’re choosing to eat or not eat based on the amount of time you’ve spent exercising. If you risk looking at food as a reward for exercise or exercise as a punishment for food then using a calorie tracking app for exercise is not for you. However, if you can separate the two and see the app as a way to track your activity goals then it may offer a useful tool for increasing activity overall.
Daily calorie numbers are a tool, not a rule.
The app will calculate your daily calorie needs based on age, weight, and an activity factor using a standard calculation. If you’re more active one day then your calorie needs will increase. And if you’re less active then the needs will decrease. This becomes extremely important when using apps for tracking intake for sports nutrition purposes. For the majority of us who aren’t training for a race or increasing energy expenditure significantly, calorie goals can be used as a range and hunger can guide decisions. For sports nutrition purposes, apps can be an integral part to ensuring you’re meeting your energy needs.
Your estimate of calories burned is probably too high.
There are many factors that influence calories burned during exercise. Intensity, type of exercise, and environmental factors are just a few. Not to mention your perceived effort may skew your estimate of intensity when tracking in the app. Add all of this together and you could end up estimating that you burned more calories than you actually did in reality. Research out of Stanford University found that some apps can be off in their estimates of calories burned by 27 percent to as much as 93 percent. This is a significant range of error, so take that into consideration when estimating calories burned.
Health is more than a number on a scale or a calorie on a screen.
Weight loss is not linear nor is it a simple calculation of calories in and calories out. Tracking apps provide a constant reminder of this fact if you’re tracking your weight (aka a graphical representation). Remember, health behavior change may or may not result in weight loss, so make sure to keep your goal reasonable and minimize its effect on your decisions and motivations for change.
The bottom line: calorie-tracking apps can be useful for some people, but they’re not a one-size-fits-all approach. Choosing to work with a dietitian on health behavior change is the ideal scenario. Remember, if you do decide to use a calorie-tracking app, consider it a single tool in a much bigger toolbox to be used for changing behavior.