The calorie-counting apps are extremely popular these days. Many weight-loss programs include calorie-counting apps, and people like using them. This popularity is somewhat surprising, as numerous studies show that the long-term benefits of calorie restriction for weight loss are minimal. Let’s take a look at what makes calorie-counting apps so popular and the pitfalls of relying solely on this tool for weight loss.
Weight loss and long-term maintenance are complex processes involving many factors. The food, physiology, physical activity, habits, beliefs, social environment, and mindset all play a role in weight loss. Calorie-counting apps can be helpful as part of a more comprehensive weight-loss program. They are an excellent tool for increasing awareness and accountability, learning about the macronutrient composition of foods and ingredients, and increasing engagement, especially for data-driven people. They also have some inherent characteristics that can be counterproductive to long-term success.
Benefits of calorie-counting Apps
Awareness and accountability
By logging your food, you start paying more attention to what you eat. Being aware is the first step to better food choices. You might also notice some patterns in your behavior. For example, when you eat in front of the TV, you eat more. Or, I eat well the first part of the week, and my eating gets progressively worse toward the weekend.
Tracking your food intake keeps you accountable. For many people, seeing their day-to-day progress helps them stay motivated.
Macronutrient breakdown of meals
Many people are data-driven and do well when given specific targets. If you target a particular macronutrient composition of your meals, an app will make it easier. Let’s say you are going on a low-carb diet. An app can help you initially assess what your typical meals look like. It will let you know whether you have too many grams of carbohydrates in a meal and which ingredients are carb-heavy. For example, one of my clients thought she was eating a low-sugar diet. After logging her meals for a week, to her surprise, she learned she had been eating a high amount of sugar. She then found out that dried fruits were driving her sugar intake up and could adjust her intake accordingly. And consequently, the app gave her peace of mind that she was on the right track.
Increased engagement
You can invite others to connect with you through the app and start a competition. If you are not competitive, you can encourage and support each other.
Many of my clients use the food journal app that comes with my professional platform. So we can review and analyze their entries and apply different strategies to advance their goals. We use curiosity and creativity to increase engagement in their weight-loss journey.
Calorie-counting apps – disadvantages
Restricting calories and long-term weight loss
Some people use the apps mainly to focus on reducing their calorie intake. Research shows that restricting calorie intake doesn’t lead to long-term weight loss. We have been using this approach for 60+ years, but the rates of obesity have kept going up over those years. We all agree that excessive caloric intake and physical inactivity are associated with weight gain. However, this doesn’t mean they cause weight gain, or that reducing calories is the best solution. Long-term caloric reduction can lead to problems such as a reduced metabolic rate, a yo-yo dieting mindset, and tendencies toward restricting and binging.
The carbohydrate-insulin hypothesis is an alternative approach to weight loss based on human physiology and is much more effective.
Internal regulation of energy balance
If you primarily focus on counting calories, you ignore the essential internal mechanisms that balance energy intake and expenditure. Calories from different macronutrients affect these internal processes in dramatically different ways. A tablespoon of olive oil contains 135 calories, the same as two slices of bread. The effect of these two foods on your metabolism and hormones will be significantly different. And that difference can be a much more relevant factor to weight management than the number of calories consumed.
Caloric targets
The apps typically prompt you to set your caloric target. Standard formulas calculate the caloric target, which can be quite far from your actual needs. The algorithm uses your current weight, height, age, gender, and level of physical activity to establish caloric needs for weight maintenance. Then, the assumption is that to lose a pound of weight, you need to restrict your food intake by 3500 calories. So, if you eat 500 calories less each day than your daily maintenance, in one week you will weigh 1 pound less. Our bodies don’t work in such a predictable, mechanistic way! We’ve all had days when we lost a pound without trying, or, most commonly, we restricted calories for a week with no weight loss.
Labeling inaccuracies
The feature my clients enjoy most is how quickly and efficiently they can log their food. Now, they can scan a label, and all the ingredients are accounted for. The problem is that manufacturers are allowed 20% margins for labeling inaccuracies. That adds up to -/+300 calories for someone targeting 1500 calories a day. And that’s huge!
If you buy into the calorie-in/calorie-out concept, it would take only 21 calories of daily overeating to gain 50 pounds over 25 years. And 21 calories is about the amount in a teaspoon of sugar. No app could ever track your food intake to that precision.
Quantity vs. quality
Fat is the most calorie-dense macronutrient. And it only makes sense, from a calorie-restriction standpoint, that you should avoid fat to reduce your caloric intake. The caloric density of foods has been considered harmful for us. And that’s just not true. There are plenty of good foods that are calorie-dense, like olives, and plenty of low-calorie foods that offer minimal health benefits, like popcorn.
Also, some people “economize” on calories by choosing healthy food, only to have a cookie at the end of the day. This strategy robs them of essential macro- and micronutrients, slows weight-loss progress, and creates unhealthy relationships with food.
Self-regulation vs. food tracking
In a way, relying on food-tracking apps is a subtle message to yourself that you are incapable of being responsible for your weight and need an external mechanism to self-regulate. Instead of trusting your hunger and satiety signals and an honest assessment of your habits, we give control to a rigid algorithm. An app is a gross simplification of what happens inside the body and of the complex internal processes involved in body weight regulation.
The human body has internal signaling to regulate hunger and satiety from birth. Think of a newborn baby who doesn’t know anything about the world. However, she’ll cry when hungry and spit out the breast or bottle when full. It’s impossible to force a baby to eat past the point of satisfaction. Then, we grow up and learn to ignore the internal cues of hunger and satisfaction, replacing them with behaviors and beliefs that don’t serve us. Reconnecting with our internal cues and paying attention to hunger. Satisfaction is a more reliable way to regulate weight.
When you stop counting calories
More than 80% of dieters gain weight back within the first year. Most people stop tracking their food when they finish their diet. And because they are not used to relying on their internal signals to regulate weight, they have nothing to fall back on. Many people, when they stop tracking, stop paying attention. They don’t know how to transition to eating to satisfy their needs and maintain weight without using apps.
In summary
The food-tracking apps are a helpful tool when used in the short term and with specific learning objectives. They help you learn about the macronutrient composition of different ingredients, make wise food choices, and stay accountable and focused on the weight-loss process.
Unfortunately, many people use food-tracking apps to restrict calorie intake. They learn to rely on an algorithm rather than their body to tell them how much to eat and to ignore their internal cues to regulate food intake. Calorie counting is rarely an effective strategy for weight loss, and most dieters regain weight within the first year. Weight maintenance is just as essential as the initial weight loss. That’s why working with a professional or participating in a comprehensive weight-loss program can be so helpful. Make sure to learn from your nutritionist how they can help you change your eating habits to lose weight and keep it off.
References:
- Benton D. and Young H.A., Reducing caloric intake may not help lose body weight. Perspective on psychological science 2017; 12(5): 703-714.
- Kraschnewski, J. L., Boan, J., Esposito, J., Sherwood, N. E., Lehman, E. B., Kephart, D. K., & Sciamanna, C. N. (2010). Long-term weight loss maintenance in the United States. International journal of obesity (2005), 34(11), 1644-54. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2010.94
- Rena R Wing, Suzanne Phelan; Long-term weight loss maintenance, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 82, Issue 1, 1 July 2005, Pages 222S–225S, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/82.1.222S
- Taubes, G. (2007). Good calories, bad calories. Anchor Books, NY