Is Tracking Your Food Worth It?

Hey Friends,

Last week we took a look at answering the question “How much should I be eating?”. This week we’ll build on that by talking about the pros and cons of tracking your food as well as what my personal relationship with food tracking looks like.

My goal is just to lay out the information for you so that you can decide if tracking food is something you want to do or not.

Weekly Action Point

There’s a ton of research that shows consistent sleep timing is almost as important as the amount of sleep you’re getting. So the action point this week:

- Set an alarm for the time you want to go to bed, and try to be eyes closed trying to sleep within 15 minutes of that alarm.

The vast majority of the population starts their day with an alarm, and they get out of bed in the morning even when they don’t want to. Why? Because their alarm told them to.

Monday-Friday this week, I want you to set a bedtime alarm. I want you to crawl back in bed and end your day when your alarm goes off, even if you don’t want to. Bonus points if you can do it on the weekend as well!

Pros of Tracking Your Food

• Progress monitoring - The biggest benefit in my eyes. Allows you to adapt and make changes based on your goals and the results you’re seeing (or not seeing)

• Less "Mindless eating” - Cuts down on things like grabbing a bag of chips and eating the whole thing without noticing

• Encourages consistency - Less likely to have days where you eat way too much or days where you aren’t eating enough

• Better food choices - If you are looking at the food you’re eating in an app, you are more likely to choose the healthier, more nutrient dense foods. It makes you feel good seeing things like sweet potato, avocado, and broccoli in your app

• Accountability - Tracking consistently can motivate you to stick to your goals, and give you a number to hold you accountable

• Food Awareness - Over time, you’ll be more knowledgeable about the food you’re eating, including portion sizes and nutrient content of different foods

Cons of Tracking Food

• Time Consuming - You have to remember to track food every time you’re eating, which frankly is annoying and takes time.

• Negative relationships with food - Can lead some people to feel guilt or shame if they don’t hit their calorie or macro goals

• Food Obsession - For some people, focusing too much on the numbers can lead to unhealthy obsessions with trying to eat “perfectly”

• More difficult to eat in social situations - It’s really tough to track food unless you are the one preparing it, which can cause stress when eating in social situations

• Losing sight of food quality - Some people only focus on the calories when tracking and forget about choosing quality foods in order to hit their numbers

• Risk factor in Eating Disorders - For anyone with a history of eating disorders (or just an obsessive personality), tracking food can be extremely triggering and lead to disordered food habits

How’s my personal relationship with tracking food?

If it seems like there are a ton of negatives to tracking food, you’re right. It’s not for everyone. So why do I do it? And how do I a keep a healthy relationship with it?

For starters, I’ll say that it’s the first week of October, and in 2024 there have maybe been 20 days or so that I haven’t tracked my food. Otherwise, I’m consistently tracking almost everything I eat.

And to be honest, I absolutely love it.

My favorite part is that tracking consistently allows me to take a long term approach to my fitness goals by making adjustments when things aren’t working.

It gives me the piece of mind knowing that I’m doing the right things. If things are going slowly, I get the mental reassurance of knowing that I’m moving in the right direction - which is so helpful for seeing long term progress.

I’m a 23 year old man who lifts a lot of weights - so my metabolism in burning like crazy. If I “eat until I’m full” like is often suggested, I would just end up eating endlessly - I just very simply don’t have the self control to stop when I’m “full” (because what does that even mean anyways?). And having that awareness about myself is key for me to see progress on my fitness goals.

Tracking also helps me to not feel guilty after I eat a “bad” food. The main example for me is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which I eat almost daily because they are my favorite things. When I’m not tracking, sometimes I feel guilty about those.

But again, tracking gives me the consistency day-to-day that allows me to adapt my fitness routine when things aren’t working - and it completely eliminates any feelings of guilt I had in the past around food.

“I don’t want to track my food Ben”

If you are someone who doesn’t want to track their food, that’s totally fine!

Like I’ve said, there are a lot of negatives to tracking food and it definitely isn’t for everyone.

If you don’t want to track your food, here’s the basic advice I’ll give around food in order for you to still reach your goals:

1. Avoid eating out as much as possible - preparing your own food will almost always be healthier than eating at a restaurant

2. Try to eat the majority of your diet from whole foods, and avoid ultra processed foods. Meat, dairy, eggs, fruit, vegetables, rice, potatoes, oats to name a couple of my favorites

3. Eat a lot of protein

4. Drink a lot of water

Follow those things and I can guarantee you’ll be moving in the right direction, even if you never want to track anything.

Have an amazing week!

Ben’s Best

🥗 Food I have been eating almost every morning for breakfast: Peanut butter, chocolate oatmeal.

60g oats
32g Peanut Butter
11g Honey
14g Lily’s Dark Chocolate Chips

I use this for carbs and fats to go along with egg whites for my protein, and you have a killer breakfast.

🎙️Podcasts I loved this week:

• Diary of a CEO: The Brain Rot Dr: How We Produced Millions Of Lonely Purposeless Men, We're ALL Getting More Narcissistic! Get Off Screens!

• MindPump 2437: What Happens to Your Body When You Quit Ultra-Processed Foods for 30 Days