What is the cost of tracking?

A large part of pursuing nutritional change will be tracking and monitoring weight, food consumption, and movement. While it’s not always a main component of my clients’ strategies, if we have specific goals such as fat loss or muscle gain these data points will likely be necessary. But is there a cost?

We’ve long since heard that daily monitoring of weight can lead to anxiety, depression, and weight gain. But is this true?

Most often these negatives have been seen with the connection between daily monitoring and the presence of restrained eating. Restrained eating is simply the restriction of food intake in order to maintain or lose weight. With dieters we see higher levels of restrained eating and many early studies were ones that correlated a higher prevalence of restrained eating with negative emotions and increases in weight. If people are restricting food, how are they gaining weight?

Restrained eating in the literature does not equate lessened caloric intake or a deficit. It is simply the act of feeling restricted. So in these cases people are feeling the restrictions of dieting without seeing the weight loss or results that they expect. When subjects saw results in terms of weight loss those feelings of anxiety and depression were not as high. In fact, the majority of participants in research stated that they felt positive about daily monitoring.

So what does this have to do with tracking? If we know that we are going to have to engage in some sort of restriction in order to lose weight then we might as well be sure that we are actually in a caloric deficit. The only way to be sure of that is through daily tracking and monitoring. The upside is that there might be a positive effect on emotional response when monitoring is combined with results. The downside is that some people are just not in a psychological place to engage in fat loss or monitoring. This includes (but is not limited to) anyone with active disordered eating, a history of emotional attachment to the scale, or children.

Tracking is fine for most populations and in fact can be a net positive for most. The key is to be honest with yourself about your desire for change and the steps that might be necessary to get there. While the scale can feel overwhelming, don’t use it as an excuse. Use it as a tool.