Why Food logging is a must and notes from a 62-year-old case study
By: Michael Beiter
University of Essex researchers have found that everyone eats an extra 900 calories a day compared to what they think they ate.
The headline reads: "Everyone eats three extra cheeseburgers a day than they admit, study shows."
Talk about an attention grabber!
The study looked at 221 adults average age of 54 and a range of body shapes. Participants kept a food log, and the researchers checked their accuracy with radioactive water and urine analysis.
This research puts the lie to the myth that obese people lie more about their food intake than those with healthy body weights. Both misreport by an average of 900 calories, which is equal to:
3 -- McDonald's Cheeseburgers
5 -- Pints of lager
7 -- Packets of ready salted crisps
18 -- Apples
300 -- Cherry tomatoes
We've known for a long time that self-reported food intakes are wildly inaccurate and usually several hundreds of calories under what we eat. Many factors contribute to the discrepancy between what we think we eat and what is true.
Regardless, this research is more evidence of the need for a food tracking system. We have the most accurate method of weighing portions and tracking them in an app, also known as flexible dieting or macro tracking.
To lose body fat, we have to reach a caloric deficit by reducing food intake. Reducing calories is unreliable when you guess what you ate; measurement is the only way.
I know; I wish it weren't true too. But if you want to get rid of body fat and reduce the complications that come with it, a food scale, bodyweight scale, and food tracking app are your best bet.
A 62-year-old woman who has worked with me for the last year made a great comment I wanted to share.
She said, "Once you convinced me to put my nutrition and workouts on autopilot, I discovered that I was too stressed. I would wake up at 3:45 am thinking about my to-do list. A conference that demanded sixteen hours a day of attention and collaboration burnt me out, especially since I refused to get too drunk like many attendees. Once I freed up the energy I used to devote to the next nutrition move or workout plan, I could finally see how much I'd been stressing. Reducing that load is my next target."
I've observed this time and time again with my clients. Put simply: we are too stressed. We spend a lot of our time chasing money, status, and prestige and not enough resting, relaxing, or doing nothing. We are obsessed with productivity and the desire for more. Stepping off this hamster wheel of doom is the only way to get some enjoyment out of life. But you won't hear that anywhere in the mainstream or see it anywhere on streaming media. Philosophical and religious guides to ethics figured this stuff out thousands of years ago. We would all be wise to pay attention to their lessons. Do less de stress.
Source: University of Essex. "Everyone eats three extra cheeseburgers a day than they admit, study shows." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 May 2022. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220519103830.htm>.
