Food tracking leading to unhealthy food choices and binge eating?

[HappyRun]

I've noticed something troubling lately...ever since I started to track my food with the fitbit app, I have been making more and more unhealthy eating decisions and binge eating, which I have not done in years.

I'm pretty healthy and I tend to run and exercise quite often. I am now only 5 lbs away from my goal weight, but I have plateaued. I decided to get a fitbit for general tracking and I used the food tracking to see where I can improve to lose that last 5 lbs. I have been using the food tracker for a few months.

Now, I'm generally a very healthy eater. There have been months where I have not eaten a single piece of "unhealthy" food. I even successfully conditioned myself to hate chips, soda, most chocolate, and doughnuts. This food actually tastes gross to me now.

However, ever since I started to use the food tracking app, I have been making horrible eating decisions. It started gradually at first, but now it has become a disaster. Within the last week, I binge ate on 3 separate days and I did not even like what I was eating. I just mechanically shoved unhealthy food in my mouth, as if it was a sort of compulsion. Since I have been using the food tracking app, I have gained 3 lbs.

I have a few theories for why this could have happened:

1. Tracking food made me realize that I could be eating more, so that little leeway opened up the gateway to eating unhealthy food.

2. Tracking food made me constantly think about food, which made me hungry.

3. Constantly tracking food made me mentally exhausted and so I "crashed."

4. While tracking food, if I ever went above the daily intake amount and got that red X, I would give up for that day. The mentality of "since I already messed up, I might as well stop trying today and eat whatever."

Has anyone experiened this before? Thoughs about my theories or your own theories? Suggestions?

I think I'm going to stop tracking my food and see how it goes.

[PappaT]

At least you now realise that you are eating unhealthily.

I found this also but not so much as realising that I was starting to eat bad things but more of being astounded at the calories of the unhealthy foods. I now try to put the proposed food into the tracker BEFORE eating it or using it in a meal like butter, cream, jam etc.

Try doing this and you may find you resist the urge to eat the food once you know the calories, fat content and protien etc.

[HappyRun]

Thank you for the tip, PappaT! That's such a good idea....to input the food first and see exactly how many calories it contains! Visualizing it in the food log may definitely help.

[Mermaid3011]

Your story sounds very familiar. I have just finished the book "The diet fix" by Dr. Yoni Freedhoff and that's EXACTLY what he describes!

If you are following a fairly rigorous diet and especially when you are writing down the calories of each meal BEFORE eating, the likelyhood that you will be saving up calories during the day and then get so hungry at night that you binge on unhealthy foods is very very high. 

In his book he gives a few of these examples. Especially since Binge Eating is a recognized health issue. He actually goes so far to say that many diets have the effect that people get into a binge eating disorder which is awful and really hard to stop. So good for you for recognizing what's happening!!

I believe that you are doing the right thing by stopping the food controlling you! 

Keeping a food diary might still be a good idea, but dont record the calories until the end of the day. Use a pretty journal that you enjoy writing in. Record your mood that day, the things that are going through your mind and at the end write down what you ate. This way you are creating "hard data" for yourself and in a month you can look back and see what changed, what your triggers are (if you have any) etc.

I can really recommend that book too, since it's the first "Diet" book I have ever read that includes biological science with physiological and psychological data. As in hard data from medical studies. www.thedietfix.com is actually also available as audio book, so I downloaded it and listened to it on my walks with my dog. Two birds, one stone/book. 🙂

[DaniellaH]

The more you know the better.  I track my food but I plan my day out starting in the morning.  IHave everything packaged and logged so that I am aware of how many calories I am eating, and have planned.  Then I log dinner when I get home and a snack based on what I have left.  This for me has worked.  I like to plan and having a plan as to what I'm consuming before I get home and then what I can consume there, it just works.  But if you have been able to consistently eat "healthy" before hand, just go back to that.  Don't think about the tracking so much and if you go over, you go over.  It's not a failure and tomorrow is a new day.

[Mermaid3011]

Yup! I am trying to do the same thing as Daniella wrote. 

I have pretty much my "go to" meals and can be reasonable sure that I stay within my 1700-1900 cal window each day. Especially since I am either taking lunch with me to work, including snacks.

If I need more than the snacks I brought, I always have a bag of mini babybel light cheeses in the fridge at work, or some hummus or almonds. If I am hungry, I eat. And I know I will be looking at 100 cal more that day, but that's o.k.

Going home for diner I usually have around 600 cal left so I either go through my freezer/fridge that is stocked with meals around 500 cal or I pick up a wrap at freshii. That may go over the 600 cal, but I've looked up the calories online and usually know what to order before walking through the door.

Going above 2000 cal sucks, but if it happens, there is a good reason for it. Some days I am just hungrier than other days. C'est la vie. And in the long run I'll be happier if I allow myself to eat when I am hungry.