Recent advances in technology have made it easier to log food—for example, storing favorites, scanning barcodes, and even using software recognition to identify the food you’re eating (just in case you didn’t know).
This should make food tracking easy and effective, right?
Not really.
Before you embark on a new tracking tool, there are some things to keep in mind.
First, measuring input and output of calories is highly inaccurate and will not help you determine the actual number of calories you should be eating other than a ballpark estimate—which isn’t especially helpful.
As we mentioned before, the main benefit of tracking your meals is the awareness it creates. This is the reason why we recommend food journaling for all of our patients.
So, from that perspective, a food tracker can be helpful. The problem we have is the deceptive way that companies market tech-forward, cool-looking products as if calorie information is useful—when it isn’t.
