Obsessively counting calories? Here are tips to help you stop

I remember weighing every ingredient and putting every morsel of food I ate through ‘MyFitnessPal’; an app that allows you to track the calories of the foods you eat.

I did this without fail for 2 years.

I was obsessed to the point where even cucumbers were being placed on the digital scales.

I knew I had to stop, I wanted nothing more than to stop, but the transition felt terrifying.

Irrational thoughts ran into my head like ‘if I don’t track my food I will gain all the weight back’.

‘If I don’t weigh my food and track my calories I will lose control or eat way more than I really need to’.

Eventually, I decided to slowly ween myself off the apps.

Although, I still managed to make calculations in my head for a while after.

I will preface this by saying tracking calories is not inherently a bad thing that always leads to negative consequences and disordered eating behaviours.

It’s a very individual thing and I highly encourage you to see what works best for you.

From both a professional and personal opinion, it’s not essential to weigh your food and track your calories, even when you have a fitness goal.

That’s not to say it cannot be a useful tool, especially if you want to get to know more about the foods that you’re eating, how much you should be eating to support your needs and so on.

But after initial education, there’s not much need to having to weigh and track your food for much longer.

Those that track for years on end are most likely the ones that don’t actually need to be tracking their intake because they generally are really consistent and have a better understanding of how much they are eating!

So, let’s want to dive in on a few tips that should help shift your mindset away from tracking your intake to one of more flexibility because I am aware of how daunting the transition can be.

1. Gradual or Cold Turkey:

Stopping tracking can be done with different approaches: all in or step by step.

There’s no right way.

Stopping everything at once might be too scary for some and might stall the process of making the change in the first place.

Going too slowly on the other hand might just be you holding on to that ‘comfort blanket’ of control.

If going all in is too daunting, start by not tracking one meal or snack a day.

After a few days, increase that to two meals. Alternatively you could do a whole day once a week.

Try not to fall into the trap of eating very little during the day so you can eat ‘whatever’ you like for that untracked meal.

This can easily keep you stuck in a restrict — over eating cycle and/or reinforce the belief that you have to follow rules in order to eat.

2. Easing Anxiety:

Reducing calorie counting or macro tracking can feel very scary in the moment for numerous reasons

• It’s a change

• Can feel like of a loss of control

• Fear of weight gain

These thoughts and emotions might trigger you to impulsively weigh or track the meal you are eating or to restrict.

To combat this impulsive reaction, target your anxiety and beliefs through mindful awareness and reassurance.

Find something that helps you: this could be deep breaths, a guided meditation, a supportive friend etc

3. Use Hunger & Fullness Scales:

Chronic calorie tracking or following a meal plan could potentially have lead to ignorance of your hunger and fullness cues.

You might rely on how many calories something has, the time of day and whether or not you have exercised to decide when and what to eat.

We want to get back in touch with our internal cues Rather than being afraid of hunger, we can match our meals and snacks to our hunger and needs.

Mindfulness and hunger / fullness scales can be useful in increasing your awareness of your needs.

You can do this using your notes page or taking a mindful moment to check in with your self and your physical senses.

Visualise a scale where 0 is not hungry whatsoever to 10 which is absolutely starving hANGRY.

Ideally, you do not want to get to the stages of 8 and upwards as this can lead to agitation, fatigue and over eating episodes.

Additionally, if you are reaching for food out of boredom when your physical hunger is a 2, it might be best to find a different activity that better serves you in the moment.

NOTE: if you have been undereating for a long period of time, your hunger and fullness cues might not be that accurate and mechanistic eating might be best for you at this stage.

A very very brief definition of’ Mechanistic eating’ involves regularly eating every 2–3 hours to regulate hunger and fullness cues.

4. Mindfulness & Journaling:

Instead of tracking macros and calories, try tacking your thoughts and emotions whilst making the change instead.

If you notice anxiety, write it down and explore the emotion further.

Why are you scared, what are you scared of?

You don’t necessarily have to get out a pen and paper, just get up your notes page on your phone.

Being reflective of you thoughts and emotions is a great skill and helps bring about positive changes that are more in line with your overall health and wellbeing.

Any they are my tips!

I hope they were useful and if you need a refresher I highly recommend downloading my guide to finding food freedom to help make that mindset shift (you can do that for free HERE)

Elsa Makolli (Certified Nutritionist)