Do I Need To Track My Food To Reach My Fitness Goals?

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Hello , hello , welcome back Betsy here .

Embarrassing confession this is my second time starting to record this , because the first time I recorded this , I attempted to again give you a personal insight to me , and all I did was kind of blabber on about how the Ravens lost their football game and about how InSync is coming out with their new song on at the end of this week .

When you listen to this , it'll be Thursday , so it'll be coming out the next day and I blabbed on and on and on about it , only to realize I have shared with you the only things you probably , if you know my Instagram , know me or if you know me personally , know me , and the interesting things in my life are about people that I don't even really know the

Ravens or Justin Timberlake . I have great things going on in my family life too .

We are deep in the beginning of school and if you're a parent and you can relate to this sort of like constant busyness , that even when you're in a routine it feels exhausting and it's wonderful and the kids are delightful and you're still , at the end of the day , so tired and I think about how my workouts are a big part of what sort of gives me that

second boost of energy , but it is an exhausting thing and I was . I had it in my mind that we'd get into this routine and it would start to feel less exhausting , but it feels more manageable . It just feels the same level of exhausting because you still have to do all that stuff every day . You got to do the lunches every day .

You got to do the dinners every day , and it's not only you but it's all the other people you're taking care of . So and I have a partner and a husband . There was a person who a shout out to Aaron , who is so supportive and also shares the weight of all the things we do .

So I can't even imagine if that wasn't , if that wasn't what you were experiencing . So we're good , we're just rocking and rolling . I'm going to talk today about food tracking and spare you any more personal details . So what I think I'm going to title this episode and we'll we'll see once I record it .

I sometimes change my mind , but I was going to start with the question do I need to track my food ? Because that is a question I get from clients a lot . Do I need to track my food ?

And if you know me , you know that if I , if you start the question with , do I need to , the answer is always going to be a no for me , because needing to do something or you should do something , they're silly . You don't have to do anything . You don't have to do anything in your life you don't want to do . You have autonomy .

Your autonomy has consequences in some cases when it comes to , like , not brushing your teeth and things , but you don't need to do it If you're okay with your teeth falling out . That's a little extreme when it comes to the tracking food , but I just want to encourage you .

If you've heard that you have to do something to reach your fitness goal , do I need to track my food in order to change my body size or whatever ? The answer is no , you don't need to do anything .

The particular needs of each person are going to be different , and so some things are going to work for some people and some things are not going to work for some people . So let me tell you what we are going to talk about when it comes to tracking food in today's episode .

I'm going to go into detail about what tracking is , because I think there are some misconceptions around that . We're going to talk about the different kinds ways in which you can use it . Then I'm going to talk about who can benefit from it and the different ways it can support your fitness goals , if you choose to do it .

And , lastly , I'm going to talk about when it can be a hindrance and who it might be a hindrance for , because with anything , I feel pretty strongly with most things . Even if it's going to work for a lot of people , sometimes it doesn't work for some people , or sometimes it's not the right choice .

So let me break it down and then you can decide where you fall in this and realize anything that you apply to your life . You test it out , see if it works . If it doesn't work , you try something different . If that doesn't work , you try something different , and until you find the thing that works .

And , as I always say , something that works today might work for six months , a year , five years , and then it may stop working , maybe because you've tired of it , maybe because your life circumstances are different and we have to be flexible , we have to be adaptable enough to realize that sometimes the solutions are going to change .

So let's get into what tracking is . Tracking at its most basic level is keeping track of the foods or the nutrients that you ate . Okay , so it could be as simple as having a journal and writing today for breakfast , I ate blank , blank , blank , you know , two eggs , bowl of fruit , whatever that might be . Sometimes it's tracking the calories .

So what is the calorie count for the foods that you ate , For the portion of it that you ate ? Sometimes it's macros . Just macros is short for macronutrients , and our macronutrients are carbohydrates , fats and protein . We have other nutrients , but they're called micronutrients . They're smaller . We talk about vitamins , minerals , things like that are micronutrients .

Macronutrients are bigger Proteins , carbohydrates , fat . That's something that some people track . Sometimes they're tracking the micronutrients . Sometimes , like if you , if you went to your doctor and they told you to watch your sodium , you might be tracking your sodium , the sodium content of the foods that you ate . That is tracking .

Sometimes you're tracking all of those things based on what your particular goal is . Again , it can be as simple as just writing down the foods you ate , with no numbers attached or all those little numbers .

So if you're not necessarily tracking numbers or calories or macronutrients , the quantities of those things , you might keep it in a journal where you're literally just writing things . Or sometimes people take pictures of their food . If they're tracking it , they're just saying like this is what I ate at breakfast , this is what I ate at lunch , things like that .

If you are tracking some of those quantities , you might be using an app or a website . Some common ones are MyFitnessPal . I use one with my clients called Chronometer . It's just like an easy to use app that tracks things . Let me put an asterisk next to that . Some of my clients not everybody tracks .

Then you can track these things either for a short period of time , an indeterminate amount of time , forever , things like that . Some people are tracking like one week out of every month to sort of see where they are , or one week out of every six months to go . Hey , I just want to check in on the quantities of things I'm eating , boom .

Some people are tracking all the time and some people are tracking to either reduce the amount of something or to add the amount of something . So they're doing it with the intention of changing what it is they're eating . So you can track with the intention of just observing versus tracking with the intention of changing something .

There are two options there and that's an important distinction . So that's what tracking is .

I think a lot of times these things are floating around the internet and posts and stuff , and there just isn't a lot of explanation , and so people just throw out the term macros I just count your macros , count your macros , or don't count your macros , or whatever and people get confused .

So what I'd like to do is just explain it and then I'm going to give you some more context . So who could benefit from tracking ? Most people , especially those who haven't had a lot of experience with , like , say , fitness , or maybe they have had a lot of experience with dieting , but it was with sort of like wild fad diets and programs .

Most people , just in general , are a little bit unaware of their consumption and what it is they're taking in . They're maybe unaware of , like , the nutrient contents of food . Maybe they're just busy and distracted . They're actually unaware of what they are in taking any given day at any given time .

So for folks who want to bring awareness to the food that they're eating , tracking can be helpful In those situations . That's usually for a short amount of time and in those situations when it's about bringing awareness , it might first be just actually writing down what you ate that day so you can look back at it and sort of remember .

It brings some mindfulness to your consumption or if you don't know much about nutrients , it can teach you that . Oh , that's the second one , so I'm jumping

ahead of myself . The second group of people who can benefit are people who might want to learn about the nutritional content of their foods . And I'm not saying good or bad .

I'm saying when you eat this food and it makes me feel like this , what are the parts of that food , what are the elements of this food , what is the nutritional content of this food , so that I can make the choice to either eat that when I want to eat it or , if I'm seeing a trend and like I don't love the way I feel with this food , what's something

I can replace it with with a different nutritional content . See what I'm saying . We're not talking good and bad . We're talking about picking what is going to support you best . Other people who can benefit those who observe patterns in their performance , in their energy , in their hangariness that they're not loving .

They can look at , maybe , some of the reasons that they're experiencing those .

So , if you have been stuck and you are not seeing an improvement in your workouts in a long time , but you continue to train , you're sleeping , you're following a program and you're not seeing it , maybe if your nutrition is the thing that is standing in the way , you might be able to observe that with your tracking .

Similarly , if you are always dipping in energy at a certain point in the day , you might be able to look back at your food and say , oh , I see , I'm having a long time between this , or I'm missing this nutrient for the whole morning , and then I'm like in a brain fog space at the end of the day .

Again , none of these things are going to give you the direct answer all the time , and it's going to be different for every person , but you can observe patterns and the other one that you can do , though . Other people that can benefit are those who want to become a little more attuned to their hunger cues .

So , like I was talking about in those , the first people who want to bring mindfulness and awareness to their eating . Hunger cues are going to allow us to think about the decisions we're making based on what our body really needs .

And if you're tracking your food and you're tracking how you feel and you're tracking when you're hungry , you can start to bring more awareness to that which can be really , really helpful For those who are looking to reduce or increase something .

So if you are interested in decreasing or increasing your calories or increasing or decreasing your protein , this is a way to track that and to take the necessary steps to change that . So that's one of the ways that you can track . May be appropriate for some people , may not be appropriate for some people .

Now , what I will note with tracking in general is that we have a very good sense from lots of research that people are pretty bad at self-reporting their food intake , meaning people are just either not great at estimating the amounts of amount of food they're taking in and they're usually under-reporting food , and so that's either they don't understand how much they're

eating or there's some subconscious guilt , some subconscious like feelings of shame , and there's a lot of under-reporting . So people who aren't seeing a change , oftentimes in their body weight and they're also looking at how much they ate and they're saying I didn't eat a lot most of the time , that is because they are under-reporting how much they actually ate .

Now that's not to say that you should then be . You know that it's always a useless tool . It's just something to be aware of and to be aware that if you're so attached to the numbers you're putting into the tracker , realize that there's going to be variability in that . There's variability in the nutrition labels and what you're actually eating .

There's variability in what you think you're eating and the amounts . Some people who track also measure everything that they eat . I'm going to say this from my philosophy as well as what I've worked with my clients .

I think beyond a week or two of measuring becomes just so inconvenient and gets to a point of obsession or obstruction of your life that I find to be more of a disadvantage than an advantage .

Meaning somebody takes a food scale everywhere they go or they can't eat the food until they've weighed the food to know how much food they're eating Again , maybe as an observation tool for a week or two . I think that's helpful .

Me personally and with the clients that I've worked with , I find that longer than that tends to be more of an obstruction of their fitness goals and their sort of well balanced relationship with food . That's not everybody . That's my personal experience with my clients .

There are people who are training for bodybuilding shows and certain things where the necessity of their sport requires that they measure every single thing that they eat .

I want you to take that with a grain of salt and decide whether you believe your goals and your activities align more with those who are in their last weeks before their bodybuilding show or whether you're looking for sustainable long term health . Just something to think about . Okay , so we talked about who those things could be helpful for .

Now let's talk about just like I was saying I sort of snuck it in there but when this could be a hindrance Number one , when food tracking steals your joy and makes you skip foods or events that you love . I say this from the bottom of my heart because I believe it more than anything in the world .

Life is short and if you are skipping things you love and you are skipping moments and relationships and joy for your fitness goals . Those fitness goals are too rigid , okay , and if tracking is the thing that's keeping you from that , I would encourage you maybe to skip it or to stop or put it on pause .

Similarly to how tracking can help you address your or discover your hunger cues or become more attuned . If your tracking is taking the place of your own body's hunger cues , it might be time to stop .

Okay , I worked at a gym for a while and I remember one night being out with a bunch of people from the gym and everybody has their phones out and is putting in the macro nutrients of the cocktails before they pick one . If that works for you , great .

If you have to go out and pull out the thing every time and you can't even be present with your friends and you're going like or cocktails maybe not the best example .

But if you're like at dinner and you want this food , but you are now looking at your macros and saying you've got to pick something else , you have to ask yourself is that what you want ? Do you want your own body's hunger cues to take second place to what the app or the tracking is telling you ? Again , personal autonomy , but just think about it .

I also think like can you enjoy a social setting and social eating or drinking or whatever with it , not throwing everything off ? People who are in the end stages of their bodybuilding competition or before they can't . That's a sacrifice they're choosing in order to participate in that sport . Do you want to do that ? You may have to make those decisions .

If you don't want to do that and you're looking for long term , sustainable fitness , I don't think you have to make those extreme sacrifices , certainly not on a regular basis . I would never say you need to make extreme sacrifices , but that's me personally .

When it becomes an obsession , when everything you look at becomes numbers in a tracker , or when you constantly check the app , or when you're sitting there thinking what can I eat today so that I can save up calories for the weekend or save up whatever for the weekend . If it's constant , if it's taking up all of your brain space , it's probably too much .

When it becomes too tedious , this happens for clients a lot . They decide that they're going to track . They see a lot of results from it . They've learned a lot about their nutritional intake , they've made some changes . They see some things in their body and or performance . Then , three months in they're really tired of doing it .

They actually choose foods out of convenience for the app that they've already inputted it into the app previously . They pick that because they don't want to put another thing into the app . If your decision-making is for ease , for the tracking app again , that's another time where it's like okay , this has become too tedious , this is not worth it anymore .

When you no longer feel it's helpful , I do think for some people it can really provide some insightful information as well as guide some awesome habit changes . But at some point you might have squeezed all the juice out of it . Great , you stop and maybe later in life you come back to it . If it's no longer helpful , don't keep doing it .

If you are a person for whom numbers and either going over on a certain number or not meeting a certain number goal or just having the numbers in mind , causes mental angst and causes you to derail all of your progress , if you make a quote unquote mistake or quote unquote mess up and derails all the progress , derails all of your success , or you just find the

numbers to be something that clicks on , an obsession thing for you . It's not the right thing , that's okay . Nobody not everybody needs to do it , and in that case , you might be the person who does want to just journal , like today , this is what I ate , with no numbers attached , and if that's too much , you don't do that .

Nobody needs to do this Again , nobody needs to do anything . You have to look at all the information and decide what's best for you . Personal approach Okay , so that's where I think it's helpful . Where I think it can be an hindrance . Here are my top tips for people who are going to try tracking , and these are my tips that I use with my clients .

So if I'm working on tracking with my clients , I do a few things . One we focus on the short term . So we're going to do this for two weeks . We're going to do this for one month . The idea is not to do this forever . I don't want you to go on a family vacation five years from now and have to pull out your tracking app .

I actually never want you to go on a vacation and have to track , honestly Again , people who are in bodybuilding or you know competition like things . They may have to do that , but if you are going for general fitness , long-term , sustainable results , you should have freedom Freedom to eat what you want , you do , you do have it .

Anything else is imposed by societal ideas and constructs . But if I'm working on this with a client , we're talking about short term two weeks , one month , six weeks and then we're going to reassess Do we still need it ? Do we still want to do it ? Are you enjoying it ?

Are you finding it helpful with the idea that there's never going to be a must have to do it for this amount of time or that it's not going to be a forever thing ? What I try to have people do is focus on relevant information there . Go ahead and let me know hunger , energy level , performance , and then we connect it to macro nutrients .

So when are you intaking carbs and when do you feel you have energy ? How much protein are you getting ? Do you feel pretty full after meals ? Fiber do you feel pretty full after meals ? Are you feeling satiated ?

You know calorie counting in general is just not something that I find to be particularly useful for most people , but if we need to have , just have a ballpark of how much you're intaking and see if we were to reduce or increase this , would this change things for you in relation to the goal that you wanted to work on . I'll talk about it .

I just tend to think it's not all that helpful for most people because we are so bad at self-reporting , but just something to think about and sometimes it is a great place to , or something good to focus on what I will say .

It's usually not the first thing we focus on and we don't ever have to focus on it if it's not something you want and or isn't relevant to your goals Just like I have . Clients never step on a scale if they don't want to and or it's not relevant to their specific goal .

And unless your goal is literally about a weight on a scale , we never have to get on it . But that's another story for another day and sometimes for people .

One of the things that I've found helpful is people have just used the tracking app to put in what they think they're going to eat or like oh okay , I'm thinking about what I'm going to make for lunches , let me put it in the tracking app ahead of time and decide what I want .

If this feels like it's going to be a balanced meal for me or it's going to be the right choice for me , so actually pre-filling out things so you know what you might want to change or shift or what you might want to shoot for , even if you don't successfully get all those foods in that day , or your day goes , you know , a little awry , and you end up

going out to dinner and you get something different . Pre-planning it can sometimes give you sort of something to focus on , something to aim for , which can be helpful in some of these instances . So that's just another thing to think about , kind of pre-inputting things into an app or a tracker to help you make decisions .

And , lastly , I do like to have people just journal , regardless of numbers , in a not on an app in a book , write down what they ate and then write how it made them feel . I felt full . I was hungry 10 minutes later .

I loved eating ice cream with my kids , things that actually remind you of , like , why we're eating in the first place , to feel full , to feel like we have energy , to feel love and light in our lives . For goodness sake , it does not have to be about calories in and calories out all the time .

Okay , if anything , I think you should let that one go , but that's another story for another day . Find ways to support your performance , to support your life , to support your energy and to support all the good feelings inside of you . You can do all those things at the same time .

You can be a badass in a gym , love your body and love your life at the same time , and that's what I want to encourage you . So if any of these tracking methods works for you , let me know . If you have more questions , let me know . If you just want to say , hey , please do that .

You can email me , betsy at bfosterstrongcom , that's the letter B , fosterstrongcom . I'm super responsive on Instagram at foster . Underscore strength and , yeah , share this episode if it's helpful to you . Fill out ratings and reviews if you feel like it . But , most importantly , thank you , thank you . Thank you for listening .

Go , build your strongest body and I'll talk to you next time . Bye , bye .