Calorie Counting Considerations
Could the reason you are not losing weight be how you are tracking your intake?
What could be the reason for not losing weight despite tracking calorie intake? How can inaccurate database entries affect calorie tracking and what is the solution? What are the margin of errors to consider in tracking calorie intake? These questions are answered in the article and more!
I recently posted a TikTok to help people discover this tool; so if you've come from that video- this is the link that you want:
A 'new' common reason I see people are potentially not losing weight despite exercising, tracking their calorie intake and supposedly eating in a calorie deficit is that:
The database you are using is 'wrong'.
Many calorie-counting databases permit user's to submit the nutritional information for certain foods and create their entries for other users to share. However, the downfall of this is that people 'can' make it up!
I have seen hundreds of clients' food diaries look pretty good on the surface, and then upon closer inspection find they've tracked a certain food as a way under or over what it should be. By no fault of their own as they were just going by what was suggested for the food they typed in.
This is why I'd recommend tracking for an extended period when you're first getting into nutrition and your weight loss journey to help 'appreciate' the caloric value of foods.
Trust me, this helps to be able to 'eyeball' your calories down the line and instinctively 'know' whether what the app suggests may be nutritionally correct or prone to error, allowing for greater sustainability as you gradually stop tracking.
Further, I'd recommend having a coach or nutrition consultations with a qualified professional to help with this in your initial stages to help pick this up and keep you accountable- I've had conversations with people who 'knowingly' suggest the value with the best macros/calories without doing their ground research.
Lastly and most importantly, if you don't have a coach to help with this- using verified options on the database (such as the green tick on myfitnesspal) or double-checking dubious entries on the most extensive data set out there found below can be helpful.
This is the database we were taught at dietetics school and is treated as the gold standard resource for nutritional values here in the UK. I recently posted a TikTok to help people discover this tool; so if you've come from that video- this is the link that you want:
Speaking of tracking; it's important to raise three further considerations:
Margin of error when it comes to tracking. i.e eyeball vs. Weighing
Margin of error on nutrition labels
Un-accounted for calories
'Eyeballing' vs. Weighing accuracy
This one is fairly self-explanatory; what do you think is more accurate... a subjective measure or objective?- Now it goes without saying that the more experienced you are with weighing your food, the better at 'eye-balling' a portion you will be; as you will have the ability to draw from previous portions to guide your estimation.
However, if you are serious about your efforts to track your intake; I'd recommend weighing your food.
How many times have you tracked 'oil' in tsp/tbsp measurements when it's been a true 'glug' straight into the pan?
Unsurprisingly, this may likely have a margin of error of up to ~200 calories with evidence suggesting that unfortunately, we tend to be 'worse' (read- have a greater margin of error) at estimating the calorie value in higher energy-dense items.
Though beyond the scope of this review; I'd recommend reading the following: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3857597/ if you're interested in exploring portion control and many randomised controlled trials observing calorie estimations of certain foods and weight-loss interventions based on improving this outcome.
The margin of error on Nutrition labels:
So it's fairly well known yet still surprising that the caloric value on nutrition labels are permitted to have a 20% error margin. I.e if the chips you're eating suggest it contains 500kcals; they may actually contain 600kcals. For clarity; the UK Government suggests the following " in view of the inherent variation in ingredients, processing of foods, and exact portion size- a tolerance of plus or minus 20% would be considered an acceptable margin of difference between actual and declared calorie values". https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/calorie-labelling-in-the-out-of-home-sector/calorie-labelling-in-the-out-of-home-sector-implementation-guidance though I believe 20% MOE is also rumoured by the USDA equally.
Now, it would be impractical for me to suggest that this margin should be reduced by food manufacturers, caterers, and regulators given the reason such a margin is permitted. So as consumers, we should accept this and understand that every time we eat a multi-ingredient item that is pre-packaged or processed we may run this 'risk' and should use caution when eating out to account for this- with your level of caution used proportional to the perceived importance of your goals.
Un-accounted for calories:
It's important to consider the following context falls within a 'blameless' environment. I.e - MOST of the time, I do not believe that the mis-reportiong of calories is intentional.
The reason I say want to preface this is, I've certainly seen online coaches that can be 'flippant' when discussing the following scenario: "___ is not losing weight despite reporting they're only eating 1200 calories... they are obviously 'lying'" which is unhelpful, to say the least, and may be harmful to the individual and 'diet culture' as a whole.
Yet, when studies consistently show that people can misreport by up to 41% (usually amount being proportional to BMI) and even 'experts' mis-report by 200kcals, perhaps it's worth considering that calling someone a liar inflicts blame and mis-direction; whilst it's more likely that the paying client seeking weight loss truly believes that what they are reporting is accurate.
Now, having conducted 'diet histories', either through reported dietary recall, using digital dietary trackers or, hand-written diaries in controlled lab settings, in hospitals, in clinics and online; there are a few 'common' pitfalls I have observed:
People often 'forget' to include:
Condiments and sauces
Milk added to tea/coffee
Extra bites or licks of spoons during food-preparation
Finishing of partners/childrens plates
Un-planned 'snacks'- biscuit 'here and there'
Sides/appetisers/ drinks- especially when eating out.
Tracking errors- rounding down if a scale suggests _4, or eating the remaining item on the spoon used to measure the item into a bowl/cup.
Hence it's always a good idea to spend a while on analysing intake; ensuring the above elements are discussed in addition to letting the individual track/recall their intake from their perspective. I.e. prompt and probe whilst listening. How we are often taught to do this is hear from the individual and then go back through and clarify any 'missing' information.
Research Dive:
A systematic review in adults comparing dietary assessment methods found that energy intake was underestimated for the majority of dietary assessment methods; ranging from 1.3% to 41% across diet histories, food records and food frequency questionnaires.
That's comparable to 800calories going un-reported daily!
See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6928130/ for more details on the systematic review, particularly if you’re interested in seeing the differences between the types of tracking modalities.
Further; I’d like to highlight the following study by Champagne, Kurtz, Monteiro, Tucket, Volaufova & Delany, (2002) as they compared dietitians vs. matched controls for age and weight to observe whether the 'experts' had greater accuracy of tracking. The following tables reveals the basic results:
As you can see, the dietitians had almost twice the accuracy of tracking, though it should be noted that even they were approximately 10% off whilst the lay comparator was almost 20% off- equal to 429kcalories.
Ultimately, I use the systematic review and above study to highlight that tracking your nutritional intake accurately can be very difficult; leading to significant margins of error, and becoming familiar with portion sizes and observed calorie 'intuition' may aid overall dieting success.