Portion sizes have quietly ballooned over the last few decades. A bagel from the 1970s used to be 2-ounces in weight, now it’s up to 4, and a classic cheeseburger has jumped from 5.9 to 7.3 ounces.(1) These examples alone are exactly why logging your food is so powerful: it highlights what our eyes no longer notice and can help drive awareness of portion distortion.(1) In just a few days, patterns around energy, cravings, and progress may come into focus. Read on to learn why food logging is important, and how to make it easy with our dietitian-guided tips.
Why Logging Your Food Is Important
Logging your food doesn’t just help boost awareness, it can help align your daily choices with your goals. If weight loss is your focus, recognizing patterns between how you eat and how the scale moves is essential. One study showed that participants who tracked their food daily lose twice as much weight as those who didn’t track at all.(2) In one online weight-loss study, participants who logged 2 to 3 times per day lost significantly more weight than those who logged less frequently.(3)
MyFitnessPal Head of Nutrition, Melissa Jaeger, RD, LD writes, “Food logging doesn’t just show you what you’re eating today, it may reveal patterns, habits, and opportunities to shift behaviors so your actions better support your goals.”
What You Learn From Tracking Your Meals
1. Real Portion Sizes
When you start tracking your meals, you quickly see how everyday portions add up. That “handful” of nuts, for example, is often closer to two or three servings, not one (4). Recognizing true portion sizes helps you make informed adjustments without feeling like any foods are off-limits.
2. Eating Patterns and Gaps
Find yourself skipping meals in the morning only to binge later in the day? Tracking helps to identify patterns in your eating behaviors, offering areas for improvement so your eating can more closely align with your goals (5,6). Plus, tracking shows which nutrients you’re not eating enough of (and those you may be enjoying a little too much.) Spotting these quickly means you can adjust your eating the following day, setting you up for success.
Tracking your food reveals both the nutrients in your favorite staples and the hidden calories that often go unnoticed (2). Condiments, snacks, and beverages are common culprits of extra calories many don’t realize. In fact, just a few tablespoons of ketchup can add surprising sugar to a meal (i.e. a tablespoon of ketchup for that burger adds 20 calories, but 4 grams of added sugars to your meal).(7) The goal isn’t to cut them out, but to spot opportunities to swap in more nutrient-dense options, like a Greek yogurt–based dip, when it makes sense.
4. Emotional or Environmental Eating Triggers
If stress sends you straight to the snack cupboard, you’re not alone. Tracking helps uncover emotional or situational eating patterns so you can turn triggers into healthier swaps, like a quick walk instead of chips (6).
5. How Small Tweaks Improve Progress
Finally, logging your food highlights small tweaks that can lead to big results. If weight loss is your goal but your added sugar intake keeps creeping up, tracking can reveal hidden sources, like that morning coffee shop muffin (6). Once you see them, it’s easier to make simple swaps like preparing a homemade breakfast like this Blueberry Muffin Breakfast Mug Cake to take with your on-the-go. Remember, every small change moves the needle towards meeting your goals.
Tips for Logging Your Food
Tracking your intakes shouldn’t feel like another thing on your to-do list. Consider these tips to help make logging a part of your routine you look forward to. Believe it or not, there’s a way to make it work for you so it becomes easy and effective.
Use an App to Log Your Food
Old-school paper and pen may work for some, but not all. Utilize the smart phone you’re already on and log your food in an app like MyFitnessPal. This user-friendly format helps generate valuable information that can help identify patterns in your eating behaviors, driving awareness for behavior change (8).
Create Saved Meals, Recipes and Frequent Foods
Most of us rely on “go-to” meals, or those familiar foods that make planning easy and help hit our macros. That’s great! But if, for example, you have a Greek yogurt bowl for breakfast most days, save it as a meal in MyFitnessPal. It makes logging faster and also helps you spot where you might need more variety or nutrient adjustments to better support your personal nutrition goals.
Log Your Foods
Some may find it helpful to “write it when you bite it”, but time may not always offer that flexibility. What I find works best, especially for busy weeks, is to pre-log my food the night before. This helps take the guesswork out of what I’m eating, ensuring my macronutrients are met to help achieve my goals. Or, use features like Meal Scan or Voice Logging for quick and easy logging solutions on-the-go!
Measure Your Portions
Invest in a kitchen scale and measuring cups and spoons to get familiar with portion sizes. This not only helps to ensure you’re accurately logging your intakes, but also helps with visual cues you can use when dining out, too (1).
Let Go Of Perfection
Embrace the motto, “Better is the new perfect.” Slip ups happen, but don’t let one cheat day derail your progress. Get back on track and log your food the next day. When you learn the foundation of a healthy, balanced meal plan, there’s room for flexibility, and that glass of wine or piece of cake too.
How MyFitnessPal Helps You Understand Your Eating Habits
Whether you’re a long-time MyFitnessPal user or just getting started, the app offers powerful tools designed to help you understand your eating habits for the long haul. As registered dietitian Stephanie Saletta, RD, notes, “One of the strongest predictors of long-term success is continuing to track even after you’ve reached your goal. (9) New features in the app, like meal planning and goal setting, help make sustaining healthy habits easier than ever.” Explore the latest MyFitnessPal tools designed to reveal patterns and drive lasting awareness for positive change:
- Simplified Logging:
- Nutrition Insight:
- Goal Setting & Progress Tracking:
- Achieve what’s important to you, including weight loss, muscle gain, and habit formation (like drinking more water) through inserting your personal goals (and tracking them) in the app.
Bottom Line
Awareness drives behavior change, and that begins when you understand your patterns. Getting curious about what you’re putting in your body isn’t about restriction, it’s about understanding how the foods you choose to eat on a daily basis are helping, or hindering, your goals. Logging your food is a great way to understand these patterns, but it shouldn’t feel like a chore. That’s why the team at MyFitnessPal has made it as seamless as possible to meet your goals with their new app features.
Remember, success comes from building sustainable habits. Logging your food is just one step that has been shown to work. Try logging your meals for a few days in MyFitnessPal, you might be surprised by what you learn.
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