Levels to dietary tracking

Getting a hold on your nutrition can be a real predicament. It may be the single most effective intervention in reaching your health & body composition goals, but it's also widely regarded as the most challenging, as the eating habits we evolved to help us survive don’t quite fit the world as we know it. Most of us are incredibly lucky, we don't think twice about where our next meal will come from. So much so, that what we put into our bodies is often an afterthought these days, and becoming more intentional with our nutrition choices therefore feels like fighting against a tide of convenience food and the financial incentives of big food companies - not an easy challenge to overcome!

Starting to track your food intake can be daunting and full of uncertainty. Luckily you don’t need to take a "one size fits all" approach. The degree to which you track your food intake can depend on your experience, your goals, even certain medical conditions. This can range from a written food diary, to tracking every calorie, gram of macro & micronutrient etc. etc. Let's have a look at the levels of nutrition tracking...

Level 1 - Low precision

The easiest way to start tracking your diet is a written food diary, this can be a notebook, a spreadsheet, the notes app on your phone, or even a collection of photos. For beginners, this can help frame your dietary habits, create an environment where you can achieve some consistency, and identify changes where they need to be made. For experienced trainees and trackers, reverting back to a written log can give a much needed mental break from intense tracking.

Level 2

A more hands on approach to tracking your diet will largely depend on your goals. For most trainees, it will involve tracking calories in and calories out (CICO), as well as your bodyweight. Changes in body weight are dictated by calories in vs. calories out, so tracking your caloric intake vs. your bodyweight will give you an idea of maintenance calories, and you can adjust from there. With some time and practice tracking calories, hitting a designated target for protein intake is the next natural step. This is a great sweet spot for most trainees, and really suits people who want to manage recovery or manipulate body weight to a standard that is pretty solid, reasonably precise, while not being too pedantic about it!

Level 3

In addition to tracking calories and protein, tracking extra nutrients in addition to some meal timing will really round out your game. Spreading protein feedings out into 3-4 meals, timing carbohydrates before a heavy session, there are plenty of ways to time your food intake for better results. Ideal for those who want to take performance and recovery to the next level but who are not trying to be extremely controlled in how they regulate body weight.

For someone looking to make health, performance, or just straight up body composition changes, closely adhering to your macro and calorie targets is about as far as you can go in terms of optimisation. Adherence +/- 5% For someone on 2500kcal that means their room for error is as tight as staying within 2375-2625kcal.

This is for elite athletes who need to remain totally in control of their bodyweight so they can weigh in as heavy as possible for their weight class and still make weight so they can be as competitive as possible.

Conclusion

Tracking your diet should be looked at like doing up a budget. Everyone should have a general idea, some management can help a lot, and in certain circumstances it pays to be stringent. Pick a modality you can stick with, feel free to move from high to low levels depending on your goals and circumstances.

EXERCISE *can* help with weight management. It should only come from a place of nourishment, not punishment.

It can be a very beneficial piece of the puzzle when it comes to maintaining a healthy body composition but it is not a silver bullet for fat loss.