The real question isn’t whether you should track 👀 It’s why you want to track.
Key Takeaways
- Disordered eating symptoms exist on a spectrum and aren’t defined by specific behaviors like tracking
- The motivation and mindset behind food tracking matter more than the tracking itself
- Self-reflection questions can help you identify concerning patterns without self-diagnosis
- Many fitness professionals normalize disordered behaviors, making it harder to recognize them
When one person says food tracking is disordered and another says it’s not, who do you believe?
The better question is understanding the connection between food tracking and disordered eating. If tracking is disordered, why? What makes it so? If it’s not, why? What makes it not so?
Before we can answer the question, we have to understand what disordered eating even is.
⚠️ Important: This article is for educational and self-reflective purposes only, not for diagnosing or treating disordered eating. It does not replace working with a licensed mental health or medical professional. If you recognize distressing patterns, please reach out to them.
What Is Disordered Eating, Really?
According to the National Eating Disorders Collaboration, “Disordered eating sits on a spectrum between normal eating and an eating disorder and may include symptoms and behaviours of eating disorders, but at a lesser frequency or lower level of severity.”
But what is normal eating? Research by Pereira & Alvarenga defines it as: “Normal eating includes the ingestion of healthy foods, the intake of a mixed and balanced diet that contains enough nutrients and calories to meet the body’s needs, and a positive attitude about food (no labeling of foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ ‘healthy’ or ‘fattening,’ which can lead to feelings of guilt and anxiety). Normal eating is related not only to health maintenance, but also to acceptable social behavior, and is both flexible and pleasurable.”
Smolak and Levine argue that disordered eating symptoms include: “(a) ‘subclinical’ but unhealthy, maladaptive, and misery-inducing levels of negative body image, weight and shape concerns, and calorie-restrictive dieting and/or binge eating; plus (b) at least several of the following: unrealistic beauty standards, including an idealization of thinness; irrational and maladaptive beliefs about body fat and fat people, often coupled with a high drive for thinness; and harsh self-surveillance and self-criticism, often in transaction with low and unstable self-esteem.”
Healthy vs Unhealthy Food Tracking: What’s Your Motive?
What this tells us is that it’s less about whether tracking is or isn’t disordered and more to do with the motive to track, the accompanying beliefs, feelings, and behaviors, and their deviation from normal eating.
This also helps us answer a common follow-up question: “If I want to track my food to make sure I’m in a calorie deficit so I can lose weight, does that mean I have disordered eating?”
The truth of the matter is that dieting and negative body image are some of the biggest predictors of developing disordered eating or eating disorders. They don’t cause disordered eating, but they’re highly connected.
If your main motivators for tracking and changing the way you eat are driven by what’s mentioned in the research above, that’s not something you want to ignore.
Warning Signs: Concerning Food Tracking Behaviors
Based on the self-reflection questions below, here are some examples of when food tracking crosses into problematic territory:
Concerning tracking patterns include:
- Eating very little during the day, then feeling out of control with food later
- Avoiding or delaying meals in response to guilt about eating
- Having hard-and-fast rules about what, when, or how you “should” eat
- Feeling unable to eat without tracking and being concerned about this dependency
- Trying to “make up for” eating by restricting (“I’m going sugar-free after today!”), excessive control (“I’m going to start tracking again”), or compensatory movement (“I need to do more cardio this week to undo what I ate over the weekend.”)
Red flag thoughts and emotions:
- Thinking about food, eating, or your body multiple times throughout the day
- Feeling anxious, guilty, or ashamed after eating certain foods
- Having your mood depend on how you think you ate that day
- Avoiding eating around others or feeling the need to hide what you eat
Why This Matters More Than You Think
As research explains: “In terms of behavior, the term ‘normal’ can refer to ‘not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle; conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern or occurring naturally.’ Therefore, once a large number of people perform disordered eating behaviors (DEBs), the perception may shift to an acceptance of DEBs as normal behaviors. The normalization of certain DEBs is dangerous to people susceptible to these behaviors.”
This normalization of disordered eating behaviors is particularly concerning because it can make it harder for people to recognize when they need support.
At Hard House, we screen our clients for these patterns throughout our intake forms and ongoing check-ins. This careful attention helps us provide the most appropriate support for each person’s unique situation. We believe this should be the industry standard amongst all coaching professionals!
Self-Assessment: 15 Questions That Matter
The goal of screening isn’t to label you as disordered (that could actually cause you harm). The purpose is to give you insight into what areas you may need support in. These are similar to the questions we explore with Hard House clients to ensure we’re providing the best coaching care. Use this reflection as a starting point to get curious about your relationship with food, your body, and your health and fitness habits.
Eating Patterns
- I often eat very little during the day, then feel out of control with food later
- I find myself avoiding or delaying meals in response to guilt about eating
- I have a lot of rules about what, when, or how I “should” eat
- It’s hard to recognize or respond to hunger and fullness cues
- I sometimes eat past comfortable fullness and feel distressed afterward
- I don’t know how to eat without tracking and that concerns me
Thoughts and Emotions Around Food
- I think about food, eating, or my body multiple times throughout the day
- I feel anxious, guilty, or ashamed after eating certain foods
- I try to “make up for” eating through restriction (“I’m going sugar-free after today!”), control (“I’m going to start tracking again.”), or movement
- I avoid eating around others or feel the need to hide what I eat
- My mood often depends on how I think I ate that day
Body Image and Self-Perception
- I frequently check, weigh, or measure my body to see if it’s changed
- I avoid mirrors, photos, or certain clothes because of how I feel about my body
- I believe I need to change my body in order to be respected or worthy by myself and/or others
- I compare my body to others and often feel ashamed or behind
- My sense of self-worth and happiness about my body is strongly tied to my size, weight, or shape
- When I see photos of myself or my reflection in the mirror that I dislike, I change my eating by either restricting or overeating
Impact on Life and Energy
- Worry about food or my body interferes with relationships, work, or hobbies
- I feel disconnected from what I actually want or need from food
- I’ve spent years trying to “fix” this, but feel stuck or burned out
- I wish I could just eat and live without so much mental effort
- I’m not sure what a peaceful relationship with food would even look like
What to Do With Your Answers
How did this feel to you running through these questions? Many of our readers and clients find themselves nodding along to several statements.
If several of these questions resonated with you, here are your next steps:
Start conversations: Share your reflections with trusted friends or family members. Sometimes naming these patterns out loud is the first step toward change.
Get professional support: This is exactly the kind of work we specialize in at Hard House. Our coaching staff helps people develop healthier relationships with food and body image, and we have a network of mental health professionals we refer to when indicated.
Ready to explore working together? We review applications every Monday morning. Apply here to meet with a Hard House coach and see if this is the right next step for you with no pressure to say yes.
The Bottom Line
Understanding the difference between healthy and unhealthy food tracking isn’t about the behavior itself; it’s about the thoughts, feelings, and motivations driving that behavior. If you recognize patterns in yourself, know that developing a peaceful relationship with food is absolutely possible with the right information and support.
