Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:00]:
Hello, fabulous! Food logs, are they helpful or harmful? I'm Dr. Stephanie Fein with Weight Loss for Fertility. Let's talk about that. Food logs. So early in my career, I used food logs. And I know that the very beginning of this podcast, we're well into the 200s now, I talked about it, but I did talk about it In a slightly different way. And we'll get to that. That was part of my evolution from food logs.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:35]:
And we will be talking about that. But food logs in general come in all shapes and sizes. So food logs in and of themselves, not a problem. I'm going to talk about what the problem parts of traditional food logs are and explain the problem with it. And you'll see it very clearly. So Food logs are all different types. It's a very generic term. And a lot of the times the traditional ones people think of as food and calories.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:05]:
So it's keeping track of the food that you eat, but then also the calories. And a perfect example of this is MyFitnessPal, where you put in all the foods and it actually, they've optimized it where you can put foods and they have checkmarks and it tells you which one, and you can be really accurate in terms of the calories. But the main part about MyFitnessPal and ones like it is that it has the calories. And that's the main focus. With the idea that you have a certain number and you can only have that number in the day and that you work within that. Okay, so that's the most traditional food log. There's also one where you keep a diary of what you ate without necessarily the calories, but maybe with the portions. I had half a cup of this and 4 ounces of that, that sort of thing.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:59]:
And another type of food log is the hunger scale log, which we will talk about. It doesn't have any of that. It focuses on the levels of hunger. So these are just a smattering. I'm sure there's other kinds where you could keep records of macros and all that sort of thing, but we'll talk about that. The parts of logs that are really helpful, and in fact, studies show this, it is just true in terms of how our brain works. That when you keep a log of your food, you can remember better. So our ability to remember what we ate is dismal.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:36]:
This is the one I remember reading studies about this. We cannot remember what we eat. We'll have a handful of M&Ms and then we'll have a couple of cookies and all that sort of thing. We don't remember. If we don't write it down, we will never remember. So remembering what we ate is a wonderful thing about logs. This is very helpful. The truth is, if you wanna remember anything, writing it down will always be helpful.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:58]:
We're using another modality, we're thinking it, but it's also coming through our hand, writing it down, whether it's with a pen and paper or in your phone. So one of the most helpful things about a log is a place to remember. Now there's 2 ways we remember. One, we can look back and actually see what we wrote down, but also the act of writing itself will help us remember. So there's 2 ways of doing that. The other wonderful thing about logs is that it helps you be more mindful and intentional about what you're eating. So if you know you're going to write something down and you take a handful of the M&Ms that you weren't hungry for and didn't really want, then you'll be very aware of that. And you may decide not to because you're like, ooh, I'm going to write that down.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:44]:
Oh, that's right. I'm working towards a goal. I'm not actually hungry. I don't really want them. Never mind. So logs can be helpful being more mindful and intentional. I alluded to this one before, but you can look back on it. When we keep a record of something, when we were having success, feeling really good, we can go back to that time and we can see what happened, what went on there.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:07]:
And that can jog our memory, inspire us, that sort of thing. So logs are really helpful for that. And it also is a great place for planning. If you're going to put in your food that you're going to eat in the future. Today, I'm going to have this for breakfast, this for lunch, this for dinner. And now it's so easy. You can refer back to it if you forget. It really decreases stress so much, particularly with eating.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:35]:
We often can have a low level of panic about what we're going to eat. Because we don't know what we have. We don't know where we're gonna go. We're hungry. It's harder to make a decision that way. But if we have a place to put the food that we're going to eat, it's so nice. So a log is really helpful for that. Not a lot of people use it as a planner.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:56]:
I do love that. I love using logs as a planner. These are the things I have in the house so that I'm making the decision ahead of time what I'm gonna eat. It just works so well. Again, it's taking the decision fatigue out of your brain. You don't have to be Thinking and wondering. You've made the decision. It's over.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:15]:
It's really good. So those are the parts of a food log that are really helpful and that I like. Here are the parts of a food log I don't like and we want to avoid. I'm going to tell you why. The main one is calories. When we put calories with each thing that we're eating and we're using calories as the guide, like only eat this many calories. And there's so many, my brain's going crazy with all the things to say about that. So just as a side note, it's completely random, the number of calories, right? It's for a person this tall, this active, that sort of thing.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:53]:
It's so arbitrary. That's one of the things I don't like about it. But anyway, in a log with calories, they give you a limit. And then we're supposed to eat that exact same amount every single day. And what happens is our brain sees it as a challenge, how to gamify it, how to wriggle out of it, how to use it to our most advantage. Our brains are clever. And so they have, they're presented with a problem and the problem is math. And so they're like, ooh, what can I do? And so it's hard to stop our brain from doing that, but it will.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:06:32]:
It will play games with it. If I have this many calories today and I have leftover calories, can I put them towards the next day? And then I can have a really big meal, or then I can do this. I can save it for a treat. I can only eat M&Ms. Poor M&Ms. I'm only going to eat M&Ms today. And if I only eat M&Ms and I don't eat anything else, then I still am within my calories. We're gaming it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:06:57]:
We all know that eating only M&Ms in a day is not going to feel great. And it's certainly not a long-term plan for weight loss, but it's something we consider when we have calories as something that we're working against or towards. We play with them. Our brain, it's so clever and it really tries hard. So that's one of the main things I don't like about it. Number one, you have the same amount every single day. That's just not the way bodies work. Some days we're on our periods, we need more.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:30]:
Some days we need less. It depends how active we are. So some days we're going to need more food. Some days we're going to need less. When we just have one calorie number, that already doesn't take humanness into account. So that's that. The second one is that the brain will play these games and it pits you against you. It's actually interesting.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:52]:
It's a little tricky. It's you against you because you, let's say, want to lose weight. And so you try this calorie thing, but then your brain plays a game. So now who's playing the game against who, right? Is it you want to lose weight, but your brain is trying to fiddle with the program and it becomes, it could be you against you or you against the calories, but— You instituted the calories. So it sets up an adversarial relationship with yourself, with your brain. And that is a real problem because it feels restrictive. It feels like a diet because there's a limit. It's an external limit.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:42]:
And whenever we have one of those, we are going to rebel. If we're making the calorie count or the log the external authority, it knows exactly how much I should be eating. It's a setup for rebelling against it. You can't tell me what to do is what our brain likes to say. And of course it can't and it won't, but it feels like that. And then it feels justified then to say, nevermind, or don't do it, or anything like that. An external locus of authority is a problem for our brain when it comes to reaching a goal that we want. We want that authority to be internal because then we're developing a relationship instead of this adversarial one.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:09:31]:
Another issue when we make the authority external is that we can check out. We abdicate our responsibility to that thing. And of course we blame it if it doesn't work and it, But we also check out because we're not making decisions, having different portions, feeling how our body feels, because the only issue we have is calories. So as long as it fits in the calories, we should be okay. But of course, that's not how it works. Also, the calorie logging is by definition restrictive. And whenever there's a restriction, there's a rebellion. So it can't be forever because you will rebel against it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:17]:
And there's that sense of, I'm only going to allow myself to have something that fits within these numbers. And that's where the gaming comes in. But remember, it's only about you and you're a grownup and you can always have whatever you want. So this, this artificial setup will always break down. I have an example for you. So I have a client who I've been working with for a very long time. And she started with me when I was using MyFitnessPal. I'm going to tell you how I was transitioning.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:46]:
So for a while I was having people use MyFitnessPal. And a long time ago I had people use MyFitnessPal with calories. And so I know it does not work as well as hunger scale. I have years of evidence on both sides. But this story will illustrate it. But the way I was using it for a while is for people to use it as a place to write down your food, but not the calories. Pay no attention to the calories. Don't put a calorie limit.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:17]:
Don't pay attention to the calories. And there was only so much success with that. It's hard. If you see numbers, it's just your brain is just automatically going to do these things that the brain does that I discussed. Play the games, think of, I have leftover. That's the main one, right? Is, let's say it's 1,500 calories and you've eaten 1,200, you have 300 leftover for some sort of treat or something. And that's where we would put that in because we have them leftover. Or if we exercise, then we have more.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:51]:
Anyway, that whole thing is set up. So I wanted people to, if they wanted to use the log, amazing, but then not look at the calories. And again, there was Even with the best effort, it's just very hard to do. So then I scrapped it and now I only use hunger scale logs, which we will talk about in a minute. But this is because— so this client had lost so much weight and she had done it with MyFitnessPal. So it was very hard to give it up because it was useful to her. But I could see that it was holding her back from the last bits. And so we worked together and she was willing and she changed the hunger scale.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:12:38]:
She had to go on faith at that point because she firmly believed in the MyFitnessPal, which makes total sense because she'd used it for a long time. She could see the numbers. That part was very comforting. But I know that this gaming thing was holding her back. Even using the hunger scale with the MyFitnessPal, it's still, how do I want to say this? You could use the hunger scale, but there's still that level of fiddling with the numbers when you are doing both. So we changed her over to the hunger scale. And just recently, we were talking about it and it was so amazing. She so perfectly said the things that happen when we're using the hunger scale.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:13:23]:
She said it urged her to pay attention to her thoughts and her hunger much more when she was focusing on the hunger scale, not the calories. That's huge right there. Paying attention to thoughts and hunger is exactly what I want happening. Our hunger is the thing that tells us when we need nourishment. And when we've had enough, that's it. Getting in touch with the hunger is the whole point, and that's connecting ourselves with ourselves. That's the internal authority. Your own body is the authority on when it needs food, period.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:05]:
And that's where it belongs. The body is the only thing that knows how much it needs, and so we ask it by listening to the hunger, by listening to its signals. So she had to pay attention to that, right? Because if you know you're going to have 300 calories for. Yeah. And then it sort of doesn't matter if you're hungry or if you're satisfied, if you're only going to have 300 calories, that's it. And that part is the external authority being the calories versus the internal authority being the hunger. Hunger is a much more reliable way to feed ourselves. And you can see that it can be flexible, right? Because some days you may be hungrier and some days you may not be as hungry.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:48]:
That's something that the calories don't have. So she really noticed that it had her paying more and more attention to her hunger and then her thoughts around the food, which is the other thing that's really important. As we're learning to use the hunger scale, we're looking for the thoughts that are there because the thoughts are the things that could be keeping us stuck. Thoughts like, what if I'm hungry later? Like eating when you're not hungry because you're worried you're going to be hungry later. That's so good to see. Or eating past satisfied when— because you don't want to waste it. That's the thought, I'm wasting food. That is so important to see because there's definitely ways that we can work with those thoughts.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:15:31]:
And though if those are the thoughts that are in the way of you being able to lose weight, then we know what to do. It's so helpful to see. So I loved that she was able to see that. That's incredible. Changing from the calories to hunger scale also helped her work out her portions, which of course makes total sense because the portions are based on your hunger. How much food do you need for this meal? Not every meal. Not that every breakfast is the same and every lunch is the same. It could be if your hunger is like that, but if it's not, then we're working out the portions that are right for your body right now.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:11]:
And that is really valuable. It could change every day. It could be the same for months and then change all of a sudden. But if we're checking in, if we're realizing and connecting to our hunger, we will know. And the third thing she said, and honestly, this was like music to my ears, it had her developing more trust in herself. Yes. Exactly. Trusting that she will be satisfied, trusting that she'll know when to eat, trusting that if she's less hungry one day, she'll be more hungry another, that her body does know.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:56]:
And listening to it can mean weight loss, not only weight gain. That's what happens. A lot of us are Traumatized, little t, with diet culture. And because we'll go from restriction to eating a ton, and we think that the eating a ton is what our body will do always. But I promise it isn't. When we're willing to listen and nourish ourselves, our bodies aren't a bottomless pit. But it's hard to— if we're very used to thinking of it as out of control, then it's very hard to all of a sudden trust it. But that is what we can learn with the hunger scale.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:17:43]:
It is so worth it to use the hunger scale to develop these skills. Being more in touch with your thoughts and your hunger and developing trust in yourself. These are huge skill sets that help with everything, including permanent weight loss, right? Because you can see, That if you're developing trust in yourself, you have that forever. If you're getting used to making a habit of paying attention to your thoughts and your hunger, you will have that forever. And that will help you lose weight, but also maintain the weight you lose. It's so valuable. So the hunger scale log, just so I can talk about it here, is that you write down either in pen and paper or in your phone, The number on the hunger scale. I have lots of episodes about the hunger scale.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:18:33]:
The number that you are when you eat and the number you are when you stop eating. So ideally that's -2 when you start eating and +2 when you stop eating. Now you write it down because in the beginning it may be like, ooh, I was -3 and then I ate to +4 or I ate +3, that sort of thing. You start writing it down. And then that's the other thing is you get to see your— Progress. You may have 3s and 4s and 3s and 4s, and all of a sudden you're just having 2s. It's very gratifying to see. So I also like for people to write— you could just write down the hunger scale.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:19:10]:
So what you were, what number on the scale you were before you started eating, and then what number you were when you stopped eating. Amazing. You could just do that. I actually also like for you to put the food in there. But not half a cup of this and 4 ounces of that, but more like lasagna, salad, garlic bread. Just so you have an idea of the foods that you ate. And why that's helpful to me, I think, is to look back because if we get hungry again in an hour, it's useful to see what we ate. And was that nourishing? Did that sustain us? Do we want to do that again? And we can also look at the ones that did last us a long time.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:19:53]:
Oh, when I eat that, I feel satisfied for a nice long time. And so we'll do more of that. So I like to put down the foods just so you have a reminder of how often you were hungry, how that lasted, how that feels in your body. That's the hunger scale log. And it promotes self-trust. It encourages mindfulness. It asks you to listen to yourself, your hunger, and your thoughts. And it has you with you.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:20:23]:
You guys are on the same team, your brain, your body, your wishes, your desires. You're all on the same team working together. It makes for such a much kinder relationship, a calmer experience of weight loss, a friendly one. And we all work better under friendly circumstances, all of us. And again, this makes it permanent because then we're willing to do it. We're not traumatized. We're not beating ourselves up. We're not restricting.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:20:54]:
So we're willing to keep doing it. And that makes for permanent weight loss. So logs can be helpful, my friends. It helps us remember, be mindful, intentional. We can look back on What worked, and we can help ourselves with planning for the future if we keep logs. Traditional ones with calorie counts set up an antagonistic relationship that can't last. Just by definition, it can't last. The hunger scale log is the answer.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:21:27]:
It supports skills like listening to yourself, trusting yourself, believing yourself. You always have you with you, and so it lasts for always. I am so happy to talk to you about the hunger scale, the log, anything. You can always find me @StephanieFeinMD on Instagram, also on LinkedIn. And if you want to lose weight with me, I would love that. Just go to my website, stephaniefeinmd.com, click the Lose Weight with Me button, and we will be connected. Until next week, I am sending you so much love. Mwah!
