They’re not perfect, but at least they give us a ballpark for a starting point which we’re able to adjust.īut that’s not the way these formulas are used with online calorie calculators.

These estimates are extremely useful for feeding patients requiring tube feeds or IV nutrition, and somewhat useful in providing a starting point for nutrition interventions for malnourished patients and feeding patients with diabetes or other issues with blood glucose, as high or low blood sugars affect the healing and outcomes. We estimate basal metabolic requirements then multiply these basal needs by factors based on our patient assessment. Any dietitians reading this are familiar with these formulas, as they are used by clinical dietitians every day to estimate nutrition needs for hospitalized patients. The MyFitnessPal app and other online calorie calculators use mathematical formulas designed to estimate basal metabolic requirements using height, weight, age, sex and adjustments for physical activity. Not only because it made me feel all crazy around food, but also because it wasn’t even accurate! The Many Problems with Online Calorie Calculators Now that I’ve had a little more space since that time, along with a lot more understanding of weight science, and my own personal weight biases at the time, I can see what a waste of time it was spending those countless hours tracking my food. For a couple years afterward I would sporadically track my intake, in hindsight, always during times I was struggling in other areas of life. I became convinced I was a willpowerless eating machine, when in reality, I was just suffering from the predictable side effects of not eating enough food. I was so embarrassed that I, a dietetics student, could not manage to eat my recommended calorie needs, that I totally lied on the assignment and made up my version of what I thought healthy eating looked like. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this led to hunger-induced binges every single night. I was incredibly distressed by the high number of calories I consumed on my first day tracking (it was college gameday - tailgate beers and pimento cheese add up!), so I tried to restrict the whole next week to get my average intake to the amount MyFitnessPal suggested for me. nutrition professors out there, this assignment is not a smart one to give to a group that’s at risk for eating disorders. My personal experience using an online calorie calculator was in college, when as a dietetics students we were assigned to track our intake for a week.

As a dietitian who frequently works with clients struggling with eating disorders that were triggered or worsened by online calorie calculators (and their super disordered message boards), I’ll admit I’m biased. All you have to do is obsessively count every bite of food and you can pick your weight as easily as you pick out your underwear!Īs anyone who has used a calorie counting app like MyFitnessPal knows, it’s not quite that simple. Plug in your age, sex, height and weight, along with how much weight you’d like to lose and how fast, and in less than a second you get a personalized recommendation of exactly how much to eat to achieve your goals. The idea of an online calorie calculator is lovely.

Calorie app