Can Mindful Eating and Macro Tracking Coexist?

In today’s episode, Eric responds to a few pieces of listener feedback, then covers two popular nutrition topics. In the first, he discusses the utility of calorie counting or diet tracking, and how to make the process as feasible and effective as possible. After that, he provides a thorough overview of mindful eating, while addressing some common misconceptions along the way. While many people think that mindful eating is the same thing as intuitive eating, or that mindful eating is incompatible with weight loss goals or diet tracking, neither of these popular perspectives are true. In reality, mindful eating and diet tracking can be used synergistically when pursuing a variety of goals, including weight loss. Today’s episode discusses how to use both of these evidence-based strategies in a complementary fashion.

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TIME STAMPS

Intro/Announcements (0:00)

A clarification about intrinsic motivation (9:42)

• https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020_RyanDeci_IntrinsicandExtrinsic.pdf

Does diet tracking “work?” (24:06)

What are the major challenges that threaten the effectiveness of diet tracking or calorie counting? (31:33)

• https://macrofactorapp.com/problems-with-calorie-counting/

How to make diet tracking as effective and enjoyable as possible (41:27)

• https://www.strongerbyscience.com/goal-setting/
• https://macrofactorapp.com/behavior-change/
• https://macrofactorapp.com/cheat-meals/

The relationship between diet tracking or calorie counting and eating disorders (53:34)

• https://www.strongerbyscience.com/diet-tracking/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34427188/

Mindful eating (1:05:47)

Mindful eating versus intuitive eating (1:06:51)

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33279464/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5556586/

How is mindful eating actually implemented? (1:10:23)

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5556586/

Is mindful eating a weight loss strategy? (1:16:36)

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31368631/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24854804/
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950329318300582
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30591684/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20351697/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4238039/

Psychology-related applications of mindful eating (1:38:08)

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24854804/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32551798/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27862826/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32549835/

Can mindful eating and macro tracking co-exist? (1:43:28)

Episode summary and conclusions (1:49:21)

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