This is not medical advice. General information, not a diagnosis or a treatment plan. If you have ever had an eating disorder or a difficult relationship with food, are under 18, pregnant or breastfeeding, or are managing a medical condition, talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian before you start counting calories. If food, weight or logging is already taking over your day, talk to a doctor now rather than after reading this. The full list is here.
The link between logging food and eating disorder symptoms has turned up in students, in young women and in men from fitness communities. It is fair to take seriously, and it is the reason every post on this site tells you to stop if logging starts to hurt.
What it does not tell you is which came first. Since 2021 there has been a randomised trial, and since 2023 two large reviews have pooled what happens to eating disorder symptoms when adults count calories to lose weight in a structured programme. Put together, they give a more specific answer than either "tracking is harmful" or "tracking is fine", and the answer depends heavily on who is doing the tracking.
What the surveys found about calorie tracking
One of the first studies to look at this directly surveyed 493 college students. Those who used calorie trackers scored higher on eating concern and dietary restraint, even after accounting for body mass index. The authors called the result preliminary, and wrote that for some individuals these devices might do more harm than good.1
Later surveys went the same way in different groups. Among 122 men recruited mostly through fitness social media, 56% had used MyFitnessPal, and users reported higher levels of binge eating, dietary restraint and concern about weight and shape, with large effect sizes. Nearly 40% of the users said the app had contributed to their symptoms to some extent.2 In 352 young adults, people who used food or activity monitoring tools scored higher on an eating disorder questionnaire and on a measure of compulsive exercise than people who did not.3 And in 386 Australian women aged 17 to 35, users of diet monitoring apps reported more disordered eating and body dissatisfaction than both fitness app users and non-users.4
All four point the same way, and all four used the same design: a questionnaire, filled in once. Two of those author groups said outright that longitudinal or experimental work was needed before anyone could say which way the relationship runs.34
Which came first, the app or the symptoms?
A one-off survey fits two stories equally well. Calorie tracking could push some people toward disordered eating. Or people who are already preoccupied with food and weight could be the ones most likely to download a calorie counter app. Both would produce exactly the pattern above.
People who already have an eating disorder have their own view. In a study of 105 people with a diagnosed eating disorder, about 75% used MyFitnessPal, and 73% of those users felt it had contributed to their illness.5 Their view deserves weight, but it is a perception reported after the fact, and the authors said further research was needed to establish what role the apps actually play. A separate analysis of 1,695 comments on three eating disorder forums found people describing how the app tried to prevent misuse and how they worked around it.6
The closest thing to a time series is small. Researchers followed 68 undergraduate women who used MyFitnessPal for eight weeks and answered repeated questionnaires. Women who tracked more had more concern about weight and shape as a general trait. But a day of tracking did not predict worse symptoms the next day, and over the eight weeks tracking was not associated with an increase in concerns.7 Sixty-eight people for two months is not much. It does fit the second story better than the first: higher concern among people who track, without the tracking raising it.
The one trial that tested it directly
In 2019, researchers took 200 undergraduate women who had not logged their food in the past year and who screened as low risk for an eating disorder, and randomly assigned half of them to log everything they ate in MyFitnessPal for about a month. The other half did nothing. The loggers were diligent, recording their intake on 89.1% of days.8
Compared with the group that did not log, nothing moved: not eating disorder risk, anxiety, depressive symptoms, body satisfaction or quality of life. Their diet and activity did not change either.8
The limits are the important part, and the authors stated them. They deliberately recruited a low-risk sample, said that may be why they found nothing, and called for research into the groups for whom dietary self-monitoring might be contraindicated.8 So the trial answers one question well: a month of calorie tracking did not harm young women who were not at risk. It says nothing about the people the surveys were worried about, because they were screened out.
What happens when people count calories to lose weight in a programme
The largest body of evidence comes from behavioural weight loss trials that measured eating disorder symptoms before and after. A 2023 review pooled 49 of them, covering 6,337 adults with overweight or obesity, 81% of them women, in programmes lasting from four weeks to 18 months. On average, overall eating disorder scores went down and binge eating fell by more, with both still lower at follow-up. All 14 studies that counted binge episodes or how many people binged reported a fall. But four studies found new eating disorder symptoms, absent at the start, in a subset of participants: between 0% and 6.5%. The authors concluded that these programmes do not increase symptoms for most adults, and that monitoring for new symptoms matters because of that subset.9
A 2025 review of 38 studies and 3,364 people reached the same conclusion from a different angle, and it includes the comparison the first review mostly lacked. In seven randomised trials that set a weight loss programme against no or minimal intervention, disordered eating scores still improved more in the programme groups. The results varied a great deal between studies.10 In the Look AHEAD trial of 5,145 adults with type 2 diabetes, 3.4% reported binge eating after a year that they had not reported at the start, and that pattern did not differ between the intensive lifestyle programme and the control group, which received diabetes support and education.11
Food logging is almost always part of these programmes. A 2026 analysis of the trials behind this evidence coded dietary self-monitoring in 80% of 64 intervention arms.12 So the reassuring averages come mostly from people who were counting calories. The same analysis shows what else those people had: programmes lasting a median of 27 weeks, with contact from staff typically weekly at first and monthly later.12 An app on its own is not that, and none of these reviews can separate the logging from the people checking in.
Several authors of these reviews declared links to commercial weight loss programmes or to Novo Nordisk, and the 2025 review was funded through a Novo Nordisk UK Research Foundation fellowship.910 That does not make the numbers wrong, and the reviews pool trials run by many other research groups, but you should have it in mind when you read them.
Who calorie tracking may not suit
Across 85 studies of 94,295 adults presenting for obesity treatment, 14% met the criteria for binge-eating disorder, and on a self-report scale 26% described moderate binge eating and 12% severe.13 A meaningful share of people who start counting calories to lose weight are carrying disordered eating before they open any app, which is part of why the surveys look the way they do.
On who is at higher risk, the best available guide is expert agreement rather than data. In a 2023 consensus study, 87 clinicians, researchers and people with lived experience rated the factors they thought raised eating disorder risk during weight management. The highest agreement went to a history of an eating disorder, weight-based teasing or stigma, and internalised weight bias. Among strategies, the ones most often rated as likely to raise risk were a focus on weight, prescriptive diets and exercise plans, and monitoring such as calorie counting. A health focus, flexibility and psychosocial support were rated as likely to lower it.14 Those are opinions, from a group that was 81 women out of 87 and mostly based in Australia and the United States, and the authors present them as a starting point for research rather than a finding.
Set that beside the trial and the clearest line is a history of an eating disorder, which describes exactly the people the trial screened out. There is no trial showing calorie tracking is safe for them, and most of the people with a diagnosis who used one said the app had contributed to their illness.58
What the evidence does not settle
I went looking for a trial that gave a calorie tracking app to people with a history of disordered eating and measured what happened over months. I could not find one. This is where each kind of evidence stops:
| Evidence | Who was studied | What it found | What it cannot tell you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surveys1234 | Students, young women, men in fitness communities | Trackers report more symptoms | Which came first |
| Patient reports5 | 105 people with an eating disorder | Most users felt the app contributed | Whether it did |
| Eight-week follow-up7 | 68 undergraduate women | No rise in concern from tracking | Anything beyond two months |
| Randomised trial8 | 200 low-risk undergraduate women | No harm from a month of logging | Anything about people at risk |
| Weight loss programme reviews910 | Thousands of adults with overweight or obesity | Symptoms fall on average; new ones in up to 6.5% in four studies | Whether an app alone behaves the same |
The gaps I would most like to see closed are these. Nobody has tested app-only tracking over a long period: the trial ran a month and the follow-up study eight weeks. Nobody has separated logging from the support that surrounds it in weight loss programmes. And the groups most likely to be hurt, people with an eating disorder history and adolescents, are the least studied; the authors of the 2025 women's survey named adolescents specifically as a group that still needs research.4
Rigid rules and flexible ones
One older line of research helps with the question of how to track, as opposed to whether. Using questionnaires and seven-day food diaries from 54,517 people in a computer-assisted weight reduction programme, plus a population survey of 1,838 people, researchers split dietary restraint into two kinds. Rigid control, the all-or-nothing kind, went with more frequent and more severe binge eating. Flexible control went with less binge eating, lower body mass index and a higher chance of losing weight over the year-long programme.15
That is an association, not an experiment, and it predates smartphone calorie counters. It lines up with two things above: young adults who tracked mainly to manage weight and shape scored worse than those who tracked for health and fitness,3 and the consensus panel rated flexibility as protective.14
In a food log, flexibility looks like treating a daily target as an average rather than a line you pass or fail. A day over it tells you about that day. Eating less tomorrow to pay it back turns an average into a debt, and a meal you could not log is simply missing from the record. If logging has started to feel like the rigid version, the practical side of keeping it light is in how to count calories without losing your mind, and the reasons to log briefly rather than thoroughly are in why most calorie apps ask for too much.
Signs that calorie tracking has stopped helping
The US National Institute of Mental Health describes becoming fixated or obsessed with weight loss, body weight or shape, and controlling food intake as possible signs of an eating disorder. It is explicit that eating disorders are not a choice, that they occur in people who are underweight, average weight or overweight, and that people recover with treatment. For binge-eating disorder, the sign it names is regularly losing control of eating.16
The following are not diagnostic criteria. They are the things I would take as a reason to stop logging and talk to a doctor:
- Feeling anxious or guilty about a meal you could not log.
- Eating less tomorrow to make up for today.
- Skipping meals with other people because of what they would do to the number.
- Letting the day's total decide how you feel about yourself.
Any of them can happen at any body weight, and switching to a different app will not help with them.
What a calorie counter app can do about this, and what it cannot
I build one, so I should say what mine does. MyPlate never sets a daily target below 1,200 calories for women or 1,500 for men, which is the top of the ranges the NIH clinical guidelines give for a low-calorie diet: 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,200 to 1,500 for men.17 It will not let you pick a goal weight below a body mass index of 18.5 for your height. It has no streaks. And a photo scan is an estimate of a plate, not a measurement of it.
None of that has been tested as eating disorder prevention, and I would not claim it works as such. The forum study found people describing how they got around exactly this sort of limit in another calorie logger.6 So a floor is a default that a determined person can get past. An app also cannot tell that the person holding it is struggling, and it should not be the thing deciding that.
Common questions
Can a calorie counter app cause an eating disorder?
Nobody has shown that it does, and nobody has ruled it out for everyone. In surveys, people who use calorie tracking apps report more eating disorder symptoms, but a survey cannot say which came first.1 The one randomised trial, in 200 undergraduate women at low risk, found that a month of logging in MyFitnessPal changed nothing about eating disorder risk, anxiety or mood compared with not logging. The authors chose a low-risk group on purpose and said the result may not apply to people at higher risk.8
Is counting calories to lose weight safe if I have had an eating disorder?
Not without a clinician involved, because there is no evidence that it is. A history of an eating disorder was the risk factor experts agreed on most strongly, and the one trial that found no harm screened out people at risk.148 In a study of 105 people with a diagnosed eating disorder, 73% of those who used MyFitnessPal felt it had contributed to their illness.5 If you want to lose weight, raise it with a doctor or registered dietitian who knows your history before you start any food tracker app.
Do weight loss programmes make binge eating worse?
For most adults, no. Across 49 behavioural weight management studies with 6,337 adults, binge eating and overall eating disorder scores fell on average and stayed lower at follow-up. Four of those studies found new symptoms in a small subset, between 0% and 6.5% of participants, which is why the authors recommend watching for them.9 These were supported programmes with regular contact from staff, not an app used alone.12
What are the warning signs that calorie tracking is becoming unhealthy?
When it starts deciding your mood or what you eat tomorrow. The US National Institute of Mental Health describes becoming fixated on weight loss, body shape or controlling food intake as possible signs of an eating disorder, and notes that eating disorders occur at every body weight.16 Feeling anxious or guilty about a meal you could not log, eating less to make up for yesterday, or avoiding meals with other people because of the number are all reasons to stop and talk to a doctor.
Is a simple calorie tracker app safer than a detailed one?
Nobody has tested that. No trial has compared app designs on eating disorder outcomes, so an app that calls itself the safe one is guessing. What has some support is flexibility: in data from more than 54,000 people on a weight reduction programme, flexible control over eating went with less binge eating, and rigid all-or-nothing control went with more.15 A simpler log may make flexibility easier to keep, but that is my own reasoning and nobody has measured it.
Watch what the number does to you
For most adults counting calories to lose weight, the best evidence available says calorie tracking does not raise eating disorder symptoms, and in supported programmes they tend to fall.9 For people with a history of an eating disorder, the evidence says nothing either way, and that silence should not be read as a sign that it is safe.
If you do track, treat the target as an average across days and keep it above the floor: 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,500 for men is the top of the NIH low-calorie ranges, and anything lower belongs with a clinician rather than an app.17
And if logging is making you anxious, or the number has started to decide how you eat and how you feel, stop and talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian. Putting the app down at that point is the sensible thing to do.
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these. If you find a number that doesn't match the source it claims, tell me and I'll correct it.
- Simpson CC, Mazzeo SE (2017). Calorie counting and fitness tracking technology: Associations with eating disorder symptomatology. Eating Behaviors, 26:89-92. Read on PubMed →
- Linardon J, Messer M (2019). My fitness pal usage in men: Associations with eating disorder symptoms and psychosocial impairment. Eating Behaviors, 33:13-17. Read on PubMed →
- Plateau CR, Bone S, Lanning E, Meyer C (2018). Monitoring eating and activity: Links with disordered eating, compulsive exercise, and general wellbeing among young adults. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 51(11):1270-1276. Read on PubMed →
- Anderberg I, Kemps E, Prichard I (2025). Tracking every bite and step: Associations between diet and fitness app use, disordered eating, body image concern and compulsive exercise. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 80:102890. Read on PubMed →
- Levinson CA, Fewell L, Brosof LC (2017). My Fitness Pal calorie tracker usage in the eating disorders. Eating Behaviors, 27:14-16. Read on PubMed →
- McCaig D, Elliott MT, Prnjak K, Walasek L, Meyer C (2020). Engagement with MyFitnessPal in eating disorders: Qualitative insights from online forums. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53(3):404-411. Read on PubMed →
- Berry RA, Driscoll G, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz M, Rodgers RF (2024). Exploring longitudinal relationships between fitness tracking and disordered eating outcomes in college-aged women. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 57(7):1532-1541. Read on PubMed →
- Hahn SL, Kaciroti N, Eisenberg D, Weeks HM, Bauer KW, Sonneville KR (2021). Introducing Dietary Self-Monitoring to Undergraduate Women via a Calorie Counting App Has No Effect on Mental Health or Health Behaviors: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 121(12):2377-2388. Read on PubMed →
- Jebeile H, Libesman S, Melville H, et al. (2023). Eating disorder risk during behavioral weight management in adults with overweight or obesity: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Obesity Reviews, 24(6):e13561. Read on PubMed →
- Tsompanaki E, Koutoukidis DA, Wren G, et al. (2025). The impact of weight loss interventions on disordered eating symptoms in people with overweight and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. eClinicalMedicine, 80:103049. Read on PubMed →
- Gorin AA, Niemeier HM, Hogan P, et al. (2008). Binge eating and weight loss outcomes in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes: results from the Look AHEAD trial. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(12):1447-1455. Read on PubMed →
- Lister NB, Khalid R, Jardine IR, et al. (2026). Unpacking weight management interventions measuring eating disorder risk in adults: coding of components of interventions in a systematic review. Journal of Eating Disorders, 14(1):202. Read on PubMed →
- Melville H, Lister NB, Libesman S, et al. (2025). The Prevalence of Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating in Adults Seeking Obesity Treatment: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 58(9):1644-1661. Read on PubMed →
- Jebeile H, McMaster CM, Johnson BJ, et al. (2023). Identifying Factors Which Influence Eating Disorder Risk during Behavioral Weight Management: A Consensus Study. Nutrients, 15(5):1085. Read on PubMed →
- Westenhoefer J, Stunkard AJ, Pudel V (1999). Validation of the flexible and rigid control dimensions of dietary restraint. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 26(1):53-64. Read on PubMed →
- National Institute of Mental Health (2024). Eating Disorders: What You Need to Know. National Institutes of Health, NIH Publication 24-MH-4901. Read the NIMH guide →
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH (1998). Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. NIH Publication 98-4083. Read the guidelines →
The formulas and limits behind MyPlate's own numbers, with their citations, are on the health sources page.