Thread by @DoctorTro

THREAD ALERT 🚨

CALORIE TRACKING, LOGGING, ESTIMATION all are consistently unreliable in the medical literature

KNOWLEDGE of calories has little effect on intake

In this thread ill highlight some of the negative data on “calories” having any impact on intake or weight loss

Calories on labels have no effect on ordering: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

People don’t use calories when ordering: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19299679/

No changes in intake with calorie information nature.com/articles/ijo20…

Less than 35% can correctly estimate calories of food, calorie labeling increases accuracy of calorie estimation from 15% in low income consumers to 24% but does not effect food intake

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Male college student purchases unaffected by calorie information pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19101463/

27% believe calorie information affects their choices, when in fact it actually doesn’t pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19808705/

No impact of NYC legislation mandating calorie information on intake ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Overestimate calories by 37% pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26469988/

Inaccuracy of food logs
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7072625/

Please forward this to lazy doctors who can’t do their own DD

More studies:

Calorie counting vs ad lib diet, ad lib does better
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9469978/

Dieters don’t like nutrition apps focused on calories ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Calorie counting associates with ED
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30155857/

No difference from calorie counting vs fixed plan
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27650876/

Furthermore, many trials like this one showing no major difference from any major commercial program, weight watchers typically the same or slightly worse than other modalities

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16720619/