A month counting with app: the best decision 2025 - and why I still stopped

A self -experiment: counting calories is now very easy with apps. However, the track also has dark sides. (Image: Rh2010 - Adobe Stock)

Cold calories - a simple principle with great effect. Equipped with an app, I started an exciting experiment: to take a closer look at the diet.

It quickly became clear to me how many calories are in everyday food and how more conscious food succeeds.

But over time, the downside of this control was also evident.In this experience report, I will describe why this experience was valuable, but ultimately not kept by me.

Track calories: a good resolution with great potential

As almost every year, I started eating healthier in 2025 with the intent and integrating more sport into my everyday life. Fitness studio subscription was already registered, but I had never really tried one thing before: an intensive examination of my diet.

Anyone who deals with fitness will sooner or later stumble across the saying: "Fitness is created in the kitchen" - and in my experience. A large part of what makes a healthy and sporty lifestyle is directly related to nutrition.

Calories are an important factor. Food can not only be inhealthyandunhealthydivide, but also inlow -calorieandhigh -calorie.

This division says nothing about the quality or the degree of satiety of the food, but helps if you want to lose weight in a targeted manner.

My goal was to lose weight through a calorie deficit.

So I have the appMyFitnessPaldownloaded. But there are also some other apps that can help track the diet:Yazio,LifesumorCronometerto name just a few.

The first few weeks: eye -opening knowledge

The principle of apps is simple:

• You use it like a diary and enter everything that is consumed.
• With the help of a barcode scanner, food can be grasped at lightning speed and only has to enter the exact amount.
• The app divides the food into breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and automatically calculates the consumed calories.

I quickly realized that many foods that I aslightorfastclassified, in reality there were real calorie bombs. Noodles, nuts, bread, spreads, juices - all of this often contains far more calories than perhaps assumed.

This realization helped me to better control the portions, to plan more specifically and to eat more consciously.Vegetables in particular quickly replace most of it on my plate: it often contains so few calories that tracking is almost not worth it at all.

The side effect: enjoyment falls by the wayside

Apps make it much easier to keep an eye on calories, as thanks to the QR code scans you can easily grasp what you have eaten and the databases usually also reproduce the correct products. Only once or twice I had a completely different product on the screen after the scan.

Tracks are very simplified and there is a good starting point to continuously record what you eat.

Over time, I was able to better structure the meals with the calorie requirement over the day: in the morning more healthy, high -calorie dishes and in the evening it is more easy to use the remaining calories.

But after a few weeks the downside of the calorie counting was shown.

• Food was no longer assessed according to taste or enjoyment, but only according to their calorie content.
• Meals increasingly focused on the nutritional balance, instead of what was really lust.
• A restaurant visit or food with friends became a challenge - after all, it was no longer possible to understand exactly how many calories landed on the plate.

The more I dealt with the details, the more I lost sight of the big picture. The joy of eating sank and instead it became a pure arithmetic task.

Why I stopped again - and what I learned anyway

After about six weeks I decided to reset the track. Not because it didn't work - on the contrary. The method of scanning everything was effective, I lost weight and there were valuable insights into my diet.

But I didn't want my diet to control my life. I wanted to allow myself to enjoy food again without having every calorie in the back of the head.

Nevertheless, counting calories was one of the best decisions that I made in 2025.

Why? Because I have a deep understanding of food and my diet. I now know what meals really fill up, how I better distribute my calories and how I eat more consciously - even without the app.

Conclusion: Balance is the key

Counting calories can be a valuable tool to understand nutrition and achieve goals. But it is also important not to go into control. If you use it as a learning aid, you can take a lot from it, but should make sure not to lose the joy of eating.

The app gives you important information about it and summarize the most important nutritional values ​​and daily overviews.

Especially for people who are trying to achieve a certain goal of protein or want to check whether they cannot tolerate a certain food, food tracking apps can be helpful and create and facilitate routine.

For me it was an experiment with many positive effects - but also with the realization that life is more than numbers and statistics. And that's exactly why it was one of my best decisions. But also one that I took back.