Calorie Counting Forever: A Personal, Complicated Chorus with MyFitnessPal

A Slate Life essay chronicles the author’s decades-long habit of counting calories with MyFitnessPal, weighed against a recent redesign and a shifting cultural stance on dieting. She reflects on how the app has become an intimate record of her life, the nuanced debate about whether calorie counting “works” in the long term, and how experts view it as a short‑term tool rather than a forever habit. The piece also explores how different people experience tracking—as a helpful habit, a crutch, or something to be avoided—while acknowledging that personal mindset and goals largely determine whether counting calories feels empowering or disordered.