美国国家公共电台 NPR Resolved To Lose Weight? We Gave Food-Tracking Apps A Try

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

All right. We all know exercise is great for your health. But if you are looking to lose weight, you should know this. Your diet ultimately matters more than how much you work out. NPR's Maria Godoy looks at some apps that can help you keep track of what you eat.

MARIA GODOY, BYLINE¹: Like a lot of Americans, I've got some extra pounds to shed. So about two months ago, I started tracking everything I eat using an app called Lose It. It's one of several out there, like My Fitness Pal² and My Plate. When I eat something, I can look up how many calories it contains. If it's not listed, I add it myself, like when I add creamer to my coffee.

All right. It says 35 calories per tablespoon. I use two tablespoons. So that is 70 calories.

Research shows that logging what you eat can be a powerful tool for weight loss. Basically, it's your food budget. And it's not that different from creating an actual budget.

YONI FREEDHOFF: You know, how many people out there have done this exercise from a money perspective realized, holy (expletive)? I'm spending that much at Starbucks. I think that similarly we might say that about the calories we're spending at Starbucks.

GODOY: That's Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, a weight loss expert in Ottawa. He has his patients keep food diaries. And he says patients that use apps are more likely to keep up with the logging. It makes sense. Most of us are glued to our smartphones all the time anyway. I use my app to track my exercise, too.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Three, two, one.

GODOY: I think you made this extra hard today.

Thirty minutes of cross training adds an extra 340 calories to my daily food allowance. It sounds good, but there's a limit to how much food we can actually burn off through exercise.

ABBY LANGER: Yeah. Your body does not work like that.

GODOY: That's Abby Langer, a registered dietitian³.

LANGER: People who think that they can spend all day in the gym and just sort of negate⁴ all the food that they've eaten in terms of calories, that's just not how your body works.

GODOY: Because you can only burn off up to 30 percent of the calories we eat. And some people burn less. Another big concern - she says some people can become dangerously fixated on counting calories.

LANGER: There are some people who are predisposed to becoming obsessed⁵ with tracking the calories and just all the numbers and number crunching⁶.

GODOY: She says anyone who's ever had an eating disorder⁷ should not use these apps. And they shouldn't be relied on alone. One study of young adults showed those who use weight loss apps lost the same amount of weight as those who didn't. Still, as long as you take it with a grain of salt, tracking your meals can be really helpful for some people. It has been for me. While the average American puts on about a pound during the winter holidays, I actually lost six. Maria Godoy, NPR News.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 pal   

n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友

参考例句：

• He is a pal of mine.他是我的一个朋友。
• Listen,pal,I don't want you talking to my sister any more.听着，小子，我不让你再和我妹妹说话了。

3 dietitian   

n.营养学家

参考例句：

• You can seek the advice of a nutritionist or dietitian.你可以征求营养师或饮食专家的意见。
• I have no doubt she would make a good dietitian.毫无疑问她会成为优秀的营养学家。

4 negate   

vt.否定，否认；取消，使无效

参考例句：

• Our actions often negate our principles.我们的行为时常与我们所信奉的原则背道而弛。
• Mass advertising could negate the classical theory of supply and demand.大宗广告可以否定古典经济学的供求理论。

5 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

6 crunching   

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• The horses were crunching their straw at their manger. 这些马在嘎吱嘎吱地吃槽里的草。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog was crunching a bone. 狗正嘎吱嘎吱地嚼骨头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。