Accountability is key. Study after study and human after human prove a few truths:

1. We eat better when we eat with other people
2. We have better weight, sugar and diabetes control when we are forced to check in with an expert or a group of our peers
3. We consistently underestimate how much we are really eating and what its calorie content is
4. We do better when we have a tangible system for getting this information out of our heads and into the real world.

Oh, there are systems galore from journaling to joining but this new one has me all excited! www.tweetwhatyoueat.com is a program that uses a social media platform that many of us are currently addicted to…Twitter. I am already tweeting 10-15 times each day, why not tweet to myself everything that I am eating so I can tally, task and talk all at once? There are 175 million users on twitter and growing, every one of them could use this kind of feedback. If you factor in the 60-75% of North Americans who have a weight problem and who could use some easy, top of mind, encouragement, well, then, we actually have a revolution on our hands.
What’s even more interesting to me as a practitioner is the data created that is honest and crowd sourced. There are as many ways to use this system as there are people…

• As a simple notepad so you can keep track on the fly and tally calories at the end of the day
• As a tracking system that will add your calorie estimate inputs
• As a social support
• As a subtle reminder
• As a guide-twye will provide a crowd sourced estimate of how much MOST people think a certain food is worth calorically.

If 100 people tweet that they ate a banana and it was worth 100 calories but only 70 said it was 50 calories, the system will provide you with the most likely answer. Using the collective wisdom of your peers! This data fascinates me and I intend to mine it. Working with Alex Ressi, the creator of www.tweetwhatyoueat.com to assess what you think food is worth versus what it is really worth is information that will become invaluable. My assumption is that many people are under-estimating; it is likely what got us into this mess in the first place. But, how far off we? Let’s find out…