[junething]

I started journaling a few months ago and it's been horrible for me. Around the end of February I decided I wanted to lose weight, and decided to use a food and exercise journal. I have a channel on Discord I write in whenever I eat or work out, and I keep a running total of the net calories for the day.

Did it work? Yes, I've lost almost 30 pounds.

Was it worth it? A solid no. It's given me some kind of eating disorder, which came with fatigue, occasional blackouts, and all sorts of problems with my GI tract.

[etothepii]

Not a doctor, I've had similar experiences in the past, overweight and poor concentration (despite being "gifted"). I tried journaling.

The accountability etc is almost magic in its effect but I had found it really hard to do. Then 12 weeks ago I started on Ozempic, almost no effort required - 30lbs lost. 3 years earlier I started taking 54mg methylphenidate and on the days I take it, concentration is not a problem.

[the_sleaze9]

Sounds like journalling and the accountability it brought was too effective in your case.

[shishy]

Losing weight especially with that much scrutiny where you track everything can definitely make you neurotic about what you eat, and mess with how you perceive yourself (i.e. someone looks perfectly fine but their eyes just laser focus on a tiny bit of fat on their belly and they think they're obese because of how critical they were).

With stuff like that it helps a lot to journal but in a way where it's not hypercritical / nit picky / focused on every little detail but just slightly broader strokes in my experience to keep it healthy & sustainable (not messing up how you perceive yourself)