For many women, tracking food feels like punishment. A reminder of diet culture, restriction, and years spent trying to eat less instead of live more. But what if tracking wasn’t about control at all, and was actually the key to food freedom?

In this episode of Eat the Fucking Food, Kristin Collins sits down with Laura Savino, founder of Elevated Pursuit Nutrition, to reframe tracking as a neutral, empowering tool. One that removes shame, takes emotion out of food decisions, and helps women finally understand how much they can eat to feel energized, strong, and consistent.

Laura explains why most women don’t have a fat loss problem, they have a maintenance problem. They’ve never been taught how to eat enough, consistently, without swinging between restriction and overeating. This conversation breaks down why eating at maintenance is foundational, how data creates clarity instead of judgment, and why learning to fuel yourself is the most radical shift midlife women can make.

If you’ve ever felt triggered by tracking, stuck in the cycle of dieting, or confused about why “nothing works anymore,” this episode offers a grounded, practical way forward.

1. Why tracking food can create freedom instead of restriction
2. How diet culture disconnects women from hunger and fullness
3. What maintenance calories actually are and why they matter
4. Why under-eating during the week leads to weekend overeating
5. How data removes shame from nutrition decisions
6. What it means to eat enough to thrive, not just survive

We talk about:

1. 00:00 Why tracking food feels scary
2. 01:00 Reframing tracking as a tool for thriving, not restriction
3. 02:00 Why women associate tracking with dieting and eating less
4. 03:00 Learning how much food you can eat, not how little
5. 04:30 Maintenance calories explained and why they’re misunderstood
6. 07:30 Under-eating during the week and weekend overeating cycles
7. 10:30 Why eating “healthy” can still leave you underfueled
8. 13:00 Using data to remove emotion, guilt, and shame from food
9. 16:30 High-satiety vs low-satiety eating and why it matters
10. 19:30 Why maintenance feels hard before it feels freeing
11. 22:30 Individual differences in hunger, fullness, and calorie needs
12. 25:30 Learning how to eat like an adult in a diet-obsessed culture
13. 28:30 How consistency, not restriction, creates long-term results

Connect with Laura