Is nutrition tracking worth it only if you do it for a long time?

Often times when talking to people interested in nutrition I ask - have you tried tracking nutrition? And quite often their answers are something like:

• Oh, I don’t want to track forever
• I would, but that means I would need to be perfect
• There is no point if I skip a few days

And I get it, nutrition tracking can seem daunting or even scary because it feels like a big commitment. You might get discouraged if you skip a few days, and you might feel obligated to track everything - forever.

This all or nothing approach has been ingrained into us for some weird reason. But it is a misguided view, one that we want to break.

*Important note: we are specifically talking about nutrition tracking, not calorie tracking. Read the difference.

How long should I track for ideally?

There is no right amount of time to track for, it all depends on your goals, and how nutrition tracking can help you.

For some of us, tracking is pleasant and rewarding by nature while for others it is a chore that never feels right.

It might come naturally:

1. if you enjoy data,
2. if you retrospectively analyze things,
3. if you take on habits easily and are consistent by nature.

The good news is that even if you don’t match that profile, you do not need to track forever to get valuable insights.

Any amount of time can be useful - even just 1 day, or 1 meal, or even taking a look at 1 food. Because when you inspect nutrition you learn something. You learn about the various different components, various factors that can impact your health and goals, and all of this can nudge you to make better choices in the future.

If you are new to nutrition data then simply seeing all of the nutrients can open your eyes to a whole world that you did not even know existed.

Tracking for longer does have benefits

Obviously, as with any analysis - once you have more data you can get better and deeper insights. So tracking for a few weeks to a few months is likely to yield more valuable results. Your long-term habits are easier to spot over a longer period of time, and that in itself can be very valuable. And at the same time, staying consistent for that time can let you adapt and learn.

That does not mean you have to track forever though.

Think of tracking as an experiment, or an analysis of your diet. And as for any experiment, you have to set some goals. The common goals are - to lose weight, or to gain muscle mass, etc. The problem with these is that they don’t teach you much. You are often following a formula based on calorie intake, and there is little focus on the quality of nutrition itself. In this way, tracking can truly feel like a chore, because you are working for the application, and you barely even understand why it might benefit you.

Instead the goal could be more wholesome, something that stays with you even after you reach your short-term dreams, something that can benefit your for the rest of your life - knowledge.

Instead of tracking forever, commit yourself to understanding the data. That way you can track for a few weeks and learn about all the different components, what they are and why you need them, and most importantly identify if your current diet is optimal for the bigger picture of your long-term health.

But statistics are useless if I am not consistent, right?

Not necessarily.

In Nutriely we have built a feature that lets you toggle your statistics to show only the completed days. That way, you can easily skip days and still get valuable reports.

It means you do not need to track everyday. It takes off a lot of pressure, and can liberate you to get the benefits of tracking, while not pushing yourself into a strict habit.

Hopefully this gives you the confidence to try out nutrition tracking even if you are not in love with the idea of being glued to your phone or adding a strict habit to your life.