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Nutrition tracking is an incredibly effective tool in helping you lose weight and/or build healthy habits—even in areas of life beyond nutrition. Some people feel strongly about their commitment to nutrition tracking; others despise the idea. As beneficial as food tracking can be, many people equate the term with a chore that usually takes a fair amount of time to complete, and many struggle with the commitment. At SparkPeople, we teach you how to make nutrition tracking faster and share the benefits of nutrition tracking to give you more motivation to do this activity for at least some time period. Here's a guarantee: Give nutrition tracking a try for at least a few days or weeks and you will learn an incredible amount about your eating habits, all of which can help you reach your goals. Talk to anyone who is a tracker and they'll quickly share their favorite benefits—everything from weight loss and building healthy habits to learning how to become your own accountability coach. After watching people thrive and find success through nutrition tracking, I've come to respect it as an integral part of any weight-loss plan. Below, discover my top thoughts on why you should cast aside your trepidations and get on the nutrition tracking train. I'm not putting these in order of importance in part because I want to emphasize a few of them closer to the beginning of this article to hopefully get your attention. A word of advice is to not worry about being too exact about your calories. As a reformed perfectionist, I can say that this is one activity where "pretty good" is just fine and you don't need to be perfect in your calorie count. Instead, just do your best when you need to estimate. I mention this because some people get frustrated if they can’t figure out the exact answers to calories, but in the big picture it is far more important to track consistently than to track perfectly. 10. You’ll Lose Weight!A 2008 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that keeping a "food diary" may double your weight-loss efforts. Researchers from Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research kept tabs on 1,685 overweight and obese adults (men and women) with an average weight of 212 pounds. The researchers encouraged participants to adhere to a reduced-calorie, DASH eating plan and asked them record their daily food intake and exercise minutes. After 20 weeks, the average weight loss was 13 pounds per person. But researchers discovered something else: The more participants recorded what they ate, the more weight they lost in the end. Participants who did not keep a food diary lost about nine pounds over the course of the study, while those who recorded their food intake six or more days per week lost 18 pounds—twice as much as those who didn't track any food! 9. A-ha Educational MomentsOne of the top reasons we recommend that people do nutrition tracking for at least a short time period is the incredible "a-ha moments" that often result from this activity. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard track their food for a few days or weeks and they shout, "I’m eating 3,000 calories per day; no wonder I’m gaining weight!" This one revelation often immediately motivates people to make behavior changes. It's also the main reason we recommend that you don't make changes to your eating habits at first. Tracking your existing eating habits for a week or so is the most effective way to get an idea of where you are now, allowing you to set the foundation and then work to build healthy habits from your starting line. This practice gives you a good look at your "before" state of being. Nutrition tracking is also an amazing way to pull back the curtain on some common foods we eat without thinking twice. Consider the person who tracks a cheesecake dessert from their favorite restaurant for the first time, only to discover that this single food item contains more than 2,000 calories. A reveal such as that is enough to make you rethink how you're fueling your body and what you're really getting from those 2,000 calories. You might also learn about a-ha moments related to specific times of the day or days of the week that give you trouble, allowing you to then work on building healthy habits specifically for those issues. Some dietitians also recommend tracking your emotional state when cravings strike, as well, which can offer some big discoveries in terms of mindless munching or emotional eating. These a-ha moments might be painful at first, but in this case knowledge really is power. Once you know this information, you can choose to change your behaviors to better your body. Before you panic about having to give up your favorite foods, remember that since since almost everything is okay in moderation, you'll likely be able to indulge sometimes, even if you go over your calorie goal. With regular nutrition tracking, you'll have all the tools you need to make informed decisions about this and every other food choice. 8. You Can Make Tracking EasierThe SparkPeople Nutrition Tracker also helps make tracking easier by letting you enter your "Favorites" along with other time-saving steps. Since most of us eat a relatively small core number of foods on a regular basis, if you enter these foods into your list of favorites, you’ll be able to save a large amount of time and make tracking significantly easier—it may even be fun sometimes! 7. You Don't Need to DietMany people think they need to be on a "calorie-restriction diet" to use nutrition tracking. We take the opposite approach: After doing this for 15 years, we know that people who switch to a healthy lifestyle are more likely to keep the weight off when compared to people who do a more strict calorie-deprivation diet, including the many trendy fad diets. We have even observed the communities of other websites that focus more on a calorie-restriction diet and notice that many participants are negative. Our guess is that these people are hungry and, thus, are in a perpetual bad mood. We honestly believe the healthy lifestyle focus is one reason the SparkPeople community is so positive. In fact, we are such strong believers in a healthy lifestyle over fad diets, that our software restricts people from setting their calorie goal too low in an effort to end the cycle of dieting and regaining lost weight. 6. Accountability CoachThe great thing about nutrition tracking is that it really is like having an accountability coach in the palm of your hand. Your nutrition tracker will be there every day you use it to keep you pushing toward your goals. Even if you don’t regularly track your meals and snacks, you can come back every now and then for a "tune-up" with your nutrition tracker to get a report from your accountability coach. 5. Build Healthy HabitsTo stay within your calorie ranges, you’ll start building healthy habits one at a time by selecting healthy foods. I found it to be helpful to put together a list of my favorite foods, spices and recipes that grows over time. Not only does the list encourage me to continue discovering new healthy options, but it also helps me stay on track and can inspire creativity when I get bored with meals. Check out this activity if you're interested. Building healthy habits one at a time is in many ways more important than your calorie totals! 4. Great DataOne fun point about the time you put into nutrition tracking is that you get great data and information in return. This includes both calorie and nutrient information so you can make sure your body is getting the proper nutrients to fuel your body. You can also use reports to look at this information over time to see improvements or areas you need to continue working on adjusting. You can even share this information with your dietitian or doctor as needed. 3. Planning ToolSome people like to use the nutrition tracker to plan ahead for their day, which can keep them from scanning the fridge aimlessly in times of stress or boredom. To do this, enter everything you plan to eat for a meal to check the calories and nutrition information. In general, I’m a big fan of different types of planning because planning a goal makes it much more likely you’ll reach that goal. 2. Motivates Exercise and Reaching Other GoalsAs you focus on the calories you are eating, it’s more likely you’ll consider the benefits of burning calories with exercise. I’m such a big fan of exercise because, in my experience, it's often easier to make good food and lifestyle choices when I also exercise. I notice this myself when it comes to great habits like drinking more water instead of sugary drinks and eating more veggies that contain a good amount of water. Nutrition tracking is also a goal-setting process in disguise! You learn to set and reach one small goal at a time and stay accountable to yourself. Learning this type of process easily transfers to other areas of life, be it professional or personal pursuits. Nutrition tracking both helps you get specific health and fitness results while also having great mental benefits, as well. 1. Don't Listen to Me—Listen to Other Members!"Took me awhile to be convinced about the value of tracking, but I have tracked now for seven years—wouldn't be a complete day without doing that!" 1CRAZYDOG "I have been tracking my nutrition since day one of joining SparkPeople. When I first joined after reading just a few nutrition and fitness articles, I decided that I knew nothing and the Spark coaches knew what they were talking about. (I also realized that what my mother told me all those years ago was true.) I started tracking for the first two weeks without changing how I ate; I needed the eye opener to realize how right the Spark coaches were. Tracking your nutrition is also very important to keep track of all those important nutrients to make sure you are getting what you need. That's [also] where you find out the food you may be eating or drinking isn't as healthy as you thought." SUSIEMT "I have always disliked tracking, I think for the same reason that it works: It makes you accountable! Seeing what I'm eating in print makes the harsh reality of all the naughty foods unavoidable. I really need to start tracking and stick to it if I want to see any kind of change at the scale and in the clothing sizes." SEAGLASS1215 "Tracking has taught me discipline. I try to make sure that my meals are balanced and I stay within my daily calorie intake range. I try to steer clear of most prepared foods because of the high sugar and salt content. Tracking helps me to stay honest." BKNY11216 "Tracking keeps me from lying to myself about how many calories I've eaten on a given day. It's easy to say, "I deserve [fill in your favorite treat here] because I worked out this morning." At first, the totals for the treat I "deserved" were close to or over the amount I burned with exercise. When I saw that in black and white, I changed how I did things." HEALTH4MICHELLE Bonus: Words of CautionHere are two big warnings about nutrition tracking:
At SparkPeople, we know different people prefer different ways to reach goals. I remember one testimonial where a person told us she tracked every calorie she ate for a year and lost 50 pounds. Another person, on the other hand, might say, "I tracked my food for a couple of weeks and learned a good amount, but now I’m motivated by supporting my SparkFriends in the community." It all comes down to whatever works best for you! |