Nutrition tracking is both quantitative and qualitative tracking of food nutrients we ingest on a day-to-day basis. The benefits of nutrition tracking is crucial as it helps in understanding the unique goal of an individual and thus strategically using it for meal planning to exercise routine and other aspects of personalization.
Nutrition tracking is used by health organizations, researchers, clinicians, dietitians, nutritionists, athletes, and common people who are fitness health enthusiasts.
Benefits of Nutrition Tracking
The details of the benefits of nutrition tracking are :
1. Research
Research is an integral part of nutrition tracking. As nutrients have various functions in our body like from providing energy to immunity. All comes from food.
2. Clinical assessment
Helps in understanding the effects of food. For example, a few years back ghee was discarded by dietitians and nutritionists, but now ghee is a superfood that helps in fighting cancer to obesity after clinical assessment.
3. Identifies your goal
Every individual’s goals are different, which is why dietitians and nutritionists are key guides to planning and build an individual’s road map for them.
4. Promotes the understanding of metabolism
Food and nutrition involve a deep understanding of human metabolism. How does our body function to extract nutrition from food? Like fruits and vegetables provide essential micronutrients, important for enzyme formation to antibody production in our body.
5. Helps in filtering the nutrients required by an individual
Nutrient requirements are different for everyone. For example, weightlifters need more carbs and fats for power and energy. Whereas swimmers require a lean body so they need more protein for powerful muscles as compared to weightlifters.
6. Weight loss
The science of weight loss is closely associated with nutrition. Most of obese people have nutritional imbalances in their bodies.
7. Peak performance
Peak performance is essential for celebrities and sports personalities as they have to achieve results in a limited span of time.
8. Increases awareness of eating habits
Nowadays the so-called healthy foods in supermarkets are laden with unhealthy substances. They may come with fancy labeling so beware of such products and stick to fresh, natural seasonal food items easily available in your area.
9. Help in making food choices
With so many food options easily available for us, choosing the correct food on the basis of nutrition is a better way to eat healthily. E.g. intact fruits are better than juices.
10. Helps in meal planning and portions
Meal planning is based on calorie needs and specific goals. Therefore, nutrition tracking helps in portion controls, timings, and specific needs per person.
11. Promotes self-awareness with accountability
Nutrition tracking over a period of time helps in creating self-awareness of what you are eating and thus taking accountability of your actions too in the long term. It educates a person in understanding the effect of nutrition on overall health.
Benefits Of Tracking Calories
For seeking specific results tracking calories is important. You must have seen this thing is very common in celebrities and athletes as there are some major benefits of tracking calories as stated by the best nutritionist in Mumbai, or anywhere else. These benefits include –
- Enhances weight loss process
- Promotes holistic health
- Develops healthy food habits
- Choosing food on nutritional value
Should I Track What I eat?
We all think “Should I track what I eat ?” and YES we should track because :
- Increases mindfulness: We tend to forget what we eat in a day. Tracking helps you to remain mindful of what you eat.
- Informs nutrient density of your food: Every food is not worth it for you to meet your goals and nutritional needs. Tracking what you eat helps you to realize what foods are inhibiting you from meeting your goals. For example, a latte with whole milk and syrups can add an extra 500 calories to your day. So, either you can eliminate latte or you can change full-fat milk to fat-free and use sugar substitutes.
- Helps you balance your total calories and macronutrients throughout the day: When you pen down each meal, you realize how balanced your meals are and this helps in making better choices for your energy needs.
- Allows you to plan ahead: You can plan your future meals easily with the help of tracking to stop overindulgence.
Is It Bad to Track What You Eat?
Well, tracking food all the time can take a toll on you. So the question arises “Is it bad to track what you eat?” The answer is NO if done logically and practically.
Red flags when you are tracking what you eat as stated by the best dietitians in delhi and others :
1. Persons with EATING DISORDER
If you have a history of disordered eating or eating disorders, food tracking may not be the best approach for you. A registered dietitian with special training in eating disorders can help you to regain overall health and wellbeing.
2. If You Are An INTUITIVE EATER
If your goal is to be an intuitive eater, then tracking likely isn’t for you. Tracking provides external data on your intake and can disconnect you from the internal body cues which are the cornerstone of intuitive eating. While intuitive eaters still use nutrition knowledge to make informed choices (ie., building meals around protein and fiber), validating these choices with specific numbers in an app can further disconnect you from listening to how much, when, and what you need. For many, tracking is a temporary educational tool for learning about nutrition, and eventually supporting a permanent transition to an intuitive eating approach as it is easier to follow over a long period.
3. Person Who Rely On NUMBERS ONLY
Dieters can find themselves playing the “game” of numbers around the numbers of calories, amount of fat, protein, etc. all day long. If you are such a personality that can easily get fixated on the numbers versus your body’s internal signs, then tracking is not for you. Better consult a Registered Dietitian to help you in adopting supportive habits, without food tracking, to reach your unique goals.
