Why most people quit food logging (and how not to)
Logging fades after a couple of weeks for almost everyone. The fix is to make it smaller, not to try harder.
4 min read
Most people who start logging their food are finished within a few weeks1. That's not laziness. Typing out a lunch ingredient by ingredient is a chore, and a chore has to pay you back quickly or it goes. Logging doesn't, at first. The payoff shows up weeks in, which is about when most people have already stopped.
So here's what that payoff looks like, so you can decide if it's worth the first few weeks.
The scale moves
In one large weight-loss trial, the people who kept a daily food record lost about twice as much as the people who didn't2. Some of that is simple. It's hard to ignore a snack you've just written down.
And you stop eating the same bad lunch
Nobody sets out to cut their sodium. You log Tuesday's lunch, see it came to 1,400 mg, and on Thursday you pick something else. Nobody decides to eat more fiber either. You see the gap, add a scoop of beans to a salad, and the gap closes a little. It's a lot of small changes that you'd never have made without seeing the numbers.
Am I on track for my weight goal?
ProjectedLoggedTrendGoalProjected weight over the next 22 weeks at your average of 2,420 kcal a day: from 173 lb to 163 lb, against a goal of 163 lb.
Six weeks of weigh-ins on a sample account, with the trend line and where it's heading.
This is the same sample account after a couple of months of logging, with no diet involved. Fat starts well above target and settles down toward it. Carbs and protein stay put.
Chart my macros over time
Carbs
Protein
Fat
Weekly averages: carbs, protein, and fat as a share of your targets (273 g, 109 g, and 62 g a day).
Carbs, protein and fat against target. Fat drifts down; the other two stay steady.
The vitamins and minerals go the other way. Vitamin C, folate, potassium, calcium and magnesium start low and climb, because more vegetables turn up on the plate once you're looking at it.
Chart my vitamins and minerals
Vitamin D51% avg
Vitamin C123% avg
Iron174% avg
Calcium85% avg
Potassium94% avg
Magnesium70% avg
Vitamin B12277% avg
Folate108% avg
Zinc127% avg
Weekly averages: each tracked vitamin and mineral as a share of your target.
Each vitamin and mineral as a share of target, climbing over a couple of months.
Fiber is the one most people are short on, and it's usually the first to move. Sodium moves the other way.
Tell me more about a nutrient
Weekly average fiber against your 37 g target.
Fiber, up from about two thirds of target.
Tell me more about a nutrient
Weekly average sodium against your 2,300 mg limit.
Sodium, down from well over the limit.
Make the first step small
All of that comes from a log you can keep up with, so keep it small. Take a photo of the plate and let SeeFood do the typing. Try it below: pick a dish and see what comes back.
SeeFood
Tap "See Food" to try it.
A sample photo, logged. No typing, no searching a food database.
Log the next meal, not the whole day and not the backlog. And log it when you sit down to eat, because a habit that's tied to something you already do survives a lot longer than one you have to remember.
Missed a day? Log the next meal
A new habit took about two months to feel automatic in one study, and a missed day didn't undo it 3. So the gaps aren't a reason to start over on Monday. Your month will have some.
How consistent has my logging been?
Days logged
30of 30
Meals per day
3
Oct 3: logged
Oct 4: logged
Oct 5: logged
Oct 6: logged
Oct 7: logged
Oct 8: logged
Oct 9: logged
Oct 10: logged
Oct 11: logged
Oct 12: logged
Oct 13: logged
Oct 14: logged
Oct 15: logged
Oct 16: logged
Oct 17: logged
Oct 18: logged
Oct 19: logged
Oct 20: logged
Oct 21: logged
Oct 22: logged
Oct 23: logged
Oct 24: logged
Oct 25: logged
Oct 26: logged
Oct 27: logged
Oct 28: logged
Oct 29: logged
Oct 30: logged
Oct 31: logged
Nov 1: logged
LoggedNot logged30 of 30 days logged
A sample month with a few gaps. The habit carries on.
It also helps that every log feeds your hero's XP and chests, so the early days pay you something while the charts above are still filling in. Start with tomorrow's breakfast.
Why most people quit food logging (and how not to)
Logging fades after a couple of weeks for almost everyone. The fix is to make it smaller, not to try harder.
4 min read
Most people who start logging their food are finished within a few weeks1. That's not laziness. Typing out a lunch ingredient by ingredient is a chore, and a chore has to pay you back quickly or it goes. Logging doesn't, at first. The payoff shows up weeks in, which is about when most people have already stopped.
So here's what that payoff looks like, so you can decide if it's worth the first few weeks.
The scale moves
In one large weight-loss trial, the people who kept a daily food record lost about twice as much as the people who didn't2. Some of that is simple. It's hard to ignore a snack you've just written down.
Am I on track for my weight goal?
ProjectedLoggedTrendGoalProjected weight over the next 22 weeks at your average of 2,420 kcal a day: from 173 lb to 163 lb, against a goal of 163 lb.
Six weeks of weigh-ins on a sample account, with the trend line and where it's heading.
And you stop eating the same bad lunch
Nobody sets out to cut their sodium. You log Tuesday's lunch, see it came to 1,400 mg, and on Thursday you pick something else. Nobody decides to eat more fiber either. You see the gap, add a scoop of beans to a salad, and the gap closes a little. It's a lot of small changes that you'd never have made without seeing the numbers.
This is the same sample account after a couple of months of logging, with no diet involved. Fat starts well above target and settles down toward it. Carbs and protein stay put.
Chart my macros over time
Carbs
Protein
Fat
Weekly averages: carbs, protein, and fat as a share of your targets (273 g, 109 g, and 62 g a day).
Carbs, protein and fat against target. Fat drifts down; the other two stay steady.
The vitamins and minerals go the other way. Vitamin C, folate, potassium, calcium and magnesium start low and climb, because more vegetables turn up on the plate once you're looking at it.
Chart my vitamins and minerals
Vitamin D51% avg
Vitamin C123% avg
Iron174% avg
Calcium85% avg
Potassium94% avg
Magnesium70% avg
Vitamin B12277% avg
Folate108% avg
Zinc127% avg
Weekly averages: each tracked vitamin and mineral as a share of your target.
Each vitamin and mineral as a share of target, climbing over a couple of months.
Fiber is the one most people are short on, and it's usually the first to move. Sodium moves the other way.
Tell me more about a nutrient
Weekly average fiber against your 37 g target.
Fiber, up from about two thirds of target.
Tell me more about a nutrient
Weekly average sodium against your 2,300 mg limit.
Sodium, down from well over the limit.
Make the first step small
All of that comes from a log you can keep up with, so keep it small. Take a photo of the plate and let SeeFood do the typing. Try it below: pick a dish and see what comes back.
SeeFood
Tap "See Food" to try it.
A sample photo, logged. No typing, no searching a food database.
Log the next meal, not the whole day and not the backlog. And log it when you sit down to eat, because a habit that's tied to something you already do survives a lot longer than one you have to remember.
Missed a day? Log the next meal
A new habit took about two months to feel automatic in one study, and a missed day didn't undo it 3. So the gaps aren't a reason to start over on Monday. Your month will have some.
How consistent has my logging been?
Days logged
30of 30
Meals per day
3
Oct 3: logged
Oct 4: logged
Oct 5: logged
Oct 6: logged
Oct 7: logged
Oct 8: logged
Oct 9: logged
Oct 10: logged
Oct 11: logged
Oct 12: logged
Oct 13: logged
Oct 14: logged
Oct 15: logged
Oct 16: logged
Oct 17: logged
Oct 18: logged
Oct 19: logged
Oct 20: logged
Oct 21: logged
Oct 22: logged
Oct 23: logged
Oct 24: logged
Oct 25: logged
Oct 26: logged
Oct 27: logged
Oct 28: logged
Oct 29: logged
Oct 30: logged
Oct 31: logged
Nov 1: logged
LoggedNot logged30 of 30 days logged
A sample month with a few gaps. The habit carries on.
It also helps that every log feeds your hero's XP and chests, so the early days pay you something while the charts above are still filling in. Start with tomorrow's breakfast.
