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The 5-Second Skim: The Truth About Health Tracking

• Use tracking as a tool to measure progress and guide decisions, not as a measure of personal worth or success.

• Identify clients who are most likely to benefit—those who enjoy the process, feel in control of their choices, and maintain a flexible, self-compassionate mindset.

• Recognize the limitations of tracking, including fading motivation over time, unrealistic expectations, and imperfect data accuracy.

Tracking Health Data: Which Clients Benefit?
 

The other day, I ran into my dad at the doctor’s office. We had unknowingly booked back-to-back appointments—pop reunion!

“I’m glad I ran into you actually,” he said excitedly.

He opened his knapsack and pulled out a manila folder.

“Look at this.” 

He showed me the pages where he’d been tracking his blood pressure—three readings per day—over the course of six weeks. 

A separate page showed a line graph where he’d plotted his readings: a steady, downward sloping line.

“During my last appointment, my doctor said my blood pressure was getting too high, and suggested medication. I told him I wanted to try something first.”

For six weeks, my dad cut out alcohol, lowered his sodium intake, and added a brisk, 20-minute walk to his daily routine. 

As he graphed his readings, my dad could see his “intervention” was pretty effective: “After a week or two, I saw—hey!—this is working! So I kept going.”
 

Tracking health metrics can be extremely motivating.

(Especially if you’re a numbers nerd like my dad.)

They’re also just practical: 

As a coach, tracking a client’s metrics—running speed, lifting volume, energy levels, sleep quality, body measurements—can give you essential, objective information about whether an approach is working and how to move forward.

When you see metrics moving in the direction you want, it generally tells you: “Keep doing that!”

When you see metrics stalling or moving in the opposite direction, it generally tells you: “Try something different.”

Either way, it’s useful information to have.

But tracking can backfire too.

Tracking is helpful if you can see data as just that: data.

But some clients tend to view weight, heart rate variability, or sleep quality as a statement of who they are. (“If my race time improves, I’m good! But if I get slower, I suck.”)

False. Numbers show what you do, not who you are.

According to research, people are more likely to fall into this category if they…

✅ See the behavior they’ll track as a chore, making comments like, “I have to exercise this to lose weight.”

✅ Don’t feel they have a choice. They might say, “I don’t want to cut out soda, but my doctor told me I have to.”

✅ Do the behavior to avoid feeling guilty. In other words, they exercise because they don’t want to feel bad about not exercising.

✅ Have an unhealthy obsession with food and/or fitness. These clients can become so fixated on the numbers that they can’t think of anything else.

Another way of saying that?

👉🏽 People who benefit most from tracking will likely see tracking as enjoyable (or at least interesting), feel a sense of autonomy over their choices, and have a flexible, self-compassionate relationship to their goals. 

Other limitations…

Even for those that are able to separate their self-worth from their data, the benefits of tracking tend to wear off in about three months.

Researchers call this “the novelty effect.”

In other words, if my dad continued religiously tracking, he might find his numbers to be less exciting and motivating after a few months.

After that, he’d have to find deeper reasons to keep going.

Additionally, if you start out tracking by setting unreasonably high goals for yourself, and continually fail to meet those goals, tracking can be extremely demotivating. (Imagine my dad expected to reach “normal” blood pressure levels immediately.)

On top of that, whether clients are tracking calories by hand or using a fitness watch to measure behaviors, tracking methods are notoriously inaccurate. 

Bottom line… 

Tracking is a great tool, especially in the short term. 

But for some clients, it distracts them from their original purpose for change. 

And even with the fanciest gadgets, most clients need supportive coaching to maintain big changes long-term.

Take care,

Alex Picot-Annand, PN2, Holistic Nutritionist
Editorial Director
Precision Nutrition 
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