I Tracked Every Calorie I Ate for Over a Year—Here’s What Changed (And What Didn’t) (Credits: Pexels)
This isn’t your average “I lost 10 kilos and found nirvana” type of story (or I’d be starring in Eat, Pray, Love). But to be honest, the weight on the scale did change (for the good), and it was only a bonus. So guess what? That’s not the only thing about quantified nutrition. Calculating your calorie intake every day is a game of discipline at its core, which has taught me its own set of lessons, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
As my coach Siddesh Vojhala always reminded me:
“Weight loss happens in the kitchen. The gram-worthy abs? They’re also plated and garnished there.”
Quantified Nutrition
(Also, fun fact: Around 70% of your total energy expenditure comes from your basal metabolic rate—aka how many calories your body burns doing absolutely nothing. So yes, what you eat matters a lot.)
Here’s what quantifying nutrition for 300+ days taught me:
Discipline > Motivation
Motivation comes from the word - Motive. When you start, you start with a thought, but continuing is a choice. And that choice requires discipline. Discipline just shows up and gets the job done.
Work hard. But chill.
It’s not a 30-day plan. It’s a 30-year mindset. If you’re sprinting, you’re doing it wrong. Walk. Pace. Breathe. You need hard work, but at the end of the day, the idea is to be at peace.
No “cheat” days. Only treat days.
Enjoy a Treat Day
There are no cheat days, only treat days. Give yourself a slice of cake. Enjoy it. But don’t call it cheating. That slice isn’t a scandal—it’s balance.
Habits = Repetition.
Habit is just about doing something over and over and over and over again. Eating the same meals, working the same steps, living the same day. And all of it can be really gratifying. It’s not boring—it’s beautiful. There’s calm in routine, once you stop resisting it.
Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated.
Eat the same thing everyday
You don’t need to make every “meal prep” you come across on the gram or try out “a new way to Shakshuka.” Lay off the pressure of cooking something new every day. Let the aesthetics rest for a minute while you focus on living. Simplify. Your gut doesn’t care if your Dal looks cute.
Guesstimating is a trap.
After day 50 or day 500—if you’re quantifying, you’re quantifying, period. The weighing scale stays. It is your bestie.
The 300/365 rule.
Slip-ups happen. If you stumble, get back up. Because what you do on most days matters. You’ve still got 65 days of grace to be human. Don’t quit, just continue.
Be grateful.
You don’t have to love every bite. But respect it. That bite is fueling your mood, your meetings, your Monday madness. Food is function.
Some things changed, and others, well, just remained the same…
While the numbers on the scale did change, no one asked me about my weight before they asked for my name, about who I was and how I was doing.
My body continued to work for me. I just stopped working (eating) against it. My gut (and pot) really did thank me on hectic Mondays.
Ghar Ka Khana
The funniest part was that my diet still looked pretty much the same as what I had been eating every day at home, aka ghar ka khana. There were little tweaks here and there, with the biggest addition of all time being ‘the kitchen weighing scale.’ It was always there on standby like a tiny life coach.
(Oh, and scientifically speaking: Your body literally becomes what you eat. Every 27 days, your skin renews itself. Your liver? Every 5 months. Cells are made from you—and what you give them.)
So yeah, quantifying food wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t dramatic. But it was powerful. It’s a quiet kind of transformation. One gram, one meal, one choice at a time.
