Dear Calories
How to read it
Every uniquely colored vertical line represents a day from the past
Thanksgiving week (11/22/20 - 11/27/20). Data for each day includes that
day's total calories from all meals, as well as the total daily macro
nutrients including proteins, fat and carbohydrates. The length of the
vertical line maps to the total calories, whereas the three ellipses
correspond to relative amount of the three macro nutrients.
PINK ellipse = total fat
YELLOW ellipse = total proteins
NAVY ellipse = total carbohydrates
The canvas is split in the middle into two zones. The dividing line is
my target daily calories, which is calculated to be 1440 kcal. If the
tip of a line ends within the green area, it means my total calories
that day stayed under my target, and vice versa.
What it visualizes
Over Thanksgiving week, I tracked my daily nutrition and caloric intake
using myFitnessPal app. I downdload my data as a .csv file and converted it to JSON. See it on a spreadsheet:
Reflection
I am a very active person and I've always been resistant to the
idea of counting calories. Why be a bean counter when I work out
consistently and eat a wholesome diet? However, since I started
training for marathon, I learned more about the importance of
undertanding our metabolism and the impact of food on my training and
general well-being. Balancing my food intake and energy expenditure
helps me build a healthy and sustainable relationship with food. Using
myFitnessPal to track my daily nutrition has been on my to-do list for a
while, and Thanksgiving seems like a good (challenging) time to start.
Tracking my nutriton has given me some surprising insights. First, I
experienced the most difficulty recording nutrition from Chinese food.
It was simply a guesstimate that can be far below the actual amount due
to various oils and sauces in the cooking process. The easiest meals to track are
takeouts from chain restaurants like Chipotle, since everything on
their menu is already available in the app's preset. Second, I noticed a pattern of alternating under-eating
and over-eating throughout the week. When I didn't get enough calories in on a day, I tend
to wake up more hungry than usual and eat more often throughout the day. Another important
insight that I would not gain otherwise is the inconsistency with my macronutrient intake from
day to day. The visualization makes the relative amount of each macronutrients
very prominent and easily comparable, whereas this information is obscured on the spreadsheet. One aspect of data that
is lost in the visualizaiton is the exact numbers. While the trends are more obvious, it lost the
accuracy represented by its numerical predecessor.
I anticipated to indulge on Thanksgiving, but I was surprised that all the
celebratory overeating actually inspired me to go vegan again! Goodbye meat for a while.