How long does it actually take to build a habit?
How long does it take to build a habit? Learn why successful habit formation depends less on 21, 30, or 66 days and more on repetition, consistent practice, and getting enough reps to make a new behavior feel automatic.
2-Tips
By Jennifer Broxterman, RD
Kind Nerd Note: To form a new habit, your clients don’t need a magical number of days. They need enough successful reps for a new behavior to start feeling easier. The question isn’t “how long?” it’s “how many reps?”.
Tip #1:
Count the reps, not the days
If you’re a nutrition coach, I’m sure you get asked this question all of the time (I know I sure do):
“How long does it take to build a habit?”
21 days? 30 days? 66 days?
Last week, I was coaching a client named Ghina who has struggled with her sleep and nighttime eating for years. We’d figured out that when she stays up late, she’s more likely to eat a fourth meal, crave cereal and carbs, boredom eat while watching TV, and then wake up less hungry the next morning. She’s been stuck in this cycle for years, even decades at this point.
So we picked two habits to practice for the next month:
1. “Kitchen’s closed” after dinner
2. Be in bed before 11 pm
Ghina actually summed it up really well:
“If these are things that people have struggled with their entire lives, I don’t think one week is going to do it. If it was possible, I would have done it years ago. I think I just have to give myself more time and practice.”
YES, Ghina!
A week isn't magical. Neither is 21 days, 30 days, or 66 days. What matters is how many times someone actually practices the behavior.
The goal isn’t to nail these for a week. It’s to get Ghina enough successful reps that they start to feel automatic. Her comment reminded me of one of my favorite passages from Atomic Habits. Keep reading…
Tip #2:
Atomic Habits: How Long vs. How Many?
I regularly re-read Atomic Habits to help me be a better coach, and just this week I came across this paragraph (from page 146 if you have it kicking around on your own bookshelf):
One of the most common questions I hear is, “How long does it take to build a new habit?” But what people really should be asking is, “How many does it take to form a new habit?” That is, how many repetitions are required to make a habit automatic?
There is nothing magical about time passing with regard to habit formation. It doesn’t matter if it’s been twenty-one days or thirty days or three hundred days. What matters is the rate at which you perform the behavior. You could do something twice in thirty days, or two hundred times. It’s the frequency that makes the difference. Your current habits have been internalized over the course of hundreds, if not thousands of repetitions. New habits require the same level of frequency. You need to string together enough successful attempts until the behavior is firmly embedded in your mind and you cross the Habit Line.
– James Clear, Atomic Habits
Your clients need specific, clear, and frequent reps to get better at their eating habits.
Instead of answering, “How long will this take?”, help them figure out the behavior they need to practice, and then give them lots of opportunities to practice it.
Stay kind + nerdy,
❤️🐻🌈
Jen Broxterman
Registered Dietitian
Prosper Nutrition Coaching
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Jennifer Broxterman, MSc, RD
REGISTERED DIETITIAN & SPORTS NUTRITIONIST
• Award-winning Foods & Nutrition University Professor
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• Founder of Prosper Nutrition Coaching & lead nutrition coach
