Turtle data
Praise gets acted on six times as often as a calorie warning
Key findings
Women using Turtle acted on in-app praise for a good week 20% of the time, against 3% for a caution not to cut calories any harder (June to September 2026). Practical prompts sat in between, such as a food log catch-up (12%). Source: Turtle Method member data, turtlemethod.com/data/momentum-nudges/.
of praise nudges acted on, against 3% of calorie warnings
Encouragement gets acted on far more than warnings. Turtle's LeanShield™ feature sends women small, timely suggestions: a nudge to train, to top up protein, or to log the day. Between late June and September 2026, the "brilliant week" message, which praises a good run and suggests one thing to keep it going, was acted on 20% of the time by the typical woman. A caution not to cut calories any harder was acted on 3% of the time. Praise was acted on more than six times as often.
Average share of nudges acted on, per woman, Jun to Sep 2026
Source: Turtle Method member app data · CC BY 4.0
Practical nudges sit in the middle
Suggestions with one clear, doable action did reasonably well: catching up on the day's food log (12%) and fitting in a short training session after a gap (12%). Reminders about weighing in and protein targets were acted on less than one time in ten.
| Nudge | Acted on | Women |
|---|---|---|
| "Brilliant week" praise | 20% | about 140 |
| Food log catch-up | 12% | about 430 |
| Training gap: a short session | 12% | about 580 |
| Training gap: a full session | 9% | about 580 |
| Steps catch-up | 9% | about 300 |
| Protein gap | 8% | about 440 |
| Protein pacing | 8% | about 550 |
| Weigh-in reminder | 7% | about 280 |
| "Don't cut harder" calorie caution | 3% | about 260 |
"Acted on" means the woman tapped through or accepted the suggestion. Each row covers more than 130 women who got that nudge at least three times.
What the research says
New daily habits took a median of 66 days to become automatic, and missing a single day did not derail the process.
Lally P, van Jaarsveld CHM, Potts HWW, Wardle J (2010). How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology. doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674
Repeating a simple action in the same situation is what turns it into a habit.
Gardner B, Lally P, Wardle J (2012). Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice. British Journal of General Practice. doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12X659466
Questions people ask
Which app nudges do people act on?
In Turtle's data, praise for a good week was acted on 20% of the time, the most of nine nudge types; a calorie caution was acted on 3% of the time.
Method
LeanShield suggestions sent 26 June to 30 September 2026. For each woman who got a nudge type 3 or more times, we took the share she acted on, then averaged across women. Medication prompts and housekeeping prompts are left out. Women only, staff accounts excluded; every group shown has 50 or more women and sizes are rounded. This shows a pattern, not a cause. Full methodology.
Cite this
Free to use with credit and a link to the source page. The figures and chart on this page are licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Journalists: for another cut of the data (aggregates only, same rules), contact scott@turtlemethod.com. More data on the Turtle data hub.
Track your own training with Turtle Method: Download for iPhone · Android