Garmin unveils its own nutrition tracking system as part of Connect+.

Tags: Technology and concepts | Garmin | Smart

10.1.2026 | 4 MIN

These days, smartwatches do more than track steps or heart rate. They’ve become personal health assistants that can monitor sleep, stress, training, and recovery — and Garmin smartwatches can now even track what you eat.

Garmin has introduced a new nutrition tracking feature that not only allows you to track calorie and macronutrient intake, but also provides intelligent insights into how your diet affects health and performance. The feature was unveiled at CES 2026 and is part of the premium Garmin Connect+ service.

A comprehensive look at health through nutrition

Garmin has long dominated the field of physical activity tracking — including steps, training load, sleep, and stress. It even recently added daily habit tracking. But one crucial pillar of health was still missing: nutrition. That’s exactly the gap this new feature is designed to fill. Nutrition tracking includes:

• calories consumed
• macronutrient intake (carbohydrates, protein, fat)
• personalized goals and recommendations

That means you no longer have to use third-party apps like MyFitnessPal just to log your meals. Garmin wants your training, sleep, recovery, and diet visible on a single screen. Which is not a bad idea at all — in fact, it’s quite practical.

Diet has a huge impact on how our bodies function, on proper recovery, as well as on our mood and overall well-being. By logging and tracking nutrition, we can not only monitor our diet conveniently through the watch, but also analyze how a specific way of eating might affect us.

What does meal logging look like in practice?

Garmin’s primary goal is to make adding meals as simple and flexible as possible. You can add food in several ways, including:

• searching foods in a global database
• scanning food barcodes
• AI-powered food recognition from a photo
• adding your own recipes and favorite meals

These different methods give users the freedom to log nutrition at whatever level of detail they prefer. The app stores data on a daily basis and over time — with the option to view weekly, monthly, or even yearly summaries.

I’m not sure anyone really looks at those details; I probably wouldn’t. Still, you can clearly see which macronutrient or calorie intake suits you best. You can do that without this feature too, or via a third-party app. Having it all at hand is a plus.

AI-powered recommendations

This isn’t just a basic calorie tracker. There are plenty of those already and Garmin definitely isn’t the first brand to offer one. Thanks to its integration with Active Intelligence, which Garmin uses across its metrics, users also get personalized insights:

• how energy and macronutrient intake affects performance and recovery
• how diet influences sleep
• and how to set goals based on your personal data

So the feature doesn’t just track — it helps you understand the links between what you eat and how you feel or train. It’s a key shift from simple calorie counting to thoughtful meal planning. It’s basically the same principle as the Habit Journal Garmin introduced relatively recently. It aims to show which factors have a direct impact on your body and how it functions.

On-watch and in-app views

While the main logging happens in the Garmin Connect app, you can also keep tabs right on your wrist. Compatible watches let you view your recent or favorite meals, track your remaining calories during the day, and, on supported models, log meals using voice commands.

That’s handy during the day when you want to quickly check how much energy you’ve already taken in and how much you can still “safely” eat according to plan.

Which devices support it, and what does it cost?

The feature is part of Garmin Connect+, the premium tier of the Garmin Connect app. It costs approximately €9 per month, and Garmin often offers a 30-day free trial for new users.

The key, then, is to have a Garmin Connect+ subscription. The watch model likely shouldn’t matter much, although I can’t confirm it, as I unfortunately couldn’t find an exact list of compatible devices anywhere.

Summary: Garmin rounds out its health ecosystem

Many people have so far used either MyFitnessPal, especially abroad. If we talk about the former, it would come out slightly more expensive per year than Garmin Connect+. Plus, by subscribing to Garmin’s app you get nutrition tracking alongside the rest of the platform’s features. So the best option still seems to be subscribing to Garmin Connect+.

The new nutrition tracking feature is one of Garmin’s biggest health moves in recent years. With an integrated meal log, personalized recommendations, and ties to other health and performance data, users get a substantially broader view of their lifestyle.

The health ecosystem also benefited from the addition of the Habit Journal. Like nutrition logging, it makes it easier to trace which foods and which habits have a specific impact on our bodies.

And even though the feature is currently available only as part of the paid Connect+, for many users it may mean Garmin truly isn’t just a sports tool anymore — but a comprehensive partner for a healthier life.

Photo credits:

• Garmin.com
• Hodinky 365 photographers