The Food Diary: An Important Tool In Your Weight Management Toolbox

Despite our best efforts to eat healthy and control portion sizes, it is easy to misjudge how much food and how many calories we are actually consuming daily. This can be especially problematic for individuals who are trying to lose weight, but aren’t seeing the results they anticipated from their efforts. A food diary can be a very helpful tool in your weight loss arsenal. In fact, a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reports that keeping a food diary can double your weight loss.1

Maintaining a food diary will not only help you determine exactly what and how much you are eating, but will also spot any deficiencies in your diet. Tracking your food intake can also help you to identify destructive eating patterns, such as mindlessly noshing while watching tv, or reaching for that pint of ice cream when you’re upset. Finally, logging what you eat adds extra accountability, and knowing that you have to track what you’re eating may make you think twice about reaching for that chocolate bar or bag of chips.

There are several ways that you can keep your food diary. You can create your own using a notebook or your computer, or find a free food diary on the Internet (there are even some you can download to your phone). You can be as specific as you like; for instance, you may wish to track how many grams of carbs and fat you intake, how much water you drink daily, or your exercise, depending on your specific goals. The longer you maintain your food diary the better, but be sure to log your food intake for at least three days.

Though you may choose to be more specific with your food diary, below you’ll find the information you need to track daily in order to get an accurate picture of your diet and eating patterns:
• The day of the week
• The food item
• Portion size
• Time you ate
• Where you ate/who you were with
• What you were doing while eating
• What your mood was when you were eating

Some final tips:
• Log each meal or snack as you eat it. If you wait until the end of the day to track all of your meals, you may forget to include everything you ate for the entire day.
• Don’t change your eating habits while you are keeping your food diary– you want your food diary to give an accurate portrayal of your current diet so you can target the appropriate change you need to make.

Sources:
1. Hollis JF, et al. Weight Loss During the Intensive Intervention Phase of the Weight-Loss Maintenance Trial. Am J Prev Med 2008;35(2):118-26.