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Diet Recording & Activity Sheets

Sticking to a diet and exercise program can be daunting task. Tracking your progress can be a great motivator to stick with your program and accomplish your goals. Diet recording and activity sheets are great tools to monitor your diet and to record your physical exercise, giving you a written history of what you're eating and the changes that your body is going through. You can produce your own sheets or download formatted sheets from the Internet.

  1. Date

    • Dates can be listed either as individual row entries in a spreadsheet or in a calendar format on a sheet featuring a table. Calendar type formats are more conducive for preplanning your activities.

    Meal and Calorie Intake

    • List your meals, the meal size and the calorie intake into categories for each day. If desired, list a proposed menu with portions for each particular day. You can best determine your calories by referencing a calorie guide; calorie guides, describing the calories found in different foods broken down by portions, are available at most retail bookstores.

    Exercise

    • Record your exercise schedule in conjunction with your diet. Track any increases in strength or stamina, these increases are great motivators and a reminder to yourself that you're accomplishing your goals. You may find it advantageous to produce a second tracking sheet separate from your diet sheet.

    Weight and Body Fat Percentage

    • Perhaps the most important entry is your weight and body fat percentage. Recording weight on its own is a great way to track your progress. It can, however, be quite misleading. Muscle weighs more than body fat and exercise increases your muscles, which can give you the illusion that your diet is not working. By measuring your body fat percentage you can have a more realistic indicator of how much fat you're really losing. Weight scales are available that measure body fat percentage using a system called bio-electric impedance analysis (BIA). BIA sends a small electric current through your body that allows the scale to estimate fat percentage, by analyzing your body's water content.

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