Food & Calorie Logs

Many diet and nutrition plans today require that users keep some sort of food or calorie log. Weight Watchers, for example, assigns point values to foods and asks dieters to track everything they eat along with its point value for the day. However, food or calorie journaling is not just limited to specific plans and has been shown to have several benefits.

Weight Loss

• People who write down what they eat tend to eat less.

  In 2008, a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reported that dieters who kept a daily food journal doubled their weight loss success. Not only did participants who kept food logs lose more weight, they had a greater success at keeping it off and maintaining overall health. Dr. Jack Hollis, a researcher at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research, helped conduct the study and stated, "Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories." So the more you have to write down, the less you are likely to eat.

Eating Patterns

• Keeping a food journal can help identify poor habits.

  Keeping a daily food journal can also help identify unhealthy eating patterns and triggers. By keeping a record of not only what you are eating, but how you feel when you eat and the activities leading up to your meal times, you can identify certain habits or emotions that may trigger overeating or unhealthy eating. For instance, you may notice that you tend to eat a lot of salty snacks while at your desk at work or that you tend to overeat when you're tired or when you skip breakfast. You are more likely to be able to modify these behaviors when you are aware of what triggers them.

Accountability

• You may find it useful to share your food log with a friend.

  Keeping a food and calorie log helps people stay honest with themselves about their food choices. If more accountability is needed to stay on track, it may be helpful to share your food journal with another person. Find another person with similar nutritional goals and agree to get together once a week and go over each other's journals. Agree to be supportive and non-judgmental. If even more support is needed, share your journal with a professional therapist or nutritionist.

Tips

• Food logs are a good way to keep track of nutritional goals.

  Write down everything you eat and drink as soon as you can after the meal or snack. Many times, people neglect to write down beverages when keeping a food journal. These still contain calories and are still important to track. Also keep a record of the location that meals are taking place (i.e. home, work, school), as well as any activities you may be engaged in while eating such as driving, watching television or reading. Don't forget to write down how you are feeling before and after the meal. If following a specific diet plan, you may need to track calories or other nutritional information such as fat, carbohydrates or fiber.

Online Help

• There are several websites that make keeping a food and calorie log easier. Many of them even offer customizable diet and meal plans. SparkPeople, for example, provides a customized calorie range and fitness goal for you depending on your height, weight and weight loss or nutritional goals. They offer customizable programs for weight loss and weight maintenance and offer advice and information for those with special nutritional needs such as diabetics or others in need of a special diet. Similar websites are FitDay, MyFoodDiary, and TheDailyPlate.