Keeping a Food Diary

I have resisted keeping a regular food diary.  I’ve done it throughout the years since my surgery but not consistently.  However, after reading a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, I’m a keeper of a food diary!

The study shows that keeping an honest, accurate record of food and drink doubled dieters’ success rate.   Keeping a food (and activity) diary can be a wonderful tool in recording your success.

Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., conducted the study with 1,700 overweight or obese men and women.  One of the co-authors, Victor J. Stevens, PhD, said that participants who kept a record of what they ate while following other weight-loss recommendations lost twice as much as participants who didn’t keep a food diary.  Study participants that tracked their food and beverage intake lost 18 pounds in 20 weeks.  Wow!

Food diaries only work when people write down exactly what they’ve had to eat and drink immediately after consumption.  Yes, that means every taste of this or bite of that.  Food diaries create a moment of pause for you to ask yourself if you really want to eat that AND log it.  Knowing that you need to write it down can be a motivator to JUST SAY NO!  

I’d used the no charge on-line version of Fitday.com.  I made a commitment to keeping a food diary and purchased the download PC version.  Now, I have the window minimized on my computer every day.  It is a nice reminder that if I eat it, I write it.

Give it a try….all you have to lose is weight!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach