Posted on October 8, 2008 in Latest News
Food diary is a record where you write down what you eat and drink on a daily basis. Keeping a food diary plays an important role in losing weight. This is mainly because we are not aware how much we eat daily. When you record the quantity of food you eat, you would be informed to make better choices while eating food.
Research Proves that Food Diary Helps:
In a recent research, about 1, 685 overweight or obese American adults aged 25 and older were observed for 6 months. All of them kept food diaries and were encouraged to have a healthy diet and exercise. They even met together every week to share their food diaries and learn how to judge the portion sizes.
After 6 months, it was observed that those who maintained their food diaries for 6 days a week lost almost twice the amount of weight when compared to those who maintained their food diaries for only 1 day a week or less. This research shows the importance of maintaining food diary to lose weight.
Why is Food Diary Useful?
Food diary is found to be useful because of the following reasons:
- Awareness: Generally people are not aware how much food they eat. Food diary enables us to know how much we eat daily. Once people realize they are overeating, they would be more eager to make the changes
- Accountability: When we maintain a food diary, we would be more accountable to ourselves and others. This makes us more responsible in eating healthy food
Food diary is simple and eye opening. It will also encourage you to set new goals in healthy eating and exercising.
How to Maintain a Food Diary?
Write down what you eat or drink daily. You can write these details on a notebook or a personal digital assistant (PDA), whichever you are comfortable with. The important thing is to use the food diary. You can fill the details of what you ate or drank in your food diary under the following subheadings:
- Time
- Details of the food or drink
- Where and with whom you ate or drank
- Why you ate (were you angry, were you at a party etc.)
- Any Exercise, activity you have done
Your food diary can be detailed or can be brief. The most important thing is that you should be able to go through your food diary and know the stuff you ate or drank.
Things to Remember while Maintaining a Food Diary:
The following are the things you should remember while maintaining a food diary:
- Include the small details: Include even the small details in you food diary such as the extra topping, extra cheese, or a candy etc. This will help you to realize and avoid the foods which would be adding up your calories
- Write the food diary daily: Write the details of what you ate or drank daily. Writing the diary after you eat is much better. This will help you to accurately record your eating habits
- Keep reviewing: Keep reviewing your food diary. This will help you to know your eating habits and set new goals to lose weight
- Watch the portion size: Watch the amount of food you eat. Using measuring scales or cups at home would be useful to know the portion sizes
Keeping a food diary is simple and has numerous benefits. Hence, start using a food diary to lose weight and stay fit.
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October 13th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Thanks for your post it has helped me because I have just started my own food diary, and I hope it will be a big part to the success of my new diet. Basically all I am doing is running a free wordpress blog, flickr account and using my nokia n95 to upload photos. Lets hope it is a start to a new thin me.