Six Reasons to Keep a Food Diary

Hi Ali I must put my hands up and say no I didn't but when I thought I was eating proper food I wasn't.

But keeping a food diary was something I never thought of doing but I know it does it work as studies have proven this, the main reason I think is this eating tends to be at times a unconcious process which is guided by the feeling associated with the food.

I couldn't agree more on the value of a food diary. Honestly, I wouldn't believe how unsteady my calorie intake was if I didn't see it written down. Some days I eat anything not glued down; other days I'll go to 9 pm and wonder why I'm so hungry all of a sudden.

You just don't realise how much you are eating until you write a food diary. Sometimes you just don't realise how many calories are in a packet of chips or fruit juice. It really helps the penny drop as to what you should and should not be eating.

I say if it works for YOU ----do it.

for me it's such a great way to look back and see "oooh I was so tired that day. not enough carbs" or "I totally ate a ton of sweets that night---what did the rest of my day look like? did I eat not enough?" but in working with my clients I found many of them didnt do well with journals.
the daily notations made them not more aware but more obsessive.

it's so unique to the individual, huh?

M.

i think that it is important to keep a diary particularly when you commence a diet. When you write it down and track your calorie intake vs expenditure it is a very good learning exerience.

I can eat very little without a food diary no problem, track Calories in/out in my head... but if I'm writing it down I feel more motivated to make sure I'm getting all my nutrients for some reason.

Plus, it's awesome to look back on-- Oh, I haven't been eating enough protein (something I have to concentrate on)... hey, I could use more calcium.

So while I can manage weight loss without it, I can't reach optimal health and athletic performance without it.

That said, I have a history of ED and sometimes I'll stop tracking if I start getting obsessive about it. I've stopped for most of my pregnancy as to not risk that.

I actually kept a food diary for a few months, but for a completely different reason. I was nursing my now 10-month-old, so I wasn't yet focusing on losing weight (breastfeeding does that for you). He had a slew of food allergies/intolerances, so I started keeping a food diary to try to figure out what was bothering him. Keeping the diary did a few things for me:

1. I figured out what he was allergic to (anything with large proteins - dairy, soy, fish, eggs, and on and on).

2. I realized that for a nursing Mom, I wasn't eating nearly enough nutritious food! I would fix a balanced meal for my 2yo, and eat just a sandwich or just some fruit for myself.

So, I found the food diary to be useful in a different way as well, but it was definitely worth the effort for me!

All these comments are correct. Most people overeat because they are doing it out of a subconscious habit. 88% of what we do on a regular daily basis occurs below our awareness.
The journal makes you more consciously aware of the choices you are making. It is very effective.

When I don't keep a food journal, I tend to think that whatever I'm eating doesn't have any calories, because I'm not recording them! It's such a mental thing for me, but for the past few weeks I have been so careful about following my meal plan and recording everything I eat, and I've lost 9 pounds! So, it definitely works for me! :) It's an instant motivator and accountability partner, so to speak, knowing exactly what you're eating.

I try to always keep a food diary. It keeps me motivated. Let me see the real amount of exercise i'm doing and sometimes lets me see where i'm going wrong!

I lost nearly 40 pounds in the past year, and while the increase in exercise is a big factor, I'm sure my food diary was an important motivator. I used sparkpeople.com so I had access at work and at home (or anywhere I had internet access). It was very eye-opening. I have always eaten "healthy" food, but I ate way too much of it. Accounting for actual portion size kept me honest. Now after a year of being dedicated to it I think my habits have changed for life. That is the best part of having done it.

I like the use of a food journal because it really opens up peoples eyes exactly how many calories they are consuming in a day. It typically surprises most people.

I had to keep a food diary when I was in treatment for my eating disorder. In my case, I tend to eat much less than I think I do, so it helped me realize how little I was truly eating. Of course, it stopped helping when I stopped doing it properly, but that was obviously my own fault.

I like #5. It's nice to look back on my diary 5 months ago and see how my habits have improved over time.

i think that it is important to keep a diary particularly when you commence a diet. When you write it down and track your calorie intake vs expenditure it is a very good learning exerience.

I don't keep a "food diary" per se, but I do write my daily food intake on a small piece of scrap paper. At the end of the day (or at the end of my daily caloric allowance...whichever comes first haha), I toss it in the trash. I have no desire to go back and read what I ate once upon a time, but I agree...it DOES help one see how quickly everything adds up. Weight loss is simply a mathmatical matter. When I burn more calories than I take in...taadaaa...the bathroom scales and I are back on speaking terms again. :)

I never thought I'd get used to a food journal but I did. It's helped me when I travel abroad so I can make sure I get all the nutrients I need. I started my weight loss program without writing down what I ate but I found out that it did help me tremendously. I think it's a tool, I don't plan to use it for the rest of my life. For now it's been very helpful.

In the past I kept track of what I was eating for a while to make sure I was eating enough protein and calories, and then for a while to track nutrient intakes to see what foods boosted nutrient-density and which weren't quite as nutritionally dense.

Last seven years...spot checking a day here or a couple of days there just to see how my nutrients look if I'm just going through my day as always -- it's for nutrient-density and nutrient quality, not calories. I do the same with my son's eating occasionally to see how his nutrient-density is, not his calories.

Keep track of how many 300oz sodas you drink. They have calories!

I think keeping a food diary really helps as we sometimes have no idea how much we are eating. I don't do it religiously but every week or two I work out what I've eaten just to keep myself honest.

Even if you aren't counting calories -- your body still is.

The value of a food diary cannot be overstated. I think the biggest benefits is the first one listed. It's easy to have a selective memory and look back and think that there were no extras. A food diary helps find those times where we ate things we shouldn't have, and holds us accountable. It makes it much easier to look back at what caused problems making it easier to fix them.

I currently don't keep a food diary, but when I decided to lose weight, I decided to keep a food diary of what I was eating for a week or two to find out how I could improve. It turns out that I was consuming a lot of "little extras" like salad dressings, cream and sugar in my coffee, sugary beverages, candy that I'd munch on during classes, etc. I was also making some REALLY poor food choices and when I tallied my daily calorie intake, I found out that I was eating ~4500 calories a day. And I wondered why I had gained 30 lbs in the past 3 months! When I looked at my food diary, I found out where I could cut back without feeling deprived (like swapping low fat dressing for the full fat stuff, leaving the cheese off my salads, getting a turkey sandwich instead of a burger, etc.). By doing that, I just learned to make healthier choices and took off 90 lbs.

Now, I pretty much know how many calories are in what I eat, but I am guilty sometimes of "portion creep" and when that happens, I just figure out what foods are "creeping" up and cut back on those.

Our clients keep food diaries as part of their program. The main reason is so that any bad reactions to foods or herbal treatments can be identified right away.

I keep a food journal and it really helps prevent weight gain. When I first started, I did not like to go above 2500 calories a day. Now, my intake is under 2000 calories a day. Because my meals are lower calorie, I am forced to eat more nutritious food to feel full and satisfied. I also am forced to eat balanced meals that are equally portioned throughout the day. Over all I have lost about 10-15 lbs, but more importantly, I have kept it off for over a year without much exercise.

I utterly understand the benefit of keeping one, but I still have problem actually doing it. I have trouble mind measure or estimate the portion size. I also have problem remembering TBH.

People here kept talking about The Daily Plate, but I didn't check it out til recently. I like that it can actually "find" most of the things I eat - makes it a lot more user friendly. I also like that it tells you how many more calories you have to go.

The trick is to be good at updating it regularly. I have such a weird schedule that I'm not very good at that part. But I'm trying to keep it up to date, if not up to the moment, because I find if it tells me I'm done then I'm less likely to give in to the urge for night-time snacking, which is my big nemesis.

It's a great reminder. I haven't kept one in some time, but even if you aren't looking for fat loss, it's a great way to weed out deficits. Veggies... thought I ate plenty of them. After keeping a food log diary for a couple of weeks it turned out I wasn't eating nearly as many as I thought I was.

I use sparkpeople.com to journal my food. It's been illuminating! I had no idea how far over my calories and fat intake I was.

My stepson, age 13, is terribly obese. He's been allowed to grow up as a picky eater and of course his favorite foods are fries, bacon-cheese burgers, fatty crackers, and soda. I MAKE him eat greens and now he actually likes lettuce. But it's sad that neither of his parents will insist that he eat a square meal. His mother had a gastric bypass which has ruined her health; you'd think at least she would be motivated to help him. His father is not much better.

Keeping a food diary has helped many people I know to understand how many calories, carbs and sodium is actually in the foods they eat. Most foods are now packaged with a nutritional label, but so few people actually take the time to read it. For example, I was out with a client at a grocery store and he placed an innocent looking peanut butter cooking from the bakery in his basket. I couldn't help but look at the nutritional label and the cookie had over 500 calories. Once I showed it to him he quickly put it back, but not before stating he couldn't believe how many times he had bought and eaten those cookies thinking that they only contained at most 200 cals.

Hey, check this out! I recently completed the VA's MOVE ("Motivating Overweight Veterans Everywhere") program and began keeping a food and activity log then. Their forms were generic and not all-inclusive/descriptive of what I was eating and doing.

Now I use a software program called "Fit Day" from fitday.com. It's a tracking program that stores your personal food and activity info, or you can select from their extensive database of foods and activities. And you can keep your logs either on-line for FREE, or you can download their software for about 30 bucks.

Does keep food/activity logs or diarys help? I'm down to 260 lbs. on 8/25/08 from 280 lbs. on 6/25/08 (my last physical; avg. loss 2#/wk @ 2 trouser sizes), and walking/biking 3 to 5 days weekly, depending on mood and weather.

I suggest using FitDay on-line for awhile. It might require a little practice, but it's easy to follow. If you like it, you can download the software--which does more than the free on-line version--later.

Another database I like is "Calorie King" at calorieking.com. It has lots of nutritional info on a wide variety of foreign and domestic food + popular fast foods. I haven't found any way to keep logs on calorieking.com, but you can copy, paste, and edit the info into FitDay.

I've been struggling for most of my life with weight issues. I go up and down and my grandfather used to always say that I could put on 10lbs and then take it right off but now at 48 yrs old, it's not that easy. This is the largest and most weight I've had to carry around. A few weeks ago I was hiking w/my husband and our dog and as we stopped to drink some water I removed the pack I had on my back and it probably only weighed 8-10 lbs but it felt so good to get it off my back. At that moment I thought, holy cow!!! this is how it will feel to just lose 10lbs, imagine what 80 lbs will feel like??!! I'm determined now more than ever. I started keeping a food journal and it's amazing how helpful it is to see how much goes in, how many calories I'm burning and the results I'm producing. I decided to produce my own version of a food diary and because part of the reason I eat so much is because of stress, mostly financial stress,

so I decided to design and produce a food diary that I can sell to help support my efforts and those of people that continue to struggle as I do. Visit www.apowerfultool.com to get a copy for yourself and learn the benefits of developing your own weight loss plan and discipline by keeping a food journal. It's a proven method and a habit I intend to benefit from until I reach my goals!

Keeping a food log is a great tool to learn about your habits and modify your habits.

I usually encourage people to keep track for 1 month.

After 1 month, you should know enough about your habits to konw what to do without keeping track as often.

Keeping a food journal is the key to success! I use a new tool called a visual journal and I love it. It allows me to stay motivated with photos.

If you want to loose wait, you have to keep a journal.