A recent study has (yet again) confirmed what nutrition professionals have known all along…keeping a food diary makes you much more successful when trying to lose weight.
The study, to be published in the August issue of the American Journal for Preventive Medicine, reported that those who kept daily food journals lost TWICE as much weight as those who did not!
When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. How easy is it to forget (or ignore) what you ate earlier in the day? The piece of candy from the dish at work, the extra couple ‘tastes’ while preparing a meal….the mid-day snacking, etc. Can you really remember how many chips you ate out of the bag as you chatted on the phone yesterday evening?
When we write things down, we are forced to look more closely at what we actually put into our mouths. It can be somewhat of a shock at first to see just how much we really eat! Another positive is that people often decide they don’t feel like writing something down, so they don’t eat it. The combined effect greatly helps to modify eating habits.
Other good habits are also learned by keeping a food diary; like paying attention to portions sizes and balancing your day overall. You can start to see trends, like mindless snacking while watching TV that you may not have been fully aware of. These good habits will stay with you and help to keep the weight off!
So give it a try and keep a food diary for the next week (include what and when you ate). You may not like what you see, but by being aware of your problem eating areas, you are half way there to fixing them!
Check out these links to read more about the study:
Article on MSNBC.com
ABC News article
- Renee
Labels: Diet, Healthy Planet, Lifestyle Change, Recent Research, Renee, Weight Loss
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