Food diary is used to record what we eat and drink each day. This diary allows you to track your protein, carbohydrate and fat intake. You can also record your daily exercise, how you feel every day and general comments such as how your plan is going.
By some studies, keeping a food diary can double a person’s weight loss. From our experience, the more food records people kept, the more weight they lost. Maybe it’s sounds funny, but simple act of writing down what you eat and drink encourages people to consume fewer calories.
However, keeping a diet diary doesn’t have to be a formal thing, just the act of scribbling down what you eat. It’s the process of reflecting on what, when and how much you eat that helps you become aware of your habits, and hopefully change your behavior. Therefore, a food diary creates a conscious awareness of food intake and eating patterns.
When you start a diet diary, it may be the first time you’ve honestly looked at your eating habits. Some people don’t keep a diary because they are in denial about their habits and actually don’t want to face with the truth. So, even if you’re not ready to commit to keeping a food diary for the rest of your life, at least try it for one month and see possible positive results. It could make your will stronger to continue with writing down.
If you are ready for your first diet diary, I will give few advices how to do it right way:
- Tell the truth.
- Write everything that you eat and drink down.
- Write it right after you eat. Later you could forget.
- Be very specific. Don’t write down something like potatoes, instead write french fries , mushed potatoes …
Knowing you have to write down everything you eat makes you think twice about snacks, or that tasty burger. Even if you’re the only person who’ll see your diary, recording your food intake is a great way to improve your self-control.
I’ve made one example for diet diary and you can download it for free:
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