The extra time commitment and tedious nature of food journaling are a deal breaker for many. Yet the benefits of taking the time to really pay attention to your food choices far outweigh the time involved. Not only will you learn more about the foods you commonly eat and their nutritional content, you are more likely to stay on track and be successful with your weight loss goals.
Continue reading for four big ways a food journal can help you shed pounds, as well as information on what to record. I’ve also included tips on how to get set up immediately, so get started journaling your way to a slimmer body today!
1. Education
Tracking your food intake forces you to pay closer attention to the foods you eat, when you eat them, and how you prepare them. If you are calculating portion sizes and counting calories, you must look up each food and record its statistics (however scary they may be!). You’re also more likely to look at the nutrition facts for the food item and weigh the cost v. benefit of eating it… and thus having to record it. Reading nutrition labels helps you discover what nutrients you over- or under-consume, and which you should avoid completely. Just be careful not to believe every claim you read on the packaging… unfortunately these “health benefits” are often inflated to help sell the product. Stick to reading the ingredient list and nutrition facts and you’ll get all the information you need to stay healthy.
2. Accountability
Recording your meals for others to see (or just for yourself!) can actually help you consume fewer calories. Being held accountable to your weight loss endeavor (or whatever goal you’re aiming for) gives you less leeway to slip up or backtrack. Giving yourself a deadline can do the same thing. Either way, you are eliminating the chance for excuses and setting yourself up for “punishment” if you don’t follow through (having to show your slip-ups to someone else, missing a deadline, etc).
Accountability also means you’re more likely to rethink the impulse chocolate bar purchases at the grocery store – there’s no hiding from a food journal! Not only does this practice make you think twice about the food you eat, it demands you take a greater responsibility for your eating habits. So think before you chew!
3. Analysis
Keeping a food journal is the best way to recognize trends in your eating habits – both for better and for worse. You can choose to analyze why a certain food combination helped you lose a few pounds, while others made you raid the fridge at midnight. Or observe what you might have done differently the week you lost three pounds, so that you can repeat those practices with similar results. Examining your food habits allows you to pinpoint exactly what you’re doing right and where you need improvement, which ultimately brings you closer to your weight loss goals!
4. Mathematics
My clients are always amazed how one pound of fat can equal a shocking 3,500 calories. Based on this, a weight loss of one pound per week means a deficit of 3,500 calories ( basically cutting about 500 calories/day). The math is really quite simple; weight loss never is. Counting your calories is the best way to keep track of how much food you are actually consuming in a day. Food journals make calorie counting easy – half the information is already there! Just look up your food item and portion size in a caloric database and record in your journal.
One of the trickier parts of weight loss (from a nutrition standpoint) is the way “little” food items can wreck havoc on your eating plan. Things like butter on toast, oil on a salad, mayonnaise on a sandwich, sugar in coffee, or a glass of wine with dinner can add a disproportionately large number of calories to your day. When you record everything you eat (and I mean everything), you are able to see first-hand just how much the sugar in your coffee will cost you.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Journaling
What to Record:
It’s important that you be as specific as possible in your journal – list portion sizes and exact quantities when you can, even brand names if available. And don’t forget about beverages! Drinks are often forgotten when I ask clients about nutrition. Recording them in a food journal makes their caloric significance glaringly obvious.
Recording when you eat is equally significant. I’ve had clients who simply weren’t aware of how uneven their eating schedule was – consuming nothing until well into the afternoon, then binging on everything once they started eating. This is not a healthy eating practice. You should try to fit in food throughout your day, regardless of how busy your schedule is.
And lastly, it’s important to make note of how you feel after eating. Are you stuffed or still hungry? Do you feel tired or energized? Do you have a headache? Are you hungry 30 minutes after the meal? Your answers to these questions will help you identify which food choices work for you and which do not. If you feel tired or lethargic after eating, you either ate too much or consumed too many carbohydrates. If you’re hungry again only 30 minutes later, you didn’t choose foods that would sustain you. Adding protein to your meal will keep you satisfied longer.
What to Record In:
The nice thing about a journal is that you can record it on anything – a piece of scrap paper, a tiny notebook in your purse, an application on your phone or typed on your computer. You don’t need to spend money to start one! If you want something a little more organized or if you’d like access to a nutritional database, you can also record your food log online. There are, I’m sure, thousands of great websites that offer this feature. I’ve listed a few of the more popular sites below with their links:
Diet Tracking Websites:
However you decide to record it all, your food journal will bring you one step closer to your health goals with its reliability, (sometimes brutal) honesty, and accountability. Bon appétit!
This is right on, Nicole! I use an iphone app that lets me log all the foods i eat, and in the quantities; it even allows me to customize the foods with calories etc. I lost my initial 6-7#s that way. I did notice that when i got lax and didn’t log.. that’s when I started to gain back. Since then… I have reapplied myself to my food journal app and start my new bootcamp class next week! Keep up the great blogs; love them!