Food Diaries 101

Posted on 18. Jan, 2010 by Becky in Feed Your Body

So it’s that time of year when so many of us are trying to cinch in our belt and stick to our resolutions.  If your resolution includes improving your diet and/or losing weight, here’s your secret tool: a food diary.

In a 2008 study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, participants who kept food journals lost almost double the weight of their nonjournaling counterparts.

Could it really be true that a simple paper and pen can have such a huge impact on your health and wellness efforts?

YES!

And here’s why–there’s something magical about writing things down.  It’s like, psychologically, certain things don’t exist until we’ve actually written them down (like those 3 Krispy Kremes you downed in your car on the way to work).  We already discussed how this principle applies to goals in general in my New Year’s post “How to Make Your Resolutions Stick”, but it certainly is true for getting a handle on your food intake as well.  You might be surprised how often you pop in a handful of peanuts or snitch a quick Snickers bar without even thinking about it.  There’s nothing like a food diary to make you look your diet right between the eyes.

5 Simple Steps to Begin Your Food Diary

1.  All you need is a notebook and some paper.  There are also plenty of forms you can download online (see the links below), but they really aren’t necessary.

2.  Decide what your goal is.  If you want to track calories, you’ll want to be sure to check nutrition labels or have a calorie counter resource available so you can track calories along with your food.  If you want to track the overall balance of your diet, you may want to record how many servings of each type of food group you consume, and compare it with the FDA recommendations.  If you want to track your eating habits in general, you may want to record why you decided to eat every time you head for the refrigerator.

3.  If you are new to food diaries, it is very important that you actually measure the food you take in.  To write down 1 peach, is fine.  But, to write down 1 bowl of Captain Crunch is not.  The trouble with most Americans is that they have no concept of what a serving size is.  Even if they are educated enough to be checking labels, they have no idea if they’ve poured themselves 1 serving or 4 servings.  For your quick breakfast, you should measure and record the exact amount of cereal and milk.  For example:

1 1/2 c Captain Crunch cereal (2 servings & 240 calories)

1/2 banana  (50 calories)

1 c  milk        (90 calories)

As you become acquainted with what serving sizes actually look like, you will be able to make much more informed choices in the future.  Obviously, it’s initially a pain to carry that measuring cup around the kitchen, but remember, this is only for a short period of time and it is essential to gaining a full understanding of how much food you consume.

4.  Record at least 1 typical weekday and 1 typical weekend day.  Some people are very disciplined in their diet all week long and then go for a cookie dough extravaganza on the weekends.  Try to keep the days you record as close to typical as possible.  Remember the whole point is to find out where your diet currently stands.  It’s even better to record up to a week.

5.  When you’ve met your goal, whether it be to lose weight, to balance your diet more healthfully, or to analyze the psychological underpinnings of why you eat, STOP keeping a food diary.  Think of a food diary as a great tool to supercharge your fitness results, but not as a way of life.  Food diaries can easily spin into unhealthy obsessions that lead to anxiety and unhappiness.