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Keep a Food Diary for Weight Loss

June 7, 2010  |  G - L, Weight Management

Losing weight works better when you keep a daily food log

Using a food diary can double your weight-loss efforts. Your food diary makes you accountable to yourself and provides you with clues on where the extra calories are sneaking in.

Francis Tacotaco knew that he wasn’t a healthy eater. But until he started keeping a food diary and writing in painstaking, sometimes embarrassing detail about everything that went into his mouth, he didn’t know just how bad it was.

Severely overweight and diabetic at age 38, he started logging his daily diet three months ago. When he saw how much junk food he was eating, he made significant changes to his diet – cutting out some of the junk entirely or, in the case of the hot links, limiting himself to one at a time. He’s lost 22 pounds since.

New Research
New research suggests that Tacotaco’s experience isn’t unusual. In a Kaiser Permanente study released in 2008, overweight people who kept daily food diaries lost up to twice as many pounds as those who didn’t log every meal. The study is being published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The two-year observational study followed 1,685 men and women who were trying to lose weight. Those who managed to log their eating seven days a week lost between 13 and 20 pounds over six months. Participants who kept no food diaries lost only about 9 pounds.

“My clients are a little skeptical at first when I tell them I want everything. I mean, every last thing. If they put sugar in their cup of coffee, I want to know it,” said Sharon Meyer, a nutrition therapist at the Institute for Health and Healing at California Pacific Medical Center. “It’s almost like having homework to turn in to the teacher. But sometimes we selectively forget that there was a cookie we munched after lunch.”

Aside from the guilt that might come from seeing every French fry and chocolate chip cookie in writing, the truth is that most people aren’t very good at paying attention to what they put in their mouth, nutritionists say. Food diaries force them to actually think about what they eat, said Meyer.

“People are quite surprised by what they find,” Meyer said. “They have this idea that they’re eating two or three slices of bread in a day, and then they realize they’re eating six. Writing everything down brings us back to reality.”

Among the worst offenders are moms, said Meyer. Her clients are often shocked at how much they’re eating off their children’s plates – bites of yogurt or applesauce, handfuls of cookies and crackers. The snacks might not seem like a lot, but the calories add up.

The good news, said Stanford U nutritionist JoAnn Hattner, is that those are also easy calories to get rid of – as long as people are aware of what they’re doing.

“Food diaries just bring you into a zone where you’re much more aware of portion sizes,” said Hattner, who knows from experience. When her weight started creeping up recently, she logged her food and found, among other problem areas, that she was using too much olive oil when she cooked at home.

“I wasn’t measuring it at all,” she said. “I was just pouring it in, and it was too much. Now I just have a tablespoon handy.”

Getting started

Start by deciding how to log food. Some people prefer a handheld notebook and a pen that can be pulled out anywhere, but many Web sites offer free or paid food logs. Many health care organizations also offer paper food logs to patients.

Write down everything. For example, an entry for a cup of coffee would need to include the size of the drink and how much sugar, cream or other extras went into it. Don’t forget small bites throughout the day – the cookie shared with a co-worker, the spoonfuls of applesauce from a child’s lunch.

Calculate calories. This can be the toughest part, especially at the beginning. Pay attention to food packaging, which often has all the information needed. For items that aren’t obvious, an online calorie calculator could help. Measure foods that are being prepared at home, at least at first, to make sure the serving size is correct – most people underestimate portion sizes.

Analyze the results. Trends start showing up in the food logs after a few days or weeks, making it easier to make future decisions.

Free Diet & Weight Loss Journal
Some people have found that keeping a journal of what they eat helps them to keep track of their calorie consumption (without counting them).

We found an online journal at that is free to use.  Try it out and see how it works for you.

Get your free online diet journal and start tracking your foods, exercises, weight loss, and goals. The webmaster claims that over 2 Million Fit Day members using the site to take control of their diet and lose weight.   The site claims are:

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