Do you keep a food diary?

At the beginning, you just write everything you eat and their amount.
I use bitelog.com in which I can find all the food as I type first few letters. (let say if I write ora, it gives me oranges and the size etc. to click on it.)

After a week or so, you start to see your eating habit, average calories a day, missing nutrients in your diet.

Then you can make some logical changes in your diet.

I can say that keeping a diary helped me a lot to lose weight.

I've tested out different food journal formats, ending up with more than one journal. I also keep a training journal (and even have a couple of those) in which I record my caloric intake. Then, there's my day planner, in which I sometime record my data, especially my daily weight.

The hard part for me is keeping just one journal to satisfy all my varying needs. So, I've found that my day planner is about as good as it gets for the one source, since it is a critical to my sanity and daily organization.

Food journals really can work, and really can be frustrating. I think it would be more successful a tool for me if I just decided upon one log book.

I have also heard they are the single best way of losing weight! I think the train of thought is that people have no real idea how much they actually eat.

Sometimes people can eat the equivalent of 5-6 bags of chips just watching tv and then proceeding to eat dinner, not even realizing they have just eaten two days worth of recommended fat intake with the chips alone!

We are so distracted by life these days - we need to sit down, concentrate on our food and enjoy it - then we'll realize we've eaten it!

So I think it's a fantastic idea!

Another option to track your progress is iScale an iPhone and iPod Touch application.

See for yourself! www.allofzero.com

--Derrek

She's much more in control of her food choices than I am.

It's a great tool for anyone who needs to control intake.

Me? I can't get enough food.

TH

I read the article with intense interest as well because since starting this position, I've become acutely aware of mindful eating. Keeping a journal is something I've always wanted to do, but my inclinations have been reinforced by the study.

What I'm finding out in my research is that although it's important to keep a list of the basics such as what I ate, when, the portion size and calories, it is equally important to write down the emotions associated with eating. For example, stress, boredom, celebration, etc. For more on keeping a food journal, check out this link.

https://www.empowher.com/community/blog/scluff/08/02/12/write-out-a-heal...

Does anyone have other ideas on how to keep a food journal?