How Using a Food Log Can Help
You Lose Weight

Why Should I Use a Food Log?

Keeping track of the food you eat using some sort of food logging system can help you better understand your current eating habits and patterns such as what and how much you eat, when you eat, and how you are feeling before, during and after you eat. Using a food log can also help you identify what foods you tend to eat on a regular basis so that you can congratulate yourself on the good food choices you are making and so you can make changes to what you are eating when you are consuming too much fat or not enough fiber or protein. For some people, consistently recording everything they eat helps them make better decisions about what foods to eat and how much food to eat.

Several research studies have shown that keeping track of food as people are trying to lose weight can be a very effective tool to help with behavior change. One weight loss study with close to 1,700 participants showed that the people who kept food records 6 days a week lost about twice as much weight as those who did kept food records one day a week or less. These participants were supposed to keep daily food diaries, attended weekly group support meetings and were encouraged to eat a healthy diet and be active. 

Another study looked at 142 participants who used a Web-based dietary analysis program to log their food intake for 6 months. The participants who lost the most weight (at least 10% of their body weight) were the ones who logged into the dietary analysis program more times per day. These participants spent an average of 23.2 minutes each day logging their food during the first month of the study; however, by the end of the 6 month study, their average time was 14.6 minutes. Taking 15 minutes each day to help increase your weight loss success surely is worth it!

How Should I Track My Food?

How you keep track of the food you eat isn’t as important as actually doing the food logging regularly. The Health Plus app is a great tool for logging your meals and snacks, and it has the advantage of allowing David and Mary to view your food logs. We can help you identify trends and patterns and also see your weekly averages for fat, fiber and protein. Some of you may have another app you have been using for a long time, and you would like to continue using that particular app. Some of you may find it easier to write down the food you eat in a notebook. The bottom line is that you can choose a way to track your food that works well for you and that fits into your schedule. In addition, accuracy and consistency in tracking your food are also very important. You may find that logging your food every day is not realistic for you; however, logging ALL of the food you consume at least a few days each week would likely help you to be more successful with your weight loss. Decide what works best for you and then make a commitment to do the food logging whether it be 2-3 days each week or 7 days a week. Do the best you can to log everything you eat and drink, realizing that you don’t have to do it perfectly to still benefit from the process. If you don’t follow through with your commitment, try to focus on the benefits of using a food logging system to help increase your motivation and help you get back to logging.

What Information Should I Include in My Food Log?

The information you should include in your food log:

• What specific foods and beverages you are eating, how the food is prepared and any sauces, condiments, dressing or toppings. Record EVERTHING you eat and drink. Log or write down the foods and beverages you consume right after you eat them if possible to increase accuracy since you may not remember everything you ate or the amounts if you wait until the end of the day.
• How much food you are eating. If possible, weigh your food and record the weight. Otherwise try to use cups, tablespoons or teaspoon measurements. If you are bringing food to work with you, measure out the food at home as you are packing your lunch and snacks. If this is not possible, estimate the food portions, keeping in mind that people tend to underestimate how much food they eat.
• What time you are eating (including how long you are taking to eat). The Health Plus app does not have a space to record this, but consider jotting this down in a small notebook. This can help you identify whether you are meeting the goal of eating at least every 3 hours (or even more frequently). Knowing the times you are eating can also help you determine if there are certain times of day when you are either eating too little or eating too much. If you are always eating very quickly, you may want to consider slowing down (try to take 20 minutes to eat a meal) so that your stomach has time to communicate to your brain that you are full.
• What else you doing as you are eating. You can also record this in your notebook. Are you on your computer or phone? Are you watching TV? If you tend to be distracted by other things when you eat, you may eat more than you need to because you won’t be paying attention to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. In addition, you may not enjoy your food as much as you can (e.g. notice the flavors, textures, smells and colors of the foods you are eating).
• How you feeling before, during and after eating (both physically and emotionally). Are you ravenous before you start eating? Are you feeling happy, sad, stressed, anxious, lonely, bored, tired? Are you feeling satisfied after eating or are you feeling overly full? Once again, this could be jotted down in a notebook.

How Can I Use My Food Log to Make Better Choices and Improve My Health?

After you have logged at least a few days of food and beverage intake, take a look at the food log (app and/or notebook) to look for trends, patterns or habits. 

Some things to look at:

• Are you eating fruits and vegetables every day? If so how many servings? A good goal is at least 5 cups of fruits and vegetables every day.
• Are you eating whole grains such as oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa or barley every day?
• How often are you eating foods and drinks with added sugar?
• Are you eating at least 25 grams of fiber each day?
• Are you meeting your daily fat goal (15-40 grams of fat depending on your height)?
• Are you eating enough protein (see “The Importance of Protein” Blog to figure out your protein goal)?
• Are your moods/feeling affecting what you eat? Do you have a tendency to make poorer food choices or eat more when you are tired or stressed?
• Do you tend to eat less earlier in the day and then feel ravenous later on?
• Are you usually multi-tasking as you are eating?
• Make sure you pick out at least one thing you are doing well! Focusing on something positive will brighten your day.

You will likely notice several areas that could use some improvement. Pick one or perhaps two things to work on. For example, if you notice you only tend to eat vegetables with dinner, start packing some vegetables to take to work to eat with lunch or for a snack. Or you realize that by late afternoon you tend to be very hungry which is affecting your food choices and amount of food you eat for dinner. You could plan to eat a snack that contains some protein in the afternoons. Or you can see that you are going over your fat allowance on the days you are eating a certain food. Perhaps you can find a lower fat substitute for that food. This act of reflecting is probably the most important part of the food tracking process since you will be focusing on making changes that can potentially enhance your overall health and well-being.

Information compiled from:
Harvard Health
Healthline
WebMD