The Food Diary

A diary helps in managing pregnancy diets and diet-related conditions such as allegies and irritable bowel syndrome

Most overweight people feel they hardly eat. Some say they eat one or two rotis in a day. They seem to size up a day8217;s food intake with such counts. Others prefer to live in denial and focus on what they don8217;t eat rather on than what they eat.

The first step to improve your diet is to keep track of what you eat, when you eat and how much you eat. You can do that by maintaining a 8216;food diary8217;. Keeping a food diary even for only three days gives you a fair idea of your eating patterns. Jotting down 8216;eating experience8217; makes it more significant as what you eat is influenced by what8217;s going on inside and around you. In fact, a Harvard Medical School study showed that after unsuccessful dieters began jotting down what they ate, they lost weight. Another study involving 1,685 middle8211;aged men and women over six months found those who kept a diary lost about twice as much weight as those who didn8217;t.

A food diary will tell you whether you include all the food groups in adequate amounts in your diet, the variety of foods you consume and the amount and the frequency of intake of sugar. After completing the dairy, you can compare the listed items to healthy eating recommendations.
Don8217;t panic if your diary reveals that you8217;re eating too many fats and too few fruits, vegetables, and grains. A food diary is a tool to help you manage your diet, not cause fear.

Researchers found obese people under-reported their energy intake by 20 to 50 per cent in their food diaries while lean people under-reported by 10 to 30 per cent.

In one study, researchers instructed participants to keep daily diaries of how much they ate and exercised for two weeks. Using accurate metabolic tests, researchers tracked the actual caloric intake and energy output of each participant. Participants underestimated their food intake and overestimated their energy output by about 50 per cent.

In spite of the chances of misreporting, studies show that keeping a food diary was a better predictor of weight loss than body mass index, exercise or age. Writing down everything you eat is a powerful technique. It tells you where the calories are coming from and helps develop specific plans to deal with them. It holds dieters accountable for what they are eating.
A diary also helps in managing pregnancy diets and diet-related conditions such as allergies and irritable bowel syndrome. It can also be used by athletes to mark their dietary goals.

So, while a food diary heightens awareness, to be useful, it must be kept with care. Be accurate and list everything you eat as soon as you can. If possible, record what you eat as you eat it. Be specific about portion size and foods that contain more than one ingredient. For example, if you eat a sandwich, list the kind of sandwich and the portion size of the bread. Don8217;t forget to mention the butter or mayonnaise or that extra slice of cheese. The longer you wait to record what you eat, the less accurate you8217;ll be. However, even if it is not done formally, scribbling down what you8217;re eating can help a great deal.

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So, next time you resolve to improve your diet, start by reaching out for a pen and a paper. It works like that mirror on the wall.