It’s 10pm
so I quickly glance over the stats to check what my most popular page is. You love the diets, but you also absolutely
love the entries in my food journal.
So let’s
talk food diaries. Are you just nosy or
are you contemplating starting one? I enjoy
recording my food intake as a diary never lies.
The journals quickly tell me if I’ve over eaten; that is, if my belly
doesn’t do that first of course!
If you are
goal oriented, then you’ll love scrutinising your daily intake and documenting
your progress with exercise and weight change over the next few months using a food diary.
A study in
Eating Behaviour concluded that someone
who consistently records their food intake is more likely to lose weight. This makes perfect sense. Witnessing how much you actually eat may be
the only concrete fact that will inspire and kick start you into making the
necessary and much needed changes to your diet.
A more
recent study in Obesity compared
paper diary and electronic food diaries with feedback facility in 210 healthy
adults. I was not surprised to discover that
the group who used the electronic diaries displayed the greatest devotion and
therefore the greatest weight change.
I’ve given
you the evidence and I’ve also provided you with the tool to start your food
diary (go to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/). So what are you waiting for?
Before you begin, always formulate
your long-term goals as well as your day to day goals. In the short-term you may be working on
increasing your fruit intake or reducing frequency of foods rich in salt.
Your long-term goal should not be isolated to
weight loss alone. Instead focus on
strategies to keep that shed weight, off!
Consider what methods you will adopt to ensure that you will keep eating
fruit daily. Perhaps you will visit a
farmers market every Saturday morning with a friend or your neighbour to achieve this.
Accuracy
When starting
your food diary, aim to be as accurate as possible when selecting foods in the
drop down boxes. If you eat a muffin for
mid-morning break and you cannot find the apple and cinnamon flavour, instead
of selecting ‘chocolate muffin’, choose the apple and cinnamon cake if this option is available.
Read labels
If you have
not read my article Be Shopping savvy-nutrition.html then please read this now! It’s essential that you understand and
appreciate the principles of label reading.
When you purchase
the apple and cinnamon muffin, retain the wrapping so that you can accurately recall
the calories per serving size (1 muffin) and the weight per serving size. Unless the muffin weighed 100g, the value
for the serving size will differ and be usually displayed in the front of the
packaging or under the ‘serving size’ column.
Enter this amount in weight (grams) by choosing the 1g option in the ‘how
much’ column in myfitnesspal. For the
number of servings, enter weight of the product.
For
example if the muffin weighed 150g, select ‘apple and cinnamon cake’, then for ‘how
much’ select ‘1g’ for amount and finally enter 150 servings.
Portion sizes
This might
sound pedantic, but if you usually eat the same breakfast during the week like
I do, then I suggest you weigh your cereal at least once. Or measure it once in a measuring cup so that
you know precisely the amount of cereal you eat. The manufacturer’s guidelines for serving
sizes are often unrealistic and misleading.
When you
weigh your usual portion of breakfast cereal, you will notice that you
naturally eat more than the manufacturer’s specified portion size (in
grams). Don’t worry if this is the case,
this is completely normal.
The
advantage of weighing your cereal or any other food item that you regularly eat
is that you will know exactly how much you eat in grams. Luckily, once you create a food entry, most
online journals often ‘remember’ and list your selected food items with your
selected portion sizes for quick and efficient food journal entry on your
subsequent visit.
Exercise
I
regularly walk to work. I therefore
jumped onto http://www.walkjogrun.net/
to calculate distance and speed
to allow for additional accuracy when recording the exercise aspect of the food journal. I also mapped out my
regular runs for the same reason.
Weight
Remember,
weight is only a number. Instead of
focusing on this number, observe the change in weight. If the trend is a decrease then you are
probably losing body weight. However,
changes in fluid status can also cause your weight to fluctuate. It is best to weigh yourself at the same time
each week. Better still, record your body
measurements as this will be a more powerful tool for judging weight loss.
Did you
know that muscle weighs almost three times as much as body fat? If you exercise regularly and your weight
does not change, this could be because you are gaining muscle and shedding fat.
Fat also occupies a lot of space,
whereby muscle is lean.
The most
effective way to judge progress is therefore your measurements and your
clothing size.
Finally,
complete your food diary at the end of each day to avoid overlooking snacks
which can be easily forgotten. The more
accurate your food diaries, the quicker you’ll identify areas of weakness and
opportunities for change.
Please comment below, I love, read and really look forward to all of your comments!
Please comment below, I love, read and really look forward to all of your comments!
