Do you keep a food diary?

[Miniefan]

I was wondering how many of you keep food diaries, and if you do, do you also feel like it helps you be more accountable for what you are eating?

I used to keep one but I haven't started doing it again yet. I have been playing around with the daily plate at livestrong.com. What are your thoughts?

Thanks
Kim

 

[FergieTCat]

I do 100% better when I keep a food diary, and yes, it holds me accountable. I notice that when I don't write everything down, I "pretend" that I just didn't eat an entire small bag of Cadbury Mini-Eggs (for example).

 

[FireDancer]

I don't keep one everyday but I try to keep one for a couple of days each month. I find it helps to confirm what your estimates are for your intakes. The biggest advantage to keeping a diary is that you have to look up the nutritional information of everything you eat and you also have to see what the portion size is. What you may think is a serving may be 4 servings. A serving of most cereals is 1/2 cup but a cereal bowl will most often take 2 cups.

 

[VillianinVogue]

I found that when I track my calories with a food journal, I tend to become a bit obsessive. I do though, now basically my calories that I consume and try to keep it within a certain range.

 

[Miniefan]

I found that when I track my calories with a food journal, I tend to become a bit obsessive. I do though, now basically my calories that I consume and try to keep it within a certain range.

This is exactly the way I am too!!

 

[pjlla]

Yup.... almost daily for the past 15 months (except for vacations). It is the ONLY way I can keep myself accountable for what I eat.

If I don't write it as I eat it, I FORGET! And then I get to the end of the day and don't realize that I have OVEReaten. I know that I should be able to remember over the course of a day, but I don't.

And along with writing, I still MEASURE many of my foods. Especially high-fat foods like peanut butter (although I use a peanut butter/tofu spread now that is lower in fat), salad dressings, ice cream, mayonnaise (which I rarely use), butter/margarzine.

And I still weigh and measure my other foods, at least every few days, just to keep me honest and to keep reminding myself what 1 cup of cereal looks like, and what 3 ounces of chicken breast looks like.

Looking back at 15 months worth of food diaries also reminds me of how far I have come. And it lets me see what I ate when I had a good week on the scale and what I ate when I had a bad week on the scale. It also lets me track any patterns I might have.

I did start tracking in January 2008 on my laptop and I kept that up until about May. But I don't keep my laptop in my kitchen and it was starting to get to be a pain to run to my computer everytime I had a snack. So I went back to the old-fashioned way of just writing in a journal. I use cheap spiral bound notebooks and I keep it on the kitchen counter with a pen. Sometimes I even grab it and keep it with me if I am going to be eating out and about for the day. Since it is JUST for my eyes, I also write about once a week about my how I am feeling about my weight, what I am feeling when I cheat, and how I am going to keep motivating myself or I give myself new challenges. So far I have filled about 4 spiral notebooks since last May. One page, per day, plus an extra page each week for my journaling. (Although admittedly I frequently lose blank pages to a kid in need of a quick sheet of homework paper!)

Anyhow, I can't IMAGINE being successful with my weight loss without some sort of tracking device... be it a "real life" journal, an on-line journal, a check mark system, or something. It is just TOO easy to fool ourselves about what we have or haven't eaten if it isn't written down. Good luck...........P

 

[jessiemelina]

I think it's a good idea to keep a journal of your food intake each day. I think after awhile though you should be able to gauge how much you eat a day, etc and not have to continue listing every lil thing you eat. Starting out it is a great idea and helps keep you on the right track.

 

[quasar4legs]

I keep a visual food diary.
The dietician I see suggested that it helps with portion size as people tend to underestimate food portions when they write them down
I have found it very easy to do and just keep a camera on the kitchen bench and it really does help to keep me 'honest'.

Cheers
Trish

 

[Carpenters]

I credit the food journal with helping me keep on track in losing 32 pounds so far. My husband says it's right up my alley, making lists and writing things down, and he's absolutely right. I love being able to look at it at night and seeing that I still have guilt-free calories to eat and enjoy. I also use it to track my exercise, so I don't convince myself that surely I've been exercising four times a week when I've only been averaging three, or whatever. I'm committed to keeping my journal for at least six months, and I hope that by then I can do it on my own without writing everything down. If my weight goes back up, though, the journal will come back out. It works for me.