When dietitians are asked about the most effective tools to support weight loss, they don’t talk about scales or weight curves, but about the food diary. This small slimming step is a tip that may seem “old fashioned” to you and that you would gladly skip, but if so, you are wrong and we tell you why…
Keeping a food diary is not rocket science: you write down everything you eat and drink in a notebook or using an application provided for this purpose. The main advantage, as we will see, is that it really works. The problem, however, is that it’s boring and boring to do…
If, the first days, we conscientiously write down all the cracks and small deviations of the day, we tend to get tired quickly and give up. However, the results are particularly convincing…
People who track their diet closely and record their meals and snacks in a food diary give themselves more likely to lose weight permanently. Professor Jean Harvey, from the University of Vermont (USA), conducted a study on the impact of this diary on long-term weight. The experiment was conducted in February 2019 on 142 patients for 6 months.
Participants in this study who spent time recording their food intake in the food diary lost significantly more weight from the first month. And the effects were even more significant when they did it directly right after the meal.
So why does it work?
The food diary is a diary that you fill out daily, specifying all of your food intake for the day:
- The detailed content of his meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- Any snacks or nibbles.
- Beverage consumption.
- Physical activities.
- Mood state (optional).
If the notebook is used properly, you quickly become aware of what is wrong and you can rectify the situation. The objective of this laborious (but profitable) work is twofold:
- For a nutritionist, a dietician or a slimming coach, it is a question of obtaining an overall overview of a person’s eating habits in order to know them better, better understand them and better support them.
- For you who want to lose weight, it is a question of becoming more aware of your own behavior because you may be convinced that you already have a balanced diet when this is not necessarily the case.+
How to properly fill in your food diary?
During each meal but also during snacks outside meals, you register all foods that you consumed. This especially allows you to identify the times you are consuming unnecessary calories.
Be transparent and write down everything in detail, whether it’s a square of chocolate, chewing gum or coffee. You will then see black on white how are your meals made and if the snacks you give yourself can have consequences…
If the idea of writing everything by hand puts you off, you can help yourself with a free app like lifesum (my favorite) or myfitnesspalwhich is both useful for logging meals and scanning food barcodes.
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Mobile apps like myfitnesspal are practical alternatives to the food diary. They also allow calculate calories burned during your exercises. Just select a sport and add the duration of your session. Then the application calculates everything for you and draws up a weekly report. The progression curve is motivating and encourages you to do even more and even better!
A food diary or an application of this type is strongly recommended when you undertake a slimming program. In addition, this allows be well aware calories we eat every day.
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