Keeping A Food Diary Can Cut the Pounds Quicker!

Writing down what you eat seems to help you eat fewer calories, according to a Kaiser Permanente study. The report, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, describes a randomized trial done at 4 centers over a period of 30 months.

Among the participants, 67% were women, 44% were African-American, and 79% were obese (i.e. their body mass index or BMI was over 30). Most of them were on blood pressure medication and over a third were taking meds to control their lipid levels. During the study, exercise levels were about 2 hours a week, on average. The participants ate almost 3 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, on average.

All the subgroups of participants based on race and sex lost substantial weight – roughly 12¾ pounds (5.8 kg) on average. Predictors of higher weight loss were greater initial weight, more sessions attended, more food records kept, and more time spent exercising.

Everyone knows that exercise is important in weight loss, and attending group sessions is likely to be helpful. But the prominent role of recording what one eats was a surprise. One of the investigators theorized that writing it down makes one reflect on what is being eaten, which increases awareness of eating habits, so that bad ones can be corrected more easily. It makes sense.

Comments

[Food Diary]

My favorite online food diary is http://www.nutrimirror.com. It's free, it's easy to use, and it's very powerful the way it counts your calories and analyzes the nutritional balance of the foods you eat. I recommend giving it a try.

[Robert Griffith]

Mike:

Thanks very much for this recommendation! Bob