Using Food Diaries to Aid In Weight Loss

A food diary is a great tool to evaluate your eating habits and your normal diet. It lets you make healthy changes that you can in turn use to lose weight and get healthy. This can be an excellent tool and everyone who is considering losing weight should begin a food diary.

What is a food diary?
You can use any type of format that you wish for a food diary. Some use a note book, a journal, a blog, a spreadsheet, or a form designed for that purpose specifically. You need to be able to write down everything you eat and an estimate of how much you ate. If you are going to count calories then there should be space for you to figure out those numbers as well.

Why use a food diary?
A food diary lets you look at what you have been eating and where your weaknesses are. We rarely take time to consider what we are eating and more specifically how much of it we are eating. Even if we know what we are eating, it is hard to realize that our portion controls are larger then they should be.

Be honest with your food diary.
Few of us want to be honest with ourselves when it comes to our dietary habits. However it is very important that you are completely honest with your food diary. Don’t hide anything or skimp on your numbers. If you have three cookies, put down three rather than one!

Evaluating Your Food Diary.
Once you have spent a few days to a week writing down what you eat and how much of it you eat it is time to seriously look at your diet. You want to highlight the types of foods that are your weakness and where and when you over eat.

Cut Portion Sizes.
It is now time to start cutting portion sizes. This isn’t always easy to do, but start a little at a time. Try eating all day long rather then at specific times and make sure that you get breakfast. These things should make it easier for you to avoid over eating because you are hungry.

Choose healthier foods.
Look at your diet and find ways to replace unhealthy foods with similar, but healthy items. Also consider where to add fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These foods are good for you and are often lower in calories then other options.

Continuing the Food Diary.
You should continue your food diary for several months. It is a pain, but it is also likely to make a huge difference in your life. Continue to evaluate, use it as a tool to avoid over eating, and go back and compare your days now to days a couple of weeks or months again.

Weight loss takes work and one great way to work toward healthier eating is with a food diary. It can let you know what you are eating, how much, and how you can change.

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