FOOD DIARY
WANT TO KNOW THE SECRET TO LOSING WEIGHT? KEEP A FOOD DIARY DETAILING EVERY SINGLE MORSEL THAT PASSES YOUR LIPS. DIETERS WHO KEEP A DAILY FOOD DIARY CAN LOSE TWICE AS MUCH WEIGHT AS THOSE WHO DON’T. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR…
There comes a time when people become frustrated at their fruitless attempts to lose weight. Many give up, while those hell-bent on success seek the advice of a professional and they also take responsibility for themselves.
I have yet to meet a client that has ever eaten anything by accident, so, in order to increase their awareness of their food intake, I ask every client to keep a food diary. These enable clients to be accountable for their eating.
Keeping track of your eating habits makes you responsible for what you consume. The vast majority of people underestimate the amount of food they actually consume, but the proof is in the waistline.
When you write your food intake down, everything is there in black and white. Hidden habits are uncovered and nutritional mishaps come to light.
Everything, from trips to the supermarket on an empty stomach, where you sampled in-store food promotions, to ‘tasting’ the kids’ dinners, must all be recorded. Every misdemeanour is filed, as all these calories add up.
The clients that keep track of what they eat make better progress every time, without fail. I tell them to use the spreadsheet I give them, and, if that is not available, write it in a spiral notebook or on a napkin with a crayon — it doesn’t matter. So long as it gets written down.
If you were to apply for a mortgage, you would be asked for details of your credit history and your ability to make regular payments. Your body is no different and, by recording your eating, you will see if your body is in the black this year, or in the red.
This approach is one of the simplest things you can do to achieve fat loss. In a recent study, 1,700 participants tracked their progress as they embarked on a weight-loss journey, involving both exercise and a healthy diet.
It turns out that the dieters who kept a daily food diary of every single thing they ate lost twice as much weight as those who did not.
The fact that loggers lost more weight does not surprise me in the least. But losing double what the others dieters did is simply astounding.
“It had a very big impact,” one study participant noted. “If I was walking through the kitchen and wanted to grab a biscuit, I would think twice because I knew I had to write it down.”
Keeping track of what you eat is one of the easiest things you can do to achieve fat loss. If it makes you think twice about what you consume, then it’s worth it.
Areas to look out for are long gaps in your meals. When this happens, your body goes into fat-storing mode. An addiction to caffeine is often the catylyst for people to make a lifestyle change. With your food diary, you may notice that the portion sizes need to be altered or you may realise that you need to increase your quantities of proteins and vegetables.
Or, you may need to eliminate your intake of processed foods, especially those containing white flour, such as bread and pastas.
If the food diary is in dire need of repair, the client and I may decide on a step-by-step approach. Inch by inch it’s a cinch, but mile by mile it’s a pile, so start with simple changes, the first of which is breakfast. This one change can help stabilise your blood sugar for the day.
The diary should also include details of your sleeping patterns. Late meals and snacks are the habits of a sumo wrestler, so you should eat every three to four hours.
You have the key to fat loss in your hands. You can either take the time to write out your diary, or you can make excuses. Oral food diaries are worthless.
If you cannot understand where your problems lie you need to reach out to someone who can help. When you have to present your food diary for inspection to a peer, you will be less likely to be caught with your hand in the cookie jar and you may just achieve the results that your training deserves.