Keeping a food diary increases your accountability for and awareness of what you eat, as reported in "Keeping Food Diary Helps Weight Loss" on CBS News Health. Your doctor, nutritionist or personal trainer might ask you to keep a food diary for a week or longer as part of designing a diet or weight loss plan. But there's no reason you can't do it on your own, too. Once you've got a hard record of your dietary habits right in front of you, you're in a good position to start making changes.
Step 1
Choose a small notebook that you can carry with you everywhere you go. Reserve the notebook for use as a food diary only--no multitasking. Keep the notebook, and a small pen or pencil, with you at all times.
Step 2
Write down everything you eat or drink as soon as you've consumed it. Include not just what you've eaten but portion sizes, too. Weigh or measure quantities when you can. If you can't weigh food, estimate the portion size. According to Meals Matter, a serving of meat is usually about the size of a deck of cards. A serving of fish is about the size of a checkbook. A rounded handful of vegetables or cut fruit usually works out to about one-half cup, and a half-cup of ice cream is about the size of a tennis ball.
Step 3
Write down nutritional information whenever available. Some restaurant menus will list nutritional information. If you're eating prepared food, note down the nutritional information from the box. Make sure to look at the serving size, too--you might be eating more than one serving without realizing it.
Step 4
Sit down with a nutritional information workbook or computer application at the end of every day. Calculate how many calories you consumed during the day, along with any other nutritional information you're keeping track of--grams of fat or carbohydrates, for example. If you're trying to lose weight, you might be most interested in counting calories, but if you're watching your diet due to high cholesterol or diabetes your doctor may instruct you to count fat or sugar grams, too.
Things You'll Need
- Notebook
- Pen or pencil
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