Successful weight loss, says the American Psychological Association, means losing at least 10 pounds of excess weight and keeping if off for at least one year. Many people fail in their weight loss efforts because they find it difficult to change their eating and exercise habits. Tracking can help these individuals change their habits permanently.
Losing Weight
Your body uses the energy from food and burns it through physical activity and normal bodily functions. If you burn the same number of calories you consume every day, your weight stays the same. Eating more than you need -- a calorie excess -- causes weight gain. A calorie deficit, on the other hand, causes weight loss. Since a pound equals 3,500 calories, you must create a deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories every day to lose one to two pounds a week, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Purpose of Tracking
Losing weight requires long-term changes to your diet and eating habits. To improve the likelihood of success, you must self-monitor your behavior. In fact, unless people self-monitor at least 75 percent of the time, they may not succeed in their weight loss efforts, according to the American Psychological Association. Tracking your food intake by writing it down each day, says Keith Bachman, M.D., in a July 8, 2008, article published in "Science Daily." If you also track your weight once a week, you can see your progress and make adjustments to your diet as needed.
What to Track
Tracking your food intake should include at least a description of each item of food, how much you ate and the number of calories you consumed. Or, if you follow a specialized weight loss program or have diabetes, you may need to record diabetic exchanges, points, fats, protein or carbohydrates. If you have problems with emotional eating, compulsive eating or other behaviors that may cause you interfere with weight loss, you may also want to track your mood, where you ate and what you were doing during the meal. These records will assist you in identifying patterns that cause you to overeat, such as watching television, reading, standing up while eating or eating immediately after arguing with a loved one.
Tracking Tools
You don't need a sophisticated system for tracking your food intake, says Bachman. A simple journal, diary or sticky note works well, as do spreadsheets or preprinted pages such as the food diary available as a download from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Website. A number of websites offer food tracking services that calculate calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates and other nutrients when you record what you ate and how much. Some websites, such as MyPyramidTracker.gov, provide this information for free. Others, such as WeightWatchers.com, require you to follow the organization's meal plan and pay a monthly fee. Blackberry and iPhone owners can input their data in a tracking application. Most of these programs generate weekly or monthly reports to help you track your intake and, in some cases, suggest exercise routines and meal plans for you.
Additional Tracking
Diet alone rarely results in successful weight loss. To lose weight, you also need to increase your physical activity to at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week. Many food tracking websites also calculate the number of calories you burn during physical activity to help you determine your calorie balance. Again, self-monitoring helps to enforce your new habits and track your weight loss success.
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