Tracking your diet and exercise progress can serve as an incentive to make good choices, motivate you to work harder on getting fit and serve as a historical record of your diet and exercise accomplishments. As you take steps to improve the quality of your diet and exercise more consistently, use diet and exercise trackers regularly.
Features
Although you can track your diet and exercise by hand, using a dedicated tracker system is generally more convenient, accessible and detailed. The website MyPyramid.gov offers a free food tracker system, and many health-related websites offer tracker systems you can use with little or no cost. A complete diet tracking system complies the information you input throughout the day and displays a progress report for your review at the end of the day or week. An exercise tracking system often keeps track of your exercise minutes or hours, exercise frequency and types of exercises you perform.
Using an Exercise Tracker
Research several exercise trackers and select one that meets your needs. Some exercise trackers let you display your exercise minutes on a social networking site, which may motivate you and help you feel part of a group. Use the tracker to enter both cardiovascular exercise and strength building workouts. Input the form of aerobic exercise you performed, your rate of speed and how many minutes you worked out. When you strength train, enter the muscles worked, how many repetitions or sets you completed and the specific exercises you did.
Diet Tracker
Using an online diet tracker may help you lose weight, as Rebecca A. Krukowski, Ph.D., lead researcher and author of the 2008 study published in the "Telemedicine Journal and e-Health" found. She and her colleagues discovered the best tracker programs provide a feeling of support, motivational articles and stories and regular feedback. As you explore your diet tracker and its features, join a forum or bulletin board group of like-minded individuals to learn strategies and help your success. Input all your meals, snacks, drinks and desserts each day to keep accurate records. Adjust your food intake up or down throughout the day, to remain within your calorie budget.
Strategies
Feel free to change diet and exercise tracking systems if you find another website or method that more closely meets your needs. If possible, use a tracker that links your diet and exercise together so you can see the relationship between the amount of exercise you perform to the amount of weight you lose. Aim to input your dietary choices into the tracker several times a day to ensure accurate reporting. Record your emotions and feelings about your dietary choices. Enter your exercise minutes into the tracker on the same day you work out. Share your diet and exercise tracker reports with your doctor or nutritionist.
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