What Are The Benefits Of Using A Food Journal?

As of 2010, more than 72 million adults in the United States were obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity increases the risk of severe health conditions such as heart disease, osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes and stroke, and affects an individual's quality of life. As a result, healthcare providers recommend maintaining a healthy weight throughout your life cycle. Individuals who record their daily intake in a food journal may find it easier to lose weight because they maintain accountability.

Identification

Food journals come in many forms, including handmade charts, spreadsheets, notebooks, preprinted booklets and online tracking systems. In fact, any tool that allows you to record your food and beverage intake each day may be considered a food journal. When choosing a format, consider your lifestyle, habits and goals. A small notebook that fits in a pocket or purse might serve the needs of a person who eats most meals away from home, while an online tracker might work better for an individual who prefers a complex analysis of his daily intake.

Assessment

Losing 1 to 2 lbs. per week requires a calorie deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories per day. Keeping a food journal for several days allows you to calculate your usual intake and develop a plan for losing weight. You should record everything you eat, including the time, the amount and the number of calories for each food. At the end of the day, you should calculate your total calorie intake for the day. At the end of a week, you should calculate your total intake for the week and divide the number of calories by seven to determine your average daily intake. If you want to lose weight, you can decide if you will eat less, exercise more or do both to create a calorie deficit.

Analysis

Keeping track of your intake in a food journal helps you to analyze your diet and make improvements. If you are not familiar with nutrition principles for a healthy diet, you can talk to your healthcare provider or a nutritionist for guidelines regarding your ideal weight and nutrient intake. If you know what you should be eating, on the other hand, you can include some additional data in your food journal. While calorie intake and portion size are important factors to consider, you may also need to track fat, sugar, protein and other nutrients. You should determine your target numbers, record your daily intake, and adjust your diet as needed to meet your goals. For example, if you want to reduce your calories and fat while boosting your protein intake, you can use an online tracker that calculates these figures for you, or consult nutrition tables to calculate this information yourself.

Developing Habits

Losing weight requires you to change your lifestyle by making healthier food choices and increasing your activity on a long-term basis. Keeping a food journal helps to reinforce new attitudes and behaviors toward eating because the act of writing your intake down helps you to pay attention. You may also feel rewarded by seeing that you have met your targets for calories, sugar, fat, protein and other nutrients for the day or longer periods. Knowing that you will need to record your food may also serve as a deterrent to making poor food choices at a particular meal.

Marking Progress

Self-monitoring is an effective tool for maintaining weight loss, according to an article published in the January 2004 issue of the journal "Monitor on Psychology." In fact, people who do not monitor themselves at least 75 percent of the time are unlikely to maintain their weight loss. If you also record your weight once a week, you will have a simple method to check your food intake against your progress and make adjustments to your diet as needed. For example, if you continue to lose weight after you reach your goal, you will need to add food to your daily intake or decrease your activity level. Conversely, if you begin to regain weight, you will need to increase your activity or cut back on your intake. In either case, your food journal can help you identify patterns that have led to the weight loss or weight gain.