Here’s what you need to know…..
- The simple act of recording what you eat will quickly raise your awareness of the calorie content and nutrient profile of the foods you’re eating. This will enable you to make better choices about the foods you eat.
- Food diaries offer a greater degree of flexibility than regular meal plans which can be beneficial for people that work long hours, travel frequently or are otherwise not in control of the foods that they are eating.
- Whether you’re held accountable by a community, coach or by yourself, food diaries are an excellent platform from which commitment to your goals can be reinforced.
Whether documented on paper, online or in an app, food diaries are a cheap and effective tool that can be used to help you track your daily calorie intake and lose weight. The primary function of a food diary is to record your calorie and macronutrient intake. Tracking your food intake is important for a number of reasons, most notably it allows you to measure what’s known as energy balance – the relationship between the number of calories you consume through food and those you expend through exercise and activity. The difference between these two figures will determine whether or not you lose weight. If you eat more than you expend, then you’re going to gain weight. Conversely, if you eat less than what you burned, you’re going to lose weight.
This all might sound painfully obvious but if you’re not tracking your calories, then you have no real way of knowing whether you’ve burned more or less than what you’ve consumed. The problem is that without a reliable measure, people tend to over-estimate the amount of calories burned through exercise whilst underestimating the number of calories consumed through food. Inevitably, this will cause your total daily calorie intake to rise, significantly reducing your calorie deficit or even putting you in a calorie surplus – neither of which are conducive to fat loss.
Whilst being able to monitor energy balance is the primary and most important function of your food diary, it also serves a number of other purposes which increase its overall value as a weight loss tool. For those of you that are considering using a food diary, here’s a quick summary of the different ways in which a food diary can help you lose weight;
Benefit No.1 – Increased Awareness
As I’ve already mentioned, people tend to massively underestimate the amount of calories they consume through food. This is because of a general unawareness of both their daily recommended calorie intake and the calorie content of the foods that they are eating. People seldom check nutrition labels and even if they did, keeping track of all that data in your head would require considerable conscious effort. The simple act of recording what you eat will quickly raise your awareness of the calorie content and nutrient profile of the foods in your diet. Using that information you will then be able to reduce your calorie intake by swapping high calorie – low nutrient foods for low calorie – high nutrient foods. Or, by simply reducing the amount of food you eat overall. Either way, the end result is that you will have a much better understanding of the nutritional value of the foods that you are eating. This will enable you to make better decisions about what to eat to effectively nourish your body.
Benefit No.2 – Flexibility
One of the major downsides to following a nutrition plan is that generally, they are quite inflexible. This makes them difficult to adhere to for people that work long hours, travel frequently or are otherwise not going to be in control of what they’re going to be eating. In contrast, food diaries offer a great deal of flexibility as all you need to do is record what you eat whilst ensuring that you stay within your allocated calorie and macronutrient targets. This can make the already stressful process of diet significantly less stressful. Making your diet easier to adhere to and more sustainable long term.
Benefit No.3 – Accountability
In order to be successful in your weight loss endeavour, you’re going to need to be consistent. Weight loss doesn’t happen overnight and it’s quite feasible that you’re going to need to adhere to your diet for weeks, months or even years before you achieve your goals. During that time, it is inevitable that short-term desires will come into conflict with long-term goals. Temptation, hunger, tiredness and even fatigue all have the potential to derail you from your diet and jeopardise your progress. Whether you’re held accountable by a community, coach or by yourself, food diaries are an excellent platform from which commitment to your goals can be reinforced. Giving your coach access to your food diary enables them to see exactly how well you’re performing against your goals and indicators of progress. It isn’t something that should be depended upon, but the additional layer of commitment a coach can provide can help prevent you from relapsing into old habits or abandoning your efforts altogether.
Final Thoughts
Whilst food diaries are not a permanent solution they are an excellent tool for anyone that want’s to lose weight, particularly beginners that are struggling to get to grips with their nutrition. Admittedly, it does require some discipline to fill in your food diary at every meal but the advent of smartphones have made it easier than ever to track and record your calorie intake by simply touching a button. In many respects, keeping a food diary is a lot like filling your car with petrol at the filling station. Without the little gauge on the pump which tells you how many litres of fuel you’ve put into the car and what it’s going to cost you, you’d simply be guessing as to how much fuel is in your tank. Your food diary is that little gauge on the side of the pump. It lets you know if you need a little more, or if you’ve already had too much. It will keep you honest, enable you to make realistic sustainable changes to your diet and ultimately enable you to lose weight and keep it off in the long term. Remember, what gets measured gets improved.
