A minute on the lips, a lifetime in the food journal

I may be a writer, but I've only kept a food diary during a select few times in my life:

1) Sometime around fourth grade, when I wrote things in my beloved red patent leather Hello Kitty diary like, "Dear Hello Kitty, Today Lisa and I had toast sticks dipped in peanut butter and corn flakes today and it was SO YUMMY!!!!!"

2) During my freshman year of college when I was making my way towards full-fledged anorexia. My entries looked something like:

Two hardboiled egg whites

Small apple

Butterscotch disk

Salad with a scoop of kidney beans and salsa

Two Diet Mountain Dews

3) While recovering from that superfun period - my nutritionist had me fill out forms verifying I was getting 12 servings or carbs a day, 7 fruits and vegetables, 5 proteins, etc.

So the bulk of my experience with chronicling my intake has been unenjoyable, I think it's safe to say.

But now, a new study of nearly 1,700 participants by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research has found a rosier side to keeping a food diary - if you're looking to shed pounds in a safe way, writing down what you shovel in your mouth can be a strong predictor of weight loss. In fact, those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records.

"The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost," study lead author Jack Hollis Ph.D., has said. "Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories."

One particularly cool aspect of this study (IMO, anyway): It's one of the few studies to recruit a large percentage of African Americans as participants. Forty-four percent, to be exact - a staggeringly high number. Why is this important? A number of reasons, including the fact that African Americans are more likely to suffer from medical conditions that are worsened by obesity, such as diabetes and heart disease. It should also be noted that the people in this study adhered to a heart-healthy diet called DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and attended weekly group sessions, plus they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day.

What this diary study means for anyone trying to lose weight: Get yourself a cute little journal or even just a stack of scrap paper - what matters is that you're actually writing down every half-chocolate muffin you scarf down before your 8am meeting or every stalk of celery you munch on while cooking dinner. You can even text yourself!

U R ETing 2 spoons PB

The success comes from holding yourself accountable and upping your awareness. I bet I'd be less likely to grab that gallon of Mint Chocolate Chip and a spoon if I had to write down, "Family-sized container of ice cream."

And that, my friends, is why I don't keep a food journal.

I'm also now afraid of eating wedge-shaped foods (note #18). Stay away, apple pie!

Comments

I've had varying degrees of success when I journal. I've had phases where I've recorded every morsel online the night before and then panicked when the plan might have to change that day...don't you hate when living gets in the way of carefully constructed dietary plans?!

Then, in my more relaxed periods, I would make a conscious effort to eat more at night time just to get all my prescribed calories/protein/fibre/fruit&veg for the day, whether I was hungry or not.

Basically, when I undertake such a task as journaling, I tend to do so with an unsustainable level of attentiveness and abandon all efforts when I eat anything for which I don't want to be held accountable.

However, with a healthy attitude, I have no doubt it could be a useful tool! Eeek, long winded much?

when I gained my freshman 15 and a few other people's as well I tried the food journal for a big.

WHOA NELLY that wasnt a tactic for me as I dont lean toward the obsessive yet could have easily taken up residency in Fretting Aver Every Morsel-ville as a result of recording it all.

I think that each time I read about the study-----we're all so different I guess.

M.

Okay, I didn't vote, because neither answer is me. I keep a food journal occasionally, when I realize I've been eating too much junk snacking too often, or just now, when returning from vacation. I keep it for a couple of days to remind myself to be accountable for what I have done and to make sure I get enough veggies. I don't get neurotic over it, and I quit after 2 or 3 days because I generally forget to write in it after that. And I'm lazy.

I had huge success on WW doing food journalling and points counting ... until I finished the Maintenance period and stopped obsessively writing everything down. The problem with journalling is that you don't actually deal with the reasons WHY you snack and all that. I did pretty well until I hit a particularly stressfull time in my life, then it all went to h-e-doublehockeysticks in a handbasket and I gained back the majority of the 50 pounds that I had lost. Now I have a modified version of journalling, which is to THINK when I am putting things in my mouth about why I am eating, and then track that I am getting all of the good stuffs. So far so good, as I have at least stopped gaining weight ....

So, would it be better to cut your pie and pizza into square pieces? Perhaps maybe even circular slices? :)

I had to keep an FFJ (Food and Feelings Journal) for almost a year. Now, I know that sounds like a lot of fun. I did, however, enjoy picking some fun journals. Anyway, I think it made me more obsessive about what I ate and because I tend to "graze" I felt like I was eating way more than I was.

I no longer keep one but sometimes I do think about writing down everything I eat again, though I know that would just make me more obsessive.

I've had success with it in the past (WW) but now I find it turns me neurotic. I try be aware of what I'm eating and I'm working on not eating mindlessly. Stopping and thinking whether I'm actually hungry or just thirsty/bored seems to be best for me.

Journalling got me on a path that scared me slightly so I avoid.

I've keep one from time to time when I've let a few pounds slip on just to keep things in check. It totally works for me - I'm much less likely to eat a whole bag of chocolate if I know I have to write it down. ;) It's also a great way to track things you might need to track like if you're trying to get more fiber in your diet, etc.

I use fitday.com to log what I eat...
and let me tell you- It makes you not want to eat certain foods because you think "crap, if I eat those nachos I have to log 'chips, tomatoes, 1lb cheese, peppers,..." And it becomes a hassel- Therefor i don't eat things I can't easily log (which includes Ben and Jerrys!)

Did the study say whether they were counting calories, or just journaling food? I tend to get neurotic when counting calories, but wonder if just writing down food would be helpful.

Like you, I (until very recently) associated food journaling with the height of my eating disorder. Lately, at the advice of my personal trainer, I've been tracking my intake to ensure that I'm getting ENOUGH to eat--at least 100 g of proteing, 240 g of carbs, and 60g of fat. If I have less than that at the end of the day, I have to find snacks to top me off. It's a complete 180 from the mindset I used to have re tracking my intake. I'm very happy with how it's going!

i've food journaled off and on for years - most recently last summer when i was on the bodybugg. for that, i had to log what i ate on the comp anyway, so i kept the journal to make life easier. like someone said above, having to log each and every little bit of an item made me end up living on (basically) oatmeal and egg beaters. yeah. also, getting a HEALTHY 60 carb/20 protein/20 fat breakdown is HARD.

I've been thinking about this food journaling thing since that study hit the media. . . . Currently I'm keeping a fairly precise one online, but I think perhaps a less obsessive version would be, as Robin mentions above, to list food eaten but not get super nitpicky about recording and counting calories and macronutrients constantly.

So true, holding ourselves accountable is so important and a journal would be a great tool. Nice post!

I'm currently doing WW so I'm journaling for that. Suprisingly, I'm not obsessive about it.

In fact, I've found that it puts more of a "reality" check in a good way. A lot of times, I think I have "overdone" it...but when I write down what I had, I realize that it wasn't so bad in the grand scheme of things.

Food journalling is undeniably useful for my weight loss, but dreadful for my state of mind. I can't just journal food - it takes me nanoseconds to look at the list and work out the calories, and then I'm suddenly back in a Prison Of Numbers.

I still do keep a journal occasionally, but I'm trying to do it less.

TA x

I love to journal and to keep detailed track of things, like my monthly cycles, and I love food, so these things have now all come together nicely for me.

I first started tracking my food online almost a year ago at sparkpeople.com (love that site!) & I lost the first 30 lbs that way. Of course I exercised, too. Still do.

But then the logging online got to be too much of a hassle (infrequent internet availablility, grr) and I wasn't doing it consistently, but I still wanted to lose 20 more lbs. So in March I started journaling my food in a cute little notebook and so far I have lost 10 more lbs.

It helps me make healthy choices if I know I'm going to be writing it down. It also helped me discover that treating myself with some sort of CHOCOLATE at the end of the day keeps me from overeating, and helps me shed the pounds. I keep track of calories as much as possible, but if I'm not sure of something I just make an educated guess.

I am not sure what my maintenance mode is going to look like yet...

I keep a food journal on Sparkpeople.com and I've used Fitday in the past. It is very helpful for me as far as planning out my food in advance to make sure I am getting a good balance. It doesn't trigger anything obsessive in me at all. If anything it triggers shame for having to write down all the junk I ate one day in a fit of weakness. I will say that the journal is only as good as the journalkeeper. I have "lied" to my journal in the past by not including foods I know I ate. Sometimes I feel like "I already screwed up and ate 2300 calories today - why add in that extra 200 snack?" Silly I know!

"You just downed 1/4 cup of PB" is more like it! :)

Writing things down usually DOES help to lose weight- but the last time I tried it it sparked MAJOR disordered eating and obsessions for me, so I'm staying away from the journaling for a while. What works for some people at some points in their lives doesn't work for other people at other life stages, I guess.

Everytime I try to do this I get a little crazy.... It got to the point where ALL I thought about was food, what I was going to eat, what someone would say to me if they saw what I ate...I started not eating much of anything after a few days of writing because I was ashamed of what I was writing down, even though it was NOT at all bad. For me, I could see myself heading towards a disorder of some sort so I quit. At the end of every day though, I can tell you EVERYTHING I ate...not very healthy for the mind

I've tried keeping a journal before, but I'm really bad at sticking to it. But I think I'll try again...especially since I've been snacking a lot lately.

When I was in college, I gained 30 lbs. in 3 months and I was pretty much sure that I was eating "about" 2000 calories a day and that I just had a superslow metabolism. So I decided to write down what I was eating for about a week to see exactly how many calories I was eating. It was more like 4500-5000 calories a day...no wonder I was gaining weight! So I started WW and started writing down how many Points I was eating and I made better choices. Now, I pretty much eat a fairly consistent diet that's got a pretty decent calorie level, so I don't bother to write everything down anymore. It's a good way to keep track of what you've eaten and how many calories you have left in your "budget" for the day.

I blame my food journal for single-handedly sending me into Anorexia & Orthorexia. Every single major ED relapse I've had starts with food journalling. I think it must be like alcohol. Some people can do it in moderation but me - one sip and I'm an addict! I avoid food journals like the plague:)

I used to keep a food journal, but I stopped. Cause, you know, if I ate something I wasn't supposed to, I just lied about it. I mean, crap, if I'm being undisciplined enough to eat the stuff, I'm sure not going to be disciplined enough to write it down...so what's the point, really? :-)

Also, I was super lazy. And I was eating according to meal plans anyway, so after a while I got tired of writing and just started copying and pasting my food plans. Which sort of defeated the purpose...

I know they work for a lot of people...but not so much for me. :-(

V.