Looking to Lose Weight? A Food Diary May Help!

For many, losing weight is difficult. But according to researchers at Kaiser Permanente Northwest in Portland, keeping a food diary just may be the tool you need to achieve your weight loss goals.

Researchers studied the results from Phase I of the Weight Loss Maintenance trial, which examined three approaches for maintaining weight loss in a large, diverse adult population at high risk for cardiovascular disease.

The 1,685 participants in the trial kept food diaries and were encouraged to eat a healthy, reduced calorie diet and increase their level of moderate intensity exercise over a six month period.

After six months the average weight loss of the group was 13 pounds. Researchers found those individuals who kept food diaries 6 or 7 days per week lost twice as much weight as those who kept diaries one day a week or less.

Results of the study were published online ahead of the August 2008 edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Writing in a food diary may help with weight loss because you become accountable for what you eat. It makes you realized exactly what you are eating in a given day and helps you set goals to reduce those amounts.

Source: American Journal of Preventive Medicine
August 2008; vol 35
“Weight Loss During the Intensive Intervention Phase of the Weight Loss Maintenance Trial”
Authors: Jack Hollis, PhD, et al.