It has been proven that keeping a food diary can double your weight loss, according to one of the longest-running weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted in Portland.
The subjects used were an average age of 55, which is good news because not only the middle aged subjects can double their weight loss, it also stands to reason that anyone under 55 with a presumably faster metabolism will lose the weight that much faster. The subjects were from different areas of the U.S, and the end result was the people who used a daily food diary lost twice as much weight as the ones who did not.
According to Dr. Jack Hollis, who lead the study, it was pretty obvious that the simple act of writing down and keeping track of what you eat will encourage a dieter to eat less and consume fewer calories.
This makes sense when you consider how many times during the day we mindlessly snack out of boredom or when we are preoccupied with some project. We don’t even know we’re doing it. And most of us continually eat when we are not hungry.
The participants in this particular study were required to eat a diet consisting of fruits and vegetables, along with low fat and non fat dairy products and were required to do moderate exercise for at least 30 minutes a day.
It’s interesting to note that currently over two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.
A food diary doesn’t have to be anything formal. Just write down what you eat every day on a scratch pad or in a notebook, or you can even send yourself text messages. Many of us will be surprised at how much we are really eating and the point of keeping informal records is that once we realize how many extra snacks or wrong food choices we are making, this method will help us to adjust our behavior by making us aware of what we are actually consuming on a daily basis, and that alone can really be a help in making our weight loss efforts that much easier and faster.
And when you really want to lose weight, a method as easy as this one is a welcome addition to your diet program.
