If the last time you kept a diary was when you were a teenager, don’t be put off by the idea of keeping a food journal.  Research shows keeping a written record of our eating habits is often enough to help us start losing weight.

According to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, food diaries really do work, with a study in 2008 finding that dieters who kept a food diary doubled their weight loss.  The study followed 1700 overweight people and found that, after six months, those who had written down everything they ate lost an average of six kilos more than those who didn’t.

Jane Barnes, Sydney-based dietitian and founder of Food Sense (www.foodsense.com.au), says food diaries are effective because they make you think about everything you put in your mouth.  “You can’t fool yourself when it’s written down,” she says.

With most dieters underestimating what they eat during the day, or forgetting about the handful of chips taken from their child’s plate, a food diary exposes all of a dieters’ secret nibbles.  Everything is written down, from the chocolate frog at morning tea to your nightly glass of wine.

“When you keep a food diary, people tend to modify their diet straight away, “she says.  “In my experience, after working on four seasons (of The Biggest Loser) those who are best at keeping a food diary, hang around for longer.”

While Biggest Loser contestants use an online diary to record their meals and calculate how far they need to run to burn of a Tim Tam, a food diary can be as simple or complex as you like.

“The most basic food diary just involves writing down every piece of food you eat,” explains Dr. Collins.  She adds that writing down food quantities or approximate kilojoules (with help from a calorie book), along with details of your mood at the time, will make a food diary more successful.

If you write how you feel – ‘I was bored when I ate a family-sized block of chocolate’- you start to get some ideas of how to chance your eating around.”

With the average dieter under-reporting what they eat by 20 per cent, according to Glenn Cardwell, dietitian and author for Top Blokes’ Food Manual (Nutrition Impact), a food diary helps you paint a more realistic picture.  He agrees that it should also look at your frame of mind along with the food eaten.

“Most important is not what you’ve eaten, but why you’ve eaten it.  If someone is ‘uncomfortably full’ after a meal, maybe they were always made to eat everything on their plate as a child.”

While some may decide to see a counsellor after realising their eating is linked to stress or depression, most people will just start to be more present in their eating by keeping a diary, says Dr. Collins.

“I’d encourage people to start by having a go themselves.  While you can see a dietitian if you get stuck, just write down what you eat makes you more aware, and that can be a very powerful thing”.

 

 

By Joanna Bounds - Body & Soul, Sunday Herald Sun - March 29th 2009