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Keep a food diary and lose weight
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The information presented on this site is for general use only and is not intended to provide personal medical advice or substitute for the advice of your physician.
Always consult your doctor or medical professional before beginning any diet or exercise plan.
Keeping a food diary
Keep a food diary
How does keeping a food diary help you lose weight?Keeping a food diary can give you the best overall view of your current eating habits, enabling you to identify the areas you need to work on. It will also highlight your danger times of the day - when you reach for that sugary hit or salty snack - and allow you to plan healthy alternatives. Step one is to start keeping the diary before you begin your diet. It's important that you write down everything that you eat and drink for at least a week before you start your diet. As your calorie intake can vary considerably between days, it's important that you maintain your diary long enough to allow for variations - drinks on a Friday, someone bringing in cakes, a party or celebration, etc. This will reveal the pattern of your eating habits
and enable you to spot the areas where you can make changes to help
you achieve your weight-loss goal. It's a good idea to include: It's important for you that you are honest with yourself and write everything down! Researchers have found that most people almost always under-report what they actually eat. Remember only you need to read it! Write it down as you eat and drink it, otherwise selective memory may kick in! When you get some spare time, write the number of calories next to each item so you can work out your total for the day. Printable Diet Diary Sample Food Diary
In this example, the total calorie consumption for the day is 2858 calories. You can see from the column on the right that this level of calorie intake is too high for anyone, apart from an active/ very active male or a very active female.
In fact, this is a day's consumption for a female 23 year old office worker. As office work ranges between sedentary and average (1600 - 2000 recommended calories), our female office worker's consumption is too high. This was a Friday, but even if we remove the after-work beer, crisps and wine (628 calories), the total is still over the limit for average and still too high for a female sedentary worker. Although cutting down her alcohol drinking would be a good start to getting in shape How to cut down your alcoholWriting a food diary can help you lose weightTo stand any chance of losing weight and getting in shape our office worker needs to increase her daily exercise level and decrease her daily calories. By studying her food diary you can easily spot her danger points and how to improve her diet: I would recommend she brought some fresh fruit to work (a banana would be ideal as it is a slow-release food) to eat with her coffee - and to try a skinny capuccino (skimmed milk) in order to lose calories without noticing.
It's also clear that she isn't drinking enough water - the recommended amount is 1 1/2 - 2 litres. Many people misread thirst for hunger - so try drinking a glass of water before you eat.
Try and choose other treats like a new dvd/cd or a long luxurious bubble bath. That's why writing your feelings in your diary when you eat is important - it can reveal patterns of behaviour that you may not have realised. Dieting is a good time to review your lifestyle and helps you to plan how you can make healthier changes so you can achieve, and most importantly, maintain the body you want. Printable Diet Diary Once you've kept the diary for a week, you can start to analyse your diet and find out the easy way to reduce calories. |
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Emma's Diet
Tip 
Dont fry food - bake, roast, grill, boil or steam it. Hide the frying pan!
Average
daily calorie requirements |
||
| Male | Female | |
| Sedentary | 2200 | 1600 |
| Average | 2500 | 2000 |
| Active | 2800 | 2200 |
| Very Active | 3000+ | 2800 |
The above calorie counsumed table is an approximation and your actual calorie requirement depends on your health, metabolism and build.
|
| Calories
burnt per hour |
|
| Working at desk |
150 |
| Walking |
300 |
| Jogging |
500 |
| Sleeping |
80 |
| Bicycling (Gentle) |
300 |
| Swimming |
600 |
| Housework |
300 |
Sex (half hour) |
200 |
| Driving |
140 |
