Maintaining Food Diaries help in Shedding Fat

A new study done by the researchers from the 'Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center' claims that, women who want to lose weight should maintain a food journal and avoids skipping meals with a complete no to outside food, especially at lunch.

The study done by Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The researchers tracked the dieting habits of 123 overweight or obese post menopausal women who underwent a weight loss program for a year. Study participants filled out a series of questionnaires to assess dietary intake, eating-related weight-control strategies, self-monitoring behaviours and meal patterns. They were also asked to complete a 120-item food-frequency questionnaire to assess dietary change from the beginning to the end of the study. They noticed that at the end these women lost on average of 19 pounds or about 11 percent of their initial weight. They diets included about 1200 to 2000 calories a day. And they were asked to journal everything they consumed.

"The more accountable you are, the better you are going to do at weight loss," said lead researcher Anne McTiernan, director of the Hutchinson Center's Prevention Center."A food journal is one of the easiest ways to keep track of what you are eating. If you write it down, it seems more real. If you don't, it's so easy to pretend to yourself that you didn't eat that much."

Bonnie Taub-Dix, a registered dietitian in New York City, agrees that food diaries promote weight loss. "It doesn't matter where you write it: a computer, a smart phone, a note pad, paper towels or toilet paper. If you write down what you eat, you will eat differently. When people are asked to recall what they have eaten, many of my patients will say things like, 'I never eat snacks,' or 'I only had chicken for dinner,' Taub-Dix says.

The ones who skip meals are at a higher risk of grabbing high calorie snacks and meals. And eating out frequently is a barrier for making healthy dietary choices.

By maintaining a journal the person is honest to themselves. And it is this way that they can keep a track of what they consumed and realize whether or not what they consumed added o their calories.  Noting every morsel consumed acts as a good weight loss strategy.