Double Weight Loss By Writing Food Diary

Earlier this month eMaxHealth conducted a weight loss poll asking Do You Think Keeping A Food Diary Could Improve Weight Loss? Out of 553 responders 74 percent believed that yes, writing a food diary can improve weight loss. Now a new study, released by Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research shows that food diary not only improves weight loss, but doubles the amount that we can lose weight.

This study found that the best predictors of weight loss were how frequently food diaries were kept and how many support sessions the participants attended. Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records.

The Kaiser study is important because the findings are from one of the largest and longest running weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted. This is one of a few trials to recruit a large percentage of African Americans as study participants (44 percent), significant because African Americans have a higher risk of conditions aggravated by being overweight, including diabetes and heart disease. More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.

The study was coordinated by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and involved participants and co-authors from Duke University Medical Center, Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Johns Hopkins University.

While one commentator at eMaxHealth has written that he doubts that many people will be honest in writing their food diaries, another person writes "I totally agree that a food diary helps you to lose weight. Of course it is only as good as the person doing the journaling. It makes you conscience of what you are eating so maybe you won't eat it if you think about it. I feel good when I look back to see how "good" I was all day. Then, I know if I can have that extra piece of cheese."

Some say that keeping a food diary helps you to see how much junk food you eat and if it's helping you to lose weight. Food diary enables you to improve your eating habits and thus, to lose more weight, up to the point of doubling your weight loss.

1. Prev:The More Overweight You Are, The More Exercise You Need
2. Next:On-The-Job Weight Loss: Worksite Programs Work