The importance of a Food Journal

[Zofia]

Hello ladies (and gent!)
As some of you may know, I have been on a plateau for the past month. Sure I was cheating a little bit but not enough to make me not loose ONE pound.
So I took my book and reread it and I got into this section: Fast-track weight loss.

Mmmhmm so I read it and there was this really good section on food journal. Now I am not a writer and I surely dont feel like writing everything i think, eat and feel in a journal. Coming here and write down what im planning to eat is already hard enough :P

BUT because I was so frustrated of not loosing weight despite the diet and despite my exercising I decided to do a food journal for at least one week.

Now I must say, the month of october was hard. Although I thought I stuck mostly to the diet I have been sick and not exercising everyday which could explain why I did not loose one pound.

So the week of Nov 1, I started my journal. After that week, I took 1/2 hour and studied it.

This were my findings and here's why it helped me so much since im down 7 pounds from the first week of november!


I find out that I was eating too many grains, too many veggies and fruits from the wrong categories although I thought I wasnt. When I looked at every day, There was one portion of grain I shouldnt have in wave 2
I also find out why I am always hungry at night. I associated watching TV with eating. I made the mistake of having food while watching it (doesnt matter what food) and everytime I would sit in front of tv 1/2 hour later I wanted to eat. Like a schedule! Plus I am a gamer so some nights I dont watch tv but play pc games and noticed that I was not eating at all in front of the computer and didnt even thought about it.
I also find out that I am not hungry AT ALL after exercising. You will tell me, well whats wrong with that. NOTHING, its good and I should use it at my advantage!!! So I exercise when I know im gonna start being hungry usually after breakfast. this way I make it to lunch not hungry whatsoever and I do the same at night. I go for a walk after dinner and i am not hungry for another 2 hours after it which is time to go to bed!

There is so much more I could tell you but I dont want to bore you. Making that journal not only helped me figuring out what I was doing wrong but how I could do things even better and optimize my weight loss. I dont feel im eating less but im loosing double of what I was loosing on wave 2!

Now because i still crave sugar, I decided to go back on wave 1 for 10 days. Something my journal told me too!

[beerab]

They definitely help! I use sparkpeople.com since it's easier for me than writing it down- I found by looking through my days that the days I didn't start off with protein I ate more overall- I would never have figured it out without my food journal

[Hyacinth]

Hmm, what book? Sonoma?

I try to keep myself honest by recording daily meals, but that's about it. I might start doing a journal that's more than just meal recording.

[Zofia]

Yup sonoma

[petra65]

Zofia, I am obsessive about keeping a food journal. I am obsessive about a lot of things actually, LOL but it is invaluable for being able to go back and see what you were doing right when you were losing consistently and what you are no longer doing when you hit a plateau. I keep a computerized one that counts everything-calories, carbs, protein, etc. I have found that if I eat less than 11,000 calories per week I will typically lose 2 lbs, more than that and I will lose a fraction of a lb. That seems to be a magic number for me. That comes out to about 1572 calories a day in case you were wondering. So I can see how many calories I am eating each day and pretty much predict how much I'm going to lose that week.

[Zofia]

When did you start your food journal and diet? I just noticed you lost 15 pounds! congrats!!

[petra65]

I've been off and on with this for a long time. I got back on track on Sept 15.

[mort20]

Writing a food journal is an interesting experience. I get to track what I eat and at the same time its amazing to remember the stories behind the lunch or with whom did I ate that specific dinner.