Keeping a Food Journal
 

Who keeps a food journal and how does it help you? Anyone do it with an online app that records calories and nutrients? Do you plan your meals with it, or do you record foods as you eat them?

I've kept one for over six years. I don't use it religiously (did for the first two years), but I do write in my meals ahead of time, and follow my plan. You'll see that I count both calories and points, but I have gone from one to the other and back and forth. It helps me more with meal planning than keeping a certain caloric range.

I'm a person of habit ;)

Here's an excerpt:
B: Hot tea w/lemon and agave (30), 2 egg white omelette muffins (111) = 141 (2.5)
S: Tangerine (47) = 47 (1)
L: Mesclun/spinach/cucumber salad (20), 20g craisins (65), 13g blue cheese (50), 1T sunflower seeds (47), 2T light champagne vin (60) = 242 (4)
S: Baby carrots/cherry tomato (50) w/ light ranch (80) = 130 (2)
D: 2 chicken pot pie cups (270), 1 cup green beans (35), 7g Kerrygold butter (50) = 355 (6)
S: 18g peanut butter (100), 1 square dark chocolate (20) = 120 (2.5)
TOTAL: 1035 (18)

B: Hot tea w/lemon and agave (30), 2 egg white omelette muffins (110) = 140 (2.5)
S: 1 cup whole strawberries (50) = 50 (1)
L: 6 quinoa/mushroom balls w/chipotle tomato sauce (182) = 182 (4)
S: Baby carrots/cherry tomato (50) w/ light ranch (80) = 130 (2)
D: 2.5 cups broccoli slaw (50), ½ cup marinara (50), 10g romano (40) = 140 (3)
S: 28g veggie chips (120), 1T sunflower seeds (47) = 167 (3)
TOTAL: 809 (15.5)

B: Hot tea w/lemon and agave (30), 2 egg white ham muffins (80) = 110 (2.5)
S: 1 small apple (60) = 60 (1)
L: Polish chicken patties (194) = 194 (4)
S: Baby carrots/cherry tomato (50) w/ light ranch (80) = 130 (2)
D: Mushroom/spinach/turkey burger (115), 2% cheese (40), 1T mayo (35), sautéed mushroom, fried peppers (20), sweet potato fries (120) = 330 (6)
S: None = 0
TOTAL: 824 (15.5)

I use myfitnesspal on my phone, and record foods as I eat them. It kind of combines intuitive eating and calorie counting. It isn't for everybody, as some people might find it kind of tedious or restrictive, but it is the only thing that works for me.

I also try to record when I have a bad day or a binge, it really helps me to realize just how much I'm eating and I can look back through my food diary whenever I feel discouraged or out of control and a lot of the time it helps keep me on track.

Again, not for everyone. But I love it!

I keep a spreadsheet that calculates the calories for me. I meal plan the night before, then I copy and paste the sheet the next with any changes I made into an archive that includes my weight and exercise for that day as well.

I try to not deviate from what I planned out the night before. It's just easier for me that way.

I also use MyFitnessPal and I do use it to plan my food for the day. I plan out my food and some snacks and leave myself a couple hundred calories as cushion in case I feel hungry or slip up. :)

I also use myfitnesspal.


I get a little crazy with it and try to plan every meal for the week on Sunday. It takes some time but it makes grocery shopping for the week much easier.

I use mfp as well, but also keep a large whiteboard in my kitchen where, every night, I make a meal plan for the next day. Often I'll write three or four days of meal plans if I just went shopping. Not only does this help me remain conscious of my intake, but it's a handy way to ensure more perishable fruits and veggies are prepared earlier than those that keep well, saving me $.

I use a food diary to write down what i've eaten. I don't preplan my meals and mostly i don't count calories. I don't need to preplan meals because a) i only cook for myself, have plenty of time with my day and b) keep my fridge well stocked with everything i need to make up a yummy meal in no time. I do not stock any tempting foods in my cupboards or fridge. Less temptation, better for my diet.

I find just keeping a record of what i'm eating and daily weighing is enough to keep on the right track. I've been doing it this way since the beginning of the year.

If i was not losing, i would be able to analyse my diary to see how and where i could cut back. I have used it to to reduce my calorie intake a few times in the first three months.

Just recently I have started doing Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis system of rating my hunger before a meal and anything else i eat and satiety afterwards.

The ratings are like this.

Hunger
-4 - ravenously hungry and I could eat anything right now
-3 - very hungry and i'd like to eat something substantial now
-2 - quite hungry and i'd like to eat something now, perhaps a snack or a light meal
-1 - a little bit hungry and i'd be comfortable to wait a while before eating.
0 - Not hungry and i'm not hungry at all.

Satiety
+1 unsatisfied - I still feel a bit hungry and i'd gladly eat something else right now
+2 just satisfied - My body is relaxed and comfortable and if i ate any more, I would still feel comfortable, but i don't need any more.
+3 Elegantly satisfied - My body is relaxed and comfortable and if i ate any more i would begin to feel over full.
+4 over satisfied - I know in my heart of hearts that i've eaten more than my body wants and i feel uncomfortable.

the idea is to learn to eat more at 2s and 3s and to minimise or avoid overeating/ leaving the table still hungry and avoiding or minimise ravenous hunger.

In her system which is pretty strictly IE, she doesn't even measure food quantise but i do on my diary and i like it like that.

Using her system, i find i am snacking less and its nice and good to think more about the intensity of the sensations of hunger and satiety. If you can pick up this habit and internalise it should last the lifetime.

another one using MFP.

Currently using MFP, I have used various trackers from WW, notebooks, and for a couple years now have been writing on my calendar my weight, how many oz. of water, activity and what I had for dinner/supper. If I don't journal for that day I still have a little snapshot of how the day went.

The calendar is one with big squares, yesterday looked like this
161.8
64 oz.
5k walk
McD southwest salad

I just scrawl it in the square in the morning when I weigh and usually before bed for the rest. I try not to make a huge deal of things because I know myself well enough to know if it becomes a chore I won't do it.

That being said, if I track/journal/etc. I do better with weight loss/ maint, if I slack off, I do not do as well. Just like the statistics...

Best of luck to you :sunny:

I put it in my computer and include not only food but how I feel, etc.
Just started this way. Use to use Lose It, but I had to enter too many items they did not have listed.

Day 2
Poured a 24 oz glass of ice water to sip on throughout the day
06:50 Woke up
06:52 Urinated
06:54 Recorded weight 301.6
06:55 Took Injection
08:20 8 oz Coffee
08:20 Took Pills
10:42 Ate Orange 5 oz 65 calories I wasn’t hungry, but I was cruising the cupboards.
2:11 Lunch 3 oz chicken 93 calories 8 oz cucumbers 24 calories =117 total for day 182
5:18 One slice of thin crust meat pizza. Good thing still a load day 
6:15 Dinner 4 oz of KC Strip Steak ½ cup mac n cheese with broccoli
7:30 Shared a Diet Pepsi at the movies

My fitness pal all the way! it's already helped me a lot, I had no idea how much I was eating! Knowledge is power.

No, I don't use a food journal anymore. I have found it to be very triggering and puts me back into diet mode. It takes all the pleasure away from the eating experience and makes it about responsibility, accountability, calculations and what's worse it makes me feeling restricted, like I'm dwindling down my quota for food for the day - it sets me up to feel deprived.

Without writing it down I do use a hunger scale to help me determine my level of hunger. I wrote everything down when I first started seeing my nutritional therapist but now find that I can quickly assess my hunger level and am not bothered to writing anything down anymore.

Yes, as it keeps me accountable, although I have a sense (in my body/head and in my tally in my head) about how much I've eaten. I use MFP and that actually is much more accurate in my head, so it keeps me in check if I am trying to justifying eating more.

But I don't know depend on it as much as I use to and my goal is to stay on my diet (my forever eating habits) and the restrictions on this should allow me to keep losing weight and maintaining over the long-term.

I do right now. I used to use lose it, but I switch to mfp after hearing so many good things about it ,and I really like it better.

I have to be careful with journaling because it is very trigger for me as well. However can trigger me to restrict and make food choices based on the fewest calories. I do have to talk myself through food choices, allowing myself to eat what I want not what has the fewest calories. Example: Slice of cheese A = 60 cals, and cheese B = 70 cals. I would always choose cheese A even though I really always prefer the taste of cheese B. So right now I am working on not allowing anything less than 50 calories dictate my choices.
On the flip side it is extremely helpful because it keeps me from over estimating my intake, and helps me to really stay accountable for times that I over eat. I've gotten to a point now, that I only have issues with eating too much the few days before TOM, so I feel like that is a victory, that I'm not binging throughout the month.


Yesterday was actually a day that I was SUPER stressed and by the end of the day, I felt starved. Normally I would have thought I was being a "pig" or turning to food for comfort because I was stressed and not let myself eat, but thanks to mfp I was able to see that I had only had about 500 calories all day, and I was really hungry because I needed to eat more and so I ate. In the past I would have over estimated that, not ate...then a few days like that (low cal) and I would binged because my body is screaming for food BUT I would think it was because I was weak and a glutton. KWIM?

I use MFP (and also record points at WW). I do use it to help me plan what I'll eat for the day. Sometimes, I pre-track to see how the day would turn out if I ate X. I also like the historic information so always track after eating.

My fitness pal. I love it

My fitness pal is the best site I've found for food logging. Use it religiously, even on days where I go a little nuts.

I've been reading GoKaleo (I've followed her on Facebook for a while) and she does recommend a food journal so I'm going to start one. I use things like myfitnesspal off and on but I think just writing down, without calories, will help me.

I also use MFP. It keeps me accountable and eating at home. When I eat out which isn't often anymore, I feel guilty that I don't know how much I ate (and in turn probably overate my calories and macros).

I write down what I eat on a pad of paper and update MFP twice a day or so. MFP or a food journal keeps me accountable. When I went camping about 2 weeks ago I thought I didn't eat as much but when I came back home and logged in what I ate, I was shocked at how much I ate. So I guess I'm not there yet where I can gauge how much I ate without having to journal. Until then (who knows if it'll ever be) I will use MFP.

Oh and I also use MFP to moderate my carb intake. I don't like eating too much carbs because it makes me feel heavy and gross which in turn doesn't make me want to exercise that day. So I like food journaling for that reason as well.

I use MFP but I am not terribly strict about different brands. I use it more to give me a general idea of how many calories I am eating and how much I burn through exercise.

I find that, for me personally, it forces me to really think about whether I am hungry or just bored or depressed. Like, if I see that I have already consumed roughly 1500 cals and have done just a little exercise, I am more likely to grab a flavored seltzer than a handful of nuts for a snack.

MFP. It knows the calories of everything I've put in so far.

I don't plan meals. I eat when I must and what I want varies, so I can't plan. No way For me to know if I'll want soup or spaghetti or turkey tomorrow.

After trying a few different methods, including tracking online, I ended up settling on mainly using pen and paper to keep a food journal. It's a smallish notebook I can throw in my purse if necessary.

In an additional notebook of the same size, a placed some adhesive post-it tabs denoting different categories of foods. Tucked away in those sections I write down the serving sizes, calories, protein, carb, and fat content of the foods I eat regularly as I come across the info.

It seems to work best for me to take breaks from using the journal every now and then, but I find it helpful.

I also use MFP. I can access it from home or work or on my Kindle.

I don't log every day. When I stick with certain of my common meals, I've already got a pretty good idea of how many calories and carbs they have. It's when I'm eating out, or I eat more than I expect, or my husband cooks for dinner and it isn't an actual "on-plan" meal, that I really use the journal.

I'm another MFP user. I like it because I can find pretty much everything I eat and if it doesn't I can use the bar code detector and it just puts the calories in. I also like that I can track my exercise on it too. I have put my calories in the morning of, especially if I know I will be eating out that week. It helps me with portion control. On days I forget to track I notice I eat a lot more.