Writing a Food Journal can Help a lot in Reducing Weight
Researchers have found that writing a diet schedule and keep a check on it can help a lot in reducing weight. This leads to the finding that, if you want to reduce your weight keeping a food journal can help you a lot.
Researchers worked on the dieting habits of 123 previously inactive, overweight or obese post-menopausal women in Seattle, who were following a diet schedule for a year. They have found that the women lost 19 pounds of weight on average i.e. nearly 11% of the initial weight. Many of the women followed a diet of 1,200 to 2,000 calories per day.
"The more accountable you are, the better you are going to do at weight loss," Anne McTiernan, director of the Hutchinson Center's Prevention Center and lead researcher, said.
"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," she said.
If someone is skipping the meals, it is possible that he or she will eat high-calorie snacks and meals, especially at lunch, thereby reducing less weight i.e. 8 fewer pounds than those who are not skipping the meals. Researchers have found that filling a food journal helps in losing about 6 pounds more weight than other women.
"Eating out may be a barrier for making healthful dietary changes because it usually means less individual control over ingredients and cooking methods, as well as larger portion sizes," the researchers wrote.
"We know that when people keep food journals they are more aware of what they eat and in what quantities," Megrette Fletcher, RD, co-founder of The Center for Mindful Eating, told WebMD. "Whether the goal is to lose weight, keep diabetes under control, or just to avoid eating when you are not hungry, food journals can help."
This research has been published online in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, formerly the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
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