Lose Twice the Weight by Tracking Your Food

Weight Loss News Flash

You hear all the time that to lose weight, you should track what you eat. Well, a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that keeping a "food diary" may double your weight loss efforts.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research kept tabs on 1,685 overweight and obese adults (men and women), whose average weight was 212 pounds. The researchers encouraged participants to adhere to a reduced-calorie, DASH eating plan and asked them record their daily food intake and exercise minutes.

After 20 weeks, the average weight loss was 13 pounds per person. But researchers discovered something else; the more participants recorded what they ate, the more weight they lost in the end. Participants who did not keep a food diary lost about 9 pounds over the course of the study, while those who recorded their food intake six or more days per week lost 18 pounds—twice as much as those who didn't track any food!

Action: If you've ever doubted that using personalized Nutrition Tracker would help you lose weight, think again! At, we've always encouraged daily food and fitness tracking for people who want to lose weight, and this new study supports what we've been encouraging for years. By tracking your food, you become more accountable: If you know you're going to have to record that candy bar on your food tracker, you might think twice before eating it. Plus, detailed food tracker shows you exactly what you're putting into your mouth so you can make better, more informed choices.

Robin's note: journaling has helped me in sooooo many ways. It really does make you accountable for every morsel that passes your lips. It may be a pain to keep up with at first, but then it becomes habit. Make it your goal this week to journal and just see exactly what your eating!

By Nicole Nichols, Health Educator, SparkPeople's