Kaiser Permanente study finds keeping a food diary doubles diet weight loss

I know it can be a pain in the butt. I know that it often seems pointless and time-consuming. However, keeping food diary can help you lose more weight than diet and exercise without a food diary. How much more? TWICE AS MUCH. Turning a five pound loss into 10 makes all the calculating seem more worthwhile, huh?)

According to a recent study by Kaiser Permanente, "The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost," said lead author Jack Hollis Ph.D., a researcher at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. "Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories."

So get on Calorie King or create an account with Spark People, and prepare to watch the numbers go down as you more critically analyze everything that passes your lips.

I found this interesting study via a local blog (My Family Doctor) in an entry written by Jill Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E. She's got a few other great tips for food diarying that I thought I'd share:

* Don’t worry if it’s messy. Use abbreviations. It’s your tool, so make it work for you.

* Use a notebook, a special food diary, little sticky notes, your PDA, calorie counting websites, send yourself an email or log your food choices into an Excel document.

* Write in it throughout the day. Let it influence what you’re about to eat rather than merely reflect what you already ate.

* Be honest. Record every bite, lick and sip.