What is a food diary?
A food diary is a tool you can use to track what you eat and drink throughout the day.
Keeping a food diary or tracking foods and meals is a method of mindful eating.
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What to write in your diary?
- Record everything you eat and drink
The more accurate and complete your notes are, the more useful they will be in the future. Write down all your main meals, drinks, snacks, and even those small bites you ate when you tasted dishes while preparing them.
- Mark the exact quantity
If it’s important to you to know how many calories you consume, this data should be included in your records. You can use kitchen scales, but if you do not adhere to exact calculations, then in any case you need to determine the serving sizes or develop your own guidelines (number of spoons, cups, etc.)
- Record the date, time and place where you eat and with whom you eat
This will help you understand your eating habits. If you’re trying to change your diet or lifestyle, this information can help you understand why you prefer certain foods at certain times.
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- Write down how you felt after you ate a particular dish.
Whether you’re journaling to lose weight or to identify food allergies, how you feel after eating matters. Record how you feel in a diary. — — — Also try to write down how you felt before eating. This will allow you to determine whether you tend to eat out of emotion.
- Notice your level of hunger before and after eating. If you are very hungry, you may eat more than usual.
- Remember to note any symptoms or side effects that may occur after eating.
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Benefits of a food diary
Helps form healthy habits
Tracking your food and drink intake can help you better understand your eating habits and replace them with more useful ones. You will be able to track what time of day you are usually hungry and whether you are really hungry, and adjust your eating schedule accordingly.
A food journal is a great tool for making more conscious food choices throughout the day.
You’ll be more aware of healthy alternatives and prepared to make better choices.
You can see if you are meeting your nutritional needs and goals. You will see if you are eating too much or not enough.
Promotes weight control
If you’re trying to lose weight, keeping a food journal is a great option.
Using diet self-monitoring methods, such as keeping a paper or electronic food diary, is associated with significant weight loss, according to a review of 15 studies. Using a diary, you can see where you eat high-fat and high-sugar foods.
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Determines food sensitivity
Often food logs are used to determine food sensitivities.
For example, if you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), certain foods may cause digestive problems such as stomach pain, gas, bloating, or diarrhea. A food diary allows you to identify the relationship between your well-being and specific foods. Food allergies, acid reflux, food intolerances and other symptoms are monitored in the same way.
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Steps to Keep a Journal
A few steps that can turn food journaling into a useful tool rather than an annoying habit.
- The purpose of keeping a diary. If you know exactly why you need to keep a diary, then, firstly, you will accurately record the information you need and, secondly, you will be able to do it regularly.
- Choose your format. The food diary can be in paper form. Here you can describe and indicate many nuances. You can choose the format of applications on your phone. Make sure that the application allows you to mark the items you need. You can also combine these options, or use the photo format. The main thing is that you are comfortable and have all the necessary information.
- Be consistent. It’s better to write everything down as soon as you finish eating. If you add everything before and then want to have something else to snack on, you may forget to add this product. And you definitely shouldn’t put off writing until the end of the day.
- Decide what to put in your journal. It should include exactly what you ate and in what quantity, and then you can expand it as needed. It’s better to use a minimum, this increases the chances that you will keep a diary regularly.
- Be precise. If you want to get an accurate picture of your diet, make sure you record everything in your diary as it is, not an approximation.
- Don’t give in to provocations. You may feel uncomfortable writing down or worry about what people will think of you or have other mixed feelings. Always remember that a food diary is only a tool to help you achieve your goals. You may have mistakes in nutrition and this is normal, the main thing is to write them down and take them into account.
- Analyze. The main point of a food diary is to then look back and analyze it, draw conclusions and make changes to your habits. You can do this on your own or with your nutritionist.