Everyone seems to be pushing a new method of weight loss these days – fancy diets, shakes, powders and so on. Lost in the shuffle has been something even more important: consistency in how we eat.
I’m sure we’ve all heard of food logs, but it’s incredible how few people use them. Now research proves, they work. A study from the Kaiser Permenente Center for Health Research found that logging what you eat regularly is incredibly effective, helping you shed nearly two times more weight than if you don’t keep a journal.
About 1,700 overweight and obese people took part in the study, keeping a daily food and exercise journal. The study authors found that journaling ranks as a habit just as important as clean eating and exercise. Read that again because it’s true. If you don’t understand your eating patterns, you can’t track change and consistency will elude you. One week might be very good and another not, when you actually gain weight. A journal will tell you where you went wrong far better than faulty memory. Repeating patterns of “good” weeks is important to establish consistent, healthy behaviour, as well as understanding what habits to get rid of.
None of this is conjecture. When researchers analyzed the study data, they found that weight loss virtually doubled between those who kept a journal and those who didn’t. So science shows us that writing down what you eat works, and keep you honest. Make sure you eat clean, exercise and keep a record of what you’re doing. That way it imprints habits in your mind and they’re easier to repeat, helping you lose weight and best of all, keep it off.
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