Keeping a Diet Journal Can Double Your Weight Loss!

Keeping a diet journal is the best kept secret weapon of any successful weight loss program.

It’s been well documented that self monitoring; doing things like keeping a food journal and tracking your daily food intake and keeping an exercise log is one of the most effective ways of ensuring the success of your weight loss program.

In fact, studies show that it can actually DOUBLE your weight loss!

It’s really easy to do and can be as simple as keeping a notebook and a pen handy.

You’ll want to keep track of everything you eat daily, how many calories, how many carbs, protein and fat grams, as well as the time of day you eat. You may also want to keep an exercise log and track exercise routines and approximate calories burned, if possible.

The best reference guide I’ve found that I find most useful is The Complete Book of Food Counts, 8th Edition, by Corinne T. Netzer.

This book is from Corinne T. Netzer, one of America’s most trusted authorities on the nutritional content of food, and is the most up to date reference book you can buy.

It provides you will all the essential counts for generic and brand-name foods PLUS health foods and ethnic foods so you’ll be able to take it with you and refer to it when you’re eating out in popular restaurants or shopping at the grocery store.

It lists calories, carbohydrate grams, cholesterol and sodium milligrams, protein, fat and fiber grams PLUS there’s a handy conversion table for weight and capacity measures.

Can you tell I really love this book? I keep one copy at home and another at work for quick and easy reference. It’s been a terrific tool and resource for me.

Free online calorie counter

You can access a free online calorie counter at

USDA Calorie Counter. (courtesy of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)

Personally I find this site to be somewhat time consuming.

There’s also an alphabetical listing of foods (in pdf format) at

USDA Food/Calorie List. (USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 19)

Keep in mind they only provide calorie counts and don’t include protein, carbohydrate and fat breakdowns.

Diet tracker software

If you prefer a diet journal that’s a little more high tech, you can buy and install some very good diet tracker software onto your home computer that will accurately track and calculate everything in your daily eating plan as well as keep an exercise log for you with only a few clicks.

Whichever method you prefer….the trick is to, as Nike® says, “just do it!”

Better still, why not download and print off a copy of my free Diet Tracker?

It's the exact type of diet journal format that I used personally and allows you to track daily protein, carbs, fats AND calories! I found it to be indispensable!

So now you've got the tools you need....however if you’re still procrastinating, here’s 8 good reasons to motivate you to keep a diet journal.

1. It keeps you accountable to yourself and it’s a good way to self monitor yourself. Just be sure to be as accurate as possible and truthful. No one else needs to see it but you so why lie? Besides, you’ll only be kidding yourself.

2. It keeps you motivated and moving forward. Who doesn’t get excited and motivated watching the numbers on the scale drop or the tape measure tighten?

3. Writing down everything you eat and drink discourages ‘mindless eating’ and instead encourages you to think about what you’re eating...especially because you have to write it down in your food journal. Reverse psychology? Perhaps, but it works nonetheless.

4. Tracking calories, portion sizes and foods gives you a clearer picture of where the majority of your calories are coming from. When you have a clear idea of how many calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat is in the portion sizes you typically eat, you can then tweak your diet plan accordingly.

5. If you’re not getting the results you feel you should be getting, your diet journal will always have a written record to refer back to. You’ll be able to review and focus on what is getting in the way of your weight loss results.

6. If you’re an emotional eater or a binge eater, keeping track of your physical/emotional feelings will often help you better understand your food triggers. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll also be able to avoid or change the circumstances that trigger them.

7. You’re less likely to skip your daily exercise activities. Your exercise log will remind you to exercise because each day you’ll have to fill in what activities you did. Again, it’s that accountability and self monitoring factor that kicks in.

8. Should you need to visit your health practitioner, or decide to hire a weight loss coach or personal trainer, this information can be invaluable to you both.

Rather than relying on your memory alone, your diet journal and your exercise log will give them a much clearer picture.

They can then evaluate and suggest any changes with a lot more accuracy and help you achieve your weight loss goals that much faster.

Quick Weight Loss Tips: Record your meal in your diet journal before you eat it. You'll think twice about cheating if you know you have to write it down!

Return to Belly Fat Blues Home from Keeping A Diet Journal