One of the best decisions I made while losing weight was to start tracking my food. Before I started tracking, I thought it would be a huge hassle to keep a food journal. It’s well known that keeping track of one’s food consumption can really help with weight loss, but I thought it would be too much trouble.
On a chilly morning in February 2012, though, my perception changed. I started adding up my calories just for fun.
I sat at my kitchen table staring at the piece of paper.
…… It was 11 AM and I’d eaten just under 900 calories.
Ho. Ly. Cow.
(And no, I hadn’t done any extreme physical activity that morning. I had woken up, eaten breakfast with my husband, nursed the baby, packed my husband off to work, and snacked … and snacked some more. And then went back for more snacks. See a pattern?)
I am the world’s worst mindless eater. I have eaten my way through countless bags of potato chips (with the accompanying bowls of dip, of course.) Putting it on paper made it real. All of a sudden, I had to face up to my late-night snacking.
I joined myfitnesspal when I was right around 200 pounds. It was a huge jump-start to my weight loss. I loved seeing the data on what I was eating. I began to notice patterns: if I ate Ritz crackers for breakfast, I’d be hungry an hour later. But if I ate three string cheeses (on super busy days) or an apple with peanut butter, I stayed satisfied for a long time. Having all the information in front of me not only encouraged me to make better decisions, but also helped me feel good about fun, off-plan treats. I felt much better about enjoying a few bites of cake if I knew I could work it into my calories for the day or week.
In the summer of 2011, I was stuck at about 152 pounds. I had been injured the previous month, so I couldn’t exercise all that much. I went out to Container Store one morning to buy some storage containers, and ended up putting a dinky little $20 food scale into my cart. Over the next few days, I weighed everything I ate. What an enlightening exercise *that* was! Despite losing 108 pounds at that point, I still had a very poor idea of what constituted a “serving” size. I’d been measuring one serving of goat cheese thinking it was an ounce, when it was really closer to three ounces. Once I readjusted my portions, I started losing weight again.
I tried not tracking for about a month. Of course, I picked the best time of year to do so – the holidays! While my weight stayed within the same 4-pound range, my food choices weren’t great at all and I felt a lot more run down.
Now, I track everything, every day. I spend maybe a grand total of five minutes entering things into myfitnesspal. If it goes in my mouth, I eat it – even if it’s just one french fry off my husband’s plate, a handful of almonds, or a bite of a banana. You can’t lie to the scale – why lie to a food journal?
Here’s a picture of a recent day. (It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s pretty typical for a busy weekday with a 6:30 AM wakeup & 10:00 PM bedtime.)
A random day from myfitnesspal. See that 0.1 servings of a protein bar? That’s how I count a bite of one that I had while making a new batch. Also, no one will ever accuse me of disliking cheese.
If you decide to start tracking your food, I highly recommend myfitnesspal. I sync my account between the family iPad, my work computer, and my Android phone. The phone and iPad apps even have a barcode scanner, so you can scan in items as you cook. I’ve also read great things about tracking with SparkPeople and LoseIt! but have no personal experience with those programs.
Do you keep a food journal? If so, do you think it’s helped your weight loss/maintenance?
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