Keeping a Daily Food Diary Can Help You Lose Weight
When I was in private practice and working with clients who wanted to lose weight, one of the tools I found useful was keeping track of the foods you eat every day by using a Food Diary. Back in those days, I had my clients use a paper 7-day food diary that was the size of a checkbook. They tracked individual foods & beverages, calories, mood, exercise, hunger, and food groups using my Food Diary. I would look over the food diary each week & give suggestions to help them get to their goal weight. If they requested a nutritional analysis of their diet, I would analyze their 7-day food diary but it was time consuming for me so I charged them for the Nutritional Analysis printout.
Some people think this strategy can cause a food obsession, however, how will one know what their eating and drinking problems are leading to weight gain if they can’t track their food & beverage intake? In fact, learning the calories of their foods and beverages helped them to make better choices.
Technology to the Rescue
In today’s world there are calorie counting apps you can add to your I-phone, I-pad or Android which makes keeping track of your foods and beverages easier. Some of the calorie counting apps are really good but many now are charging a monthly or yearly fee. Three of the calorie-counting apps that I currently like are completely FREE or have a free basic option and a lot of pros are FatSecret and Cronometer.
FatSecret: Free Calorie-Counting App
The free calorie-counting app, FatSecret (www.FatSecret.com)
includes a food diary, a very large food database, an exercise log, healthy recipes and a Barcode scanner you can use to track packaged foods. In addition, there is a monthly summary view which can be helpful to help track your overall progress. FatSecret is easy to use. If you want to get more involved with other users, you can sign up for different groups & challenges.
I especially like the fitness part of the FatSecret App. You can plug in your weight and it tells you how many calories you burn for many exercises, sports, household chores.
Estimated Energy Burned for Walking 3 mph. for a 145.0 lb (pound) person
5 minutes | 22 Calories | 1 hour | 262 Calories | |
10 minutes | 44 Calories | 2 hours | 525 Calories | |
15 minutes | 66 Calories | 3 hours | 787 Calories | |
30 minutes | 131 Calories | 4 hours | 1050 Calories |
Estimated Energy Burned for Yard Work (gardening) for a 145.0 lb person
5 minutes | 23 Calories | 1 hour | 276 Calories | |
10 minutes | 46 Calories | 2 hours | 552 Calories | |
15 minutes | 69 Calories | 3 hours | 829 Calories | |
30 minutes | 138 Calories | 4 hours | 1105 Calories |
Estimated Energy Burned for Weight Training for a 145.0 lb person
5 minutes | 35 Calories | 1 hour | 414 Calories | |
10 minutes | 69 Calories | 2 hours | 829 Calories | |
15 minutes | 104 Calories | 3 hours | 1243 Calories | |
30 minutes | 207 Calories | 4 hours | 1657 Calories |
Cronometer: Basic Version for Free
Cronometer (www.Cronometer.com) allows tracking of your diet, your exercise and your weight. When you set your recommendations, you can also alert Cronometer if you are following a special diet like paleo diet, vegetarian diet or a low carbohydrate diet. It’s easy to use. The basic version is free but you can upgrade for $49.99 per year. The exercise tracking is excellent. You can put add home-cooked recipes to the online website but not on the app on your I-phone, I-pad or Android.
LoseIt: Basic Version for Free
LoseIt (www.loseit.com ) has a basic version available for FREE as well but you must pay $39.99 per year to update to Premium but there is currently a special for $11.99/year or for to Premium for Life the special is $59.99.
MyFitnessPal: Basic Version for Free
MyFitnessPal (www.myFitnessPal.com) has a basic version available for free but to get the equivalent of today’s free version of FatSecret app, you must pay $19.99 per month or $79.99 per year.
While these tracking tools can be helpful, the information is only accurate and valuable if the details you enter are accurate, meaning personalized tracking might not be exact. However, if you’re looking for a tool to help you become aware of what you’re eating, fuel yourself better, or even hold yourself accountable, then any of these (or similar) programs can help you meet your nutritional goals.
https://www.hprc-online.org/nutritional-fitness/performance-nutrition/food-diary-apps-keep-you-track
Additional Resources
https://www.hprc-online.org/nutritional-fitness/performance-nutrition/food-diary-apps-keep-you-track
https://www.verywellfit.com/best-calorie-counter-apps-4777302
https://www.active.com/nutrition/articles/best-calorie-counter-apps
https://www.forbes.com/health/body/best-calorie-counting-apps/
The Bottom Line
Calorie counters and trackers can be useful if you are trying to lose weight, maintain weight or even gain weight. Using them gives an insight to haw many calories and nutrients are in the foods you eat.
By Barbara Day, M.S., R.D. is a registered dietitian with a Master’s Degree in clinical nutrition. She is the Chief Blog Organizer for www.DayByDayLiving.net
Barbara worked as a research nutritionist with the military’s tri-service medical school & working as a performance nutrition consultant to Navy SEALS’ BUD/S Training Program and West Coast active Navy SEAL Teams. Barbara is the former nutrition performance consultant to the University of Louisville Athletic Department. She is the author of Fast Facts on Fast Food For Fast People and High Energy Eating Sports Nutrition Workbook for Active People used by the University of Louisville, University of Tennessee Lady Vols and the Tennessee football program, the LSU basketball program, the Buffalo Bills, the Cleveland Browns and by the United States Navy SEALs.
The former publisher of Kentuckiana HealthFitness Magazine, Kentuckiana Healthy Woman magazine and radio show host of Health News You Can Use, Barbara has over 30 years of experience in promoting healthy lifestyles to consumers. Barbara is a former runner who walks, a spinner, hiker a mother and grandmother to 13 grandchildren.
