Why I'm Pushing the "Food Log"

I remember reading when I first started "dieting" and losing weight about the importance of writing down you daily food intake.  I didn't really understand how this could help me or the importance of logging the information.  I didn't really eat that much so I knew I should be somewhat within a reasonable realm of calories, fat, carb and protein intake for the day.  I assumed that it was something those "fanatics" did and that it wasn't really all that necessary or that helpful.

Boy was I WRONG!!!

Once I really started putting forth more and more effort, I figured I might as well give it a shot and if I didn't see the need for it afterwards, I could just stop.  So I bought my first "diet journal" and read through it (the first one I bought had daily tips that were fun, helpful hints) and started putting my information down.  I didn't do it daily in the beginning and sometimes I forgot to write things down through the day but I made a somewhat valiant attempt to keep track of as much information as possible.

I started calculating my daily intake and was SHOCKED by my numbers.  I mean, SHOCKED!  I, in fact, did not eat that much during the day - most of the time it was 3 meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner.  But, usually breakfast and lunch were eaten out.  I have discussed before that I would stop at Burger King on my way to work and lets say I got a bacon, egg and cheese croissant and a medium hash brown (I used to love this breakfast) - that simple little meal had 860 calories/52 grams fat/74 grams carbs/18 grams protein.  Then, for lunch I would go to Wendy's (since it is close to my office) and my typical meal would be a spicy chicken sandwich and medium fries - this meal had 940 calories/42 grams fat/110 grams carbs/32 grams protein.  Now, by the time I have eaten only two meals for the day, I have already taken in 1800 calories/94 grams fat/184 grams carbs/50 grams protein.

So, what the heck does this even mean to me??  For me, at 170 pounds and 5'5" tall with the desire to lose weight I needed to eat, on average, between 1200 to 1500 calories per day - between all meals.  OBVIOUSLY I was not on the path that I wanted to be on since I had eaten 1800 calories in the aforementioned example in TWO meals!  This is where writing down your intake makes WORLDS of difference.  Here I am assuming that my meals couldn't be that bad for me, since I wasn't eating a ton of food every day when in reality the choice of foods were horrendous!

Here is a good link to a calorie calculator where you can input your information and determine the average amount of calories that you should be eating per day to lose weight:
http://www.fitwatch.com/qkcalc/caloriedeficitcalculator.php
Keep in mind too that, of course, everyone is different and what works for one of us won't necessarily work for all of us but I can guarantee you that you will see a benefit from writing down your information, calculating it daily and analyzing it weekly!

The first journal that I purchased was from Borders (guess you will have to look for it online now) and it was helpful for keeping track of my daily food intake.

As you can see it gives you a page per day where you can write down your food intake - it has an area for calories, fat and carbs but I wrote in protein as well because I wanted to keep track of that also.  It also has an area where you can log the amount of water you drink, the vitamins you take and your weight.
I liked this journal a lot when I first started using it and it was very helpful and taught me how to better keep track of my information. 

Since I got a little more involved in writing things down I have now switched to this log.  It is a Body Minder Journal and I purchased it at Barnes and Noble:

This is both a food intake and exercise journal.  On the page to the left, you can write down your workout - if you did cardio you log how much time you did, the calories burned, etc.  It also has an area for logging what weight you lifted, body parts worked and so on.  Then on the right you write down your food intake for the day.  This book has the calories, fat, carbs and protein columns already available.  Further, you can log the water intake for the day, vitamins, there is a place for reminders and an area at the top of the page for notes.  I have found this to be incredibly handy!

I use the "other exercise" area at the top of the food intake page for "notes" each day.  This includes notes on what the weather is like, what I was doing for the day, how well I ate, how I felt (if I was tired, really energized, wanting to snack, etc).  I have actually learned A LOT about my eating habits by keeping these detailed notes.  One day I found myself basically starving all day... it didn't matter how much I ate, I was still hungry - I had an insatiable appetite.  So, I looked back at the same time frame a month earlier and as it turned out one day later in the month the month before I felt EXACTLY the same way.  Three days later I started my period both months! 

I cannot stress the importance of getting one of these logs and using them.  Even if you aren't great at it in the beginning you will grow accustomed to it.  I carry mine in my purse and pull it out and write down what I eat as soon as I am done eating it so I don't forget.  It sits on my desk all day too - opened up - so that I have to look at it and remind myself that if I eat something, I HAVE to write it down!

Give it a shot and like I said before, if you don't see a benefit, you will be out only about $15.00!  That is a drop in the bucket compared to the price you may have paid for diet pills now or at one point or another in your life! ;)