Why should I keep a food diary if I want to lose weight?

It's simple to do, cheap and surprisingly effective. Nutrition and weight management specialist Caroline Apovian, MD, discusses explains why keeping a food diary is so important if you're trying to lose weight.

Transcript

00:00

The reason why people don't like to keep food diaries is it's actually going to change your lifestyle.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:15

Well, I have taken care of so many patients in my career, and we know--

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obesity experts realize that those who keep food diaries or food logs

00:28

do better in terms of weight loss and weight maintenance than those people who do not keep food diaries.

00:35

And what I get in clinic is, I really don't have time to keep a food diary, or I forgot it at home,

00:42

or the dog ate it. The reality is that those people who

00:48

do not keep food diaries, there's the obstacle right there. The reason why people don't like to keep food diaries

00:56

is it's actually going to change your lifestyle. Because think about it, if you write everything you eat down,

01:04

you may think twice. Because you're going to have to write it down, you may think twice about those 10 cookies

01:10

that you normally would eat and be able to forget about it. Because the reality is, if you have to write it down,

01:17

you're not going to forget about it. And that is step one in changing your lifestyle, is to become aware of what you're eating,

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and that's why food diaries work. [AUDIO LOGO]